The Final Leg(s)

OK... I confess that we are home already, but I've got orders that no dinner until I finish up the blog for this trip.  And I'M GETTIN' HUNGRY.

So anyway...

On Sunday the 2nd, We got up early (you really buy that?) to head over to the Grand Canyon South Rim only to check the South Rim weather and find a below freezing forecast for that night. No dice on that!

While sitting outside drinking coffee and figuring what to do next, I had company.

I hear they eat rattlesnakes.
Must be true 'cause there weren't any around.
Beep Beep!

The new plan was to start the march for home but only if I promised NOT to try to do all 1,300 miles in one day.  So next stop is Homolovi State Park AZ with an unexcavated Anasazi Pueblo site and a campground with showers.

"View" from our campsite.
That's the ruins on the horizon.
(Don't know why the residents left??)

But they left trash all over the place.

On Tuesday, basically following US Rt 66 (but on I-40 most of the time), we headed for Petrified Forest Nat'l Park via Winslow AZ.

(I've already made all the hackneyed "There I was standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona ..." and not being able to attract a "flat-bed Ford" cliche's to most of the people I know so I won't bore anyone with that again.)

However...  we also passed through Holbrook AZ on Rt 66 where I briefly toyed with the concept of settling down to a simpler life here in the desert.

??????

You'd be surprised at how many '57 Chevy's there were in town.

Gathering my senses, we moved on to the Park where we found a nice hike into the middle of nowhere (as usual).

There's "trees" out here SOMEWHERE!

Patience...
(I know they would look nice in your garden...but NO!)

Actually there are LOTS of petrified trees in the park. I was just being anti-social and refused to go to popular areas where they were.  My bad.

We made Albuquerque by Tuesday night and stayed at a motel.  It was that or overnight at the Dancing Eagles Casino parking lot with all the silver haired ladies and truck drivers.  We did that once in Florida and the Albuquerque hotel option was worth it.  (Plus they had Cinni-bunns at the free breakfast.)

Wednesday, the horse (me) was headin' for the barn, however, the rider said I could drive all the way to Chicago if I wanted, but she was going in back to sleep for the rest of the trip.  So... we stayed in in a City Park in El Reno OK that night.

But not without a short stop for some last minute petroglyphs.

An eclectic mix...

Rise and Shine!  Only 800 more miles!!    We made it all the way to Springfield IL, (including St Louis at rush hour), before I had to shut down my hearing aids and find a campground. Shessshh - What a grump.

So Friday we did the last couple of hundred miles and arrived home, still in love, (I think).

Good Night from Downers Grove

Brad & Val

6,733.7 Miles.  But who's counting.

Arizona or Bust

Left Snow Canyon UT on Saturday morning heading east to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Actually only about 4 hrs total from Snow Canyon, the Rim is the only stop at the end of a 45 mile drive down Rt 67 in Arizona.  A beautiful drive through high (8,500 ft) meadows surrounded by spruce and aspen which was just a little past full color.

After getting in to our campsite we had lunch and hiked the 4-mile Transept Canyon Trail which follows the rim of a side canyon of that name, to Bright Angel Point.  Impressive to say the least.

We could only get one night at the campground, and the nearest alternative was at the other end of the 45 mile drive in, so we decided to head on to Lake Powell at Page UT where we would reconnoiter for the upcoming family houseboat outing next summer.

But not before stopping for Val to smooch another random guy.

This guy was REALLY hairy.
If I don't shave every day, I don't get any hugs!

The road to Page is one we've been on several times in the past and is on of our favorites following a long line of "Vermilion Cliffs" stretching to the horizon.

Made it to Page by mid-afternoon.  It was perfect weather, mid 70's with a light breeze so we decided to just sit outside, read a book and watch the sun go down.

So ends the day at Lake Powell AZ/UT (I can throw a stone into Utah.)

Goodnight from Brad and Val

PS - You may recall from a previous year's trip post about this area, it is impossible to know the correct time.
  (1) Utah observes daylight savings time.
  (2) Arizona does not.
  (3) EXCEPT Indian reservations in both states do.

And since from where I sit, a 15 minute drive can take you to Utah, Arizona AND and the Navajo Reservation, who the heck knows what time it is.  (An who the heck cares....)

Lonliest Rd Part II (plus some more)

The trend seems to be the longer we are out, the farther behind I get on postings.  I usually blame it on hte connectivity, but truth in fact, I just get lazy.

Anyway....  The stargazing I mentioned at the end of the last post was really great.  It's been a long time since we've clearly seen the milky way.  Even in the southwest, the air pollution from LA pretty much obscures it.

OK... It wasn't THAT good, but it WAS good.

The next day we completed the second leg of the Lonley Road

I promise...  No more "Lonely road" shots.

A "fixer-upper".  Yours for only $999.99

At our campground.

Antler road art

A wayside "Pioneers Exhibit" depicting a whole lot more people then we saw in the past 400 miles.

At the endpoint of the Lonely Road, we made a final stop at Great Basin National Park and Lehman Caves.  If you are ever passing through Baker NV,  (heh - heh), see the cave.  It's really quite beautiful (the cave, not Baker).  I have no pictures, since as I was an experienced caver in the 60's, I was assigned the highly responsible task of bringing up the tail end of the tour to make sure nobody got left behind. I did such a good job that we actually picked up two more people than we started with!!

