Zie de Zuidwest USA

One thing we both have noticed on this trip is that in every park, every road, every scenic area there have been loads of rental RV's.  Most of them have been driven by Europeans and many of them are Dutch.  We met a lovely couple from the Netherlands today on our tour of Monument Valley.  There are many rental RV's in the campground, these two below are to one side of us, and there is yet another Dutch couple on the other side.

They are picking up the rigs in Phoenix or Las Vegas, touring the western national parks for about a month before returning home.   Interesting, at least we thought so.

Recharging the Spirit

Hello from

The view out our rear view mirror.  Any guesses?  How about this one:

Monument Valley is special, a place of great beauty and great spirit.  We are here to just enjoy nature and its beauty.

For those who don't use Facebook, I just want to let you know that Hercules was cremated and returned to us last evening, before we left St. George.  So he is with us, and is riding back home to Corrales in his Beach House.

Heavy Hearts

We woke up this morning and realized our little pal, Hercules, was not recovering as he usually does.  It is with deep sadness that I have to report we went to a vet here in St. George, Utah about an hour ago and our fur child Hercules is now romping through the dog- heaven meadows with his pals Buster and Daisy.  

This picture was taken this morning on our way across Utah.

Bryce, very nice.

This morning we took Utah Scenic Highway 12 down from Torrey to Bryce Canyon National Park.  If you are ever going to do the Utah parks loop, you MUST take this road.  It is miles of varying scenery, all gorgeous, which change from cottonwood canyons to meadows to tall pines to aspens back to red and white slick rock and the magenta hoodoos of Bryce.  There are numerous pullouts with jaw dropping views, and the entire 120 miles went by like a travel movie.  Pictures just don't do justice to the 180 degree panoramas.

We took a quick trip into the park upon arrival and checked out the visitor center. We went to a couple of overlooks and then headed to our park site.  We set up, ate lunch, and then both of us promptly fell asleep.  Tomorrow we go on a narrated tour of all the overlooks, and depending on how we feel about it, we may hike among the hoodoos.

Hell's Revenge, Capitol Reef and Torrey

OK, so I do have internet today...but read on to see why.  This first part of the post is a little out of order...on Wednesday evening Tom went on a Moab slick rock Hummer four wheel drive tour on the route named Hell's Revenge.   I am enclosing the photo he chose to share as representative of the evening.  If you want to see the 'potential' misadventures on this trail, there are many videos on You Tube.  Just search for 'Hells Revenge Tip Over'.  That is the name of a section of the route, not the verb, although you will find plenty of that action posted.  I am sooooooo glad I did not see the videos until AFTER he went on the tour.

OK, now back to Friday.  We left Moab in the morning and took a drive to Capitol Reef NP.  The road is filled with pretty vistas like these.

We got there pretty early, about 10:30, but the campground was already packed full.  Turns out they are having some sort of Pioneer Day tomorrow (not mentioned on the website when we planned this trip) so we meandered through the park, took in the sights and left.  Plus, while were there the sunny blue day turned into full cloud cover.  The interesting thing about Capitol Reef is it is  located on the site of an early Mormon pioneer settlement.  The valley between the sheer red rock cliffs is lush and green and filled with fruit trees.  The fruit is free for the picking if you happen to be there when it is ripe.  We saw pretty blossoms on the trees instead.  

The above is the campground, if you can get in.

Below is the on site farmhouse, museum and pie shop

We left Capitol Reef and headed 11 miles west to the small town of Torrey, where we found a lovely little RV park right at the highway intersection where we need to head south in the morning.  For $20 more than the cost of the basic no-utility camp space in the park we have a FHU site with wifi, and best of all for Tom, cable!

View out our front door

I'll bet when the sun comes out those hills turn an amazing shade of pink and red.  Oh, excuse me.  They are mountains of 9600 feet elevation, and to the left of the tree you can see snow in them there  mountains.  That is the direction we are headed tomorrow. 

  

Red Dirt Shirt

Today was a planned low-key day.  We did not set an alarm, had nothing we really had to do and just used the day to visit with the neighbors, go to the grocery store and do some laundry.  Tom, naturally, decided to go 'into town' and wander up and down the main drag (tourist shops) and wanted you to see what he bought. Shirt, hat and local brew.  That's the clothes-line in the upper right foreground, which is what Cheryl was doing while he was shopping.

Many of you have probably heard about the terrible fires in the San Diego area the past couple of days; I am glad to report that Cheryl's family is all safe at this time.  My sister tells me the Poinsettia fire in Carlsbad is the closest threat; it is a mile or so from Mark's office, but several of his employees have been evacuated and are using the office as shelter.   Bill and Patty are east of the Escondido 76/15 fire, which is headed west.  And nephew Matt and wife Adrianna are several miles and across a freeway from the San Marcos fire.  The weather seems to be a bit more cooperative and we hope and pray for everyone's safety, including several friends in these areas that we have not yet been able to contact.

We are headed to Capitol Reef NP in the morning.  I know they have no cell service and no internet, so it might be a couple of days before the next post.

Sandstone Arches

We learned a lot about the geology of the Colorado Plateau today.  The arches of Arches National Park are just temporary, destined to fall at some point.  The stately spires and monoliths scattered across the mesa are the former buttresses of previous arches that have fallen. The caves and scoured faces of the buttes of today will someday turn into arches and then they, too, will fall.  So it's all temporary, and as the ranger said, "just like us".

