Leg 3 Rob and Cheryl's NARVO - Grand Canyon 

to San Francisco

Day 14 – 16, April 27^th – 29^th , Trailer Village, Grand Canyon, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada ( 282/2950 miles) – Canyons to Casinos

We left Grand Canyon around 9am and headed back on the road. We stopped along the way to pick up maps and propane and then hit the road proper, heading west on the I-40 after a short way. The scenery was most un-Arizona like – quite forested and a little hilly. The I–40 was full of trucks, the road not great and the wind was blowing in hard gusts, so the drive wasn’t that pleasant. It seems we had inadvertently stumbled onto the much fabled Route 66 as we kept uncovering reference to it.

 We knew we’d be passing Hoover Dam but really had no idea what we’d find. When we did get there, we were surprised at the number of people visiting the dam wall, overlook viewing sites and information centre. Unfortunately the only parking that worked for the RV was way up the hill on the far side, so we couldn’t face the thought of a long walk down and then back up the steep hill back to the RV. We did though go halfway down to a lookout and enjoyed the view and then had some lunch when we got back to the RV.

After Hoover Dam we stopped in at a Visitor Welcome Center where they gave us the low down on what to do in Vegas if we were not drinking, gambling or cavorting. No doubt they had dealt with weirdos like us before, because they were actually very helpful, right down to a bus schedule to get to and from our RV campsite.

On the approach to Las Vegas we very impressed with the way the City had clearly made a big effort to build everything in earth colours and in keeping with the area being in “one of the harshest deserts in the world”, supposedly. There was not a blade of grass or litter to be found anywhere near the freeways. 



We pulled into the Oasis RV Campsite late afternoon and were blown away by the grandeur of the place. We felt like we were checking into a five star hotel. We’ve never seen anything like it and it has been the RV equivalent of staying in one of those grand hotels downtown on the Las Vegas Strip. What a treat – thank you Lord.

The next day we navigated the bus system to the “Strip” to begin our LV adventure. It’s hard to describe how we felt as we approached the area. The sheer size, glamour and glitz of it all was quite overwhelming, but in a good way.

Each hotel/casino had a different theme. The creativity and dollars that have been poured into these places is on a grand scale. I love it when things are done really well and this exceeded my expectations. We were expecting to be having to fend off a variety of snake oil salesman of various shapes and sizes but fortunately this was not the case. About the most unpleasant thing was that smoking indoors is clearly allowed, which wasn’t great, but we survived.

On the second day, yesterday. we were doing a show in the evening so took it easy in the morning at the RV park and then made our way down to the big smoke and did more of the same. We had a wonderful day, wrapping it up with a trip to The Venetian, which depicts Venice, Italy. Having just visited Venice, 9 months ago we marvelled at what a good job they had done of recreating the atmosphere. Wonderful. We ended our day with a Cirque Du Soleil show called “Love” which was based on the Beatles music. It had been highly recommended. It was very different, but the music was outstanding and the performers exceptional.

People along the Way – I was on a photo mission, while Cher was picking up a couple of souvenirs. I saw a young couple approaching me over a traffic light and they stopped right beside me. Both were carrying beers in their hands and were looking and sounding merry. The guy made a comment to the girl, saying “one day when we get married…..”. The girl suddenly went quiet and then said to him “Did you say that we’re going to get married one day?”. He sort of chuckled and dodged and weaved a bit. I turned to her and said “It sounded like a proposal to me, you’d better get him to sign off on it now” At that they both packed up with laughter and they continued on their way and I on my photo mission.

So we are now turning our sights on moving towards San Francisco to meet our friends Dave and Delia Russel from South Africa at the end of the week. They will be joining us for 4 – 5 weeks. En route we will be visiting Death Valley and Yosemite National Parks, so it’s back to the wilds for us for a few days.

