Great Southwest Adventure of Fall, 2017

On September 5, 2017, we headed out on our great Southwest Adventure.   Prior to leaving our home for two months we decided to look for a house sitter, which is a very expensive and challenging proposition since we don't really know anyone in Seattle.  We decided to try a website and ultimately found a delightful couple from Vancouver, B.C. to stay in our home - at no cost to us.  We were able to meet Bob & Teresa prior to our departure and we felt comfortable with their history of house sitting in the USA and around the world since they retired.  Having virtual strangers oversee all our 'stuff' while we're away, however, has provided us with a bit of perverse humor as we travel - i.e.   almost daily we joke about the on-going 'estate auction' or garage sales at our home and laugh (hahaha??) about returning to find a totally empty house and garage.  Thus began this adventure.    

So, we dusted off Tiny Tin, lured our dog Fergus into the RV and headed out.  While this was a trip long discussed we had not actually planned anything - including the route, etc.  The only reservation we made a week before we departed was for 3 days at the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta slated for early October.  The Great Southwest Adventure quickly evolved into yet another DeLano & Groves' "we-make-it-up-as-we-go-along" trip. 

Truth be told, instead of going south, we first headed to South Dakota in order to see sons Jay (and his girlfriend, Nora) and Kevin (& his wife, Buffy and our 4 SD grandkids).  The drive across Washington, Idaho and Montana was smoky, due to the number of forest fires in Oregon, Washington and Canada, hence didn't dawdle to visit any sights along the way.  We first visited Sturgis, where Jay and Nora live.  We enjoyed our visit and Fergus made friends with Jay's dog,Gemma and they had a good time playing.  Accompanied by Jay & Nora, we made a quick foray to Faith to see grandsons Harland and Hugh play high school football.  We're sure our presence - along with a lightening storm - contributed to their team's first win of the season.  Two days later, we made the trip back to Faith with Fergus and Tiny Tin for a family dinner at Kevin & Buffy's ranch.  We spent the night, but after Fergus tried to kill one of their sweet barn cats, we pulled up stakes - so to speak - and headed to Pierre.

Nora, Jay, Jim & Lynne at Mt. Rushmore

Jay, Jim & Kevin at Faith, SD

Kaycee, Kailyn, Harland & Hugh Groves, Faith, SD

Buffy & Kevin

 In Pierre, we parked the RV along the Missouri River and enjoyed seeing old friends Dennie Pfrimmer and his wife, Cheryl Stone, along with Mike Mueller and John Beranek.  Because this was supposed to be our Southwest Adventure, we didn't hang around Pierre very long and headed south and west, through Nebraska, into Colorado. (Apologies to other friends and family in SD, NE & CO)

Our actual Southwest trip truly began when we visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park (NP) near Alamosa in southeast Colorado.  The dunes are definitely bigger than those we saw along the Oregon coast or at White Sands NP in New Mexico.  Amazingly beautiful.  

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Chimney Rock, CO

We continued west and traveled through part of the beautiful San Juan mountains via CO Highway 160, with stops at the local farmer's market in Pagosa Springs and at Chimney Rock National Monument.  

Our destination was Mesa Verde NP, near Cortez, CO, which was also amazing due to the history of the ancient Puebloans who established these and other communities in the Southwest. We hiked down to see the Cliff Palace - one of several surviving pueblos at Mesa Verde - and then enjoyed driving through the NP.  The night skies at Mesa Verde were overwhelmingly beautiful- talk about 'starry, starry nights'.  

Cliff Palace - Mesa Verde NP

Square Tower Pueblo, Mesa Verde

Continuing west, we stopped at the Anasazi Heritage Center, run by the Bureau of Land Management (Department of the Interior) - a very informative museum and information center.  We drove through a portion of the "Canyons of the Ancients National Monument" to Lowry Pueblo, but as it was mostly gravel roads, we skipped a couple of other ancient pueblos and headed to Moab, UT. 

In Moab, we parked the RV for several days, rented a car and proceeded to enjoy visiting Arches NP and Canyonlands NP.  Each park seemed to strive to be the best.  We also enjoyed a serendipitous meet-up with friends from Olympia, Jill and Jeff Casebolt while in Moab.  Lynne took a private tour with local professional photographer Tom Till and went  to Dead Horse Point State Park for a sunrise photo shoot and to a waterfall near Spanish Flat for sunset photos. 

