Among the Giants- Redwood Forest, Klamath California

We had a several days of uneventful travel, driving north through Utah, then across Nevada and finally reaching California. One thing to note - the scenery changed dramatically as soon as we crossed the border from Nevado into California along I-80. While Nevada is beautiful in its way but very stark, pretty much nothing but barren mountains with a lot of snow caps, as soon as we hit California everything seemed to turn green. Suddenly the mountains were softer and fully forested, covered with evergreens. Northern California looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest. We left I-80 and took Highway 20 all the way across the northern part of the state to Highway 101. While some parts of 20 were a little dicey (steep climbs, sharp descents and hairpin turns) the scenery was stunning.

Northern California along Highway 101

We stopped in Willitts CA for the night and were on our way the next morning. Driving most of the day, we arrived in mid-afternoon at the Chinook RV Park in Klamath CA, which would be our home for the next few days. Klamath is located right in the heart of where the Redwoods meet the Pacific Ocean, which is a beautiful place to be.

Our backyard at Chinook in Klamath

The next morning we drove up into Crescent City to stock up on groceries - got to atttend to business before play. But the next few days were pretty much all play. We spent a lot of time on backroads around the Redwood forests. Some of these giants are not mere hundreds but thousands of years old. We always think of ours as a young country - there is nothing as old as the castles and ruins of ancient cities of Europe. But then you meet trees that have been growing since BC times...and you realize that their stories are every bit as far-reaching as those man-made ones are. And even better - these incredible trees are nature-made which to me is much more impressive than anything made by man.

Stout Grove - Howland Hills Road

As always, I'm frustrated at my inability to record these amazing sights. It's just impossible to take pictures that even remotely show what it's really like. I have to to just let the experience live in my memory.

We don't ususally do the "touristy" things, but we made an exception for the Trees of Mystery  (treesofmystery.net) attraction in Klamath. At only $11 per person to get in, we were able to walk around the trails that included a lot of information on many of the huge trees, and culminated at the end of the trail in a gondola ride all the way up to the top of the mountain, like a ski lift. At the top you  hop off the gondola and walk around the observation area which provides a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean through the trees.

Then you hop back onto another gondola and ride back down.

At the bottom there is a wonderful museum of Native American artifacts and history from the Yurok tribe, who lived in the area. As tourist attractions go, this one was well worth it.

This big guy was carved from a single piece of Redwood

Besides the trees, the ocean was the other attraction in the Klamath area. 

We drove up Requa Road to the Klamath Overlook, where we were lucky enough to see gray whales down below, two days in a row. There is a trail that goes about a half mile down to Klamath Point - well, Bill took a pass on that since the only way back is to climb back a half mile pretty much straight up. But I decided to do it, so he got comfortable waiting up at the overlook and I started down. About halfway down the trail I could hear the seals barking down on the rocks and when I got to the bottom there was a gray whale swimming back and forth between the rocks and the shore. I couldn't get a picture but it was great to stand there and watch her. 

Well, I knew I'd have to start the climb back up sooner or later, so I took a deep breath and started up. It wasn't too bad, but I had to stop and catch my breath more times than I liked. And it pretty well trashed me for the rest of that day. But I made it to the top. Whew!

Our campground was a really nice place to relax, and we had a communal campfire every night with our neighbors and fellow travelers.

We left Klamath this morning and headed north on Highway 101. We are now in Lincoln City, Oregon where we will stay till Sunday. But the Oregon coast merits its own post, so more on that later...

A World of Orange Rock - Long Valley Junction, Utah

But first...

Page, Arizona - Lake Powell/Glen Canyon area:

At Lake Powell we stayed at the Whaweap RV Park just outside of Page, and inside the Glen Canyon National Recreation area. The RV park was beautiful, up on a hill with a view of the lake and surrounding mountains. There is a lot of controversy in the history of this place that was created by damming the Colorodo River in the Canyon. While Lake Powell is beautiful and as much of the canyon that survives is as well, I would love to see it as it was in its pristine state - without the huge monstrosity of the dam that spans it. But there is much beauty that survives. 

The view from our campground

  

Our first outing the next day was to Horseshoe Bend Canyon, about a three quarter mile hike down to the river overlook.