Day 17 – 18, April 30^th –  May 1^st , Las Vegas, Nevada  to Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley, California (160/3112 miles) – Glitz to Gates of Death

We had a lazy start to our day, leaving Las Vegas. It was raining hard – go figure, it hardly ever rains in Las Vegas, and we had a few chores to get done before we left. So after a trip to the grocery store we left around midday and had an easy drive en route to Death Valley NP which straddles the border between Nevada and California.

The scenery became increasingly bleak and desolate, giving way to a dry and vegetation-less mountain range made up varied hues, colours and types of rock. We were on back roads, so we crossed the State line into California without any fanfare and before long arrived at our campsite, a little oasis in the desert. When Cher had done our research on campsites in this area the NP ones just looked like gravel parking lots, not a tree or building in site – as it turns out that is exactly what they are. So for a little extra money we booked into the Furnace Creek campsite which only has 12 sites on offer, but we lucked out, as it happens we had checked into a resort, complete with golf course, swimming pool, tennis courts, three restaurants and enough hotel accommodation set amongst beautiful green lawns, to sink a battleship. Out here in this bleak wilderness we felt we had died and gone to heaven.

 Death Valley NP is an interesting place. Outside of Alaska it is the largest National Park in the USA. It has magnificent topography, but it’s two main claims to fame are the fact that it has the highest recorded temperature on the planet at 57 degrees in 1913. Added to that where we were staying, down in the valley, it is about 150 to 200 feet below sea level. There is a clever geological reason why that is the case, but my eyes glaze over with understanding some of that stuff.

Today we were a bit limited in the sightseeing we could do in the park as many of the roads are limited to vehicles 25 feet and under and we are about 35 feet when we factor in the bikes on the back. We were fine with that as we had no desire to be stuck halfway up a mountain pass not being able to make a turn. So this morning we visited a couple of lookouts, walked down a canyon and then did a trip to a salt lake and walked out onto to it. Quite impressive. By midday the temperature was up in the mid 30’s so we went and sat on the verandah of the Furnace Creek Inn and enjoyed a cold drink. After lunch we did a bit more sightseeing and ended back at our campsite, chilling in the aircon, reading our books and having a snooze. We ended our day reading our books around the pool and then watched the sun go down while we enjoyed a BBQ.

Tomorrow is a lot of driving as we make our way over to Yosemite NP, so we’ll be early to bed and early to rise.

Day 19 - 21 May 2^nd  to 4th, Death Valley, California to Yosemite National Park (614/3726 miles) – Contrasts in Extremes

Day 19 - We set off from Death Valley (Day 19) at around 6am to get a head start on the day and had the road mainly to ourselves for a while. We hadn’t realised that we would have to do a big climb out of the valley to get back to more normalised altitudes. We had a choice of short and beautiful, but very steep, or longer and straighter. We stopped at a roadside café where the owner was serving breakfast to about 50 bikers who had just rolled in. He assured us that steep and beautiful was the way to go and so up we went. I have actually been quite impressed at how handily my Beautiful Baby manages the uphills, so it was no problem. We had breakfast at “Father Crowley’s Lookout”. He was a well-respected Catholic clergyman in the 1930s and he had chosen this spot as his favorite viewing point for Death Valley.

We emerged at the top to find desert and more desert for miles and miles. We had to skirt around the Sierra Nevada mountains on the south side. This entailed going up some modest mountains. As we did the desert turned to oasis and we passed through rolling green hills and the beginnings of farmland. At the top we were back into semi arid area but from there on it was mile after mile of citrus crops, vineyards and potatoes. We had a random lunch stop at a stop off of the freeway and found we had stumbled into Mexico by mistake right down down to the El Toro Supermardo where we did some top up grocery shopping.

As we approached Yosemite the scenery became a lot softer with gentle rolling hills and lots of lush grassland. Once into Yosemite the drive was steep and precipitous but very pretty. The one scar on the landscape was the proliferation of mainly Ponderosa Pines which had died as a result of the two year drought which has just broken. We pulled into our campsite around 5pm and very quickly had to adjust to the fact that we had no hookups and we were limited from using our generator to a couple of times a day. Whew, what an adjustment – we were taken back to the days of our youth when we thought doing without those things was great. We were however perched right on the banks of the river and the ranger had told us to help ourselves to whatever firewood we could find in the woods around, so of course a campfire was in order.