We rose early, for real this time, and were on the road by 6:30 for a morning drive through Arches.  We entered the park at the perfect time, with few other visitors besides sunrise photographers.  We ate breakfast in the Beach House at The Windows and then contined all through the park, stopping at most of the viewpoints and trails.  Now, I have to say, arch touring is very similar to church touring and museum touring.  After three or four, they all start to look similar, and you have trouble remembering if that big wide arch was at the end of this road or down that other way.  That said here are a couple pictures of our arch adventures.  You'll find many better photos on the internet, but it is amazing to see the panoramas in person.  It is also the only way to take silly pictures of the arches like these.

By the time we finished several hours later, the road was packed with visitors just heading into the park.  We were so glad we got there early and never had to hunt for a parking space.  Our advice if you plan to visit, GO EARLY!  The light is better for your pictures, too.   Also, do make advance reservations in Moab; I have never seen so many 'No Vacancy' signs on both RV parks and hotels.

Around 10 we headed on over to the northern part of Canyonlands NP.  Our summation of this section of the park is it is just like the Grand Canyon, but with fewer finned mesas on the plateau.  Sort of a geologic little brother, but just as vast and empty with a barely visible river snaking through the bottom.

Last but not least, we found this nice little area with a red mesa behind some cottonwood trees.

We didn't have to travel far at all to see this one, it was taken out the window of the Beach House while parked after we got back today. ;~)

Mesa Verde and Moab

We left yesterday in sunshine and headed northwest to some big puffy clouds. The closer we got to Colorado, the thicker the clouds and the darker they came.  We finally pulled into Durango, and were greeted by snow showers and a dusting on the mountains.

Pushing through, we headed on to Mesa Verde National Park.  We have visited this park before, and having climbed all the ladders, crawled through the tunnels and scaled the heights, we opted for some leisurely strolls around the  Spruce Tree ruins before returning to our campsite.  One thing that we noticed immediately was the impact of the fire that burned  20,000 acres along the mesa tops in 2000.  Where once there was a thick piñon juniper forest lining both sides of the road, now there is a skeleton forest of burned tree trunks.  The undergrowth and grasses are thick, but the trees are all dead.  There are a few places where the fire did not reach and the contrast is striking.

We hunkered down at our campsite, fired up the heater for the anticipated low temperature of 29 degrees, ate supper and spotted this herd outside foraging for their dinner.  Points anyone who can spot all 11 deer.

After dinner, it was early to bed for an early rise and departure in the morning.  Well, that was what we planned for.  Cheryl decided it was a good, cold morning to sleep in, so she did.  We finally hit the road at 10, and drove over to the southern section of Canyonlands National Park.  This area is called The Needles.  It is very isolated, but very beautiful...a photographer's dream.

After our detour into Canyonlands, it was on into Moab for the night.  We will be here for three nights, venturing out to see Arches and the rest of Canyonlands over the next few days.

Hercules update:  He is eating well, but still sleeping 22 out of 24 hours.  It makes traveling with him pretty easy, though.

And we're off

Just a very short quick post to let you all know that we are off on our trip. Herc went to the vet today and got permission to travel. Don't know when we will be able to post again but probably not for another couple days. Hopefully, you will hear from us in Moab.

Happy Mother's Day From....

Corrales, NM

Sometimes plans just don't go as planned.  When Tom was flying, he had a thing called the three-plane rule; if you got in three planes and they each had something that kept you from flying them, you did not get in a fourth plane that day.  You just took your stuff and went inside and cancelled for the day.   You were not meant to fly that day.

We have had to invoke the three plane rule today. 

The weather is slowly deteriorating at today's destination, going from partly cloudy with a high of 70 and a low around 34 (predicted five days ago) to today's prediction of steady rain, winds, snow overnight and a high of 52 and a low of 28.  We have been watching it daily, but that was plane number one.  By itself, we could go and have an adventure in the weather and we were prepared to divert to an alternate location if it got miserable.

Plane number two is that Hercules has been having a minor bout of bleeding from one of his many hemangiomas.  We have had to put bandages on as it is sporadically bleeding, but nothing we could not handle on the road.  Laundry could be a problem, but the bandages help a lot.

We were all set to go this morning; Beach House was loaded, water heater turned down, we were double checking the locks and windows and going through the final checklist, which included letting the dog out for a final pre-road potty stop when we discovered he is more than a little under the weather.  Uh-oh.....time for antibiotics and the bland food diet; plane number three.  We decided that it would be a lot easier to deal with this issue today from home rather than on the road in wind and rain and snow.  

We hope to leave tomorrow, and continue with the trip; we will let you know.  I am off to the store to get rice and ground beef for his bland diet regimen once he goes back on solids.  With luck he will bounce back in 24 hours.  

Here we go again...

Well, we are going soon, in one week.  But I wanted to post a quick update anyway.  I have almost finished the unpacking, laundry and cleaning from the last trip. But I am doing that in between the list making for the next trip.

This trip will be a little different than our last, in that we will be primarily in just one state (Utah) and we will be going around to see many national parks.  That means we will be doing a little more boondocking -- dry camping -- rather than being plugged in each and every night. It is a different style of cooking and cleaning and washing, but we have many more amenities than the tent campers nearby.  Been there, done that, and liked it once upon a time.  However, being off the grid also means that I won't be able to post as easily (little or no cell service, either!) so I am just giving you all fair warning that posting will come whenever it is possible.  I will still write a daily entry, but will likely have to post them in groups.....just so ya know.

For those of you not in my local area, weather here in NM has turned to summer this week, although it makes no promises about what will happen next week or next month.  It could go back to winter, or turn to spring winds again.  But for now, we are enjoying the summer warmth and heading out to the baseball game.  Go Isotopes!