          

Next we headed to Antelope Canyon, which is located in a Navajo owned park. You can only get inside the canyon with a Navajo guide, so we signed on. We were with a small group and were driven about 3 miles down a sand dune road in an open back truck. The ride was an adventure in itself.

Our fellow travelers

We arrived at the slot canyon and our driver and guide, Aikman led us inside. He had tons of information, since he had lived in the area all his life and his great-grandmother was reputed to have discovered the canyon at age 13, while tending her sheep. She is now 93 and lives up in the hills above the canyon and still tends her animals. I love those stories...

Entrance to the canyon

Walking through the canyon is like wandering through a cave. There is only one path which is somewhat lit by the many holes and openings above but is very narrow. In most places we had to walk single file. Everywhere was the bright color reflected by the light and the positively surreal shapes all around us.

Looks like melted taffy, doesn't it?

Look sideways - see the heart shape?

And back out the other end

Aikman told us many of the Navajo legends about the canyon, and he also showed us evidence of how flash floods have shaped it over the years. There were high water and high sand marks, and some branches stuck in the rocks way above us, left behind by floodwaters. He was a great guide and storyteller.

Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon, Utah

On Friday, we departed Page and were quickly over the Utah border. The drive up Route 89 was one of the most scenic roads we've ever been on, with ever-changing mountains along the way. We passed through the town of Kanab, Utah which is in a valley surrounded by the distinctive orange hills. And that was only the beginning.

We pulled into Camp Lutherwood in Long Valley Junction on Friday afternoon. Lutherwood is about halfway between Zion and Bryce, so it would be easy to drive the car back and forth each day. Getting to the campground was a bit dicey, since the approach involved driving two miles down a dirt road with curves, turns and some steep hills - still in the moho, towing the car.



Right about when we started really wondering what we had gotten ourselves into, we came to the end of the road and found the campground. Things quickly got a lot better. It's a small park in a very scenic area, surrounded by mountains. Karen and Carl, the couple who are the campground hosts came out to meet us and from that point on it was like we had reunited with old friends. Carl helped Bill get the moho situated in our spot while Karen and I chatted in the office about the nearby national parks and other sites in the surrounding area. It's great to get information from someone who is knowledgable about the area, and they were the nicest and most accomodating camp hosts we'd ever met.

Some of our neighbors

A little rough on the Honda!

After setting up we decided to take a ride into Zion National Park, which is about 35 miles south. It was about 3:30, so we weren't going to spend much time there but we thought it would be helpful to get our bearing and plan our visit. And what a place it turned out to be...

Zion National Park

We have been fortunate enough to have traveled all over this country, all of our lives. We've been to many national parks and countless amazing places but Zion absolutely blew us away. This is not a collection of great areas - it's being completely immersed in awe. From the minute you approach the park, there isn't a single inch that isn't spectacular. I wish I could have taken pictures with my eyes, because I just wanted to save everything I was seeing - and no camera can do that. Here are some humble efforts that in no way even scrape the surface of what we experienced:

The smaller tunnel

Waterfall at the Emerald Pool

The main road through the park is 12 miles long as it winds around, down, up and through the canyons. Everything around is shades of orange and red - it's as if the world is bathed in orange light. I couldn't get a picture of the long tunnel, but it runs 1.2 miles through the heart of the mountain in almost total darkness - lit only by a couple of open overlooks along the way. It is just staggering.

We spent the next couple of days exploring Zion. Like many national parks today, there is a shuttle that runs through many of the areas that cars are not permitted into, and you jump off and on at will. It's a really good system, and with shuttles only a few minutes apart there is never a long wait. I have to wonder if it ever gets old for the people who work or live there - I can't see how. 

On Sunday morning we woke to a freak snowfall that had swept out of the Rockies overnight. Just a couple of inches in the campground, but very cold and windy.

We weren't planning to leave before Tuesday anyway, and by mid-morning we felt safe going out in the car. Now, we have driven on snow and ice all our lives but who knew that a dirt road turns to mud and becomes as slick as ice when it's wet? Not me! I was driving out in the car and the road had no snow on it so it appeared perfectly fine, but the car started skidding around on the first curve and totally freaked me out. I think it took me almost a half hour to get all the way out to the highway (2 miles!), in low gear and going about 5 miles an hour. But we got out ok, and since the campground is at an elevation of about 7800 feet, we only had to drive about 15 minutes down the road when the snow disappeared and the weather got a whole lot warmer. We had dinner in the little town of Springdale, just outside the west entrance to Zion. By the time we returned to the campground that evening all the snow had melted and the road was almost dry and much better.