People along the way – we noticed that our neighbor was a young single guy who had just had what had to have been a freezing swim in the river – no showers in the campsite. He was eating Coke and chips for dinner before heading to bed in his minute one man tent, so Cher went over and invited him to join us for supper. Turns out he was French and had been doing a co-op placement with a California vineyard as he is studying wine making and marketing in France. He was at the end of his time and doing a last look at the USA before heading back home. He confided in us that his parents had split up while he was away and have both since found themselves extra partners in that short space of time. He was really cut up about this and we told him we would pray for him, for which he was very appreciative. 

Day 20 - As we were considering our options for Yosemite NP our other camping neighbor suggested we visit Glacier Point before we visited the main Yosemite Valley where the crowds flock to. This is a lookout perched up high above the Valley and gives a bird’s eye view of the big picture. My goodness are we glad we took his advice. We set out for a long uphill drag but about 10 miles short of our destination we had to stop as the road could only handle vehicles of 30 feet or less. We had met a group of three women from the Czech Republic on the way up. They were doing a five week camping trip in the USA in a converted Chrysler van called a Jucy. It is the size of a regular van, has a pop up lid, sleeps four and has a kitchen and fridge - go figure.

Anyway we hitched a ride with these three crazy ladies, Verna, Zena and Zena, who took us to the top, where we did a whistle-stop photo tour in about half an hour. The views were absolutely outstanding. This is their sixth or seventh year they have done a trip like this. I asked them if they missed their husbands while on these trips. The answer was an emphatic and unapologetic “No” – didn’t even elicit a chuckle and they didn’t bat an eyelid. I dropped the subject.

Day 21 - Today,, our last day in Yosemite, we had saved the best to last and took the one hour winding drive up and then down into the Yosemite Valley proper. All I can say is that the views were truly magnificent and awe inspiring. Our first view overlooking the Bridal Falls and Yosemite Valley literally took our breath away. The combination of waterfall, forest, huge cliffs and massive granite outcrops was stunning. Enough said – God has done a wonderful thing in this place. We spent the day visiting a number of waterfalls, doing a couple of fairly strenuous hikes and then left the park and began the trip towards San Francisco.

The drive was beautiful as we came up and then out of the Yosemite Valley eventually emerging into miles of lovely green grassland with cattle grazing peacefully. We were looking for a Wal Mart parking lot to sleep in, with no success and have eventually settled for a Save Mart parking lot in Oakdale, about 100 miles short of San Francisco. Here’s hoping the police don’t come knocking in the middle of the night.

Tomorrow we will make our way into the SF area and will do some exploring before stopping for a three day stopover with Cher’s niece Deanne and husband Lach. Lach works for Facebook – a non techie, he writes speeches for Cheryl Sandberg who is the COO for the company. 

Day 22 and 23 May 5^th to 6th, Oakdale, CA to San Francisco CA  (149/3875 miles) – The Big Smoke

Day 22 – To thank them for letting us sleep in their parking lot, we did some groceries at the Save Mart before getting on our way around 10.30am. The pace of traffic picked up considerably as we got closer in to SF, but were still on country roads, with lots of agriculture around us and stopped at a farm stall to pick up some cherries which looked good. The roads, including freeways that we drove on, in and around SF were bumpy, patched and potholed. So far California wins the prize for the worst cared for roads we’ve driven on. Up until now Michigan has held that title.

We had a couple of hours in hand, before we needed to check in with Deanne and so decided to go and find the Pacific Ocean. We couldn’t believe how hilly it was getting there – like a roller coaster ride. When we got to our chosen beach, the nice man at booth wanted to charge us $20 to park for an hour and have our lunch. We declined and went to the next beach down where we parked for $2. Our lunch digested better that way. The beach was long, with quite high cliffs and wouldn’t you know it, but a posse of horses and riders came by, so it felt a bit like we’d arrived on a movie set. 

