{"id":455,"date":"2018-09-05T20:29:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T20:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/?p=455"},"modified":"2018-09-05T20:47:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T20:47:46","slug":"southwest-adventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/05\/southwest-adventures\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Adventures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Everyone!\u00a0 Do you believe summer is officially over, now that Labor Day has past???\u00a0 How did that happen so quick?\u00a0 But fall is a great time of year just about anywhere, I think.\u00a0 We’ve been having fun on our tour of the Southwest.\u00a0 I have so much to share with you.\u00a0 Grab a cup of tea and settle in!<\/p>\n

I mentioned in my last post how much we were loving our Southwest Colorado location in the mountains.\u00a0 We loved it so much we booked the exact same campground site for the month of September 2019.\u00a0 Not sure where all we’re going to go next year, but we know we’ll be at that spot for September.<\/p>\n

We ended up cancelling some of our Utah plans for the first couple weeks of August, and stayed in Southwest Colorado longer than originally planned.\u00a0 A great benefit of traveling this way, we can change our plans and our location when we want to.\u00a0 We moved around to a couple of campgrounds in the same general area, staying in the San Juan mountains, north of Durango. We met a very nice couple at\u00a0 one campground that we hiked with for a few days, which was fun, and they were full of good information about places we were headed.\u00a0 And, on another hike, we ran into a friend of a friend.\u00a0 It was so weird – we hiked up a mountain, in a light rain, to the top where there was a nice little lake.\u00a0 There was only one person at the lake, with 2 dogs.\u00a0 Of course Gerry had to go say hi, and we started talking.\u00a0 The usual, where are you from, where are you staying, where are you going type of talk.\u00a0 Turns out, he was from Delaware, Ohio, their kids went to the same school as ours (different ages, though), and we have met he and his wife a few times at graduation party and wedding of a mutual friend.\u00a0 And he was staying at a campground just up the road from us.\u00a0 So he kindly invited us over one evening for a nice visit, he played guitar and sang while we enjoyed each others company.\u00a0 Small world!<\/p>\n

We visited Durango a few times, a nice western town with a lot of services and shopping, and some good grocery stores.\u00a0 We now rate towns based on the availability of good grocery stores.\u00a0 We have changed how we eat fairly considerably in the last year and look for grocery stores with good selection of organic produce and also seek out farmers markets everywhere we go.\u00a0 I have been surprised how many towns and areas do not have access to good, fresh, organic produce.\u00a0 Food deserts do exist, we have found some of them!<\/p>\n

Anyhow, we traded a couple of weeks of hot, sandstone bluffs and canyons in Utah for mountains, trees and cooler temperatures in Colorado.\u00a0 So glad we did.\u00a0 When we moved out of the mountains we stopped for a few days in Cortez, Colorado, which is right in the southwest corner of the state.\u00a0 We went to Mesa Verde National Park, where we took a tour into the Pueblo Cliff Dwellings.\u00a0 Very cool, you have to climb up big ladders to get to the cliff dwellings.\u00a0 Amazing how\u00a0 people built these and lived there around 1100 AD.<\/p>\n

Then we moved on to\u00a0 Lake Powell in Page, Arizona.\u00a0 Lake Powell straddles the Arizona\/Utah state line.\u00a0 Lake Powell was formed in the 1960s, when they built a dam in the Colorado river.\u00a0 Glen Canyon was then flooded and Lake Powell was born.\u00a0 It is the second largest dam, after Hoover Dam.\u00a0 They are in year 8 of a drought, and 52% of the lake is gone – 92 feet down.\u00a0 We walked along the lake every day, our campground was right on the lake.\u00a0 A state park campground, Wahweep, which was very nice.\u00a0 We walked to the shore for sunrise a couple of mornings which was beautiful.\u00a0 But, since the lake is so much smaller now, you have to walk down quite a ways on what used to be underwater.<\/p>\n

