2013: Mountains & Summer Monsoons Trip Summary

Trip Theme: Mountains and Monsoons

Total Miles: 4,880 miles

Number of Nights: 40

Average Camping Fee: 31.22 (the $82/night Bend place really blew our average out of the water! Without that place, we’d have been at $26)

Average MPG: Oops. Didn't trap, but I recall that it was nice and high because we took 2-laners and drove 55mph or less most of the time.

Number of States: 8, none new

Weird Coincidences: Seeing the same fellow travelers in a totally different place. Happened three separate times. We saw one gal in THREE separate places. Guess we were doing the tourist thing in high season....

Favorite New Parks: We'd definitely go back to the Idaho state parks (Massacre Rocks, Bruneau Dunes) in cooler weather. It'd be particularly fun to go to Bruneau Dunes when they have their astronomy nights. Discovered Teton National Forest campgrounds--MUCH better than the heavily trafficked NP CGs. Most of the other parks were nice, but not ones to write home about. Now, that park in Molas Lake outside of Silverton that we saw, but didn't stay in--that looks like a good place to go back to (and also Ouray--heck that whole corner of Colorado we love).

RV Maintenance: Not a darn thing. Rocksie ran like a champ.

Close Calls: railroad arm in Idaho; lightning/hail/flooding in Flagstaff

Biggest Disappointments: Missing my Geocaching travel bug BY A DAY in Arizona (after watching it for YEARS) and not being able to go to Ojo Caliente because of mudslides (those monsoons....). Also, not finding a good spot for the 2014 View/Navion National Rally.

Best Surprises: Elk jam in NorCal, dog-friendly ski lift in Telluride, free tix to the closing night of the Jackson Hole music festival

Best Museum: Toss up between the very cool Riordan Mansion in Flagstaff and the Idaho Potato Museum ("taters for outta staters").

Bago's Swimming Holes:

1. Cattail Cove: Colorado River
2. Durango: Animas River
3. NM: El Vado Lake
4. Outside Taos: Rio Grande
5. Leadville, CO: Turquoise Lake
6. Dillon, CO Reservoir
7. Steamboat Lake
8. Flaming Gorge Lake
9. Atherton Lake near Grand Teton NP
10. Jackson: Snake River
11. Unity Lake Oregon
12. Pond in Bend, Oregon
13. Pacific Ocean in Oregon (MANY times)

Summer 2013: Week 1

We set off a week ago today and finally have some decent wifi connectivity in order to attempt to keep the blog up to date as we tool through the West.

Last Sunday, we set off rather late in the day, as we are wont to do, arriving at our usual first-night-out-on-our-way-out-of-California-via-the-Mojave-Desert place after it closed, but before, thank goodness, the gates locked for the evening. (Note to self: Always request gate code by phone!) Bago totally remembered the place, and enjoyed the dog run and the bunny-filled grassy areas, while we just melted. It was the worst heat and humidity we've experienced in the Central Valley, and this was at 8:11 PM!

Thank goodness for A/C, but also curses on the A/C! It's really tough to sleep through its very loud and frequent cycling, but we had to keep it on. The low overnight was still in the high 80s with no breeze. We would've left early the next morning, but had to wait for the office to open at 9AM to pay. Then we got the heck out of Dodge.

Rocksie climbed Tehachapi Pass like a champ, after her overly expensive oil change/maintenance before we left. (We remembered to have the oil changed after 7 months but only 2K miles. I've finally learned at age 50 to attend to oil based on time AND miles....)

We made it to our new favorite park, Cattail Cove State Park, south of Lake Havasu by late afternoon, where it was "cooler" and much less humid.

Bago got in two swims that night and one in the morning before we headed out. Happy pup, and wading in the water felt good to us, too, although I worried about the water quality of the Colorado this far south....

