Day 12, Saturday 30Mar2024 - Grand Canyon Sunrise, Phoenix and Tucson

Saturday we got up early to go watch the sunrise in the canyon. We thought we did our homework and knew where to go for the sunrise but we failed. We first tried to get out on Hermit Road, it is closed to only the shuttle bus. We then tried Desert View drive and that was closed due to winter conditions, which is complete BS there is no snow in the park.  

Anyway, we finally just picked a spot to park along the Rim, made coffee and waited for the sunrise.

The sunrise was not as spectacular as we recall from 1995 when we were here with the kids, but it was still good. I did a time lapse with my cell phone. 

After the sunrise we had breakfast in the RV and set out for Phoenix to meet an old friend. We routed through Sedona just to take the scenic drive. 

As we left the park a herd of Elk were blocking the road, they really could care less about the cars.  Of course there were some stupid humans that did not stay in their cars....gawd.  

The town of Sedona has exploded since June and I were here in 2012.  We only stopped to get some supplies and fuel because parking is a nightmare.  The scenic road was nice but all the pull offs were jammed with cars so we did not stop. It was another very windy day. 

We met Lance just North of Phoenix at Freddy's...yes we had to try one, it did not disappoint. 

It was nice to catch up with Lance, unfortunately Donna was off in India on a tour with her sister. When we left Freddy's we gave Lance a tour of the Serenity Falcon, including the leveling jacks.  Apparently when they retracted one did not retract, I started to move and heard it, stopped but not before it did some damage. I recycled and it did retract, I crawled under it and it is in place but is tweaked a bit. 

We drove from Phoenix to our friend Brian's house in Tucson.  He was out to dinner with his brother when we arrived so I drove the RV up on some ramps and worked on the jack.  I think it is a pretty minor fix but will need to be put up to work on it.  For now I did a temporary fix and we are using the jacks, but I will have to be careful about the slope until it is repaired properly. 

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and we will go to Mass with Brian and Jane at a local church.

Day 11, Friday 29March2024, Grand Canyon

Friday after breakfast we checked in at the camp office at 08:30 and dumped/filled our tanks. There are no dump stations inside Arches NP, so it was good timing. There was one trailer ahead of us trying to get fresh water, he was clearly a rookie and struggling. I helped him get things hooked up and went to the other side and backed in front of him to dump, I knew we would be done by the time he filled his water tank.  When we had dumped and filled he was just getting ready to dump. He quizzed me on procedure, I wished him luck and got out of there before any events happened. When I pulled out there were at least 6 Rigs in line waiting to dump, timing is everything. 

We drove to the Visitor center but it didn't open until 10AM, so we walked up to Mather point for the view.  

It is stunning when you first see it. 

After a visit to the Rim we went to the Visitor center...it was a mob scene and this is off season. However, they do have plenty of plaques with self guided help. By the time we left the parking lot it was out of control, people were parking everywhere.....did I mention this is off season. We went back to camp and unloaded the bicycles, they have rental bikes but we brought our own. 

We rode from Mather point to Kaibab point and back to camp.

Of course the views were spectacular.

It was about a 7-8 mile bike ride, June only complained a little. 

After our ride we returned to the RV for lunch and June wanted to do some laundry. After laundry, I was ready to call it a day but June wanted to go see more...so we saw more.  

We walked from the campground to Mather point then  in the other direction towards Bright Angel Trail, it was another 5+miles....that girl is trying to kill me. 

The views just kept getting better. 

There are several amphitheaters in the park, I think this would be an appropriate place to go to church on Sunday. 

After the walk, the bike, the walk, I was tired and we turned in early since we planned to get to watch the sunrise at the Rim. 

Day 10, Thursday 28March2024 - Bryce Canyon and onto Grand Canyon

We departed Arches around 8AM, it was 38F and mostly sunny. Our original itinerary's next stop was the Grand Canyon since we have a camping reservation there. However we chatted with a couple from the area on the Devil's Garden hike and they strongly suggested we pass through Bryce even if we don't have time to do any hiking. Allowing a few hours at Bryce would put us into the Grand Canyon around 8PM. This breaks one of our rules about not driving in the dark, but only by a little bit. 

