Heading Home

We have decided to head for home (Sunriver) and then back to Fox Island. The weather forecast for the next week or so is good and we need to put TOWME2, our 4'x6' utility trailer, in the garage for the winter. We have had a great time in our travels and would not have changed anything. We have put over 5,000 miles on Trek and she has performed great for us. Trek averaged 20.5 MPG while pulling TOWME2 and without the trailer averaged 23 MPG, which we were very pleased. We have certainly developed a bonding with Trek and have enjoyed traveling with her. We thank the many of you who have followed our path and shared our travels with us. It has been fun and a real learning experience for both Nancy and myself. We have been blessed with our health and safe travel and give thanks to our creator for making this all possible. The blog has been updated with many new pictures and you can view them in a slideshow presentation. Many of the posted entry's have numerous pictures and we think that you will have as much fun looking at them as we did taking them. We will be signing off until our next adventure and wish all of you a Happy Holiday season ahead with family and friends. To view all of the individual posts and pictures continue to scroll down to the bottom of this page and then click OLDER POSTS in the right hand corner of the page.

Saddlebrooke, AZ

We arrived at Saddlebrooke in the afternoon on Tuesday (November 4th). We stopped and visited with our friends the Mears in Tucson for a short-time before our arrival here. The next 3 days will be busy for us enjoying all of the activities at Saddlebrooke and looking at real estate.

Marana, AZ

We arrived at the Valley Of The Sun RV Park in Marana, AZ Monday afternoon. This RV park is one of many, many Passport America sponsored parks around the country. We paid for our annual membership fee the first couple of nights on the road. We joined Passport America and have been saving 50% a night on our fees. It is really a great company and the parks are great. We will stay here for one night before moving on to Saddlebrooke in Oro Valley. It will be just a short drive to Saddlebrooke where we will be staying for 3 nights. We love Saddlebrooke and cannot resist enjoying this area when we are here.

Friends Depart

The morning of November 1st we parted company with our good friends and RV mentors, the Hanson's. They were headed to Happy Trails in Surprise, AZ and we were headed to Mesa, AZ. We really enjoyed their company and had a fantastic time getting to know each other. We will really miss them in our travels, but are looking forward again sometime soon to travel with them across the country. Our plans are to stay at the Mesa Spirit RV Park in Mesa, AZ. We will be going by the service department at Holiday Motorhomes in Mesa to talk with them about a couple of things with Trek. Trek has performed great and has not caused us any problems. We just need to talk with the service people about somethings so will do so on Monday (November 3rd). We will be heading to Tucson, AZ after we meet with the service people.

Prescott, AZ

We left Cottonwood, AZ the morning of October 29th and went to Prescott, AZ. This is a very beautiful area and very popular with retirees. The elevation is much higher that either Phoenix or Tucson and can get very cold in the wintertime. We stayed at the Prescott Valley Elks Club for three days. This is where we spent Halloween, but we got no Trick or Treaters that night. CLICK HERE to learn more about the Prescott, AZ area.

Oak Creek Canyon (Sedona)

Our hike up the west fork of Oak Creek was spectacular. The oak and vine maples were very brillant and colorful. The creek was full of water and it was so very peaceful. Considering that just a couple of years ago there was a huge flood in the Oak Creek basin the vegetation has really flourished. The weather was beautiful and the temperature was perfect. We had to forge the creek on several occasions, but it was well worth the effort.

CLICK HERE to view our Oak Creek Canyon slideshow! When you have finished watching the slideshow, click your BACK ARROW and it will take you back to our blog page.

Dead Horse Ranch State Park

We left Kanab, UT on October 27th and were headed to Cottonwood, AZ. Our plans were to stay at Dead Horse Ranch State Park and go up to Sedona, AZ and hike the West Fork of Oak Creek on Tuesday (October 28th). The RV facilities at Dead Horse were great and we enjoy our stay. There were several fishing ponds and they were getting ready to stalk the ponds with fish. The weather was fantastic and we were looking forward to our trip to Sendona, AZ in the morning.

CLICK HERE to see our "Dead Horse Ranch State Park" slideshow. There were many great fishing holes and only one fisherman. When you have finished viewing the slideshow click your BACK ARROW icon and it will take you back to our blog page.

Emerald Pools Trail (Zion)

Our second hike was to Emerald Pools. There are actually three separate pools that you can hike too. We hiked into the 1st and 2nd pools. It was a 2.5 mile hike round-trip and the fall colors on the vine maple were spectacular as you will see. We really enjoyed this hike as you could not only see the beautiful fall colors in the trees, but smell it as well.

CLICK HERE to view our "Emerald Pools Hiking Trail" slideshow. When you are finished viewing the slideshow, click on the BACK ARROW icon and it will take you back to our blog page.