Day 3 found us detouring off our well-traveled and beloved I-40 after reaching Kingman. We took the very scenic section of Route 66 between Kingman and Seligman so that we could reclaim a geocaching coin that we had once had a few trips ago.  Its name is "Nature" and its sponsor wants it to visit as many national parks as possible. We personally took it to Great Sand Dunes N.P., Big Bend N.P., Hot Springs N.P., and Vicksburg National Military Park before we hid it in a cache near the Petrified Forest N.P. in Arizona. Unfortunately, the folks who found it (Team Tierra Buena. Motto: "Making Geocaching Harder Than It Needs to Be") hid it in some god-forsaken place in Arizona nowhere near a national park AND in what turned out to be a major wildfire. So, it sat there, alone, and off mission for a very long time. Right before this trip, we got an alert that someone had moved it to Dinosaur Caverns, Arizona to a very easy park-and-grab site.

I immediately posted that we were coming for it. Wouldn't you know? It was found and taken the DAY BEFORE we got there. Here's my reaction:

Oh well, c'est la vie. The detour was TOTALLY worth it because of the scenery (and staying north of a heckuva monsoon) and the unplanned lunch in what turned out to be a very famous stop in Seligman, the Sno-Cap. (Here's the TripAdvisor reviews.) The guy behind the counter is quite a prankster--he played some kind of trick on everyone in line. I got "squirted" with "mustard" (yellow yarn that quite realistically comes out of a condiment bottle). And, because I had on my Happy Camper T-shirt, our order was filed under "Happy Camper." Great burger and burrito, but Lisa was particularly happy with the vanilla shake. And the ambiance around the joint was quite fun:

After lunch, we hit I-40 again and sailed into Flagstaff, a town we've passed through many, many times but have never stayed in. Nice place! We stayed one night out at Lake Mary (Pinegrove Campground), which was Bago's kind of place--lots of pine cones and romping room--but had to leave very early in the morning because we found a local pet shelter that would give Bago a bordatella shot. (We were anticipating putting Bago in doggie daycare in Durango and neglected to have this done at our vet's before we left.) So off we went at 7:30AM to find our way to the farthest spot north away from where we were. It's a first-come, first-served kind of place, so we took our place at the end of the line. Bago was a perfect gentleman in the exam room, submitting to the nasal spray "shot" very nicely and leaving on a loose-leash heel. (That was NOT what he looked like for the hour we had to wait.)

That accomplished, we stopped for an early lunch (and also our breakfast) at a Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives recommended restaurant, Brandy's. Turned out Wednesdays were free soup day, so we each had a cup of broccoli/green chile soup plus a sandwich. My sandwich turned out to be the big winner: Turkey melt with green apples and green chiles. Gotta make this at home.

After lunch, the monsoon was threatening, so we got in a rather abbreviated walking tour of historic downtown before the heavens opened up. We took that opportunity to find a new, closer-to-town camping spot at Fort Tuthill, a county park that is probably the funkiest/least planned out campground we've ever stayed at. For $16, you pretty much just got a spot with a fire ring. That is, if you could figure out which were "spots" and which were just patches of mud in the forest.  Thank goodness it wasn't crowded; I'm not sure how we would have navigated otherwise! Absolutely no services besides a dump station (just portapotties and a few water spigots here and there), but very convenient location.

Given our short Wednesday, we decided to steal time from Monument Valley on Thursday and stay in Flagstaff a little longer before heading down out of the cool mountains and back into the heat. We enjoyed a lovely tour of the Riordan Mansion State Historic Park, a beautiful Arts-and-Crafts era 13,000 square foot 1904 mansion donated to the state by some of Flagstaff's founders. Really glad we stayed for the tour for several reasons:
1. Saw architectural details we've never seen before (the light wells were fascinating!)
2. Learned a lot about the history of the area
3. Avoided the worst of the monsoon that swept through the area. It was sunny (sort of) when we started the tour, but not when we ended it.

