Snow On The Horizon

       

I have convinced myself that I am on the way home. I have been traveling mainly north on highway 89. But then the highway turned west and I rolled through  Kanab. I looked for the coffee shop I have visited in the past but it was shuttered, so all I could do was find an adequate parking spot and brew my own espresso. 

The Van With A Name Espresso Maker

Fortified with koffee I headed north again and cruised past the legendary  Quail Park Lodge.

Where Pool Noodles Were Discovered

Years ago, on a motor bike ride through this country my traveling compadre and I stopped here and discovered that boutique retro motels were a thing. They were clean. They were comfortable,  and they had pool noodles…The motel is still here, still in operation, and still looks top of the shop.

There are some pretty interesting rocks to see around here, and so I thought as long as I was in the neighborhood I might as well take a look, and so I charted a course to Bryce Canyon.

Looking at camping options I was surprised to see that the National Park only had one camp open, the North Campground, located across from the visitor center, and it appeared full. Other options in the area included Rubys Inn.

I gave ruby a call and secured a spot for the evening.  When I arrived, I discovered that Ruby’s was a huge operation  consisting of a large hotel, store & trinket shop, restaurant , pools and a RV park with about 240 spots.  Most of that wasn’t open, but they did have rv spots behind one of the buildings, without water, but with power.

I opted for the spot but was unable to negotiate a 10% discount  or secure west bester points in spite of the establishments affiliation with the hotel chain. Oh well I don’t feel so bad now about having a small amount of wastewater escape their uphill almost 45-degree angle to the ground sewer pipe.

Early the next morning with my camera ready and at my side I entered the park.

Bryce 

Bryce Point

 

What a spectacular serene place, made better by the early morning light and almost no other visitors…

Satisfied I had enough pictures of rocks I cruised out of the park, and back to highway 12. With a stop in Escalante, and finally off the road for the night at Torrey at the wonderland RV Park.

While paying and chatting up the proprietor I noticed that he had printed the 5-day weather forecast and taped it to the counter. Everything looked good except for tomorrow the forecast was for snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tumble Weeds

 

For our last night on the road, we choose Kingman Arizona. It was close enough to Las Vegas for my traveling compadre to get her hired van back, and close enough for me to head north after just a short run on the dreaded I 40

Going That Way

Kingman also holds a special place in my heart as being the first place while riding a motor bike to be hit by a speeding  tumble weed.

Wear Riding Gear When Encouuntering Tumble Weeds

It was a very windy morning, that fateful  morning, and as we were riding towards the meetup hamburger stand, I spotted the weeds a long ways off in the desert. Those weeds  were heading to the highway and it looked like they were on a collision course with  me.  It seemed that if I slowed up the weeds slowed up. And if I sped up the weeds sped up. I thought I had outsmarted them when all of a sudden, they careened over a high cut bank of the highway and made a direct line to me and my riding compadre.

The impact was intense with weeds breaking up and flying  all over the place. They were everywhere , but they fared far worse than we did.  Before getting off the highway I could smell them burning where they had stuck on the exhaust. I sold that machine years ago but I bet there are still tumble weeds stuck it.

We had no tumble weed issues, just the regular kamper park issues,  that charge full price even though the pool is having a chemical imbalance and is closed.

We had a nice last evening reminiscing about the trip and planning the award ceremony to come.

Early in the morning I disconnected the van with a name power cord and quietly left the park.

It was east bound on I 40. With a stop in Williams for food and fuel. With my instruments calibrated it was more east bound back to the city that could have been named Flagpole but wasn’t.

North bound on Arizona 89 with a run up to Page, and a night at an overrated RV camp, that at least let me move to a level sight.

Lake Powell is the big attraction here, with lots of boating. I visited here on another trip, but it was worth taking a look at the Glen Canyon Dam. 

Love These Massive Power Line Structures

Glen Canyon Dam

Impressive Red State Awareness

 

What’s Your Name

 

After the madness of Sedona and Jerome, we headed to the serenity of Camp Verde, and the peaceful Zane Gray not a RV park but a village.   I had stayed here a few years ago. In the office they have prominently displayed hard-bound editions of every book Zane ever wrote. Zane lived nearby in Payson, but I can find no evidence that he owned a RV or ever stayed at his namesake RV village.

Zane Gray And Unidentifed Horse

Last time I stayed here it was a weekend and the park had live music and a fire pit filled with fire. Everyone was enjoying themselves and they became elated when I demonstrated my superpower of having the smoke from a campfire instantly be attracted to me. They cheered me on, and I coughed gagged  and smelled like smoke the next day.

