Southwest Road Trip

This is our road trip to the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Dead Horse And Arches



On our route to Dead Horse State Park in Utah, we made a quick stop at the Petrified Forest State Park. It was a strenuous hike, but I managed to coax the girls to reach the petrified logs exhibit.
The logs were simply surfacing from the ground, and the wood had turned to a kind of marble rock and red, blue and white colors. During the dinosour age, the lava ash covered the logs and a flood covered the logs and later petrified them. There were many exposed logs throughout the park. See the picture for a look.


Today we visited DeadHorse State park in southern Utah. It was an incredible park and it was located atop a large mesa (platue).
The campground was also on top of the Mesa.

When we first arrived, it was raining heavily. The landscape had a bright orange color, with large amounts of orange sand. It looked like mud, but you just brushed it off lightly and there is no trace.
Pretty cool. The landscape was incredible here as you can see from the pictures. You will see the dark red and brown canyon pictures which are from Dead Horse where we spent the night atop the mountain. The campground only had twenty sites, and I am glad I had reservations.



Later today, we toured Arches' national Park.



The arches are pretty magnificant, as we saw the famous Delicate Arch, which is a popular symbol of the American South West, and many other structures.


In summary, I must comment on a couple of things that stood out to me about the trip. One, when it is very hot, 100+ degrees, it is best to leave the canvas bunk end closed, so the air conditioning will run most efficiently. Although keeping the camper closed up kept the camper almost too cold, even in 100 + temps in Vegas. And it is good to have a canvas option when it is really hot and you have no A/C! Two, it was really nice having our own private facilities including bathroom and kitchen (in the camper) while stopping for gas.

This wraps up our southwest tour, and I hope you enjoyed our pictures. It was certainly a trip to remember.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Zion and Bryce Canyon

Zion Canyon National Park is certainly a gem as far as hiking and sight seeing go. We came up from Las Vegas Monday and it was still 100+ degrees. When we got set up in Zion, it was still 90+ in the early afternoon but cooled down quickly as we were camped in the bottom of a large canyon.



The sun sets early and rises late so it is not affected by the heat as much, lucky for us. We were lucky enough to get a camp site on the canyon's river which was crystal clear and has an emerald tint. The girls blew up their inner tubes and floated down stream to cool off.




The wildlife was plentiful and varied as we saw mule deer, turkey, lizards, chipmunks and a few rodents we could not identify.
We hiked to the lower emerald pools on Tuesday and it was quite strenuous.



The temps have been comfortable all day in the mid 70's and tonight it might me around 50 degrees.





Wednesday we arrive ti Bryce Canyon, about 80 miles away, and noticed quite a temperature change and more greenery. It also rained for a small period.

We got some nice pictures of the amphitheater, which is an open canyon with many rock spires.



The rock is a deep orange color and seems to glow when the sun hits it. There are many of these organ pipe structures throughout the park.

The girls will do a horseback ride tomorrow morning early, and then we will move on to Arches National Park. After this we will begin to make our way towards home. I am starting to miss those green leafy trees and humidity. I just be an easy trip back for towing as we should have a tail wind and it will be down hill. I should have one more update from Arches and that will wind up the trip.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Grand Canyon and Lake Mead and Las Vegas

Glad to be back on line again as we were without internet connection in the Grand Canyon National Park and Lake Mead.

From Mesa Verde we stopped off at the Four Corners where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet. The landscape there looked like Mars as there were no trees or even weeds as far as you could see. Just rock and sand.
It is actually located on Indian Reservation property, and they also sold jewelry. Maddy and Chris each bought some bracelets with their own money.


We saw the painted desert along the way, as well as a pink sand desert with dark green sage bushes which really didn't look real. It reminded me more of an over exaggerated painting of a desert scene.

The Grand Canyon was completely spectacular. We toured the South Rim and visited the east rim on the way to our campground and the next day toured the west rim, which was most breathtaking.
I also skipped out at sunrise on the third day and captured some great pictures.




The wildlife was plentiful with mule deer, elk, ground squirrels and steller's jay. The stellers jay is a member of the bluejay family but only lives at high altitude. They are mostly blue with a black crested head.



One morning we were driving out to sight see and there was an elk the size of a horse. We were in the truck and it was starring down at us from 10 feet, and he was not running away! That was a close call. I later saw another one about as big as that one, an took a picture.





On our way to Lake Mead, there were lots on Navaho homes in the deserts of Arizona. You would see a small wood frame house or maybe an old mobile home, but they would always have a circular adobe style hut at each home. I think this is for worship and ceremonial use, because these circular structures were used by the Mesa Verde indians in the 1000 year old cliff dwellings. Much of the lifestyle of the Mesa Verde people is learned from the Navaho of today, because many of their traditions have not changed.


Friday we camped at Lake Mead National Recreational Area.
It was about 30 miles off the main road and as we traveled farther out in the desert, the temperature began to climb rapidly. From the main road, it was 100 degrees, and by the time we reached the park it was 116 degrees.
You will see the bright blue lake in the middle of the desert. Well, when we got to the campground, it was beautiful with palm trees and blooming shrubs. However, there was no electricity and it was 116 degrees. So we quickly set up the camper and took the girls to the lake for swimming. We took some gravel off roads to look for a nice beach. The sand was thick and the rocks were large. I used four wheel drive for climbing up the steep sandy hills around the lake, but we had trouble finding a beach that was not muddy. So we traveled back to the marina and just swam there. The water was ice cold, which worked our great! Check out the picture of the roadrunner bird.
They were plentiful in the area. We also saw some type of quail which was bluish gray and had some funny feathers on its head that stick up. Needless to say, we only stayed one night. I had opened up the tent bunk end on the camper to allow air to circulate. Maddy sleep on the dinette, with Chris in the back bunk, and Ginny and I in the bunk end with screened canvas. By morning we were chilly and needed a blanket. We left there for Vegas, and it was already 89 degrees at 8:00am.

The Las Vegas Oasis Resort was an excellent facility with all the perks.
Concrete RV pads with grass and a well manicured landscape. They had two pools (one family, one adult) and a hot tub. They had slot machines in the main building. The first night, we hit the strip and took in the free side walk shows and eat dinner at Paris.
This is the best buffet I have ever been to. Ginny slipped away and hit a few slots and one ten dollars in about 5 minutes.
I think she cashed out too early, however. I lost 5 dollars on some slots in New York. so that was the extent of our gambling.


Tomorrow, Monday, we head out for Zion National Park. We look forward to it because it is still 100 degrees plus here in Vegas. So we just shop, swim, or eat. All things that don't involve being in the heat. I may not have an update until Bryce Canyon until Wednesday as we will be in a secluded area.