PART 2: Western National Parks RV Caravan -- Torrey, UT to Cortez, CO

PART 1: Western National Parks RV Caravan -- Virgin (Zion), UT to Bryce Canyon, UT preceded this post if you are interested in hearing about the first third of our caravan.

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9/2 - 9/3/22: Torrey, Utah (near Capitol Reef National Park)

After the drive from Bryce Canyon City to Torrey we had enough of the afternoon left to drive over to Capitol Reef's visitor center to pick up some maps and watch the movie about the park. The Mormon's settled the valley in this area as it had an abundant water supply, so there is a small apple grove in the middle as well as restored building from their life there. Anticipating that tomorrow will be more crowded, we also drove the car down the park's roads to stop at the pullouts and see the views of the canyons. 

Our next day was one of the craziest we've had so far. Having already driven through the park, we decided to park outside of it, check out the Gooseneck and Sunset Point overlooks, and then hike the dry riverbed Grand Wash trail. It is 2.2 miles one way and you can start it from either end, but seeing the full trail meant a hike of over 4 miles (2.2 out and 2.2 back). Halfway in we ran into another couple from our caravan going the opposite direction. We both wished to see the entire trail length but doing so meant going the full distance and then turning around to walk back to our separate cars. Idea! We traded car keys and arranged to drive each other's cars back to the campground, enabling us both to only walk one way and avoid the return hike on a very hot day! They got to drive our small hybrid SUV and we drove their giant GMC Denali pickup.

Goosenecks Overlook

Sunset Point

A nice resting spot near the end of the Grand Wash

Hiking up the Grand Wash riverbed

Cute chipmunk posing for us

Returning to Max, we were greeted by a Utah Ute flag tied onto the big tree on our site. The Gators' opening season football game is against the Utah Utes this afternoon and we have been invited to watch it with 15 Utah fans! After adding a Gator flag to the same tree, we head over with our camping chairs for the game. To our surprise, the Gators win it in the final seconds with an interception in the Utah end zone! Utah was ranked #7 in the polls and we weren't ranked at all! Whew!

The Utah Utes decorating our campsite on game day

9/4 - 9/9/22: Moab, Utah

Along our drive to Moab we stopped at the John Wesley Powell Museum. He was the first explorer to raft down the Green and Colorado rivers from Wyoming down through the Grand Canyon.

We ended the day with dinner for two at a nearby family-owned Italian restaurant, came home with as pile of leftovers, and finished the evening around a campfire with some of our RV group. We weren't sitting very close to it as there is a heat wave that is putting our daytime temperatures near 100 degrees.

Our first full Moab day was a group bus trip into Arches National Park. We had a wonderful guide who regaled us with stories of the area as well as details about the surrounding geography. Our stops included Balanced Rock, North Window Arch, Double Arch, the Lower Delicate Arch viewpoint, and of course the Visitor's Center.

Balanced Rock

North Window Arch

Double Arch

Lower Delicate Arch Viewpoint

We returned to the campground to rest up for the afternoon and then reboarded the bus to attend a special Dutch Oven dinner and then a sunset cruise on the Colorado River. We even saw some beaver along the shoreline watching us glide past their den.

The big surprise of the evening was being treated to the Canyonlands by Day and Night light show. By this time it is dark except for the half moon and a vehicle specially equipped vehicle proceeds to light up the canyon walls around us while we hear a dramatic program of the history of the area. 

One of the canyon walls illuminated by the light show

The Big Dipper!

Day 2 in Moab started with Jeffrey taking me to an early appt at a local dentist to try to get my problematic tooth extracted. However the dentist felt it was beyond his skills, so I'll see an oral surgeon tomorrow. With nothing to be done at the dentist, we aimed our car in the direction of where the bus is taking the group to Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse State Park. We caught up with them at the Canyonlands Islands in the Sky Visitor Center and left the car so we could join them for the park tour. Our guide was fantastic yesterday so we didn't want to miss him today. 

With our bus navigating the very curvy roads, we were treated to visits to the Green River, Grand View Point, and Shafer Canyon overlooks. 

Green River Overlook

Grand View Overlook

Shafer Overlook

On the way out, Jeffrey and I were deposited back at the Canyonlands visitor center to pick up our car, at which point we followed it to Dead Horse State Park -- so named because of the rough image of a horse laying down on the ground at Dead Horse Point. We also used this first stop to enjoy our arranged picnic lunches -- a great sandwich, chips, apple, and a Snickers candy bar 😋

Dead Horse Point

We wrapped up this park by stopping by the Basin Overlook at Visitor's Center and, due to the high heat index, most of us purchased popsicles or ice cream from the gift shop cooler. 

 

Basin Overlook

Our final stop of the day was the Potash Road petroglyphs back near Moab.

