March 27 thru May 13

March 27, 2015

We’ve enjoyed our winter at Voyager RV Resort in Tucson, but are feeling better now that we’re on the move.  The following will bring you up to date thru April 25^th.  (Our internet access here is very slow, so pictures will be limited due to long upload time) We pulled out of the resort Friday, March 27 at 7:00 A.M. and headed just 8 miles to Discount Tire where we had an appointment to have a couple tires rotated on the trailer.  I wanted the spare, which had never been on the road, moved onto the rear trailer axle and the tire it replaced as the spare.  The tire on the other side of the rear axle had a leaking metal valve stem that was replaced last year with a rubber valve.  These are high pressure tires (110 psi) and the rubber stem was high pressure, but I also have a tire pressure monitoring system that sends a constant signal to my inside dashboard with tire pressure and temperature. The sending unit is screwed onto the stem and it’s recommended that they be mounted on the metal stems so they don’t flop as the tire rotates going down the highway.  Since we were at the tire store, I had them put on the metal stem. 

 

After getting the tires remounted and balanced we were off to Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood Arizona where we spent three nights.  While here we visited the Tuzigoot National Monument, 1300 year old pueblo dwellings and the history.  We also visited Montezuma’s Castle, another site with the dwellings right in the cliff walls.  We’ve visited Mesa Verde Cliff dwellings in Colorado which are much larger, but the Castle here is pretty impressive. To imagine how these people lived and built their homes in a cliff wall, climbing a vertical wall to bring food, water, pizza….. well, it had to be a rough lifestyle.

Montezuma's Castle

 

We also visited Montezuma Well, a natural, spring fed lake on a hilltop that unless you knew it was there would not likely ever had been found.  On the cliff wall surrounding the lake was another cliff dwelling.

Montezuma Well

 

Another interesting site was the V-V Ranch that for a hundred years was a privately owned ranch with a wall of Petroglyphs that the ranch owner protected from vandalism until the family donated the ranch to the National Park Service several years ago.   Now they are watched daily by a park volunteer.

A V-V Ranch park volunteer pointing to the Petroglyphs

 

March 30, 2015

Moving North again, today we go to Page, AZ to the Wahweap RV Park right on the shore of Lake Powell. We’ve been here before and are forever in awe of the beauty here.  The lake views are awesome and the weather right now is great. 

Lake Powell

 

April 1, 2015

We stayed just two nights at Lake Powell and today move a bit further North to Kodachrome Basin State Park in Southern Utah. The GPS gave us two alternate routes. The first route, a more direct drive, took us 60 miles to Kodachrome, about 40 miles on a dirt road.  The second choice was via State Routes and 168 miles.  Over a 100 miles longer to stay on blacktop. We took the blacktop.  Kodachrome colors are beautiful, hence the name which was given by a film crew in the area before it was named a State Park.  This part of Utah displays colorful formations everywhere.  Nearby is Bryce Canyon National Park, Cedar Breaks National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Arches National Park, Zion National Park, and hundreds of miles of trails and off road beauty in Escalante National Monument.

At Kodachrome State Park. Near Bryce Canyon. About 40 Miles from Escalante, UT

Kodachrome Basin State Park is drop dead gorgeous, as with many Utah sites, the mountains and terrain is a red color, blended with browns and grays. We’ve been here before as well, and really enjoy coming back.  The high temps today was 52 degrees and the low was 30.  We had electric hook up so we stay very comfortable at night with our choice of electric heater or propane furnace.  When temps drop to about 30 and below, I run both. Our 5^th wheel trailer was ordered with dual Pane windows and extra insulation for cold weather. This also works well in hot weather.

Kodachrome State Park, Utah

 

April 3^rd, 2015

We arrived today at Escalante Petrified Forrest State Park where we agreed to host for six weeks thru May 18^th.  This is a fairly small State Park with 22 camp sites and a small visitor/entry station.  There are a few petrified logs scattered around the parking area and bath house, but the main area for the petrified trees are along a 1 ¾ mile trail that begins in the parking lot near our Camp Host site and park office.  The trail winds about ¼ mile uphill to the top, then down the other side and forms a 1 ½ mile loop that brings you back to the start.  It is classified as a moderate difficulty hike, which may be true, but getting up that first ¼ mile I would rate a little harder.  Our Host duties here are very casual, 3 to 4 hours/day 5 days/week.  June spends her time in the office, about 9:00 A.M. thru 12:30, helping check in campers and hikers, taking the fees and answering questions about the park.  I actually spend less time than June, driving the 4WD ATV around the camp loop chatting with campers, cleaning fire pits, picking up trash and wiping off picnic tables.  The actual work is maybe 1 hr per day, and the chatting another 2 hrs/day.  A high point is:  Hosts do no bathroom duty.  There are four part time paid employees, two of whom share the daily bathroom/shower house cleaning, which leaves us, Camp Hosts, as the only volunteers – but our activity is a lot of fun and so far the most enjoyable hosting we’ve done.  This is our fifth State Park and third year as Hosts.

