Day 84 (8-23-12 - Death Valley)

Badwater Basin (282 ft. below sea level)

We have another check off of our bucket list today.  We rode 211 miles today round trip to Death Valley National Park.  We were pleasantly suprised at the beauty of this park.

Lauren has been wanting to go to Death Valley since we were in the area last year.  I had no desire to go to a dry, dead looking, desert.  I had no clue of what I was missing.  I never knew a desert would have this many different hues of colors in the landscape.

We were in elevation changes ranging from 282 feet below sea level to 5475 feet above sea level.  We entered the park on Highway 178 in California.  I thought the scenery was pretty good until we got close to the Badwater Basin.  It was not just pretty anymore, it was gorgeous. 

At Badwater Basin we were 282 feet below sea level.  This is the lowest elevation in the U.S.  We continued on our journey and rode through the scenic side roads and stopped at all the must see scenery in the Furnace Creek Area. 

Some of the most impressive areas were Badwater Basin, Natural Bridge, Devil's Golf Course, Artists Pallette, Harmony Borax Works Interpretive Trail, Zabriskie Point, 20 Mule Team Canyon, and Dante's View.

We stopped near the Visitor' Center and ate lunch.  This was our first picnic in a Date Grove.  It was like being in Hawaii under the palm trees, except there were no tropical winds and no Pacific Ocean nearby. 

Our last stop was Dante's View.  Not only did we go up in elevation but the temperature decreased 15 degrees.  We had a breathtaking view of Death Valley overlooking the road and the places that we had just visited.  I am still amazed that  a desert can be this pretty. We exited the park on Highway 190 and headed back to Nevada.

One thing that I have learned about traveling in the USA, It is definitely, "America, The Beautiful."

Dante's View (5475 ft. Above Sea Level)

Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/ifUgpG4jXxoVZGxh6

Day 83 (8-22-12 - Pahrump, Nevada)

Co Pilot

We traveled 193 miles in 3 states, (Utah, Arizona, & Nevada), to get to Pahrump, Nevada.  We are staying at Lakeside Casino and Resort.  It is a beautiful campground.  We have a campsite on the 7 acre lake.  We can gamble, swim, get in a hot tub, paddle a boat, fish, or just sit around and look at the pretty scenery.  I bet we spend most of our time looking at the scenery.

It was raining when we left Hurricane, Utah this morning.  It rained most of the night.  We finally drove out of the rain after about an hour.  Then we heard the emergency alert message on the radio.  There were flood warnings in Las Vegas.  Yes, it is desert and that was just where we were heading.  By the time we got to Vegas, it was flooding.  It is  not a lot of fun riding through Vegas in all the traffic, flooding rain,  and pulling a travel trailer. Just ask Lauren, he will concur.

I fixed a bite to eat after we arrived.  The ducks came from everywhere trying to get a handout.  I got Ferny out of the camper expecting her to run them off.  She was not interested in them and went back inside.  She is so Sheltered.

We were wore out from yesterday and spent the day lazing around today.  We decided to go to the casino tonight.  Let me tell you up front, this is not the Gulf Coast Casino's.  The Campground is a lot more impressive than the casino

We are at what was called Terribles Lakeside Casino. They have dropped Terribles from the name. It is now, Lakeside Casino. It is a fantastic campground, or as they call it a RV Resort. This campground puts Hollywood Campground to shame, But Hollyhood Casino puts this casino to shame.

We were rewarded for our walk to the casino tonight with a hat, a mouse pad, 2 luggage bags, and 2 fannie packs. (I can't wait to see Lauren wear his - Ha Ha).  We had fun on the video poker machines.

We are planning to head to Death Valley tomorrow.  I hope the unusual cool temperatures will stay with us.  You can bet that I will have plenty of water on board for the trip.

Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/QXqpscbGLzbVQGYA6

Day 82 (8-21-12 - The Narrows)

I have been wanting to hike The Narrows since our visit here last June.  We came to Zion National Park, we were riding the Harley. We took the shuttle from the visitor's center.  We got off at most of the shuttle stops.  The last stop was the Temple of Sinawava.  We got off the bus and walked for over a mile down the Riverside Walk.  It was a great walk along the Virgin River.  We got to the end of the trail and decided we were not prepared to walk any further.  Walking further required that we walk in the river.  We had on jeans and riding boots.  We decided to come back and do this another day.

We had a great trip to Alaska this year.  On the way back, I mentioned to Lauren that I wanted to hike The Narrows on the way home.  Lauren thought this was a good detour on the way home.  We headed here from Seattle.

We got a great deal on a campsite at St. George RV Resort.  We have full hookups cheaper than we had no hookups in Canada.  Not to mention, we have a pool and a hot tub.  Everything fell into place, we thought this must have been a good decision.  Then, we had flood watches and warnings.  I talked to a park ranger a couple of days ago and was told that if you are in the wrong place in the canyon and have a flash flood, you are "Toast."  That put a halt in the plans to hike in a slot canyon.

After a couple of days, of wanting to hike The Narrows and wondering if it was the right thing to do.  We decided it is either now, or never, (or next year).  We took off this morning with our back packs loaded with water, extra clothes, and food.  If we happened to be in a flash flood in this canyon today, we could have survived at least a couple of days, (as long we were not in the toast area).

We took the Shuttle, hiked a little over a mile on ther Riverside Walk and were in the water by 9 a.m.  It was exhilarating.  We had to wade in muddy, shallow, deep, unsteady undertow. and every now and then we had a sandbar on the side of the river.  We did all this while looking up at the gorgeous canyon walls and the blue skies.  