The drive to Bryce was in high wind conditions, but not as bad as when we came across Kansas, however Mercedes didn't like it...again no cruise. 

When we left Arches we had just over 1/2 tank of fuel. I typically fuel up every 250 to 300 miles, so I planned to go about 100 miles and look for fuel.  There should be a sign on I70 that says no fuel for 150 miles...if there is, we missed it.  We went 175 miles before finding a fuel station, 376 miles on a tank fighting high winds. I was sure we were going to run out of fuel, I cut the speed back to 60mph and coasted down every hill. The Mercedes stopped reporting distance left on fuel and just said go to a fuel station, this was for at least the last 50 miles.  It was very stressful. The sprinter holds 26.4 gallons and the fill-up took 23.7 gallons, so technically I had 2.7 gallons left but I don't know how much of that is usable. Anyway, I am now looking far ahead for fuel stops, we would rather do without self inflicted stress. 

We made it to Bryce around 2:30PM and stopped and talked with a ranger about what to see in a short time. We took her recommendations and set off for Bryce Point

The views are spectacular. and pictures just don't capture it.

We also visited Inspiration Point; each location has a unique vista.

At Inspiration Point there is a bit of hiking to get to the different views and covered in 6 inches of slushy snow it was like walking in quicksand. 

Our last stop was at Sunset point where we asked a young man to take our picture. He was British on holiday with a few buddies, they were a hoot....after about 5 mins of joking, they said 'oh you wanted a picture of you two', they were fun. We ran into them again in the parking lot, they had serious RV envy.

This is the picture they took. 

We left Bryce and headed for the Grand Canyon. It was another 300ish miles to go, it was an uneventful drive. We arrived in the dark at about 8:30, our site was posted on the window of the closed office and we somehow found it in the dark. We cooked pizza in the convection oven for dinner, all on batteries, very cool. 

I know most don't think this is cool but I do. 

This is a screen shot from my battery monitor. It shows the oven sucked about 140Amps of power when it was pre-heating, the inverter was putting out 1800 Watts, it is rated for 3000. 

It also showed the entire process was about 1/2 hour and used about 15% of the battery or about 42Ah of capacity, our batteries have a 280Ah capacity.  You would not be able to cook too many pizza's on batteries. 

I am sure the batteries will rebound tomorrow with solar and the little bit of driving we do to check in and go to the visitor center.

Friday we will get the views some hiking and maybe biking. 

After Pizza (and beer) we turned it, it was a long driving day. 

Day 9, Wednesday 27March2024 - Arches National Park, Fred’s Birthday

It is hard to imagine a better place to spend your birthday than Arches National Park.

While June was making breakfast, I took a short walk; it was a beautiful morning with a bright moon and the sun just peaking up.

This is the moon over the rocks behind the campground.

On the opposite side the sun was rising.

June made us a really nice breakfast of French toast and bacon, of course we had Vermont maple syrup.

Camping in the park has its perks, we started the day with a 3 mile hike that starts right from the camp ground, actually it started right from our site….pretty cool

The weather could not have been any better, bright sunshine but cool temps. We got on the trail about 08:30, this is a picture looking back at our camping site. Such a beautiful camp setting. 

The trail from our site goes to Tapestry Arch then Broken Arch with a side trip to Sand Dune Arch.

Tapestry Arch in the morning light was amazing.

The Arch is massive.

Broken Arch is not broken, but does have a pretty big crack, maybe that is how it got its name?

The Sand Dune Arch trail reminded us of the Baths in Virgin Gorda as you pass thru narrow rock corridors to get there. June said “Jean would love this”, I think she would.

The arch itself is also very cool.

The views as the trail makes its way back to the campground are just beautiful.  In this picture, June is pointing to the Serenity Falcon, its color scheme says, I like it here.

We often complain about our government, but I have to say they have done a great job with this park, putting the campground in amongst the beautiful landscape is amazing. Maybe today they would block it and make it forever wild, but right now it is not and all the citizens should try to experience it.  This has to be one of the most beautiful places we have ever camped.