People along the way - While we were having our lunch at the RV a group of 7 or 8 young Chinese couples came roaring in, each driving a bright red, yellow or black sports car. Each car had a label attached to the side - “Roadster Touring Team, Beijing”.  They reversed their vehicles into the parking lot side by side in a long line. Almost immediately some of the girls got out and began posing on the hoods of the cars while the guys took photos. They all just hung around taking a smoke break. The one guy got into his car and started doing donuts in the parking lot, stopping his spin a couple of feet from our RV. At that Cheryl leaped out of the RV and blasted them to kingdom come and halfway back, at which point the one guy came up and apologised.   was cowering in the corner. One doesn't mess with any potential Triad types. They then all piled back into their cars and took off with guns blazing and throttles roaring. Once again we felt like we’d stumbled into a movie set – it was a bit surreal. We suspect they are probably the kids of wealthy Chinese folks, over here blowing off a bit of steam – they seemed harmless enough. I guess in California, such things are to be expected.

After that excitement we headed out to Deanne and Lach’s house where we were warmly greeted by Deanne, Jake and Dylan. We had seen them all just a couple of months ago in South Africa for Cher’s Mom’s birthday, so the kids remembered us which was nice. They were thrilled to see our RV and there is talk of a “sleepover” with us tonight – we’ll see if that materializes. They live in a beautiful house with a lush and gorgeous garden. We spent the evening settling in and catching up with each other’s news.

Day 23 – today is our catch up day before we connect with Dave and Delia. It’s a do laundry, clear emails and clean the RV kind of a day. We have had to re-arrange the interior storage a bit to make sure Dave and Delia have somewhere to put all of their stuff when they join us on Sunday.

Dave and Delia are long-time friends of ours from South Africa. We ran Sunday School together 35 years ago, did Holiday Clubs (VBS) for a number of years, and Delia and I have both worked for Scripture Union for a number of years. We have kept in touch ever since. We have been talking to them about doing a trip like this for a number of years and now it is upon us. They will be with us for the next month or so, including our Alaskan cruise and the Canadian Rockies. 

Day 6 and On,,,,,,Rob and Cheryl’s Gigantic NARVO – April to June 2016

Leg 2 of Rob and Cheryl's NARVO Day 6 to Day 13 

Day 6 – April 19^th, Denver, Colorado to Moab, Utah (292miles/1877miles) – Contrasts on the Colorado


We decided to leave Denver early to beat the commuter traffic through the city on our way out of town. Up at 5.15pm and heading out by 6am. It was a bit tricky finding our way through Denver in the dark and with traffic flying by us on the freeways. Nevertheless we made it and were soon beginning the long uphill haul out of Denver and into the Rockies on the I-70.

Snow was threatening and we were getting dire warnings about icy roads and snowy conditions, but I figured we were going uphill at about 40mph, how dangerous could it be? Amazingly, about 20 miles in, the weather cleared, the roads were dry and the drive was gorgeous. We had been recommended a breakfast stop about 1.5 hours along in a town called Dillon. After a bit of searching we found the place only to find it was closed for renovations, so we ended up with breakfast in the RV in the parking lot.

The drive through the Rockies was breathtaking. At times we had the railroad, river, cycle path and road all travelling together. Once we started coming down, after the Vale Pass, the scenery began to change dramatically from pine covered mountains to massive treeless, sandy looking mountain formations. 

We passed through the Glenwood Canyon which was spectacular and then we were out into flatlands of Utah, which sometimes felt like we were in a fascinating moonscape. We stopped at the Utah State Visitors Information Centre en route to pick up maps and headed south to Moab our destination for three nights. We are now in a very nice RV park relishing the idea of being in one place for three nights. The scenery in this part of the world is dramatic and very different. Moab seems to be a mecca for mountain bikers, off roaders, ATVers along with hikers. It seems to be a fun place.

