Day 259 - The Grand Canyon

It was a long night of trains. We looked to see if the train to the park was a possibility, since we were parked at the station. Alas the train to the park was sold out (which, might, MIGHT, have made up for the trains all night). 

We we out by 10 AM and had about another hour's drive to get to the park. We went to the overlook at the visitors center. This was a bit of a hike for Paul, but the view was tremendous. 

We stopped for a late lunch and then determined that some of the buses were running so we took the yellow route to see a number of overlooks you could not reach by car. 

This was very successful, so we decided to try for the Red line. This which meant moving the RV and dropping off Paul and Maggie while Stephanie and Tyler parked the RV about 3/4 of a mile away.  

We had time to get off at an early stop and the second of the two "best" sunset view points, but not enough time to get to Hermits Rest at the end of the line.

It was possible to walk back on the rim trail from our stop to the stop before. It was gravel but flat and about 0.8 mile, and as the bus driver said we could flag down a bus if it started to get dark and we though we couldn't make it to the second stop before dark. 

The trail was great, right along the edge (but not too close) so we had great views and Paul was able to motor along with the two hiking polls pretty well. We saw maybe eight condors circling below us in the the canyon. As the sun set, the colours got redder and you could see the formations light up on the other side of the canyon.

Day 258 - Slide Rock State Park, Sonora

We broke camp by 10.00 and headed south toward Sonora and Slide Rock State Park. There was one section of switchbacks that one of the sites warned against taking RV's greater than 30' on, but the road sign said 50' and after going down, I'd maybe advise caution with the 45' class A, but we, being from Tahoe, did not think it especially difficult.

Slide Rock was a homestead turned state park. Stephanie and the children tried out the water slide in the river (smooth rock in the stream bed). Tyler reported it to be very cold.

There were a fair number of people enjoying the river. We also inspected the vintage tractors and the apple storage shed (it was an orchard before tourism, but tourism started in the 1930's as there we four tourist cabins built about then.

After enjoying the park, and Paul enjoying a meeting since climbing in the river was out, we headed into Sonora for dinner and found a nice cantina, 86 Cantina, where we had a nice Mexican style meal with the best churros that I have had in years. Warm and not stale. (Churros seem to have a shelf life that makes French baguettes seem long lasting.)

Alas, by the time we had dinner it was getting dark, so while we did get to see that Sonora is a very cute (and touristy at a level higher than Incline) town, we missed most of the really scenic parts just south as it had gotten rather dark.

I had managed at the last minute to find a camping spot in Williams, which was about as far as we thought we could get towards the Grand Canyon, so we headed for that. I had called every single place anywhere near the park and they were either full or not answering the phone, but Canyon Railway Hotel and RV park finally called back.  When we got there, we discovered that this was the head of the rail way that goes into the park. It was also about 100 meters from a high volume Sante Fe RR track, and 300 meters from a crossing. Which meant lots of train whistles and trains roaring roughly on the hour all night. 

Day 257 - Fort Tuthill Park

 We woke up to a really beautiful park full of pine trees - Just like Tahoe. A great place to spend Mother's day. We made mom coffee, dad made breakfast - baked French toast. Sometimes the tiny RV oven comes through. 

We discovered that there was an adventure ropes and zip line course run by the county park a few minutes walk away, so we decided that would be a good Mother's day activity.

Everyone (except Paul, who photographed) was trained on how to get the belay carabiners to work (carefully designed to make sure you always had one hooked on) and went up in the trees to cross bridges, ride zip lines, crawl through suspended barrels (Tyler's favorite), walk through nets, and so on.  There were four courses of increasing length, difficulty, and height off the ground. Green, Silver, Blue, Red and Black.

 

Stephanie, Tyler, and Maggie sailed through Green and managed Silver. Stephanie almost made it through Blue before she got tired, and Maggie finished Blue. It was a fun three hours! Everyone agreed it was the one of the best rope/adventure course they had completed.  Paul used the Wi-Fi at the office to get a bunch of work done after he had taken about 300 pictures of everyone else doing the course.

We also set up the hammocks since there were lots of nice trees by the RV, and they were enjoyed by all. 

We had a nice Mother's day dinner, debated on staying another day, decided to see Slide Rock State Park and Sonora the next day and then head for the Grand Canyon.

Day 256 - Petroglyphs, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest

Today was a big day for National Parks. 

We actually broke camp by 9.30 and went to Smiths to stock up (as we are heading out into the wilderness less or more) which took longer than it should have (as usual).

Then we headed off for Petroglyphs National Monument. The helpful ranger told us which hike I could probably manage, so we set off to see old pictures carved into rocks. It was fairly interesting. Tyler was not impressed. I enjoyed it and my hike. 