We did a raft tour on the Colorado river, through Glen Canyon which was very nice and a good way to see the area from a different perspective.\u00a0 We went through the famous “Horseshoe Bend” on the raft, then later went on top of the canyon to take a picture of the Horseshoe Bend.\u00a0 You’ll see it in the pictures.<\/p>\n

We also went to Antelope Canyon while in the area.\u00a0 Antelope Canyon is a “slot” canyon (I had to look it up, didn’t know what that meant).\u00a0 It’s a very narrow canyon, more like a “slot” in the ground, that has been formed by water and wind.\u00a0 The result is amazing sandstone formations that swirl all around you with light coming in from the slot over your head.\u00a0 Lots of pictures for you from there!<\/p>\n

That area has some famous hiking, most notably “The Wave”, in the Vermillion Cliffs.\u00a0 We were very close to that area and wanted to do some hikes.\u00a0 The Wave is so popular they do a lottery system and only 10 people a day are chosen.\u00a0 So we didn’t even try that.\u00a0 But, we learned of another hike, Wire Pass to Buckskin Gulch that started right next to the trail to the Wave, and was promised to be “one of the best hikes in the US”.\u00a0 According to a book I have that I have found to be pretty reliable.\u00a0 So off we go, leaving Gerry behind in the RV in the air conditioning because he really can’t handle the heat.\u00a0 We were loaded with water, healthy snacks, proper clothing, etc, etc, etc.\u00a0 The trailhead is at the end of an 8 mile, very rough, dirt, US Forest Service road.\u00a0 We couldn’t go more than 7 or 8 mph.\u00a0 But we knew that and had planned for it.\u00a0 WELL.\u00a0 At mile 6 we see a tow truck coming the other direction, with a Jeep Cherokee behind it.\u00a0 Not a good sign.\u00a0 The Jeep waves us down and tells us the road is flooded up ahead, they got completely stuck and had to be towed out.\u00a0 We had read about how that was possible, and if a tow was needed, expect to pay $1,000 (yes, $1,000) for it.\u00a0 Seriously, it was 90 and sunny with no shade at 10:00 am.\u00a0 Dry as you can imagine.\u00a0 How is this possible???\u00a0 But, we received flash flood warnings on our phones every day, they say there are severe downpours, very isolated, and they turn these dirt roads, with nothing to stop the water flow into dangerous situations.\u00a0 SO, we turned around, and did not get to hike One of The Best Hikes In the US.\u00a0 Bummer.<\/p>\n

After Lake Powell we went straight north to the Hatch, Utah area.\u00a0 Right between Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park (about 1 hour either direction to each park).\u00a0 A very remote campground, called Wilderness Ranch and probably the strangest campground we’ve stayed at yet.\u00a0 The people owned 500 acres, and the RV sites were at the back of the property, down some long dirt\/gravel roads.\u00a0 No bathrooms, no showers, no laundry facility.\u00a0 But, huge RV sites with full hookups in the middle of nowhere with beautiful views.\u00a0 And, there were only a couple of other RVs there so we had the place to ourselves.\u00a0 There was also a golf course on the property.\u00a0 Weird, I know.\u00a0 It needed some work and the owner had plans to improve it and try to make it an area attraction.\u00a0 Anyhow, we enjoyed several days of wondering the property with Gerry, listening to the coyotes at night and oh my goodness, the stars!! We saw the Milky Way several nights, I have never seen so many stars.\u00a0 We also went to Bryce Canyon National Park (lots of pictures).\u00a0 Beautiful there, and we did a great 6 mile hike.\u00a0 Of course we had to leave Gerry behind, doggies are not welcome at national parks.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 We did not make it to Zion National Park (I hear your gasps and shock!)\u00a0 But, we just didn’t want to do another day without Gerry and we loved the property we were on and didn’t muster the energy to go there.\u00a0 We’ll keep it on the list for another time.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Gerry.\u00a0 A little update is needed:\u00a0 he developed these warts (2 big ones) on his nose\/lip area.\u00a0 We found out it is from a contagious virus.\u00a0 How did we find out you ask??\u00a0 Well, we were signing him in at a doggy day care in Durango when the owner saw them and said “oh no!\u00a0 He can’t come in here!\u00a0 Those are contagious!!”\u00a0 A phone call to our vet back home, some pictures sent, and they agreed.\u00a0 So we went to a vet in Durango who suggested we get his immune system to kick in to fight it by crushing the warts.\u00a0 They assured us it wouldn’t hurt him.\u00a0 So they did.\u00a0 And we gave it 2 weeks and it didn’t work.\u00a0 All the while we couldn’t take Gerry to any doggy day care, which made it hard for us to go to national parks because we don’t like to leave him alone in the RV for more than a few hours.<\/p>\n