We have just met our RV park neighbors, Steve and Peggy from the Adirondacks, driving a gorgeous 40 foot diesel motorhome. Steve is an ex airline pilot and “doesn’t miss flying because he enjoys piloting his plane without wings”. They have been motorhoming for 10 years and have visited all 48 of the US states and tell us that this spot is the best they have found anywhere. So I guess we lucked out. 

Tomorrow we are looking forward to exploring the Arches National Park and then the highlight of my day will be to give the RV a wash down at the local wash bay – she is encrusted with days’ worth of grunge and demanding to be made clean. 

Day 7 - April 20th, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah - Breathtakingly beautiful

I've got a problem, because I'm going to run out of superlatives. We were told, "you must go to the Arches" and it's true. I won't go on and on other than to say there were actually one or two times when I literally did feel a bit breathless. The variety, shapes and sizes of the rock formations are just too wonderful and leaves one wondering how they came into being. My eyes glaze over when the geologists get going, but suffice to say, God has made some fearsomely wonderful parts of His creation. 





We visited 5 or 6 of the main arches, did some walking, but could have done much more and were ready for a break around 3pm. We decided to take the RV in for a wash and oh my goodness, like a well groomed horse, she's been driving better ever since. 

When we got back to the campsite I did a few odd jobs on the RV and then around 6pm decided to take a bike ride down the bike path to the not so far Colorado river where we'd gathered you could ride along the river. It looks like the bike path goes for about 25 miles along the river and what we saw was once again very beautiful. We're realising that one could easily spend a week or 10 days in Moab, there is so much going on in this place. 

Tomorrow we are going to Canyonlands National Park, which those in the know say is better than the Arches. We're debating about getting up early to watch the sunrise over Dead Horse Canyon, which is reputed to be a must see event. We're feeling a bit over stimulated right now. Must go to sleep.....watch this space. 

Day 8 – April 21^st, Canyonlands NP, Dead Horse Point SP, Moab, Utah,(175/2062miles) - Island in the Sky

We took a tip from yesterday and set out early, so as to beat the crowds. We drove about 30 miles to the Visitors Centre at the entrance of Canyonlands NP and of course there were many folks ahead of us. There were even line ups at the “restrooms” which, in keeping with the times, are of course all unisex.

Why Island in the Sky? We were up on a high plateau at about 6000 feet, surrounded by the Green River valley coming in from the north and the Colorado coming in from the East. This created stunning lookouts and vistas as we travelled to the edges of the Island throughout the day. 

Once we had our maps and directions we took a ride to Grandview which is stunning in its size and grandeur as layer upon layer of mountains, as far as the eye could see have been cut away by the Colorado and Green rivers over time. Grandview is aptly named, but not for the reason you would imagine. The Colorado and Green rivers merge about 20 miles further downriver and what we were seeing were the two river valleys approaching each other. Originally the Colorado prior to merging with the Green used to be called the Grand River, hence the name Grandview.  To get to the grandest view we had to walk a mile along the edge and each turn and curve necessitated another photo break. Always in search of the perfect light and angle. It was a great start to our day.

The rest of the day was spent visiting various Canyonlands highlights. Every area was different, but always impressive. Our bodies are now reminding us that we did too much walking yesterday and have repeated the error today.

We ended the day at Dead Horse Point State Park, just down the road from Canyonlands NP. The legend goes that back in the day local cowboys rounded up the wild horses in the area and corralled them on a little peninsula which is connected to the mainland by a 30 metre narrow bridge of land. Once they had the horses corralled and sealed off they took the best of the lot and left the rest to die of thirst, in sight of the Colorado River 2000 feet below – probably a rural (opposite to urban?) legend, but nevertheless makes for a good story.

We had heard that watching the sun set over Dead Horse Point is to die for – excuse the pun. And so it was. We parked the RV at an RV picnic site, a first for me, had a nice BBQ enjoying one of God’s greatest views and then wandered over to the view point to watch the sun going down. It was a special way to end the day.

As we pulled out of our RV picnic site we saw a young couple who we’d met at the view point, walking down the road to the Visitor’s Centre 2- 3 miles away. It was getting dark, so we offered them a ride which they were glad to accept. Got chatting of course, now we’re bosom email buddies, swapping travel tips and so on. It turns out they are travelling to the same place as us tomorrow, so another contact has been made in the Fellowship of the Road.