As we headed off for Sedona we found out the the roads for Petrified Forest National Park closed at 5 and you were supposed to be heading out of the park, which was unexpected, as we had presumed only the park office closed at 5.  As Google Maps was putting us in there about 4.45, this made us wish we had not spent as much time at Petroglyphs. 

Happily as we spend toward the Arizona boarder, the time changed and we gained a critical hour so that we arrived at the park at 3.50 and not 4.50. That actually gave us enough time to see most of the park. For once we got a break. It did manage to rain around us some more...

We arrived, the children got their National Parks Passports stamped, we got our park stickers and headed off. The Painted Desert was super cool. The light was playing on the formations as the clouds blew over. We stopped at lots of the overlooks, each one a whole new view. 

Painted Desert

Painted Desert

Even with time crunch we managed to see most of the key petrified sites. The logs were really cool, and the kids were impressed with how they looked like trees, and were made of quartz.

We pretty much closed down the park and headed to Flagstaff where we are staying at a county park, Fort Tuthill, which is a large park. The campground is in the woods and looks really cool (at least in the dark when we arrived).

Day 255 - Valley of Fires, Albuquerque

We woke up to a grand vista of the Valley of Fires. Our campsite was on the top of the hill and we we had almost a 360 degree view of the surrounding valley. After the howling wind of the night before, the morning was calm.

"Valley of Fires recreation area is located immediately adjacent to the Malpais Lava Flow. Approximately 5,000 years ago, Little Black Peak erupted and flowed 44 miles into the Tularosa Basin, filling the basin with molten rock. The resulting lava flow is four to six miles wide, 160 feet thick and covers 125 square miles. The lava flow is considered to be one of the youngest lava flows in the continental United States.

From a distance, Valley of Fires appears as barren rock but when you walk through the nature trail there are many varieties of flowers, cactus, trees and bushes typical of the Chihuahuan desert. Animals include bats, roadrunners, quail, cottontails, mule deer, barberry sheep, and lizards. It's also a virtual birdwatcher's paradise with great horned owls, burrowing owls, turkey vultures, hawks, gnat catchers, cactus wrens, sparrows and golden eagles." - BLM website.

After a morning of meetings, we took advantage of the accessible trail through the lava to see the formations up close. The lava had lots of tube, holes, and bucked flows. You could see in places where the sandstone had been cooked by the hot lava. By noon the wind had picked up considerably again. 

We decided that it was a close second to White Sands NP and it was amazing that such different landscapes were only a couple of hours driving apart.  The second best decision we made all day was an impulse stop because we (Stephanie) were tired of driving. (The best decision was going to White Sands NP).

We then headed on to Albuquerque. We had some hopes of taking the Sandia Peak Tramway up the mountain, but it was closed due to weather. We got rained on some more (bringing the rain from Florida with us through the desert as we go) and saw some lighting in the mountains. The wind continued to be impressive and there were a number of "wow" moments when we were buffeted by a sudden gust. The tumble weeds flew by in places.

While we were making our customary Costco gas stop (almost empty $125 to fill @ $2.73) we got restaurant advice from a friend who grew up in Albuquerque.  

Sadies of New Mexico was great, we had the Prickly Pear Margaritas and Stuffed Sopaipilla. The small bowls of chili that came with the meal were very tasty (and fairly hot). Sopaipilla with honey was a side with each dish. 

There was an announced hour wait, so Stephanie dropped the RV at the Balloon Park RV a few miles away and Lyfted back to the restaurant (so we could have margaritas). On the way home, we once again found the ride share to be hard to come by. (No Uber, and about 10 minutes just to get the Lyft assigned. This was at 7.30 PM.) 

Day 254 - White Sands, New Mexico

 We said our goodbyes to our friends and headed for White Sands National Park (formerly National Monument, the newest National Park).

Just like Tahoe in the winter!

It was really cool. The sand is really soft and cool, and we enjoyed the hike with our shoes off in the sand.

There was a good boardwalk hike that I was able to manage and a great loop drive that gave us a good view of the inner dunes. The children attempted to slide down the dunes on our boogie boards, but found that just rolling down them was a lot more fun (and effective).

We are spending the night at a BLM site, Valley of Fires. We love BLM sites and glad to be back where they can be found, There was a great sunset just as we arrived, having decided that enough driving had been done for the day and not relishing another hour before getting to the mix reviews campsite that we had called to determining that they had space, but didn't have a paid reservation.  

Day 253 - El Paso

 Had a very productive day at work, boys played video games, we had a lovely diner with friends with a great view of of the city outside. The weather was great. See yesterday.

We took advantage of the back patio to get a full, uninterrupted day of work accomplished. The kids did mostly as well, but I think Tyler got more video gaming done....