Our "Fantasy RV Tours" organized RV caravan started on August 22nd in Virgin, Utah and lasts 34 glorious days exploring the western U.S. national parks with 23 other RVs. Here is the route we'll be doing:
8/19-24: Virgin, Utah
We have chosen to arrive a few days early for our caravan and are pleased to see a few others in our group have done this too. It is always fun to meet new RVers and we look forward to getting to know them better as the weeks go by.
The Zion River Resort RV park in Virgin, Utah, puts us within a short drive of Zion National Park. With the exception of one road that connects through the park to the east entrance, only park shuttle buses are allowed to transit the main park road, so we are all on our own to explore during our days in this area. Due to a flash flood that sadly took the life of a hiker in The Narrows area of Zion a few days before we arrived, the shuttles aren't doing the full park road so we opt to first explore Kolob Canyon on the north end.
Only a half hour drive north, Kolob has several "wear hiking boots" hikes that we really enjoyed -- the 1-mile Timber Creek Overlook Trail and then there 2-mile Timber Creek Trail where we crossed the same creek 14 times. It was a great use of my hiking sticks! The only negative was the bee that snuck into the back of my shorts and stung me on the butt. Guess the bee didn't like my bright pink shirt? No doubt the other hikers on the trail watching me dance around thought it was hysterical 🙄 In any case, we got a first taste of big red rocks and it is just so hard to grasp how darn gigantic they are! We closed the day with a lovely welcome dinner at a local restaurant and getting to know our travel mates better.
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| Jeffrey at the end of the hike at Kolob |
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| The majestic Kolob Canyon |
The next day the full Zion shuttle route is open so we head to the park early to beat some of the crowds. At the suggestion of our caravan leaders, we take the shuttle to the furthest point before we get off and do the Riverside Walk at the Temple of Sinawava, about 2.2 miles round trip. We choose not to hike into The Narrows at the top of that walk because it means crossing and walking in the river.
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| The view through the open roof vents on the shuttle |
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| End of the Riverside Walk and start of The Narrows |
Taking the shuttle back, we get off at The Grotto and walk the half mile trail to the Zion Lodge where we have lunch. Along the way we encounter a small deer herd that has no interest in us. They are obviously used to seeing humans traipsing around. The Emerald Pool trails that link up with the lodge area were closed for maintenance, so we reboarded the shuttle to the Court of the Patriarchs. The overlook there is an amazing view of 3 large rock formations, fondly called the "Patriarchs".
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| Grotto Trail |
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| The 3 rightmost peaks are the "Patriarchs" |
Our last stop is at Canyon Junction where we opt to walk the 1.75 mile paved trail back to the Visitor's Center at the bottom. Our legs are definitely going to be stiff tomorrow! With a big part of the afternoon still remaining, we take our car and drive the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, a slow-going elevation-climbing switchbacking road that goes to the east entrance of Zion. At one point is the "Tunnel" that is carved along the rock face. It has no lights inside -- just a small collection of "windows" cut through the side to help illuminate the interior.
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| Interesting arch formation |
After the tunnel we encounter several collections of bighorn sheep among the rock formations. One wore a collar so they are obviously tracked. We also saw the famous Checkerboard Mesa formation, named because of the horizontal cross-bedding of ancient sand dunes and vertical cracking due to expansion and contraction of the sandstone during winter.
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Bighorn Sheep
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Checkboard Mesa
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On our final day in Virgin, we stayed in the RV park and did the mundane tasks of RV life -- laundry, clean interior AC filters, regenerate the water softener, and remove tire and mirror covers in preparation for driving to the next campground tomorrow. We also had our first "driver's meeting" plus ice cream social where we gather as a group and cover the travel directions as well as the logistics for the next few days of activities. We are off to a great start!
8/25-27: Page, Arizona
Our first caravan driving day took us 140 miles to Page with an en-route stop at the Pipe Spring National Monument. It commemorates the pioneer Indian life on the southwestern frontier. A fresh water spring on the site provided water for farming and daily life. In 1871 a fort was built by Mormon pioneers who used the water and surrounding rangeland for cattle and sheep ranching. This description oversimplifies the history of the area as there was significant conflict between the various residents --no surprise when there is such a rich and consistent water source in the high desert.
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| Pipe Springs Windsor Castle built by the Mormons over the spring to control the water |
Our first full day near Page included a 15 mile raft trip in Glen Canyon which included Horseshoe Bend. The canyon walls that surrounded us on both sides for most of the trip were 700-1400 feet tall and a glorious red color that is so typical of this region. A mid-way break near some interesting petroglyphs even gave willing participants (Jeffrey among them) a chance to take a dip in the 67-degree water. The weather ran the gammit of pleasant in the shade to hot in the sun to rain and lightening. Thankfully the storm passed quickly and just grazed us for a few minutes -- and the lightening is very unlikely to extend into the deep canyon. Our guide wasn't concerned so that was comforting.