Despite the rain and lightning, we took Bago to the Flagstaff dog park for a quick run. He didn't mind the storm, but we really shouldn't have put Lisa at risk of lightning strike. Dumb, dumb, dumb! But we were worried that Bago needed to blow off steam before our afternoon drive, so we did it anyway. Pinkie swears to not do that again, though....

After that, we took a locals route across town to avoid the Route 66 traffic/roadwork (it's amazing how 3 days in a town can make a person pretty savvy about getting around) and got to fully appreciate the storm. Turns out there had been localized wind gusts of 50 mph and quarter-sized hail. We saw all the ice piled up on roofs and roadsides and tons of debris and garbage cans all over the road. And then we got to the bottom of the hill we had just traversed and saw why there were flash flood warnings up. Holy toledo! What a mess. We made it safely through all of the aftermath (and thankfully missed the during), but were just amazed by the power of the storms, which we did not do a good job of anticipating. I think our last 6-week trip spoiled us--we had only 2 episodes of rain that whole trip! And this first week we've had monsoonal rains 5 of 8 days so far.

So, we headed north, thinking that we were driving out of the storm's path. We stopped at Sunset Crater National Monument, got talked into buying another national park annual pass, and set off to climb a 300-foot cinder cone volcano (what a steep slope!) to see what the monument was all about. We made it halfway up when two rounds of thunder convinced us to abort climbing the highest peak in the area during a thunderstorm. Yes, we learned, and we knew what was coming. The park rangers had no idea; it was cloudy, but no wind and still in the 70s. (Flagstaff proper, just a few miles south, was 53 degrees after the storm hit.)

We took our mature selves out of the park, skipping the interesting looking loop drive for fear of flash floods, and headed to our destination, Monument Valley. The weather went up 10 degrees in 10 minutes then continued to go up till we finished descending the mountain. A nice, dry, balmy 96 degrees when we pulled into historic Gouldings campground for what turned out to be the site (#12) with the best view in the place.

Thank goodness we had Bago with us, and not Nick, as the park was full of stray dogs and even a cat. Bago loved playing with the puppy we called Happy, and was pretty good even when the kitty decided he liked our RV.

We should've taken a photo of the RVs at this park, but over 75% of them were rentals driven by Europeans of all kinds. Boy, howdy, do you want to keep your wits about you when these folks are driving or parking. Recently, there was an article about how Europeans are flocking to the desert Southwest in the summer to go to the hottest places (including Death Valley in July/August!) and this place supported that claim in spades.

One of the reasons we were going to stay in this area, rather than drive through again, was that Julie wanted to get some shots of Monument Valley at sunset or sunrise. We were too tired to go back out at sunset, and Lisa, prudent woman that she is, convinced Julie to take the guided sunrise tour rather than get the whole house up and on the road at 5:30 AM. Boy, was that a good idea. Here are some of the results:

Dude, we know your wife made you take this tour, but TURN AROUND! The sunrise is behind you!!!

We visited Gouldings homestead house/museum on our way out (these folks were real trading post pioneers back in the day and were responsible for getting Hollywood to use Monument Valley in so many movies, including many John Wayne pictures). Fun little museum with a required donation....

Then we drove some very bumpy backroads through the Four Corners area to Durango, stopping at a lovely dog park in Cortez to exercise Bago and have a salad for lunch. Our entire purpose for going to Durango and staying for 5 nights (a rather unprecedented length of stay for us) was to scope out an RV park that a group of us had agreed would be a great place for a Skinnie Winnie national rally next year. (It was the West’s turn.)

Well, there is no joy in Muddville (or Durango) because the park—while perfect on its web site and in reviews—is not the best place for our group next May. It turns out that the park doesn’t have a very good group rec room (it’s just a tent, and in May it’s quite chilly here), has poor wifi coverage, and many of the sites are pretty close together. And, we learned after we got here, the main organizers of the rally can’t stay above 5,000 feet (Durango is 6,500 and getting here requires clearing bigger passes). Wish we had known all this before, but we are really enjoying the Durango area despite this (and the rains). 