Come To Me Smoke

This time there was no live music, but we did get very posh adjacent sites, separated by a hedge with a cut through to make visiting easy.   We sat out on our camp chairs, and eventually we made a excellent dinner of grilled lamb chops, and a salad.

For the next day we made careful plans, as it was to be a busy day and our last day of camper convoy.

We started our morning at Montezuma’s Castle, where there was actual parking. Well, the parking wasn’t in the lot near the castle because they do not allow rv’s to park there. But we didn’t know that until the Park Service Ranger told us we couldn’t park there.  Since we couldn’t park there, I was forced to turn the  6.4-meter-long van with a name  around in a space about the size of a Subaru. Our maneuvering was perfect, and then we drove a ways up the hill that I determined when  walking back up that it  was as steep as a cows face.

The path around the castle is level, and the castle itself has be preserved and protected by the National Park Service.

Montezuma’s Castle Is Built Into The Hill

Our next stop was at    Wupatki National Monument that is,  just a ways north of Flagstaff. Now Flagstaff is a strange name for a town. Not as strange as Livermore, but well different. It seams the town got its name because way back at amerika’s centennial someone climbed a tree stripped  it of all of the branches and hoisted a flag up to the top. Apparently back in 1876 flag polls hadn’t been invented,  hence the name Flagstaff.

The road loops through Wupatki, it is smooth and paved all the way. We started at the north, stopping at the historic sights.

Sinagua People Building

The stonework reminded me of the buildings of the ancient roman city  Pompei. 

Before the road hooks back up with highway 89 it passes  near  the Sunset Crater Volcano. We stopped and took in the sights and explored the lava tubes.

Collapsed Lava Tubes Of Sunset Volcano 

On this day, our weather was perfect about as good as you could expect for Arizona. A comfy 70, a gentle breeze, and walking around the lava tubes made me wonder how terrible a day it was back in 1085 when the volcano was erupting and spewing molten boulders. Oh well timing is everything.

Back on 89 we caravaned south towards Flagstaff then turned west and did a run on I 40. The semis were racing and passing us by and I was glad to turn off on Route 66 at Seligman.

Seligman 

Seligman is the classic Route 66 tourist town, but still is a fun place to visit. 

 

Rally On

 No one told the managers of this camper convoy that coinciding with our adventure was something called “Spring Break” and this phenomena caused every single person with a car, and a credit card to converge on exactly the same places where we wanted to be.

But before the chaos we  stopped at the Oak Canyon viewpoint and took a look down at the steep canyon that we would soon be traveling  through. The trinket sellers were out in force, and the outhouse had a very strong odor.

Stay Away From These Two

With the view taken in. We avoided the  trinket sellers and the outhouse  it was time to drive   the infamous “Oak Canyon"

View From The Vista Point

The road is narrow and twisty, a super ride on a motor bike, but requiring nerves of steel, and a club soda in one hand to negotiate it properly in a camper van.

The drive was pleasant but arriving in Sedona we encountered a massive traffic jam of cars that I think were just driving around looking for a parking spaces that were all ready full. The only way out was through the third exit in a roundabout that was completely jamed  of cars. On the third try through this round about we made it through this chaos. Our convoy  was separated, but we regrouped and  rejoined a safe distance from the madness of  Sedona.

The plan was to drive to Jerome and visit the Gold King Mine Ghost town and junk yard. I wanted to photograph the junk vehicles.

I Could Make Some Photo's Here

The actual town of Jerome is reached by a narrow twisty road that climbs up a mountain, that could be the steepest road in Arizona. The town is carved into this mountain.

Jerome Arizona

There is very little room left for parking. Lots of people that  did find parking were wandering the streets in search of who knows what. Needless to say, we did not find a place large enough to park two camper vans, and we were  soon heading out of town.

At the top of the mountain, I pulled into the scenic view, where there was room to park.

We were regrouping and planning our next move when we were accosted by gods own motorcycle gang the delusional sheep. They  started to engage us in pleasant conversation, and they could see  right away I was immune to their make-believe.  My traveling compadre was playing along with them, and they were laying it on thick in hopes of saying a payer or giving us a blessing. Fortunately, when I gave the hand signal for “loco en la cabeza” my pal recognized it immediately   and all those sheep   saw after that was our taillights and smoke from our tires as we burned rubber out of there.