Better Late than never, Steam Railroad, Balloon Fiesta, Street Corner, .....

As you know I don't get this thing updated as we go so I will try and do a little catch up.

When you last read we were in or near Cortez CO. Well from there we  took 491 south to US64 and headed east to Chama NM.  Chama is an old cow and railroad town.  One of the things we wanted to do was ride the narrow gauge railroad. We had camped one night back in 1991 on our way to Philmont Scout Ranch and new we wanted to return.  We stayed at Sky Mountain RV park. This is a nice park with excellent hosts/owners.  At the campground we were given a 15% off cupon for the Cumbers-Toltec Scenic Railroad.  We made our reservations and couldn't have picked a better day.   It was a great ride and included an excellent lunch at the halfway point on our way to Antonito CO.

We took some driving tours of the area and also picked up mail we had sent to us General Delivery.  A nice restful few days before attending the Albuguerque Balloon Fiesta. 

Wow, Wow, Wow.  We were with the Monaco International group which has some of the best parking for RV's.  We would look our our front windshield and see the 83 acre launch field.  Since there were no scheduled events for the evening we took a walk down on the launch field and took a tour of the vendor area.  As we were returning to the coach we were asked to help crew one of the balloons that evening.  Volunteer spirit, we said ok.  We wound up on the largest balloon at the fiesta, the Pirate Ship which had been damaged in shipment from England.  What a thrill and hard work since that balloon weighs over 800 lbs.  All we managed to do that evening was lay it out and pack it so it would be ready to inflate the next day.  We had a great time and will likely go again some time.

After the Balloon Fiesta we headed west on I40 with plans to spend a night in USA Campground in Gallup NM.  We knew that Sue and Glen who are also fulltime RV'ers were at a campground along our route so we pulled off to visit with them for an hour or so.  Really nice to catch up and see their new rig.

Our overnight stop was Root 66 campground near Painted Desert, Petrified Forest NP.  Not much for amenities but the price and location were right.  After visiting the NP and local area we were on the road again.

Next stop was to stand on a corner and see Meteor Crater.  We stayed at Meteor Crater Campground and of course went to Winslow AZ to stand on the famous corner buy some soveners, eat some ice cream and visit the La Posada Hotel.  There was more to see and do in that area but the Grand Canyon was waiting.

We stayed at Canyon RV and Motel in Wilson AZ where we had a nice long site.  The weather was a little on the chilly side and with some rain.  Out trip to the south rim was on what started as a gloomy day.  We took in the Imax presentation on the canyon before we arrived at the park.  By the time we left the movie the weather started to clear but was still quite overcast.  As usual the first place we went in the park was the visitors center where we watched the NPS video before we went to the rim.  As we approached the rim the clouds were lifting but there were still clouds below the rim. 

Along our travels we received a couple of text messages from Joan W and arranged to meet here and her grown children in Flagstaff AZ.  We hooked up in the WalMart parking lot and went to a local Mexican restaurant for late lunch early supper.  We had a nice but to short visit.  We had come up from Camp Verde thru Sedona and new we had about an hour or more return trip.

After seeing the sites in the Camp Verde area we were of to the AZ/NM Holiday Rambler rally in Buckeye.  We met a few folks that we had gotten to know in Michigan and West Virginia.  What a small world.

The rally was our last stop before we arrived at our winter home, Voyager RV Resort and Hotel, in Tucson AZ.

As usual you can see our pictures here.

Canyons of the Ancients

We stayed at Sleeping Ute RV Park next to the Ute Casino about 10 miles south of Cortez CO. There is much more her than the 4 corners and Mesa Verde. When the Ancients lived here, prior to AD1300, there were more people than there are now.

When you come to this area we suggest you start your sight seeing by visiting the Anasazi Heritage Center where you can get a lot of information on places to visit in the area. Of course we made the Heritage Center our last stop. Our first stop was the Colorado Visitors Center in Cortez. We did get a lot of information there and the staff were very helpful.

