I returned from my winter trip in time to get things together to meet paddling friends in Florida, however life sometimes has other plans. My sweet little Corgi became ill and at the same time I had a wheel bearing going out on the van and by the time I got both resolved, I'd missed the Florida trip.
So, April 13th I headed out for what I hoped, and indeed turned out to be an epic road trip to explore and experience the north and west states of WY, MT, ID, WA, OR and northern CA.
I spent my first night on the road at a free city park in Memphis, TX in the panhandle south of Amarillo, compliments of freecampsites.net. These city parks aren't common, but they are out there in many states, some including this one, even have free RV hookups.
The following day I made my way into Santa Fe and spent a couple of days exploring the city by bike and foot before heading north to Taos and on to Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, home of the Rio Grande Gorge BLM campgrounds. I've been visiting the Gorge for several years and have hike 95% of the trails, most of which go down into the deep river canyons cut by the Rio Grande and the Red River. It's a place I truly love.
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| Lots of snow still at Brazos Summit Pass |
From NM I headed west and a little north to southern UT, meeting up with a friend of friends. Unfortunately she was leaving for a 5 week trip to England just as I arrived and we only got to spend a couple of days together, but we packed in a lot quickly. We went birding and I saw my first wild pheasant, then she took me to a local bookstore to get a copy of her favorite UT hiking guide. From there we headed to her house to take in a hike right outside her door. Even though she was in the throws of last minute packing she invited me back the next day and she pulled out all her maps and gave me a gazillion ideas for hiking and boondocking in southern UT. I spent 8 days in Moab alone, hiking all over. One thing I quickly realized is Moab is a very busy town, and much too touristy for my taste. While there I revisited Arches and Canyonlands, and added Dead Horse Point State Park, and Thompson Canyon Sego Rock Art site. One thing I discovered is that spring in the southwest is WINDY! And of course nice and cool, even cold on occasion.
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| Arches | |
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| Dead Horse Pt State Park |
I headed west on I-70 then dropped down to Hwy 24 into the San Rafael Reef, an amazing geological formation and then on to Capitol Reef. I spent several nights at a wonderful campsite just outside the park.
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| Hickman Bridge Capitol Reef |
I was really taken with CRNP, and couldn't really put my finger on why until I had a conversation one day with a couple from British Columbia, and we decided it must be the human element, and of course the orchards. I did several hikes there and got to add several new birds.
From there I headed south on Hwy 12, touted to be one of the most beautiful roads in the country, stopping in Escalante briefly. The Grand Staircase-Escalante visitor center was a zoo so I didn't stay long. Turned out the one in Cannonville was much quieter and I was able to talk with the staff at length.On the road I'd connected online with a couple from Kanab through Birding Pal, who I'd meet up with in a couple of weeks, and it turned out that the wife had just retired from a long career with the BLM and had designed all four of the visitor centers for GSENM. The staff knew her well and so we hit it off great. They directed me to a great camping spot just outside of Kodachrome State Park. And in fact on my afternoon hike down a BLM road I ended up in the park and hiked one of its trails. I hiked Willis Cr Canyon which was one of my favorites in the area.
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| Willis Cr Canyon |
Next I made my way just down the road to Bryce Canyon. The Dixie national forest lies just outside the park and I found another great, free campsite and did some hiking there as well. The next morning before daylight I got to the park hoping to beat the crowds-all of the National Parks I visited were incredibly crowded, but I
was able to avoid the crowds, at least on the hike in, by getting an
early start-only to find the rim bustling with activity......people waiting to get that great sunrise shot. I lost them all once I hiked down into the canyon. I was hoping to hike Wall Street, but it was too early in the season and it was still closed with snow. I spent a couple of days seeing the sights then drove on to the Red Canyon area to do some more hiking and from there I drove toward Parowan Gap on the way to CC, an amazing display of petroglyphs.
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| Campsite near Capitol Reef |
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| Bryce Canyon |
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| Red Canyon Losee Trail |
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| Parowan Gap Petroglyphs |
I'd made plans to stop in Cedar City to meet a gal who was an ambassador for Hike Like a Women. She turned out to be such a wonderful young lady. We did a couple of local hikes together and and I got to know her a little and have remained friends. She gave me valuable hiking info and suggested the lesser visited Kolob Canyon area of Zion. It was there I witnessed a rockslide high up on one of the cliffs....pretty cool since there was no way for it to reach me.:-)
Eventually I drove down to Zion proper. It was very early when I drove through the park and it was magical. The magic stopped as I came to the actual entrance and saw about 20 cars already in line, fortunately I was coming from the opposite direction.
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| Zion at Dawn |
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I just couldn't get excited about hiking with the masses so I opted to keep driving then turned south into AZ and spent a lovely morning at Pipe Spring National Monument, then arrived at Navajo National Monument where I camped for free. I got up early the next morning and went to the visitor center and discovered that even though the tours to the ancient Betatakin ruins didn't officially start for another couple of weeks, there was a native volunteer and he was leading a trip in just an hour so I joined them. There were only a handful of us and it made for a wonderful, intimate tour. Climbing back out it began to lightly snow, wow!
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| Betatakin Ruins |
The next day I headed to Monument Valley and then spent the night at a great site in Valley of the Gods. The weather was forecast to rain/snow and in this part of the country the roads turn to mush. There are signs everywhere stating....road impassible when wet....I didn't want to get stuck for days and didn't want to drive up the Moki Dugway in the rain so I headed out early and made my way to Natural Bridges Nation Monument, where I found a campground with paved sites for only 5 a nt. It started snowing lightly midday and I awoke the next morning with about a half inch covering the solar panels.
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| Monument Valley |
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| One of many bridges at Natural Bridges National Monument |
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| Snow falling at Natural Bridges |
There are so many great hikes at NBNM, and the weather wasn't improving so I decided to stay another night.
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| Chilly morning hike |
I headed east on state hwy 95 and stopped to hike down a canyon to House on Fire. As usual I had the trail to myself until heading back. Such a magical place and a great last stop in UT before heading into CO.
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| House on Fire, Mule Canyon |
I could have spent much more time in Utah but there were so many new places to see. Onward.....
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