Bryce Canyon

Monday we drove up north to Bryce Canyon. My friend Cheryl had told me earlier that after visisting Bryce she had a whole new appreciation for the color orange and I thought that summed it up pretty well. If Zion is bathed in orange light, Bryce looks as though the whole world around you is on fire. It is very different from Zion - towering spires and "hoodoos" which are tall skinny spires of rock that protrude from the botton of the arid basin. Some are taller than a 10 story building. 

We hiked up and down some of the trails to get to the best vantage points. There were many times when we just stood and looked out in silence because there just aren't words to describe it. 

Just outside of Bryce is Red Canyon. We just drove through that part because we could see snow coming in and we wanted to get back down to the highway before it hit. Bryce is at a considerably higher elevation even than our campground, and there was a lot of snow around some areas, especially in Red Canyon. 

It was cold in Bryce!

On the way back to the campground we drove through a snow squall but luckily we got through it before there was any accumulation on the road. We couldn't believe that it was still cold and snowing in mid-May, but that's life at elevations like this. The weather changes drastically just a few miles below as the elevation drops. 

We're gearing up to head out of this part of Utah this morning, and we'll be around Salt Lake City for our stop tonight. 

Arizona Adventures - Mesa, AZ

Monday, April 28 brought us to Tucson AZ where we set up at the Voyager RV Park. The park was beautiful, with a view of the mountains and nice size campsites. This was one of the smaller "snowbird" parks in Arizona with great amenities and an onsite bar and grill. We didn't use many of the amenities during our short stay since we were more focused on the area around Tucson but it was nice to see they were available.

Upon first pulling in we noticed that the motorhome right across from us looked familiar - coincidentally, it had been next to us at our stop in Las Cruces as well. While we hadn't met there (we were all tucked inside during the gale force windstorm) we quickly became acquainted with Andy and Judy, who were on a six-month road trip from Florida heading for Alaska. Way to traverse the whole country! We spent some time together over the next couple of days and quickly became new friends.

Biosphere 2:

On Tuesday morning we headed out to Biosphere 2. Biosphere 2 is a sort of giant greenhouse that started as a privately funded experiment in sustainable living back in the early 90s. A group of 8 scientists went inside and lived there for 2 years with no physical contact with anyone on the outside. While their goal of being fully self-sustained fell short much was learned from the project. Biosphere 2 changed hands a few times over the next 20 years and in 2011 it was gifted to the University of Arizona, who currently owns it. We did a tour of the entire facility that took us through all the different sections over the next couple of hours - very interesting.








Saguaro National Park:

Wednesday morning we headed up to the Saguaro National Park where we decided to ride the 10 mile bike trail through the park. We've done lots of bike rides that were much longer than that so we thought it would be a great little ride on a nice day. Well, let me tell you...this particular ride will henceforth be known as the Bataan Bike Hike of Death because it just about killed us. First the good - and there was a lot of good:  Traveling through the park was like being in a different world.







So many different kinds of cactus.














As for the whole bike hike of death part - the ride started out deceptively easy, as it gradually descends ...you don't really notice you're going downhill. "Gee, piece of cake!" we thought. But then the road started to head back uphill...and uphill...followed by a sharp descent where you kind of careen wildly downhill...followed by even more uphill. With all the curves, you couldn't really take advantage of the downhill momentum to gain the next uphill so each time it was starting from scratch. We may have - just may have - walked the bikes up a few hills. Repeat this about a billion times. Bill was having trouble with his gears because of the quick shifts between flying down and having to change over to uphill mode again and his chain kept coming off. It was the longest 10 miles in the history of bike rides and just when we were wondering if someone would someday stumble across our bleached bones next to a couple of abandoned bikes...we finally saw the flag in the distance that marked the visitor center and the end of the loop. Hurray! But it really was a great experience and we both agreed that we would do it again. Just not right away!