The hike according to Strava was about 3.1 miles, 362ft of elevation and took 1hour, 12mins, most of it was easy trekking. We got back to camp to rest for a bigger afternoon hike. While June puttered in the RV, I changed the inner tube on my bike.  That did not go too well, I broke 2 plastic tire tools and pinched the tube.  The old tube was leaking out of the valve stem, so I replaced the guts from the new one and patched the new tube for a spare. I rode around the campground some but this is really not the place for riding, Moab is.

After lunch we set out for our big hike, a 7-8 mile loop called Devil's Garden loop, It starts about a mile from the campground, an easy scooter ride. It was a much bigger hike, rated at most difficult.  Strava reported that it was 7.3 miles,  took us 3hours 10mins and had 982ft of elevation change. 

Landscape Arch is huge, but the trail under it is closed. In 1991 a huge slab fell off it, so it is no longer safe to go under it. It is getting pretty thin.

The views on the hike are just spectacular. 

Pictures don't do it justice.

There are over 2000 arches in the park, each is unique and beautiful in their own way, it is hard to stop taking pictures. 

Once you reach Double O arch you can either turn back onto the main trail or take the primitive/difficult trail back.  I hate backtracking so we took the primitive trail.  It is not as physically challenging as it is technical. There is one place in particular, where you have to traverse a side ledge that is barely wide enough for your shoe.  When we arrived there, a young woman froze on the ledge, her boyfriend had to come back and help her.  June didn't like it but did just fine. 

The spectacular views never stopped, it was a great hike. 

We got back pretty exhausted, I just can not imagine doing this hike in the summer, you would fry. 

We took the scooter back to camp and stopped at the campground amphitheater just to get a view of Skyline arch.  It is one of the places where you can get a bit of a cell signal.  My phone rang, it was our friends Paul and Lisa in Vermont. They have been here and asked did you see Skyline arch, we were standing right in front of it. Too funny. 

Paul and Lisa November 2019

It was a long day, we had thoughts of another hike (it was still early afternoon) but we were tired and decided 11 miles was enough for the day. 

I loaded bikes, scooter etc. so we would be ready to leave early on Thursday.  We are going to make the trip to the Grand Canyon longer by stopping by to see Bryce Canyon.

Happy Birthday to me, it was a good one!

Day 8, Tuesday March 26th 2024 – Arches National Park

We said we would get up early and get to Arches before noon, but somehow it was after 8AM when we left Outdoorsey.

We really had no good plan for Arches, despite our best efforts, we were not able to book a campsite in the park. Our non-plan was just to show up and wing it from there.

The drive was uneventful with little traffic and the temps rose the closer we got to Arches. About two hours into the trip the temperatures rose to above freezing so I turned on the solar and DC-DC chargers so our batteries would be charged when we got to Arches.

We arrived just before 12N and there was a pretty good line at the gate to get into the park. The sign said it was a 30 min wait from where we were, but in reality, it was less than 20 mins.   

Since we had no idea what we were doing we stopped at the visitor center. There was no line to talk to a ranger, so I did. I told her we could not get into Devil’s Garden Campground but wanted to stay 2 nights, she said there is lots of BLM camping outside the park and we should not have a problem. She also gave us a map with the areas she suggested we visit. This took about 5 mins, when I turned around to leave there was a line at least 10 deep…yikes…. we were just lucky.

As we drove into the park we were just awestruck with the beauty.  We had trouble making or way into the park because we kept stopping to take in the views. This picture has the visitor center behind June, we did not get far. 

We made our way to one of the must see stops recommended by the ranger, “The Windows”, but there was no parking. All the RV spots were taken by cars because there were no empty car spots either. We had been unable to get a site at the Devil’s Garden campground but we decided to just drive there and check it out. 

I pulled in and found the host @ site #35, and knocked on his door. What a nice man, he asked me a ton of questions and then said how many nights, I said two and somehow there was a cancelation on site #42 that fit us perfectly. We were very grateful, it is so much easier when you are in the park. 

The campground is just beautiful but has no amenities except a bathroom.  

There is no cell or WiFi. I did get a radio station, but that is about it.  Poor June is just going to have to talk to me for a few days.

We parked the RV and unloaded the very dirty scooter, since we knew that would solve the parking problem.