Following our tour bus to the Petroglyphs

Some of the petroglyphs made by area indians circa 600-1300 AD

Moab day 3 is a free day so no planned activities for the group. We spend our free day driving me two hours into neighboring Colorado to the city of Grand Junction for my afternoon oral surgery appointment. Three hours and $1500 later we are driving home, me with cotton in my mouth and minus a tooth, but happy the procedure is DONE 😬 Though it is a lengthy process, I'm hoping to get an implant over the next year. 

One of the beautiful views on our scenic drive home from Grand Junction

Sadly, our last day to explore Arches National Park on our own ended up being a day of laundry and Maren on painkillers and eating soft food 😒 Guess we'll have to come back here another time!

9/9 - 9/12/22: Cortez, Colorado

On the way to Cortez we stopped at a pullout to view Wilson's Arch. I'm still feeling a bit blah so I stayed in Max and Jeffrey did his mountain goat imitation and scaled up the hillside to see the arch up close. He also got a few good pictures looking down on Max and Moby (the car).

Jeffrey posing in Wilson's Arch

The artistic view of the arch

Max & Moby & Maren waiting below

Finishing today's relocation to Westview RV Park in Cortez, we got settled by early afternoon, made a quick trip to Walmart for a few supplies, and tackled a few Max projects. Getting the bugs off the front of the vehicles is always a driving day task, but we also worked on Max's outside 32" TV. Jeffrey discovered it was no longer working ahead of last week's Gator football game when we considered using it. We rarely watch it and haven't turned it on for 6 months, so it didn't die of overuse! The heat likely torched the old electronics inside and it will need to be replaced. Our efforts today didn't resolve the issue and it doesn't make sense to pay to repair a 12 year old television when the technology available now is so much better. After this caravan we'll do some research on replacement options.

Day 2 in Cortez included a bus tour through Mesa Verde National Park. It was a winding climbing drive in the car to get into the park to meet the bus, but very cool views along the way. 

After a quick lunch at the park cafe, we boarded the bus with our RV travel mates and guide and visited Park Point. In addition to housing one of the few manned fire monitoring stations, it also has a 360 degree view that includes four states (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico). A little smoke haze from the fires in California masked a few of the distant mountains, but it was still breathtaking.

View from Park Point

Spruce Tree House Cliff Dwelling was the next stop. This is the best preserved dwelling in the park and the third largest, housing 60-80 people in the 1270's.

Spruce Tree House Cliff Dwelling

Next was the larger Cliff Palace dwelling. Guided tours can be arranged for this one, but it is a steep climb down on one end and climbing up a series of ladders to exit on the other. By year 1300, the inhabitants of all of these dwellings had migrated away in search of better resources. 

Cliff Palace

Our final stop was the House of Many Windows dwelling. Oddly enough, the remaining visible "windows" were actually doors. 

House of Many Windows

In the car ride back down to Cortez we ordered a pizza and headed home to watch the Gator football game. Halftime coincided with this lovely sunset. Unfortunately the Gators didn't pull it out at the end like they did last week 😒

Shaking off the Gator loss, we use our first free day here to take the car over to explore Telluride, Colorado. The drive itself is lovely as we slowly gain altitude during the hour and a half drive. Once there, we park and hop on the free gondola ride over to nearby Mountain Village for lunch. 

Drive to Telluride

The only lake we saw enroute

The gondola ride

Once there, we find a custom burrito restaurant and enjoy eat sitting outside in perfect weather. After taking the gondola back, we walked around the Telluride downtown area and found T-shirts  before fetching the car and driving back to Cortez. 

We (okay I) decided to spend our final Cortez day laying low. It is definitely easier to recover from a tooth extraction at age 18 instead of age 58! We closed the day with a group meeting to discuss the next destination and activities that are planned -- followed by the group watching the Robin Williams' movie, "RV". Lots of laughs as we watched him make mistakes many of us have experienced 😏

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This concludes Part 2 of our Western National Parks caravan, September 1 through 12, 2022. I will continue the story in Part 3 soon! 

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PART 1: Western National Parks RV Caravan -- Virgin (Zion), UT to Bryce Canyon, UT

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. 

Jeffrey at the end of the hike at Kolob

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. 

The view through the open roof vents on the shuttle

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".

Grotto Trail

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. 

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.

Bighorn Sheep

Checkboard Mesa

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. 

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.

The start of the raft trip near the Glen Canyon Dam

The Petroglyphs

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. 

The bachelor bighorn sheep

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 👍

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. 

Angel's Window

Selfie at Bright Angel Point

Point Imperial

Looking North from Point Imperial

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!

First sighting of Hoodoos!

Delicately balanced Hoodoos near Bryce Canyon

Arch #1!

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!

Maren taking a break from the breathtaking views

Jeffrey trying to blend in with his orange shirt

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.

Kodachrome Basin's most famous spire -- Sentinel Pipe

Jeffrey making friends

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!

Never a bad picture in Bryce!

"Natural Bridge" window

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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