November 1st - Lone Rock UT
Our destination for a few days, and just a short drive from Bryce Canyon, is Lone Rock on Lake Powell. This place is right on the Utah Arizona border at the Glen Canyon Dam Recreational Area. This dam on the Colorado River created Lake Powell, a place where the rich and famous came to play including Hugh Hefner. There are several huge marinas with large boats. The place where we stayed right on the sand is unbelievably beautiful. Here are some pictures of our spot.
November 2 - Page AZ
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| Glen Canyon Dam |
November 2nd - Cameron AZ
Travelled a short way on Highway 89 from Page Arizona to Cameron Arizona and stopped at the Cameron Trading Post Motel and RV Park. A picture of the neat bridge is attached. Stopped at "Horseshoe Bend" on the Colorado river where Ray walked in for the picture and then we continued on. Apparently there were no guard rails or anything for this view. Tomorrow we will take the 1/2 hour drive to the Grand Canyon.
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| See the pleasure boa, the dot at centre right. |
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It was an hours drive into the park. The 1/2 hour drive was only to the park entrance. We put the dog into doggy daycare so we did not have to rush. They had their shuttle system running so we took advantage of that as well. After our tour we had a wonderful lunch at Angle Bright Canyon Hotel.
The Grand Canyon is "Grand". Very different than Bryce or Zion National Park as it is not up close and personal. Unfortunately they were doing some brush burning on the North Rim which caused a lot of haze in the pictures in the morning. By afternoon it was better. The tops of the plateau were very flat and the cuts or gouges down to the river and canyons where like something huge made slices down as it appeared quite uniform. It would have been very hard as a settler to get around from one side to the other. The only place would have been at Lees Ferry, not far from the dam in Page where it was narrow and at one time a ferry took you between one side and the other.
As we are redoing the blog (2021), only the pictures of us or items we didn't see are pictured here. At this time Ray didn't really get the camera bug until 2015 and the blog contains much better pictures from October 2019. Only pics of us or things we weren't able to see the second time is posted here, including these Big Horn Sheep.
The three pics below are of Tusaya Ruins.
November 4th - Cameron to Cottonwood AZ
We left Cameron Sunday morning at 9 am (I think it was 9 as this time change thing from Mountain to Pacific daylight savings seems to confuse me as the phone says one thing and the truck says another on the GPS). After Pacific changes back to regular time I think we will be the same again.
The plan is to head straight for Dead Horse Ranch in Cottonwood. We took a detour before Flagstaff to tour the Nalakihu Pueblo, Watapuki National Monument and Sunset Crater on the way down to Cottonwood, Dead Horse Ranch State Park. These ruins you were able to walk right up to and see. Very impressive. They were about 1200 years old.
First up the Nalakihu Pueblo:
Next up is the Wupatki National Monument. This pueblo is head and shoulders better:
Further along is the Sunset Crater.
We pulled into the Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood AZ.
November 5th - Jerome and Tuzigoot
There's a crazy town called Jerome, which is perched way up on the hillside. It housed 1,000 people, there to mine copper, gold and silver. It sits 5,000' above sea level and was once the caldera of an undersea volcano. What a lovely, eclectic place with scads of artist shops. Hold onto your shorts getting up there, with roads so windy you can see your tail lights as you go around the corner. Years later (2019), HGTV featured a show called "Boomtown Builder", where old homes were restored to original condition. There were lots of secret tunnels under the town built during Prohibition.
Then off to Tuzigoot National Monument, only a short drive from the campsite. These ruins are the best yet, as you can walk into them and imagine how they lived. For years, the site remained unknown to locals as it was buried under a pile of rubble.
We then headed up past Sedona, where we ate lunch. Then continued on following Oak Creek towards Flagstaff.
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November 6th - Fort Verde, Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well
On the way to Montezuma's Castle, is the Fort Verde State Park. It was closed so we couldn't visit.                Next up and a very short distance away, is Montezuma's Well. The Sinagua enlarged an area that collected water and carved steps into the rock to access it.     November 11th - Quartzsite We left Cottonwood, Arizona on Wednesday morning and headed for Quartzsite. Took turns driving and arrived at around 2:30 pm and set up in an LTVA (Long-term Visitor Area) for the night. The next morning we drove around and decided where we were going to stay. We decided to take a break and stay for a week at the La Posa South LTVA (this is where the water and dump station is) and catch up on some maintenance items we've postponed to with moving every couple of days). We picked a wonderful spot with lots of room for the dog to run after her ball. Everyone is very friendly and waves as you drive by. Most people here are set up for the winter. When we arrived on Wednesday afternoon it was 33 degrees! A little too hot for this kid. The next day the temps dropped to about 22 degrees. We even got a sprinkle or two of rain. Today, Sunday, the temp is supposed to only get to 16 but tomorrow the temps start rising again to about 25 degrees. Lots of sun from now on! We will take a drive up to Parker way tomorrow to scout out the area for the return trip this way in January.       |
Boy does time go by fast! Hard to believe it has been a week since I blogged. We did go to Parker and saw a "new type" of RVer ... seeing the country at a very slow pace!
We then headed for Yuma which was only an hour and a half away and stayed at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (like our Canadian Legion) just outside of Yuma and camped free for 2 nights. It's somewhat noisy as it was located right beside Highway 95 and had a very busy rail line. In fact Ray startled out of his sleep with a bright light shining in the fifth, while it shook and the train's horn blaring. He could have sworn it was coming through the rig! It was great to move on Friday morning.
