Grand Canyon

I always wanted to take Don to the Grand Canyon as I have wonderful memories of an old family rafting trip on the Colorado through the Canyon. It did not disappoint. I feared too many people and although there were many (few spoke English!), the GC staff have an incredibly organized system with busses and lots of facilities. We went to the north rim for a few hours from Kanab, then the next day drove a long distance to the south rim. We walked much of the rim trail, had drinks at the hotel El Tovar, and then the next day hiked down into the Bright Angel trail. In the evening and early am we were greeted by Elk at our campsite.

We are now in Yuma, Arizona, the last stop before San Diego, when we finally see the girls. I have to be truthful to say that this will be my last trip to Yuma...it is so hot, over 100 degrees and they say that is mild for this time of year. It is so ugly..loaded with "over 55" RV campgrounds and not much else.

But we had to go this route due to a bridge washout on rt.10. It will all be worth it though....

 

 

 

 

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We fell for Capitol Reef!

We arrived to much cooler temps in Capitol Reef...we wondered what this park would really be like as the road to get there was so barren..miles and miles and miles of just rolling sage brush...almost scary to see nothing else anywhere! I had this fear about a break down, but we were so happy when we arrived. Incredible scenery...huge red rock faces amidst green groves of fruit trees. ( peach, apple, cherry, apricot trees) and Don was ecstatic to see the little store/museum with fresh pies from those trees!

Had some problems with the RV battery but otherwise perfect!

This am we drove to Kanap, Utah and had a brief spectacular visit to the north rim of the Grand Canyon..unexpected so I didn't have my camera, but we are on to the south rim tomorrow!

View from camper in the morning at Capitol Reef:

 

 

 

Petroglyphs

 

 

 

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And the beauty of Arches National Park, Utah

Despite the heat the park was gorgeous

 

 

 

 

And this is the view from our campsite:

 

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Goodbye Lake City, hello Arches!

We had the best time in Lake City with our friends. It actually felt like coming home. Great to see folks at the Pleasant View Resort and wonderful to see all the mountains and flowers. It was quite cold there, which we loved. It actually got down to about 38 degrees when I walked Sophie early one morning! We jeeped and hiked part of the Colorado trail and ate lots! A true fun vacation.

This morning we drove to Arches National Park area and will soon visit it. Right now we are doing a quick laundry and coping with the heat. We woke to 40degrees and it is now 94! A killer...I know I will never live in this kind of heat if I can help it.

Below are a few more pictures from the last few days:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So much to share!

We have been without Internet and phone most of this week so haven't posted, but what a wonderful week it has been with friends Kathie and Harry Palmer and Wilma and Tom Vuono. We've wandered around in Nederland, camped at Gunnison and hiked and explored Crested Butte, and have been Jeeping and hiking in Lake City. Since Internet is poor I will try to post just a couple of pictures

 

 

More to come soon!

 

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The bunny did it!

The car is now all fixed and no major problems....it was a bunny that ate through critical wires connected to the transmission. Moth balls are now under the car as we certainly don't want that to happen again! And the RV is now good to go too.

It has been surprisingly cool and rainy here so we took some nice drives and looked at a few houses on the market. One was so far out we even found a burro wandering the road! Today we went to Georgetown, a cute old mining town just off of rt. 70 but with a real remote feeling...wonderful galleries and a great little restaurant for lunch.

Below are a few images from our drives:

 

Georgetown

And then there are the many, many magpies that crow next to our camper ALL the time:)

 

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Oh dear...

So today has not started off too well. Don noticed that we have a break problem with the RV (the caliper gets stuck sometimes???) . He spent quite a bit of time finding a mechanic who can fix it tomorrow. We decided to go out in our car to find the place ahead of time and found our car too has problems! The transmission light went on and it was very hard to shift. We are now at a Honda dealer for that waiting for a ride home to our RV. Apparently this could be due to the towing...scary as this is a pretty new car (2013 with few miles on it)

Guess we are lucky that we have a couple of days to deal with all of this. ...

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