We’ve managed to visit:

1. James Ranch for some grass-fed beef, raw-milk cheese, eggs from free-range chickens, and organic raspberries and lettuces, as well as some great conversation about farming
2. Honeyville for some gifties for our housesitters. And if any of our family is reading this, you all will definitely be getting some Honey Caramel sauce for Christmas this year. Wow!
3. Silverton (in our RV, not on the very expensive and very coal-soot-emitting-but-cute narrow gauge railroad)
   
   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   
   
   And yes, that’s more hail. Quite a deluge!
   
   

   

   
   
   
   
4. Vallecito Lake and the Trail of Carvings  -- a great example of making lemonade. There was a huge wildfire in this area in 2002, and damaged trees were carved in tribute to the many firefighters, EMTs, and others who worked to save the area.
5. Durango Brewing Company (we’re already planning a repeat visit before we leave)
6. The off-leash city dog park right on the Animas River. Biggest dog park area we’ve ever seen—Bago loved it (as did we).
   
   
7. The historic downtown and Third Avenue historic district

Tomorrow we're going to be ambitious and tackle the entire San Juan Skyway, and I'll be sure to keep my camera out. It should be a doozy!

Morro Bay State Park

We spent a lovely weekend at Morro Bay, a 10 out of 10 state park if ever there was one. Pricey ($50 for hookups), but if ever a park deserved it, this one does. Every hookup site was screened with mature vegetation, the sites themselves were level and pristinely maintained with very nice BBQ and separate fire pit and stone picnic table (none of those ratty wooden ones!). We don't tow, so we were thrilled to find that we could walk to just all of the amazing amenities: in-park golf course (!), a very nice natural history museum, two restaurants (one is just a stone's throw from the campground), the harbor and kayak rentals, hiking trails. Now, downtown is about 1.5 miles each way; totally doable, but we didn't try it, as we ended up finding a couple of geocaches.

Restaurant across the street from campground

Museum within easy walk from CG

State park golf course--with a view!

Smooth-as-glass bay with kayakers and stand-up paddlers

Sunset at the harbor across the street from CG

We had a blast meeting the folks who were camping (no hookups, of course) in this vehicle.

Now, THAT'S a rig

They gave us a complete tour and we were envious for about a day. We really liked how self-contained the rig was--almost 100 gals of fresh water, the cartridge-style black water disposal system (means never having to find a dump!), all appliances were either diesel (furnace, hot water) or solar/electric (fridge); the only propane appliance was the stove, as they say that diesel tends to be problematic in that application. Very nicely finished inside with high-end wood and appliances. 600 amp hours of solar. Good clearance, and an almost indestructible shell.

The downsides were that drivers must follow truck regulations and speeds, the thing gets less than 8 mpg, driver fatigue sets in pretty quickly, the interior (while nicely designed) is pretty cramped for 2 adults and a dog, and you really gotta be in good shape to climb in and outta there ;-) I didn't have the nerve to ask about price, but each one is made to order by a fellow in Wyoming. If he likes you. But very interesting to contemplate....

On Sunday, we did a 3-mile hike up Black Hill and then left right around noon--kinda like we did at Malibu Creek. Used up all of our paid-for reservation! At that point, we decided that it was time to be home. We had made it 10 days without much grocery shopping (just milk, fresh veg) and without a laundromat, glory be, but it was time for both. And we had such a wonderful time in this neck of the woods (and we had one more CG to try out--Kirk Creek, which is spectacular boondocking right on a cliff above the ocean) that we figure we'll be back maybe next month for a few days. Why not enjoy one's own backyard?

We had a blast driving up Highway 1 all the way home. Can't believe we've never taken Rocksie to/through Big Sur--our backyard--but she did great.

The best stop was just north of San Simeon. (We opted to spend time on nature, not on another tour of Hearst Castle.) We spent a good hour watching the amazing mating rituals of the elephant seals. Here's how it works. (I just posted all these to Facebook under the heading "Just in Time for Valentine's Day." Now, I'm duplicating my Facebook and blog posts--no!!! I had been so careful to distinguish between the two. Oh well. Just this once, she says....)