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| The start of the raft trip near the Glen Canyon Dam |
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| The Petroglyphs |
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| Canyon fault line |
Of special note was seeing the Vermilion Cliffs, which is part of the Grand Staircase of immense sequence of sedimentary rock layers stretching from Bryce Canyon through Zion and this area to the Grand Canyon. Sadly, we didn't get a good picture of these cliffs as the sun didn't hightlight them well. We also spotted a young bighorn sheep bull who isn't yet old enough to fight for his own harem of ladies.
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| The bachelor bighorn sheep |
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| Leaving the high cliff walls |
Our final day near Page started with a tour through Antelope Canyon. Words really can't describe the experience of color and texture of this slot canyon. We were fortunate to be clear of any flash flood risks which would have cancelled our tour. I'll let these pictures speak for themselves!
This same day we drove back into Page with fellow RVers to see Glen Canyon's Horseshoe Bend, this time from the canyon rim instead of on the river. It was a hot walk but worth the effort.
8/28-29: Grand Canyon North Rim, Arizona
A short 2-hour drive took us to Kaibab Camper Village, putting us within a 40-minute car drive of the main target for this stop -- the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Another member of our group took this good photo of Max starting this drive:
We spent our first night here playing a game of Cornhole Baseball as a group, odd numbered rigs versus even numbered. It game us a chance to better learn each other's names as we each came to "bat", which is basically tossing bean bags at a special cornhole board. I'm proud to announce that I scored a triple on my first time up and a home run on the second, especially because it was a game of chance mostly. We all had fun and our team won bragging rights 👍
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| A great view of the Vermilion Cliffs on the drive to Kaibab |
The next morning we drove the car to the Grand Canyon, surprised at how wooded and green it was on the north rim areas. We hit all of the major lookouts and enjoyed lunch at the Grand Canyon Lodge with many of our travel mates.
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| Angel's Window |
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| Selfie at Bright Angel Point |
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| Point Imperial |
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| Looking North from Point Imperial |
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| Vista Encantada |
8/30-9/1: Bryce Canyon, Utah
We had a medium-intensity (lots of ups/downs and curves) but lovely drive over to Ruby's In RV Park in Bryce Canyon City, our home base for the next few days of exploration. We drove into Bryce Canyon just to the Visitor's Center to get the scoop plus maps so we could plan for tomorrow's excursions. This is our first time seeing "Hoodoos" -- weirdly shaped rock spires that look like totem poles and are formed by water. Here are some we saw driving into this area, along with the rock arches we drove through that were barely higher than we were!
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| First sighting of Hoodoos! |
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| Delicately balanced Hoodoos near Bryce Canyon |
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| Arch #1! |
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| Arch #2! |
We used our first full day in this area hiking in Bryce National Park. After taking the free shuttle to Bryce Point, we enjoyed the 1.5 mile hike along the basin rim toward Inspiration Point. It took twice as long as expected because we stopped often to take pictures of the amazing Bryce "amphitheater".
From there we hiked to Sunset point and then to Sunrise Point, logging another few miles. We celebrated our exercise with a BBQ lunch in nearby Tropic and then rested until our group dinner at Ebenezer's Barn and Grill. Great food and country music entertainment too!
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| Maren taking a break from the breathtaking views |
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| Jeffrey trying to blend in with his orange shirt |
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| Our wonderful post-dinner entertainment |
We started our final day near Bryce by visiting Kodachrome Basin State Park, an area filled with towering sandstone chimneys and red rock formations. We hiked the Angel's Palace and Nature Trails, the former being a bit of a climb to amazing views and the latter being flat with educational signs about the ecology.
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| Kodachrome Basin's most famous spire -- Sentinel Pipe |
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| Jeffrey making friends |
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| More Kodachrome spires |
We then went back into Bryce and drove beyond the main "amphitheater" area to the end at Rainbow Point. A quick mile hike on the Bristlecone Loop Trail and stopping at viewpoints along the way back yeilded more amazing sights. Our cellphone cameras are really getting a workout on this trip!
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| Never a bad picture in Bryce! |
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| "Natural Bridge" window |
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| The Hoodoo formations often look like castle walls |
Our day ended with a group driver's meeting to review tomorrow's drive to Torrey, Utah. Our tour leaders ran a contest on the best RV tips and worst RV mistakes. We won best tip -- always open a door or window when extending/retracting slides. Thankfully we didn't win the "worst mistake" award 😁
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This concludes Part 1 of our Western National Parks caravan, August 22 through September 1, 2022. Go to PART 2 to continue reading about this trip. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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