So, while we were at Wilderness Ranch, we drove to Cedar City, Utah, about an hour and 15 minutes each way, to see a vet who surgically removed them.\u00a0 Gerry had to have anesthesia, but he did well and we took him home the same day.\u00a0 Happy to report he is healing well and hoping he will be fit for doggy day care again soon.<\/p>\n

We moved from Wilderness Ranch south to Fredonia, Arizona, which is right outside Kanab, Utah.\u00a0 This was our home base to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.\u00a0 Terrible RV park, and we ended up cutting our time there short by a few days.\u00a0 But, we had a great visit to the North Rim, and did a great hike there too.\u00a0 Hard, as we went about 1.5 miles down into the canyon, then back up and it was very steep.\u00a0 We had planned to go about 3 miles down, then up, but, we ran into a Ranger on the way down, who was telling everyone to turn around and go back up, a storm was coming.\u00a0 Evidently, the day before, on the same trail, people were stranded for a few hours during a storm, water floods the trail since it is between high canyon walls and is very dangerous.\u00a0 So, we took his advise and turned around.\u00a0 The weather cleared up somewhat while we walked around the rim, although you’ll see in the pictures there was a storm over the canyon, a few miles out.\u00a0 Beautiful.\u00a0 Lots of pictures for you.\u00a0 We haven’t been to the South Rim yet, that will be in the next couple of weeks.\u00a0 But we loved the North Rim.<\/p>\n

While in the Kanab, Utah area, we also visited Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.\u00a0 Thank you, Janet, for telling us about this great place!\u00a0 Best Friends is a 3,700 acre, no kill sanctuary for all types of companion animals:\u00a0 dogs, cats, horses, pigs, goats, bunnies, exotic birds.\u00a0 They have about 1,600 animals on site at any given time.\u00a0 They have a very active national outreach program that works with shelters in cities all over the country to reduce the kill rates at shelters.\u00a0 They have neuter\/spay locations all over the country and run many other programs with the goal of reducing the number of animals killed in shelters every day.\u00a0 We did a tour of the property, met some doggies and kitties and had lunch in their cafeteria overlooking a beautiful canyon.\u00a0 Check them out, animal lovers, they do great work!\u00a0 Somehow we left there without another doggie in tow, but it was hard!<\/p>\n