Near Sand Arch, Arches NP

Wilson Arch, enroute to Arches

Balancing Rock -  Arches NP

Near Sand Arch, inside Arches NP

Delicate Arch

Courthouse Rock - Arches

Jill  & Jeff Casebolt & Jim in Moab

Sunset near Spanish Flats, Moab, UT

Rising Sun at Dead Horse Point State Park, UT

The Green River at Meander Canyon, Canyonlands, UT

We were surprised and unprepared for the crowds of people visiting these Southwest parks - especially at Arches, where it took us 30 minutes to get through the line to enter the park. Yikes!  What happened to the heretofore "off season"?  We were also amazed at the number of RV's/trailers/campers on the road, about half of which seemed to be rented by foreigners - especially French and German visitors.  Many tour buses were full of Asians.  It's always fun to guess at these visitor's home countries and of course, most of them spoke excellent English.  

Cruise America/Arches at Arches

From Moab, we continued west and visited Capitol Reef NP.  Another beautiful park.  It provided more beautiful sights.  

Capitol Reef NP (above & below)

From Capitol Reef, we traveled on UT Highway 12, which took us through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  OMG!!!   More gorgeous scenery!  The highlight - albeit a scary one - was the two lane highway across a high mesa, with steep canyons on both sides.  Thus far, this has been a "Wow-some" journey through this region, whether we've been inside or outside the perimeters of these national parks.  We have stumbled on other beautiful scenery, including Red Canyon on Highway 89 and the red hills surrounding St. George and beyond.

Our journey then brought us to Bryce Canyon NP - famous for it's 'hoo doo's" and other gorgeous scenery.  While camping at Bryce  the temperatures dipped to freezing at night/early morning - a shock to our system since we'd been enjoying warm/hot temperatures since our departure from Seattle.  We substituted our summer bed covering for our old, warm sleeping bag and used our little electric heater to keep the interior of the RV above freezing.  We are light- years away from being tent-campers - and are grateful for the luxury of being in the RV with electricity.

Bryce Canyon's Hoo doo's

Arch & hoo doo's in Bryce Canyon

After our visit to Bryce Canyon, we drove to the southeast entrance to Zion NP, which provided us not only spectacular views of the huge monoliths of rock cliffs, but a special drive through a one-mile tunnel.  Initially finished in the mid-1930's, the tunnel's dimensions did not foresee the evolution of large camping vehicles and tour buses.  The National Park Service has figured out how to accommodate most of these vehicles and for a modest fee, we were able to drive down the middle of the tunnel while on-coming traffic was halted on the other side of the tunnel.  These logistics work pretty well for all park visitors, resulting in relatively short delays at either side of the tunnel.  Tiny Tin technically could have fit into one lane as it met the dimension requirements, but it would have been an extremely nerve-wracking one-mile drive.

We camped in the small town of Hurricane, on the west side of Zion.  Again, we got lucky and were able to rent 'the last car available' at a local auto dealer in Hurricane, that enabled us to more easily visit the park and the area around St. George.  Zion NP restricts private vehicles and buses from driving into the canyon, but provides free and frequent shuttles for visitors.  We spent a day seeing the amazing beauty of Zion, taking some time for a hike to Lower Emerald Pool and enjoyed the unique beauty of this natural wonder.  Similar to what's his name in the White House, we're running out of adjectives to adequately describe the natural beauty around us.  

Zion NP

The Virgin River in Zion NP

A view of Zion's beautiful monoliths

Many years ago, after serving in the US Air Force near Las Vegas, Jim decided to start college in the (then) small town of St. George at Dixie Junior College.  He hadn't seen the old college since he graduated - and it's now Dixie State University and relocated several blocks from the original college. He also had not realized how much the town of St. George has grown but we managed to find the old college building (now a children's museum) and walked around the historic downtown area.  We also drove to Mountain Meadows, north of St. George near Pine Mountain, where a National Landmark memorial marks the location of an infamous massacre of Arkansas pioneers by Mormon vigilantes occurred in 1857.  Jim only heard of and read about the massacre  years later and wanted to see the memorial.  

On our last day in Hurricane, we went back to St. George and then stopped in the nearby town of Washington to visit an old friend of Jim's.  George and Kathy Staheli are natives of the area and were a delight to visit after at least 43 years.

Thus ends Part I of our Great Southwest Adventure.  According to our 'we-make-it-up-as-we-go-along' plan, we now head east, towards Albuquerque with several stops along the way.