Day 159 – Today we travel again to the campground we’d planned to stay at weeks ago before we came across the sign that said “Grand Canyon, 60 miles”, LOL. We’re finally going to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near San Antonio, NM. There is a campground called, Bosque Birdwatcher’s RV Park, situated right outside the entrance to the wildlife refuge. Due to its convenient location to the wildlife refuge, we’ve beeen looking forward to staying there.
213 miles
Day 158 – We woke up at 7 a.m.; 34 degrees and mostly cloudy, a real chill in the air. We left beautiful Goosenecks State Park and drove back to Route 163 the way we came in. It was 8:55 and it was raining lightly. Utah was totally amazing and we only covered a very small section. Gotta come back, and soon!
215 miles
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, EVERYONE!
Day 157 – Time sure flies; one year ago today, on Valentine’s Day, we left for our first post-retirement RV trip. Been having a blast ever since. Fast forward to now – this morning at 7 a.m. when Rob got up, it was 33 degrees and the sky was completely overcast. I got up a little before 8:00, still totally cloudy. Glad we got those pictures yesterday when there was sunlight! We’d originally thought about doing the 17-mile Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park drive today and then going up to the Valley of the Gods and doing that drive, but now with all these clouds, and the forecasted wind, we’ll probably sit around the campsite. It’s not like there’s nothing to see right here!
WHAT DO MONUMENTS & GOOSENECKS HAVE IN COMMON?
Day 156 – We got up a little after 7 a.m., still raining, 36 degrees. We checked the weather forecast for southeastern Utah & it looked okay for us to travel up there to Monument Valley. A couple of weeks ago when at the Grand Canyon, we’d heard from a Chinese woman who was taking her visiting relatives around to see the sites, that Monument Valley was incredible. We are glad we’re able to go there. It could be cloudy today & tomorrow, but at least it shouldn’t be snowing.
160 miles
ZION (east).
Day 154 – Beginning of the sixth month of this trip. Six months, really?! It’s hard to believe. Today we’ll explore the other road-accessible parts of Zion National Park. Colder out though, we don’t know if this is a change back to the normal winter conditions we’ve heard are lacking. 26 degrees this morning at 8:15, crisp & cold with a breeze, full sun. I’d thought that this was a holiday weekend, but that’s next weekend. The campers are heading out already this morning & the campground is about half full again.
We finally left California after almost two months in this State. It IS a large State, after all. We crossed the border into northern CA on October 27, 2017, and didn’t leave CA until January 23, 2018. One of the main reasons we made this trip to begin with was to visit Rob’s mother in southern CA, and also visit with other relatives and long-time friends. We did that, spending half the month in Long Beach, CA. One month ago, we’d just arrived in Long Beach & were beginning a very busy schedule of visits. EVERYONE, it was so nice to see you! But after two weeks in the infamous southern CA traffic in an extremely busy City, we were ready to move on. As we left the Los Angeles area, we already missed our friends & relatives, but breathed a sigh of relief as we left busy freeways and drove into the desert. This time spent in the eastern part of southern CA, in the desert, was a surprise to both of us. Expecting it to be hot, dry, and boring, it was lovely and we enjoyed, once again, spending all day at National Wildlife Refuges and camping off-road at BLM land without all the amenities. Clean air abounds. Quiet, what a concept. In winter, the weather was perfect for us. For us, temperature-wise, any other time of year would’ve been unbearable. We plan to do more traveling throughout the deserts of NM, AZ, NV, and CA in a winter in the future. We travelled 1,124 miles in the RV last month, lots more miles if we add what we travelled in the car, too. We stayed at 7 different campgrounds in CA, AZ, and UT. The scenery we’ve more recently encountered in northern Arizona & southern Utah may be the best we’ve ever seen so far. Cannot wait till next month!
ZION (West).
Day 153 – We were up a little before 7:30 a.m. 32 degrees and cloudy. The campground was full when we woke up; everyone came in during the night. I awoke around midnight smelling smoke inside the RV. Panicked, I got up and discovered it was from the campfire next to us. (Tonight we’ll close all the windows completely. We usually like to leave a window or two open at night for fresh air.) Anyway, two cars had come in late and they were setting up camp. They ended up putting up two tents. for 6 people. Although the sites are reasonably spaced from each other, they set up one tent right next to us, so close that we could almost touch their tent from our dining room window.
Day 13 – The traffic noise from I-84 is really loud; otherwise this is a good campground. It’s by the beautiful Great Salt Lake with the mountains behind it on one side, and close-by mountains on the other side. It was not crowded last night, but tonight they were fully booked up. It was 38 degrees this morning when we got up.
THE PROMISED LAND.
Day 12 – We were going to name today’s post, “Home on the Range”, but two things happened to change this: we haven’t yet seen any buffalo (although we have seen antelope playing), and the scenery changed from range-like to shock & awe-like. We spent most of today driving with our mouths open; the scenery was magnificent.
297 miles