We were now 18 miles into the park. We went to one of the closer arches recommended by the ranger, Delicate Arch. It is a 3-mile round trip hike with 500 ft of elevation gain…it had us huffing and puffing but it was well worth it.

On the way back we took a small detour to see the Petroglyphs from the 1500s. I know I am supposed to be in awe of these, but after visiting Europe and seeing what they were doing in the 1500s, frankly it is a bit underwhelming. That being said. they are probably better drawings than I could do today.

After The Delicate Arch we moved down the road for another view, but after we just hiked 3 miles to be at the arch, it was not nearly as impressive from a distance.  

 

As the afternoon got later, the temperatures started going down, but we wanted to get in one more hike, The Windows Arch.  It is about a 1.5-mile round trip hike but not nearly has difficult as The Delicate. 

We also got to see the Turret Arch on the same hike.  The double arches are in the same area but we decided that this can wait.

The temperature drops quickly when the sun starts to get low in the sky, so we headed back to camp, about a 10 mile scooter ride. I was able to hold 35mph even on the steepest climbs with the little red scooter. It is definitely a great way to get around the park.

When we got back to camp it was in the low 40s but we were toasty in the LTV.  I will say there are some hearty families of campers here, people in tents washing their dishes in the cold water sink at the bathroom with little kids in tow. They are experiencing the outdoors…awesome.

We were pretty tired from the hikes and turned in early, with smiles on our faces.

 

 

Day 7, 25Mar2024 - Still crossing Kansas...in a Blizzard, Great Sand Dunes.

The forecasted storm arrived with snow and strong winds that rocked the LTV all night.  We woke to cold (22F) snow, wind and frozen everything.  I went out of the LTV and the step froze, the door would not latch and our water pipes were frozen. 

We could wait it out or move on, I am not know for my patience, we took our time but hit the road about 9AM. 

The roads were horrible, but the worst thing was the wind which would literally push you over to the other lane and there was nothing you could do but slow to a crawl at times. Luckily there was no traffic because at times the visibility went to near zero. 

I looked at the weather before we left and it looked like we would drive out of the snow in about 100 miles but the wind was going to be with us until the afternoon. It was hard to go over 30 mph, so it was a long 100 miles. 

Kansas is huge, it goes on forever with just nothing, gas stops are 50 miles apart, it is impressive. 

We eventually made our way to Colorado which looks a lot like Kansas for the first 100 miles or so. We also crossed another time zone so were in Mountain Time. We stopped for lunch around 1PM (my stomach said 2PM) and when we got back on the road, like a switch the wind turned off.  The MB was happy and I got cruise control back. 

As we made our way west we started hitting the Co mountains, the first was the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and we crossed via La Veta Pass which is 9,426 ft in elevation. At the top of the pass we heard a loud pop in the back of the LTV, June found a bag of Doritos had suffered an embolism.  We packed that bag of chips at home at around 150 ft in elevation.  

We made our second pass at Wolf Creek which crosses the continental divide at 10,856 ft.  It was a beautiful drive with steep climbs and descents. It was cold at the top of the pass but once we descended the temperatures got above freezing. 

We made a stop at the Great Dunes National Park.  It is an interesting place where huge sand dunes form between the mountains.  There was alot of snow but the roads were clear. 

The dunes were completely covered in snow. I said to the ranger, I guess we picked a bad time to visit, he replied "well the people this morning could not see anything, it was a blizzard and you are lucky to see them covered in snow, not many people see that"....our cup is half full. 

They are beautiful but we would have like to hike them.

We decided to make our way closer to Arches National Park, we have no reservations so will be winging it a bit there. 

While on the road, June booked a campground in Bayfield, Co (Just outside Durango) for $40, just for a place to park for the night. When we arrived it was 40F, nice, the LTV thawed out so we took showers and prepared for an early departure on Tuesday to Arches. 

Day 6, 24Mar2024 - Crossing Kansas

We departed our Harvest Host about 07:30 on Sunday, it was 43F and cloudy. We are crossing Kansas so it is a long boring drive. We crossed into Kansas and of course there were high wind warnings; it was a strong wind from the south west and took a full 1/4 turn on the steering wheel to stay in our lane. Of course the Mercedes ESP system bailed and even after pulling over and resetting it, it would just bail again, so it was a long drive without cruise control. 