We also met a young guy Mark who we’d shared a bit of view space with at Grand View and then bumped into him later in the day. I walked the extra mile with him when Cher went back to the RV as it was hot and she was tired. He is a finance guy with the Iowa government, taking a few days off. He looked lonely, so we chatted along the way. We have noticed way too many folks travelling on their own – one wonders what their stories are and why they travel alone. Another great mystery to ponder on as we lay our heads down for another night. Tomorrow is reputed to be one of the most beautiful drives in the USA.

Day 9 April 22^nd, Moab to Mt. Carmel Utah ( 331/2393 miles) – Diversity Rules

Today we knew we had a long distance to cover along with much to see en route, so we were up at crack of dawn and hit the road by 6am.

 

  To try and summarise today’s travels I would have to say that the word diversity stands out. We travelled through at least 5 distinct types of geology with correspondingly diverse flora and fauna. At the outset on the I-70 we could have been travelling on the moon – large grey mounds and sometimes massive grey hills and mountains. Ugly but impressive. Following that we drove through the Capitol Reef NP characterised by massive outbreaks of what looked like volcanic rock. 

We stopped there at the Visitor’s Centre and listened to a volunteer geologist explain the make up of the area. It was pretty interesting, but despite him having used words of two syllables or less we left with our minds a fog of tectonic plates, stratified layers of sedimentation and erosion. And we learned that the one sedimentary level originates from Virginia and Maryland – go figure. I left with a revived respect for geologists and their ability to cook up theories.

We continued on from there and climbed 4000 feet through a mountain range, peaking at 9600 feet before descending some pretty steep hills, taxing the braking system and our nerves. 

On the far side of the mountains we entered the mighty town of Boulder. I joked to Cher that we might find a boulder or two in the area. Wow was I correct, but in spades. From Boulder on we entered the Escalante National Monument Area, consisting of massive outbreaks of granite looking rock as far as the eye could see. It was impressive on a grand scale. This is apparently the least developed area of the USA. We saw perhaps one hundredth of the total area. It is being kept as total wilderness.

Our next stop was Bryce Canyon NP, which we’d been recommended to pop into. We were not disappointed. The little we saw focused on “hoodoos” which are tall orange sandstone rock columns. In Bryce they appear in spades, literally forests of them. We did a walk along the rim of the canyon, which was unfenced and very gravelly, but straight down. We nearly had caniptions every time a small child got close to the edge, imagining of course our own precious chiddles sliding down into the depths below. Ughh – doesn’t bear thinking about. The overall impression of Bryce Canyon was magnificent.

 

 People along the way - We bumped into lots of people at Bryce, sitting on the shuttle and walking to the various viewpoints. Everyone has their travel tips to share and of course we soak them up as we are happy to steal anyone else’s good ideas. Two couples confided in us that they too are considering taking up RVing and “how do we like it?” We were able to put their minds at rest on that score.

We ended our driving day at 6pm with a final 70 miles of driving to our resting place at a humble little RV park in Mt. Carmel about 20 minutes’ drive from Zion NP. En route we travelled through the Red Canyon, consisting of rich red sandstone mountains and arches. It would be safe to say that by this stage of the day we were suffering from intense sensory overload. I totally agree with the folks who recommended today’s route that this was a drive not to be missed. I am running out of superlatives, but tomorrow is  Zion NP and we have been told this is a must see and “the best”. 

Day 10 April 23^rd – Mt. Carmel to Zion Park, Utah ( 33/2426miles) – Mormon Mountain Memories

Today we slept in and had a nice relaxed breakfast before departing our RV park in Mount Carmel and heading for Zion NP. Someone had recommended the home made pies to be found in Carmel Junction. Cher popped in to buy some and of course realised that we still think like South Africans. For us pies are meat pies whereas of course in North America they generally refer to dessert pies. Drat – we were looking forward to those meat pies.