Our first site was Hovenweep National Monument. There is a nice trail on the slick rock to several structures. Not the same as Mesa Verde but similar in some respects. After talking to the staff the first thing we do at most visitors centers is to watch their short movie to get an idea of what we will be seeing along with some history of the area. We took the hike around the canyon but decided not to take the section that dropped down to the canyon floor and back up the other side. That might have been the better thing to do as I was a little on the dehydrated side and it was a long way back. We did have a lot of water but ...

Following are a few pictures and you can see more here.

Our next outing was to go to the Four Corners Monument. We had a nice drive and it was an easy day after our previous day of hiking.

Mesa Verde was our next 2 days. The first day we visited several of the overlooks and the museum. At the visitors center I signed up for the tour of Balcony House for the following day. I don't know that I can add a lot of flowering words so I will leave it up to the reader to follow the link at the beginning.  A few pictures with a few more here and here.

Of course we saw the eclipse. We did drive down the highway to get away from the Casino lights.

Since there is a WalMart, Safeway, and City Market in Cortez we went shopping to restock since it had been over a month since really had stores to shop at.

Next stop Chama NM.

Moab #2

While here we have visited Deadhorse Canyon State Park, Island in the sky section of Canyonlands, Arches, took a drive up UT128 which follows the Colorado River and then a side trip on ????? where we saw the Priest and Nums formation and finished that ride following the loop road which has some fantastic views. The road is narrow and broken in many sections but it is well worth the ride.

We have also taken several drives to see Petroglyphs which are all around the area.

We have posted many pictures to our online album.

Moab UT #1

We had a nice drive from Capitol Reef to Moab. UT24 from Torrey to Hanksville is rather, shall we say interesting. It is quite "bouncy". The road surface is decent but very undulating with some decent dips that can give you a bit of a thrill. After UT24 heads north to I75 it is much better. Nothing special on UT191 down to Moab except traffic the closer we got. We were surprised at the amount of traffic at this time of year. I guess it is all of us retirees that want to visit when children are back in school.

Today we drove to the Needles area of Canyonlands and took some short hikes. There were a fair number of folks but we did not feel crowded. I'll let our pictures do the talking;

cryptobiotic crust

What are you looking at?

Jabba The Hutt

Mother Nature has the good sense to keep them out of the roads

Bullet Train

Capitol Reef

We took the easy way to get from Hatch to Torrey UT. Meaning we did not take UT12. You can read about UT12 in the link in the Bryce post. We are staying at Thousand Lakes RV Park a mile west of Torrey and have a view of red cliffs which are just fantastic. Again words and pictures don't do it justice. We are here for a week and see something new everyday. Follow this link for information on Capitol Reef.

Grand Wash Hike

Goblin Valley State Park

Petroglyphs

Goosenecks via a Jeep or high clearance vehicle.

Zion

This was our last road trip from Hatch. We had last visited Zion in 1991 and although the canyon hasn't changed how you get around has as well as a new visitors center. This place is loved to death. If you are arriving from the west leave your vehicle outside the park and take the free shuttle in. Why? Parking.
Once in the park use the free shuttle to get around, either that or walk. We came in from the east and had to wait for tour buss's to clear the tunnel. We took the tunnel to the Narrows trailhead. As we were walking along we heard, from behind, You meet Sun-N-Fun folks all over, or words to that effect. Well  Rod and Jackie were behind us. We had a nice walk and visit. They were taking the walk up to the Narrows and since we did that last time we decided to not get our feet wet again and said our goodbye's.

What we saw.

I don't know if there is a good time to see Zion so be prepared for lots of people.

Don't take my Kodachrome away...

Of course one has to go to Kodachrome Basin State Park. More rocks but different. The park is in  the Grand Staircase but you can't see anything that looks like a staircase. Why? Well it's big and you are in it. Just experience it.