Kansas is mostly open prairie, wind mills, tumble weeds and oil wells and it goes on forever.

   

We saw 100s of wind mills however most of them were not turning, I suspect this was due to the high winds. It is ironic that there can be too much wind for a windmill. 

We stopped in Sedalia, KS for a break. We went to Walmart for some supplies and since we are headed for colder weather, I went to Tractor Supply to fill our propane tank. 

I also needed brakes and a tube for my bicycle, we found these at a shop in Leewood, KS called the Elite Cycle Shop. The owner came out to my bike to make sure I was getting the right pads.  The people in KS seem to be very nice.

After lunch we were back on our way...more highway as far as you can see with strong cross winds, rain and lightning, it was a bumpy ride.

We intended to stay at a HH just as a stop over but after looking at the weather we decided to find a camp ground where we could fill our water tank etc.  We booked the Kansas Country Inn which has rooms and RV parking sites. For $24 we got full hookups for the night, it is just a parking spot but we are just passing through. We were happy to get off the highway about 7PM because it was raining sideways and the temp started dropping immediately.  It was a long day of driving in strong winds without cruise control, nice job Mercedes!

The forecast called for 22F by morning with wind and snow, they were right.  The van shook all night with the wind gusts and it was 22F when I got up at 5AM.  We were nice and warm in our van, Em would say ..again... "first world problem dad".

We can wait it out here or move on this morning, we will probably push on but at a pretty slow pace. 

Lithium batteries don't like the cold, and should not be charged when it is below 32F without heating them. My batteries are 100% charged at the moment and do have a low temp cut off to prevent charging when it is below 32F. None the less, I have turned off my solar and my DC-DC charger so that when we head down the road, there will be no charging. Hopefully, we will get to warmer temps before we run out of batteries. 

Day 5, 23Mar2024- Lincoln's Boyhood home and the Arch

It was a quiet night at Country Boy Brewing and we slept in a bit. 

 We left about 08:30AM and headed west.  

On a whim, we detoured off the highway to visit President Lincoln's boyhood home in southern Indiana. Lincoln was born in Kentucky and is known as being the US House Representative from Illinois, but he grew up in Indiana from age 7 to 21. Two years after moving to Indiana his mother died of milk sickness, which is caused by consuming milk from a cow that had eaten the snakeroot plant. His sister later died during child birth (1828), it seems he had his share of family tragedy. 

Lincoln's childhood home is now a national memorial. We were the only visitors in the museum but the nice park ranger ran the movie for us anyway.  

Once you tour the museum there is a 1 mile loop trail that leads to the location of his family cabin and 12 stones that recount parts of his life. It was a nice day and we needed to stretch our legs. 

This is a bronze marker in the likeness of what was left of his cabin.

Today there is a replica of the Lincoln homestead.  

It was a nice walk on a sunny day and we had the park to ourselves for lunch in the LTV. 

We moved west to St. Louis arriving around 16:00. We parked along the Mississippi River on a pretty good slope, but it was an easy walk to the Arch. 

The arch is surrounded by a beautiful park with lots of green and a huge staircase that leads to the river, it really is very nicely done. 

Underground there is a large museum and access to the tram ride to the top of the arch. We would have liked to take the tram but it was sold out for the day. The museum was interesting but it seemed quite disconnected to me, maybe if we spent more time it would make more sense. It is still worth the stop, the arch is an engineering marvel. 

St. Louis was truly the gateway to the west. 

We left St Louis and looked for a place to park for the night. We made a last minute request to stay at the Paddle Stop Brewery just west of St. Louis in New Haven, Missouri, it was immediately accepted. 

The HH website said they were open until 9PM but when we arrived at 6:30PM they were closed, they have shortened winter hours. No worries, the owner was waiting for us, he even poured me a beer and chatted with us for a bit. We were his first customers from Vermont, so we got to put our name on his map of the country on the wall, I forgot to take a picture of that. I have found that Harvest Hosts are some of the nicest people you could meet. 

He even told us to pull our van up onto the cement pad along his buildings to block the noise of the passing trains.

A few trains did go by but we didn't mind. 

Sunday we will continue to trek West, our next stop is TBD.