On entering Zion NP we were given very detailed instructions about going through “the Tunnel”. It turns out it is a mile long tunnel with no lights. They have a one way traffic system, so one just has to drive down the middle of the tunnel with headlights on and go for it. It was fun and was followed by a very steep drop down into the Canyon. I’ll be amazed if the RV makes it out of here tomorrow.

Zion has not disappointed. The whole place basically does not allow cars to drive on the roads. You arrive, park your vehicle and go wherever you want to in the park by shuttle. It would be chaos if they didn’t do that. So the day has been dominated by seeing the mountains from the foot of the valley as we followed the Virgin River along. We have been incredibly impressed with the organisation of the National Parks wherever we’ve been, but Zion notched up a couple of extra points in my book when they have paved the roads in the park with brown tar to tone in with the look of the surrounding mountains. Now that’s what I call going the extra mile.  

The area was originally settled by Mormons and they did a wonderful job of naming all the main peaks with biblical names, so the whole place has a real Biblical feel to it. We decided to start at the top of the Canyon and work our way down. There is a popular hike called The Narrows which takes one through a very narrow canyon following the river up, in the water. However when we got there, they had closed the Narrows due to the risk of flash floods and the river did indeed seem to be flowing fast and furious. We spent the rest of the day meandering down the valley, enjoying the magnificent views set in an azure blue sky.

People along the Way – Lo and behold who should we bump into but Tom and Doris who we had met on Day 7 at the Arches NP. They were the couple who are matching our itinerary and timing virtually all the way up to Seattle. Amidst great celebration we agreed to potentially meet for supper in the nearby town of Springdale.

Tomorrow we are on our way to the Grand Canyon for two days. We wonder if by this time we will have any capacity to take in any more Canyoning. I suspect the Granddaddy of all of them will not disappoint.

Day 11th April 24th – Zion Park, Utah to Grand Canyon, Arizona ( 272/2698miles) – Time Stood Still

Contrary to my misgivings, we made it easily out of the Canyon and our initial goal for the Day (Sunday) was to find a 9am church service in a local town within 50 miles or so of our departure. We prayed the Lord would help us find a nice service. Kanab in Utah and Fredonia in Arizona just over the State Line looked like reasonable sized blobs on the map so we figured we’d find an early service there. Well when we got there we didn’t find anything at Kanab or Fredonia other than Mormon which we figured we’d pass on. On inspecting the map we realised we could reconfigure our route by going via Page in Arizona instead of our planned route. Page was about 70 miles away, so we figured we’d catch an 11am service and we prayed again that the Lord would help us find a good church.

Well it turned out to be an interesting route, much of it extremely remote. We got to an information desk near Page around 10.30am and enquired about church services. The guide, said that because the town of Page was designed from scratch around the hydro electric dam all of the churches were given land side by side along the same street, so it would be easy to cruise down the road and pick and choose service times and even our flavor and style. We were thankful it would be so easy and prayed again that the Lord would help us find a nice service. 

Well we got to the street in question at around 10.55am and very quickly found that every church in Page is not only on the same street, but they also have their services at 10am, so we’d missed them all by one hour. Our hopes were dashed and we were about to get back on the road, but decided to double check. On doing so we found the Baptist church service actually started at 10.40am, so I said to Cher “let’s just catch the second half of the Baptist service”. So in we wandered at 11.05am, to find the parking lot only a quarter full and the sanctuary empty. On enquiring the folks said well it was only 10.05am so the service was only starting in 35 minutes. It turned out that Arizona does not do daylight saving time, so we had actually gained an hour and it was actually only 10.05am in Arizona. Because we still had a long way to go, we didn’t want to wait till the Baptists got going so we ended up at the United Methodist Church and enjoyed a very different kind of service, in a church which particularly caters to RVers right down to having water and electricity hook ups for RVs in their parking lot together with a group of “Nomad RVers” who travel to churches doing volunteer work in the local community. We thought the Lord was having a good chuckle at the joke he’d played on us in giving us an extra hour in this day and then to cap it all a church service with an RV flavour.