We
managed to catch up with friends, John and Sue Krog on Thursday night for dinner
before we left, which was Ray's birthday and they surprised us with inviting
more friends. Dora, Charlotte and her friend Harold and Ed and Roxie all from
Nanaimo joined us for dinner at the Red Lobster. It was kind of like our old dinner
club but missing Gary and Janice Glover.
Our new
home for several days will be at Mesa South LTVA by the Imperial Dam. It
is very pretty here. We managed to get a "plum spot". The
people around are very friendly and had a happy hour with a few of them last
night. There are wild burrows here and they were braying off and on all
night. At times seemingly right out our door! and according to the people
we met are often seen right here in our spot, and we have deposits to prove it!
Hopefully we will be able to get some pictures. We were warned to
keep our screen door closed in our rig as they will come right in!
Yup that
is us overlooking Senator Wash Reservoir. There are lots of other units
up on this ridge but farther back.
Talk about lucking out! We are about a half hours drive to Yuma so we will still be in and out for provisioning and laundry. There are date farms on the way out here so we hope to be able to see them. The colours of the rock on the mountains are stunning. The picture below really does not show it as well as we saw it, but you will get the idea.
Well
this should catch you all up for the past week. We still have 2 1/2
weeks before we have to be at the RV park at Escondido in San Diego (Dec 3) so
we will play around some more.
Another warm sunny day comes to a close. (28 degrees)
We have been here for almost a week so tomorrow it is pack up and carry on.
Who knows where we will end up tomorrow? Every night we have been hearing
the wild burrows. Yesterday we finally saw some on the way back to camp.
This week has been very relaxing with a trip into Yuma about 25 miles away one day, another short trip to Mittry Lake, which is a wetland area created by the American Canal Aquifer system that they use for irrigation for all of the farms growing produce. Lots of lettuce farms, date palm farms etc.
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| Imperial Dam |
We stopped at a date farm and bought some fresh dates yummm. They had a wonderful display of cacti in the parking lot. I made a banana, fresh date and pecan loaf which Ray has thoroughly enjoyed.
We take
the dog down to the water a couple of times during the day to keep her cool and
do most of our walking in the morning before it get too hot. Being up on
the mesa has been a blessing as there always seems to be a breeze and the way
that we parked the trailer we always have one side in the shade.
Tomorrow
its on the road again. I think that we will go to Hot Springs LTVA, a
short distance from here.
We have been at Hotspring LTVA for the past two days and have thoroughly enjoyed the hot pool in the evening. Very relaxing. It is maintained by the people who stay here in the winter and is a lovely secret place and not too busy. They have a pool beside the hot tub area with fish. It is definitely what brings to mind an oasis in the desert! We managed again to get a very private site. There is a large plant 200 yards from the campsite and we'd no idea what it's purpose. It wasn't making any noise at the time. Well, unbeknown to us, the whole area surrounding us is a thermal and the plant produces power from the thermal. That night, the plant came alive and all we could hear all night is a huge roaring sound sound... yikes!
On the way to the hot springs the famous Imperial Sand Dunes
November 28th - Aqua Caliente Springs
We left
Hotspring LTVA and stayed over night at Aqua Caliente Springs heading towards
Borrego Springs. It sure is hot... about 32 degrees and it did not cool down
at night. Thank goodness we were plugged in and the air conditioning was
working all night. Up at 6 am and straight into shorts! They did
have a wonderful mineral pool which we enjoyed before bed. While there we saw Pacific Bighorn Mountain Sheep on the hill above the campsite.
We then
headed to Borrego Springs. On the outskirts of Borrego, we saw a sign for breakfast at the American Legion and as Ray is a
legion member, we stopped to eat and support them. What a blessing we did, as we found out they
have camping with water and electricity for $15 per night and a sani-dump on
site. Bonus!!! So this is where we are for now. We are the only ones
camping, have a great area for the dog, have campfire wood provided for free. There's hamburger night tonight and steak night Saturday. Great crew and just had a blast staying here. The view of the
mountains is spectacular. What more could one ask for. Ray was also able
to finally hose down the rig from all the dust.
Once again, we returned to this area January 2015 and there are much better pics of the various statues on the blog. Included below are pics of sites not in the later blog.
All
around this area there are huge metal sculptures by an artist called Ricardo
Breceda. A man named Dennis Avery donated all of the land called Galleto
Meadows that the sculptures called Sky Art are on. There are 131 total.
Here is a sampling.
While driving around we found an orange grove. We've been hoping to see some orange trees and quickly stopped the car to take a pic. The oranges weren't ripe, but we found a honour stand further along where they sold large bags of pink grapefruit. Yes please, Ray will pass however.
All
of these sculptures you can drive to on dirt track roads just off the highway.
As a dark sky community, Borrego offers the rare opportunity to see a
myriad of stars no longer visable in most cities. Unfortunately while we
were here there was a full moon!
November 30th - Palm Canyon State Park
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| Indication the area was inhabited by Indigenous peoples |
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| The temps rapidly increased and we were thankful to cool down |
November 30th - Brawley and The Badlands
There are great boondocking spots on S22 coming from Salton City just before the Anzo-Borrego Desert State Park entrance. Pretty quiet during the week but I imagine noisy with off-roaders on the weekend as it is in the Ocotillo Wells SRVA. They had vault toilets and shade ramadas with picnic tables.