I use this to get around the park.  Enjoy each day!

 

One day on May we woke up to some snow. It didn't stick around long but was pretty while it lasted

The view from the trail above the campground at Escalante Petrified Forrest State Park


 

The town of Escalante has no traffic lights, and only a few Stop signs which are on the side streets that enter the Main street.  Traffic is straight thru town with no stops.  We have three gas stations, a post office, five restaurants, a hardware store, small country grocery store, a medical clinic, a natural foods store, an auto repair garage, and two or three back county tour businesses.  Population of Escalante is 850; 852 since we arrived.

One of the part time employees, Alan, told me he plays guitar and sings every Tuesday and Friday nights 6 P.M. to 9 P.M. for tips at one of the local restaurants, Cowboy Blues. When I told him that I did some of that, he invited me to stop in and play a few tunes. I did that our first Friday night and ended up playing half the night.  They seemed to like what I did so we went back Tuesday and played a few more.  Last Tuesday, April 21^st,  June and I went to Cowboy Blues for dinner and Alan didn’t show for his gig, so the owner asked me to fill in.  I got my stuff and was set up about 6:30 and performed until about 8:45. Every table in the house was full, and were full until about 8:00.  When I stopped playing at 8:45, there were 5 people at the bar and one table occupied.  I was pretty tired and my fingers were sore, but I had a great time; free dinners for June and I plus $66 in tips.  Actually my first paid performance and it was a ball. 


So far, I've performed three times here at Cowboy Blues Restaurant

Channel 5 from Salt Lake City was in the park one morning at 4:30 doing a Utah travel special with live spots during the morning news from 4:30 to 7:00 A.M.  Here is Kendall Farnsworth, Park Manager, showing how to safely start a campfire.

 

Being a small town, when we stop for a meal in one of the restaurants, they ask where we’re from. When we tell them about our Camp Hosting at the State Park 2 miles away, most everyone knows Kendall, the Park Manager and in our three weeks here, we are becoming recognized when we stop in and word is already around town about my performance at the Cowboy Blues.

About 10 days ago, we were asked to consider staying longer than our original May 19 departure date, as Alan gave his three week notice. He is renovating his house and doesn’t care to do his three, 3 hour days at the park any more.  I said we would think about it and then told Kendall no, as we were going to stick with our original plan.  Kendall then said he would hire us both to work three days/week, 4 hours on each of those days. We’ve really enjoyed being here more than any other place so after contemplating a couple days, we finally said yes. We are now going to be here until September 1^st, when another Host couple will be arriving.  A little extra cash doesn’t hurt, free camp site and utilities., and the most gorgeous part of the country surrounding us.  We’re excited about this and we’re having a great time.

We’ve been picking up food and such at the local grocery, but we were out of a few favorite brands, so today we drove to the closest WalMart just over the mountain in Cedar City, 135 miles one way, but  beautiful drive. June also got a haircut and we picked up some new hiking shoes.  We took the cooler along to pack the cold items due to the 3 hr drive home. WalMart here sells dry ice, so I bought a block. That stuff is amazing. Our meat was frozen by the time we got home which we were putting into our freezer anyway.

Cell service here is weak, internet access is very slow, so this blog post won’t have many pics due to the long download time, but I’ll try to get as much as I can.  If you’re out this way, stop and see us while seeing some fantastic scenery.

By the way, Escalante, UT is on Utah Hwy 12, which was voted as the second most scenic hwy in the world.  First was someplace in Switzerland, I think, but number two in the world means it’s a great drive. We’ve done it a couple times and would vote number one.

This is an ancient pictograph the locals have named "The Circle of Friends"  The location is known by most of the locals and it's not marked, so only with some pretty exacting directions can it be located.  This is so they avoid chances of vandalism as long as possible.  We would never have found it were it not for one of the park employees giving us the exact directions. 

 

When we leave here, we’re going to travel a couple months, then spend next winter in Apache Junction, AZ at Lost Dutchman RV Resort by the Superstition Mountains where the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine is supposed to be located. It hasn’t been found, but we’ll look around and let you know when we find it; well, maybe not.