We were glad that we invested in walking sticks yesterday for this hike. There were so many times that I almost slipped and fell in the water. Several times I bobbed back and forth about 8 or 10 times before I got my balance. I bet if someone video taped me, I would have looked like a bobber in the water.

We zig zaged back and forth across the river. Sometimes we had a bank to walk on, sometimes not. I was in waist deep water a time or two. When the water got really swift, it was all I could do wade against the current.

We walked 8 miles today (4.7 miles in the Virgin River) and 47 flights of stairs.  Our hike in The Narrows is minor.  There are a lot of people that hike from the top of The Narrows down.  This is a 16 mile hike that requires a permit. We are so proud that we hiked our little part of The Narrows and did not twist an ankle or fall in the water. 

Once we got back to Riverside Walk we ate our  peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  It don't get any better than this.

Walking in the cool water looking at the gorgeous canyon and the beautiful blue skies is an amazing experience. I am so glad that we took the time on the way home to do this hike. I have another check to check off of my bucket list.

Pictures  https://goo.gl/photos/ZXryR4ku3u3VLiPf9

Day 81 (8-20-12 - Spent the day exploring Zion NP)

Mother Nature changed our mind about hiking The Narrows today.  There were floods in the area yesterday evening, we had rain off and on last night, and the forecast for today was a flood watch by noon.   We decided  this might not be a good day to be hiking in the bottom of a slot canyon.


We went to St. George, Utah so I could get my monthly weigh in with Weight Watchers.  I love being a loser!  The receptionist at WW had hiked The Narrows from the top down.  She confirmed that we had made a wise decision not to hike at the bottom of the canyon with the weather forecast. 

While we waited for our truck tires to get rotated, we ate breakfast at IHOP.  Lauren told me that I probably gained the two pounds that I lost last month after seeing me eat so much.  He is probably right.  Hopefully, we will hike The Narrows tomorrow to burn off some of these calories.

We decided to see the parts of Zion National Park that we have never visited.  We took a 20 mile ride north on I 15 to Kolob Canyon Drive. It was a very pretty 5 mile drive.

We went to Virgin, Utah and drove 20 miles on the Kolob Terrace Drive.  Another pretty ride.  We went in and out of Zion National Park numerous times.  We had pretty red roads, (that are the trademark of Zion NP), cattle guards, rough paved roads,  and rough gravel roads.  The Kolob Reservoir was very pretty.  We thought we would ride the road around the reservoir.  After many bumps and mudholes, we turned around.  Lauren was having a ball and I could tell he was wanting to put the truck in 4 wheel drive.  He turned around when he found out that the road was flooded in two different places. The elevation changed the temperature from 94 to 70 degrees.

When we got back, Fernie had had enough of being an indoors cat.  She insisted that she was coming outside.  She enjoyed the little bit of grass  in our campsite and is quite a bird watcher..   

We had some more of that Alaska Halibut again tonight.  Dang!! that fish is GOOD.

Pictures    https://goo.gl/photos/rjkSh8n5muj5aacbA

Day 80 (8-19-12 - Resting Up at Hurricane, Utah)

Looks like my 1997 Firebird Covertible

We had a laze around kind of day.  We rode about a half mile from the campground to Quail Creek State Park.  There were plenty of people enjoying the day boating and swimming on the beautiful blue lake surronded by red rock hills.

We drove to Zion National Park Visitor's Center to get information on the hike to The Narrows. We walked the Riverside Walk last year but did not go into The Narrows. We plan to  continue at the end of the Riverside Walk, wade through water, and hike in the gorgeous canyon tomorrow. 

Unfortunately, Zion National Park has a thunderstorm sitting over it right now and this  causes flooding in the canyon.  Hopefully, the flooding will clear by morning and we will be able to hike in the narrows.

Our Camp Yard Art

Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/9Fu9JsoKGRe87Hby8

Day79 (8-18-12 - Hurricane, Utah)

Too Hot

We traveled 335 miles south on I 15 to Hurricane, Utah.  It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get through Salt Lake City and it's suburbs.  It was a good thing it was a weekend on the busy 4-5 lane interstate.

After getting out of the Salt Lake City area, the scenery got a lot better.  Lauren drove for 7 hours to St. George RV Resort.  We saw our first triple digit temperatures this year.

This is the first time in a long time that we stayed a campground with a swimming pool and a hot tub.  I don't think we will want the hot tub, but the swimming pool has already been put to good use. 

We plan to stay in this area for 3 days and visit Zion National Parks, one of our favorite national parks.

Let's go back to Alaska

Pictures https://goo.gl/photos/YzFkxmXj73tF9FS26

Day 78 (8-17-12 - Brigham City, Utah)

1 last glimpse of Yellowstone

It took us an hour and 20 minutes to travel 48 miles this morning to West Yellowstone.  There was one car after another heading into Yellowstone NP at 10 a.m. this morning.  I can't imagine how busy it will be this weekend.

We had a really nice drive today traveling through 4 states: Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Utah. 

We are at Brigham City, Utah after traveling 309 miles.  We are staying at Golden Spike RV Park.  We have all the amenities of home except a big yard.  We will only be here one night, so it is not a problem.

We plan to travel toward Zion National Park tomorrow.

Smoky Mts

Pics  https://goo.gl/photos/qKHDnVmcForKvxkq8