Males battling for females

Alpha male putting moves on a female

Male trying not to drown her, but, still accomplishing the goal

Surf scene reminiscent of "From Here to Eternity"

Bragging

Cuddling after....

 Lest you think this was a "private moment" for our seal couple, this is the view down just one portion of the beach. The view the other way was quite similar.

The females give birth starting in November, nurse the single pups for one month (pups gain 10 pounds a day), breed again right away (Feb-March), and then swim off to Alaska to feed, leaving the pup to learn to swim and survive on its own. They return again in the summer to molt, then they're off again till it's time to give birth in November. What a calendar!

We are now home, but what a lovely little trip we had in our summer-during-wintertime. Will do a trip summary soon....

Time to Go Home

We spent Wednesday morning at Coronado State Monument, a lovely little park with the most amazing artifacts. We've been to so many sites--Canyon de Chelly, Mesa Verde, Bandelier, Montezuma, et al--and have never seen what this little park has: the finest kiva murals in the world. Amazing pieces of art and well preserved and displayed. (No photography allowed.)

Plus, the setting--along the Rio Grande--was just lovely. We had a nice time walking the trails. Well, the humans did. The dog wasn't pleased about cactus and rocks, as per usual.




We then embarked on an important task to finish: hiding a "geocoin" in a cache near or inside Petroglyph National Monument. A gal we met geocaching last January gave us this coin, whose mission is to travel to all the national parks in the U.S. We have been photographing the coin at all the national parks we've visited: Big Bend, Hot Springs, Great Sand Dunes and it was time to plant it for someone else to find and carry to a new spot. We had wanted to leave it in Colorado, but the poor AT&T reception made us unable to use the GPS to locate a good spot. So, it was New Mexico for the coin.

We returned to Petroglyph, since we knew where that was and it was sort of a "park" (we are hoping "national monuments" count in the game). We photographed the coin in the park


then we had to drive to another end of the park to find the cache where we could leave the coin. I had to drop Lisa off (no safe parking) and find an unobtrusive place to park in a not-very-nearby neighborhood covered in "Report Suspect Persons" signs and patrolled by the local gendarmes. I don't know which was more challenging--having Lisa find the cache in the lava field or finding a place to wait for her. It all turned out, though. The pressure is off. Oh, wait. Lisa has now picked up another travel coin from our stop tonight in Arizona. Now we'll have to take it around and find it a new home....

We ended up checking into our tried-and-true RV park on I-40 early in the afternoon, thinking we'd catch up on some TV via the Internet. Drats--no 3G. Turned in early so we could be up and out of the park before 7AM to be at our oil change appointment, bright and early and first in line.

Suffice to say, after 6 hours and 10 minutes, we weren't happy campers. I think my biggest disappointment is that we thought we had finally found a competent dealer, albeit one 1000 miles from home, that we could rely on since we had had such great service from them last fall. But this time, in this new location, it was just a series of lousy customer service moves. The manager did call me later that day, after I had made my disappointment known to the assistant manager before leaving.

A very disappointing day, and one that shows what happens when you start letting thoughts of home creep into your trip. It. Is. Time. To. Go Home....NOW. So, we finally hit the road in early afternoon, skipping any tourist sites along the way (putting Acoma back on the list along with Catwalks) and skipping our fun idea of going US 60 through Pie Town. It was just too late in the day to attempt that because there were just too many long stretches of nothing in case we needed to stop.

So, we took boring old I-40 and made it to Meteor Crater Park outside of Winslow. We're here with about 25 El Monte rental RVs full of Finns. Yes, folks from Finland. Very interesting group.

We expect tomorrow to be a big push day--perhaps to Bakersfield--and then Saturday cruise on home. Next post will be the wrap-up post from home.