We went home to recover and have some lunch and then we decided to power wash the moho. Remember, we had been through killer windstorms and it was pretty much covered in a thick layer of dust. Plus the bug guts on the windshield were beyond cleaning off with a squeegee. The roof obviously has to be washed before the sides so as per our procedure, I got up on the roof and Bill passed the power washer, brush and bucket of soapy water up to me. Yes, there is a reason why I'm the one who gets on the roof - which one of us do you think is less clumsy and therefore less apt to fall off the roof and become a paraplegic?  Ok, question answered.

However, the normally simple task turned into a major cluster. We had one malfunction after another during the whole first hour of the operation. First the hose kept coming off one end of the power washer, then the sprayer fell off, then the start button wouldn't work. I passed the gear back down and each time we thought we had it working he would pass it back up to me and then when something went wrong I would pass it back down to him for repairs. It got frustrating enough that there may have been some cussing... Finally things settled down and I was able to use it, although the sprayer wouldn't fit quite right and I was completely soaked by the leak. But it was warm so I could deal with that. I started to work on the roof, while Bill supervised from his lawn chair.




See that smile on my face? The only reason it's there instead of a one-finger salute is because...well, my kids might read this. And you know...but the roof finally got done. And yes, the supervisor got up and did his share as part of the ground crew.




Once the moho was all shiny and pretty again, we called it a day. We walked over to the patio bar for dinner that night since we thought we had earned a no-cook night. After dinner, Andy and Judy came by and we all sat outside and chatted into the evening. We would be heading out in the morning.

Mesa AZ:

We had a leisurely start hitting the road on Thursday morning since we were only going about 120 miles along I-10 from Tucson to Mesa. One thing to note is the beautiful artwork on all the overpasses throughout Tucson. I wish I could have gotten some pictures but interstate speeds aren't conducive to taking pictures so the following are some images I found on the internet:








Mesa:

We arrived in Mesa and pulled into Tower Point RV Park.The park has all the great amenities of the typical Phoenix/Mesa area snowbird parks but we didn't care for the fact that it was mostly park models. We were wedged into a spot with park models on both sides, in front and behind us. Backing into this tight spot brought on another adventure - without going into too much detail, let's just say that there was a large cactus plant just off to the side of our site which is no longer there. Giving backup directions into a tight spot is clearly NOT one of my talents. RIP to that cactus...good thing cactus is not in short supply around there. On the plus side, no sooner were we set up that a knock on our door brought neighbors from behind us with a welcome gift of fresh tomatoes from their garden. How nice was that? I told the lady that I love homegrown tomatoes beyond all else, which is true. And they were yummy!

Since part of our mission was to scout out a place for next winter, we visited a few other parks and we found one that we liked just a few miles to the east at Valle Del Oro RV Resort. They have a lot of park models there as well, but we did find a nice open section for RVs so we made a tentative reservation for next winter. And the amenities at the park are fantastic. Two pools and hot tub with tiki bar and restaurant, and every imaginable activity provided for in beautiful surroundings. The recreational facilities are what you would expect to find in a luxury hotel - all top shelf, and at a considerably lower price than what we found in Florida this past year. So it looks like we may be back in Mesa come January.

Friday we met up with old friends John and Jean, who are from Chicago but have lived in Gold Canyon for the past few years. They came by to pick us up and we went to Garcia's Mexican Restaurant where we had a great dinner.

And a little silliness afterwards:

We had lots of laughs and such a good time.

After dinner we headed out to Goldfield Ghost Town.








I love to walk around places like this and wonder about all the stories this old town could tell.

Hmmm...maybe a post-retirement career?



There was great live music at the little cowboy bar.



And of course that beautiful sunset on Superstition Mountain:



On Monday, we had another day planned with John and Jean. They were awesome city-host/tour guides. We started by driving up to Tortilla Flats, another little town that time kind of forgot. The drive up the mountain was almost my favorite part of the day.



The little town did not disappoint either.




We had a great lunch at the only bar/restaurant in town, then headed for Old Scottsdale where we hit a few more establishments of local fare for drinks.

It had been lovely to spend time with old friends, and after dinner we said fond goodbyes. We look forward to our next visit to Mesa as a place where we have good friends.

Frosty Update:

Ok, nobody get too excited but...it looks like there is a little spark of life left in Frosty the Snowball Bush:

You have to look very closely...but see that tiny little shoot of green? Well, I guess time will tell.

Tomorrow we head north and into Utah.