From here, we turned south heading toward (BUT NOT TO) Las Vegas, stopping overnight a Cathedral Gorge (really more of a "gulch") near Panaca NV.  (Another nice place to visit if your in the area.).  A nice day-hike through some very impressive congealed mud.

Enough of those redwoods, ...
Bring on the eroded dirt!!

Ask Val about the rabbit.

Yes.  I Shaved this morning.

OK...  I got the picture.  You can come back down now.

Leaving Panaca, we headed to Snow Canyon which is just outside of St George UT.  Went into town for some lunch and groceries and then to the Canyon for a couple of short walks to fill out the afternoon.

A nice little slot canyon.

She says it's an "air kiss" but looks more like
an Italian epithet gesture to me.

So we're settled in for the night at Snow Canyon for two nights.  Tomorrow a day hike, but we HAVE to be out of here Saturday morning as we've been told five busloads of school children are showing up for some ecological event.  (A contradiction if I ever heard one.)

Good night from Snow Canyon (but with no snow.)

Brad and Val

The Road Less Traveled

This morning we took off from Fallon NV heading west on US 50 on what is nick-named "The Loneliest Road In America".because it is 410 miles of road through central Nevada and Utah with only 4 towns (greater than pop 500) between.

The name is a bit of hype from the Nevada Dept of Tourism, but it does feel pretty lonely much of the time. One might say "Why go this way when I-80 will pretty much get you too and from the same places?"  Well the obvious reason is because it's there, but also because its the path of the Pony Express, Butterfield Overland Stage Line and numerous emigrant trails.  It oozes history, and the scenery is spectacularly BIG!  There's also almost no traffic, the speed limit is 70 mph and you can stop anywhere you please and gawk at the scenery.

By the end of the day, we had made only about 130 miles because of several stops to oogle at some road-side attraction or another.

Grimms Petroglyph Site.
Much cruder (and very much older) than we've seen further
south in Utah and Arizona.

Snakes seem to be a common theme regardless of when
where the drawings are made.

One huge isolated sand dune.

Remains of an 1860's Overland Stage station.

Austin NV.  The last (and first) town we passed on this leg.

So we are now stopped at the Hickson Petroglyph Recreation Area Campground, (such as it is).  We're parked under a shady tree on a hillside overlooking a 40 mile wide valley and the distant mountains.  (That's the Overland Stage route behind our site.)

Should be some excellent stat-gazing tonight.  An tomorrow should be more of the same as today.

OH... and the campground is EMPTY.

Goodnight from the "Loneliest Campground in the USA"

Brad and Val

Catch-Up Time Again

Since we left Jess' house we've only had one night of connectivity (honest).  Portland may be the epitome of technology, but NW California is definitely not.  (Must be too busy growing pot and cooking meth to have time to surf the net.)

Anyway, from Harris Beach State Park Oregon, we jumped down into California (only a few miles) and spent 4 days gawking at giant redwoods and exploring craggy deserted beaches in the Humbolt Redwoods State/National Parks.

A nymph in the wood.

Our campsite.
Note humongous stumps right and left.

Better view.

A drive up a dirt road.

A minute earlier would not have been good!

I'm not sure this is a really good road.

My tree huger.

Then I chopped it down.

Val on an awesome trail.

But I wish she'd stick to huggin' trees.
"Call her off, or she's going over the side!"

I protested mightily, but she made me pull in.

The compulsory "up-the-nose" selfie.

Back to huggin' trees.
Much better.

Trail to Hidden Beach.

Hidden Beach - We had it to ourselves for a while.

The last night on the coast was at Elk Prairie Campground ... which of course had no elk.  However departing in the morning, down the road aways from the campground, we encountered two grand bulls battling to the death off to the right of the road.

After capturing the moment, I began pulling back onto the road and while checking my rear-view, there on the other side of the road was the entire herd of 30-40.  By now a logging truck was bearing down so you'll just have to take my word for it.

The rest of the day was traveling from the Pacific Coast of California following the Trinity River to Redding and then on to Lassen Volcanic National Park on the far eastern edge of the state.  As it was Sunday, we (I) figured most responsible adults would be packing up camp and returning home to work and paying Social Security taxes to support us less-responsible adults.  However, since it was actually Saturday, NOT Sunday, we arrived at a full campground, except for one last site which we grabbed instantly. (Feeling only slightly guilty about the "old peoples" camper we blew by at 75 mph racing to get to the campground first.)

Today (the real) Sunday, we crossed into Nevada at Reno and clawed our way up a mountain to Virginia City, there to be greeted by "Street Vibrations", the equivalent of the Sturgis South Dakota motorcycle rally.  I believe I made a (very quiet) comment to the effect that motorcycle rallys mostly tend to concentrate A-Holes...distilling them down until the only thing remaining is the essence of A-Holes.

Her response was to glare and immediately walk into a Christmas Shoppe in front of which I took my seat of shame while pondering the irony of the situation.

Tonight we are in Fallon Nevada, (home of the US Navy "Top gun" flight school)  getting showered and laundered before the next leg which takes us across Nevada and Utah on US 50, "The loneliest road in the US".

More on that when we get reconnected in a couple of days.

Good Night Goose and Maverick from Fallon Nevada.