The rest of the drive to Grand Canyon was interesting because much of the road travelled through the Navajo Nation Reservation. It was incredibly desolate and much of the time we felt like we were travelling through a third world country. Things looked pretty basic and broken down. Having said that we stopped at a trading post and Cher went in while I dozed and found some hand woven blankets starting at $300 all the way up to $15,000. Yes, $15k that’s not a typo.

So we are now settled in our campsite at GC an enjoying the fact that we’ll be here for three nights. It feels good to be staying still for a while. We have been dreaming of visiting this place for 25 years – the moment has finally arrived.

Day 12 -13, April 25 - 26^th, Trailer Village, Grand Canyon, Arizona – Living the Dream

We were horrified to find our first day in GC, that the weather was awful. The temperatures ranged between -4 to plus 11 degrees. Along with wind, snow, sleet and rain, it was pretty miserable doing the grand tour of the GC. Nevertheless we were only here for two days, so we decided to press on and do what we could. Four layers of clothing later, we embarked on our explorations.

We started at the Yavapai Lodge where they have free wifi, so stopped in there for a short email fix. While there we bumped into a mid 30s or so French couple who are in the final few months of a 2.5 year, 50,000 mile Tip of Argentina to Alaska cross country road trip. They have travelled up the west side of South America through Central America and now have a three month visa in the USA and will end their trip in Canada, after doing an Alaska cruise. They have fitted out a Landrover which apparently meets all their needs. In their broken English they called it a “motorhome”. With that kind of a cool travel adventure notched up I reckon they can call it whatever they like.

We, along with a few other souls braved the arctic conditions and did a bus shuttle tour of many of the major lookouts. The sun was coming and going, so it was good but could have been a lot better. Many people were obviously as surprised as we were by the weather and many were wandering around in shorts and sandals etc. Brrr. It made cold just to look at them. We came back “home” earlyish as I had a bunch of little jobs to do in and around the RV and at least it was out of the wind.

Today, the weather started off cold, but it was sunny and no wind. We had decided that today was going to be our day to walk down into the Canyon, so once again we layered up and set off to give it a shot. While walking down to the access point, we stumbled onto a Ranger giving a group an orientation tour. We joined them and he was extremely interesting and humorous.

By the time we got started on the downhill route it was a bit later and warmer. As we dropped down into the Canyon, we were out of the wind and the temperature warmed up. We had decided to only go as far as Rest Stop #1, one and half miles down, because we were very conscious that we had to walk back up and that might be the moment of truth. We had a lovely walk down and gradually shed layers as the temperature really warmed up. 

We had lunch at a nice lookout area just beyond Rest Stop #1. As we arrived there we were greeted by two volunteer rangers who wanted to know how far we were planning on going and how much water we had – by then it was mid-day and they knew we had to retrace our steps but this time with gravity against us. They are part of a Volunteer Rescue Prevention team – their job is to stop folks like us from attempting dumb things – another illustration of the commitment to excellence that we have experienced in all of the National Parks so far.

The walk back to the top was strenuous, but we had lots of fellow sufferers to commiserate with and keep our spirits up. Along the way we met a bunch of folks who had been doing various types of camping down at the bottom on the Colorado River, or who had just completed a six day river rafting, including rapids trip, and were now doing a 7 hour walk out of the Canyon from the bottom to the top. The trip included all meals and equipment needed – all they needed were their clothes. Most nights they slept out under the stars. The one guy had done this three times and said it is a “must do” trip. Another thing to add to our bucket list. Lord please give us time.

We ended the day doing a different shuttle loop which we hadn’t done yesterday and with clear sunshine we enjoyed much better views and outlooks, so it was a great way to end our stay at Grand Canyon. We could easily have spent a week here and still not have touched sides.

We are now settled back “home” resting up and getting ready for our next leg. Tomorrow is Vegas and the bright lights. We’ve heard without the gambling it’s a fun place, with lots to do, so are looking forward to seeing what it offers.