RV Update:\u00a0 I told you before about some of the wood trim coming off.\u00a0 Well guess what?\u00a0 On one moving day two or three weeks ago, I opened the door to start my set up process (put slides out, etc) and found our 50″ Samsung smart TV lying on the floor.\u00a0 Yup, the wall bracket had come out of the wall, above the fireplace, and it lay shattered on the floor.\u00a0 The road had been bumpy that day.\u00a0 And perhaps there is a cumulative effect from all the bumpy roads.\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 We have never used the TV much, mostly for DVD movies.\u00a0 I’ve mentioned before we never set up the DirectTV, we have never used the cable option that some campgrounds have at the hookups, we do sometimes get “air” channels if we are near a city and will watch a little TV then.\u00a0 But most of the time, we don’t use it for anything but watching DVD movies.\u00a0 We have built an impressive DVD collection, I must say.\u00a0 So, we have no TV now in the living area.\u00a0 We have been using the bedroom TV to watch DVDs.\u00a0 We had never turned that TV on before this happened, but it was easy to figure out how to use it.\u00a0 And, if things get really rough, we still have the outside TV we have never turned on.\u00a0 It is under the awning on the outside, I think people use it for things like football parties, etc.\u00a0 Again, we have never turned it on, I would have to figure out how to use it if we wanted to.\u00a0 One of the best things, I think, about how we live in the RV is that we don’t watch TV.\u00a0 I know some of you may think we are crazy (for so many reasons!) but it is amazing how different life is when time is spent on other things (talking to each other for example \ud83d\ude42 ) rather than watching TV.<\/p>\n

We are also having somewhat of an issue with our water intake valve.\u00a0 When we hook up to the water spigot at the campgrounds, which feeds directly into our water pipes, some water is seeping into the fresh water tank (which you would fill if you were not going to have access to a fresh water hook up).\u00a0 This happens sometimes, not always.\u00a0 My best un-mechanical minded guess is that a valve or flap of some sort separates the fresh water tank from the water hookup and the valve does not hold sometimes.\u00a0 Anyhow, we are keeping an eye on the monitor for the fresh water tank and when it fills up we empty it.\u00a0 The danger is that if we forget to check it, it could overflow and flood the RV somehow.\u00a0 Oh well, all in all, we are very happy with our RV and how it works.<\/p>\n

So that brings us up to the present moment.\u00a0 We are currently at the Grand Canyon Railway RV park, in Williams, Arizona.\u00a0 This will be home base for 10 days.\u00a0 Bill is coming to visit, and, I am going to St. Paul to help Guy finish up some things at the new Sober House for a few days.\u00a0 Residents are beginning to move in (sooner than planned) and we need to finish up a few improvements and\u00a0 furnishings.\u00a0 It will be great to spend a few days with Guy and see Aspire Sober Living receive it’s first resident.\u00a0 Life is good.<\/p>\n

Before I go, I have a confession to make.\u00a0 I have not even opened up the box for the external hard drive we bought to make room on the computer for Steve’s pictures.\u00a0 Just have not had the motivation to tackle that project, it is not my cup of tea, so to speak!!\u00a0 So, in the meantime, phone pictures will have to do.\u00a0 I think you will notice how much better our new phone cameras are (remember the 5 hour Verizon ordeal in my last post?!)\u00a0 Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the pictures!<\/p>\n

Sorry for the long post, but I had a lot of catching up to do!\u00a0 Thank you everyone for the comments and well wishes, we love hearing from you.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Gerry on one of our Colorado hikes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Southwest Colorado Hiking:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/w1fioMgp1ZERhMWu6<\/a><\/p>\n

Mesa Verde National Park:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/tjiSy2eYVbfEu6Zb8<\/a><\/p>\n

Antelope Canyon:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/vqo8jAAuMAB2G8Ja6<\/a><\/p>\n

Lake Powell, Glen Canyon, Horseshoe Bend:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/SwT9AYAC7yaaorbx7<\/a><\/p>\n

Bryce Canyon National Park:\u00a0https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/VfrZBSqagRzrYKzJA<\/a><\/p>\n

Southwest Utah:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/QhbTrq4LjtDfJ4vf8<\/a><\/p>\n

North Rim Grand Canyon:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/photos.app.goo.gl\/TkRkTfqhs1yrFuUb7<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Everyone!\u00a0 Do you believe summer is officially over, now that Labor Day has past???\u00a0 How did that happen so quick?\u00a0 But fall is a great time of year just about anywhere, I think.\u00a0 We’ve been having fun on our tour of the Southwest.\u00a0 I have so much to share with you.\u00a0 Grab a cup … Continue reading Southwest Adventures<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}