Virgin Riverside Trail (Zion)

When you get to Zion you must park your car in the huge parking lot. You then get on a shuttle which takes you up the canyon for about 7 miles. There are several spots along the way that you can get out and get back on again. At most of the stops there are several trails that you can take that are either loop trails or come out at another pick-up spot. We selected two trails to hike which were both very beautiful. The Riverside Trail goes up the Virgin River and is 5.6 miles round-trip. It is a more popular trail as it as been paved for most of the way. Where the trail ends you can continue up the river, but you will be hiking in the river itself and must be very careful for flash floods. The canyon walls get steeper the further up the river you go.

Click on the picture below and then slideshow to see the rest of our river walk pictures.

From Riverside Trail

Zion National Park

We got up early in the morning and had a lite breakfast. We headed west from Kanab to Zion National Park to spend the day. When we arrived the air was smokey from a controlled burn in the area, but the air soon cleared itself. We were anxious to do some hiking as the fall colors were magnificant. At Zion National Park you are already in the canyons looking up at the sheer walls, compared to Bryce National Park, where you are on the rim of the canyons looking down.

Click on the picture below and then slideshow to see all of our pictures.

From Zion Canyon

Kanab, UT

After a short drive, we arrived at the Kanab RV Corral Park. We got settled into our spots and Dick and I went to play some golf. We had a great time playing the 9-hole course and decided to treat ourselves to a Mexican dinner afterwards. We went to bed early because we were excited about spending the next day at Zion National Park.

Heading to Kanab, UT

We left Bryce National Park the morning of October 25th and headed to Kanab, UT. The evening before we left Bryce, we met a very interesting couple from Belgium. They are Vincent and Ellen. We watch them as they walked a "tight line". This is a 40' line that is suspended between two trees. Inorder to walk the line, they must be perfectly balanced at all times. Both of them are very skilled at performing this task and it was amazing to watch them. They are both teachers, Vincent is a sport's teacher and works with special needs students while Ellen is a college professor who teaches her students to become school teachers. They both are on sabbaticals and love the outdoors, especially climbing. Both have a great foundness for each other and love Corona beer. We loved talking with them and would like to share their blog page with you as well. Beware, it is in their native language, but great pictures. To view their blog page CLICK HERE.

Queen's Garden Trail (Bryce)

What goes down, must come up! We took the Queen's Garden trail out of the canyon and it was spectacular. We hope that you enjoy our pictures climbing out of the canyon.

Click on the picture below and then on slideshow to see all of our picture as we climb back out of the canyon.

From Queen's Garden Trail

The Navajo Loop Trail (Bryce)

We awoke early in the morning of October 24th and had breakfast. We had located a great camping spot the night before at the North Camping Ground in Bryce. We moved our rigs to the park and then headed out for a day of hiking. We decided to hike the Navajo Loop Trail down into the canyon which is about 1.75 miles and then take the Queen's Garden Trail out of the canyon which is another 1.75 miles. There is about an 800' elevation fall to the floor of the canyon and then you climb back out of the canyon. It was a beautiful day and the temperature were expected to be close to 70 degrees. We packed our snacks and water, then headed out on the trail.

Click on the picture below and then slideshow to see the rest of our Navajo Trail pictures.

From Navajo Loop Trail

Bryce At Sunset

As soon as we got ourselves settled in our camping spots, we took Dick and Alice's car to get some pictures before the sun went down. As you can see in our pictures, Bryce National Park is a very special place. At Bryce, you are looking down into the canyons from the rim. It takes on an entirely different view at sunset and sunrise periods of the day. At any time, it is just awesome.

Click on the picture below and then slideshow to see the rest of our pictures.

From Zion At Sunset

Arriving At Bryce National Park

We had a beautiful trip across some spectacular country. We crossed the Colorado River at the Navajo Bridge and headed south through Utah towards Bryce National Park. We traveled through some very prosperous Mormon farming communities with the hub of their towns the Mormon church. It was truely a pleasure to see these clean and productive communities. We arrived at Bryce National Park and stayed the first night at Ruby's Campground and RV Park. We picked out a great spot in the RV park that was private and quiet. We went the the Cowboy's Buffet after a hot shower. We had a great nights sleep and were looking forward to waking up and hiking the canyon. The National Park ranges in elevation along the rim from approximately 8,000 feet to over 9,000 feet at the northern end of the park.


Click the picture below and then slideshow to see all of our pictures.

From Arriving Bryce

Ely, NV

We headed out the morning of October 22nd towards Ely, NV. We knew that it was going to be another long and lonely drive on HWY 50. The elevation of Ely, NV is 6,260' and is at the head of the Great Basin National Park. We arrived safely in Ely and the temperature was 66 degrees. There were only two RV parks in Ely so we decided to stay in the most appealing. When we awoke in the morning, it was 19 degrees out and our city water hose was froze up. Thanks to Nancy's hair dryer, we got ourselves thawed out and headed to Utah on HWY 50. There did not seem to be any plumbing problems and we were excited to move on to Bryce Canyon National Park. To learn more about the historic Ely, NV area, CLICK HERE.

Click on the picture below and then slideshow is view our pictures of the Great Basin National Park. They are beautiful!

From Great Basin