May 6th, 2021

Heading to Wichita Falls, Texas

Wichita Falls RV Park

Our 43rd anniversary! Wow, what a milestone for us. We spent it doing what we wanted to do which was get on the road and start heading to Utah. We had reservations at the KOA in Cannonville to begin on May 11th so we gave ourselves 6 days to get there. Of course it takes at least two days to get out of Texas but first, we needed to head north to go West! My family lived in Burkburnett for over 20 years when I was in high school and college and it was where we would come back to visit until 1998 when my parents moved to College Station, Texas. I had lots of fond memories of friends in high school that I had connected with but with only one day I wasn't going to be able to see any of them. We did meet up with our friend from Texas A&M who was in Robert's Army outfit in the Corps of Cadets. Both of them are Class of '78. Scott met us at a Mexican food restaurant in Wichita Falls and we played catch up as much as we could. After dinner, I decided that we had time so we needed to run by our old place in Burk and see some of the old sights. It just wasn't enough time so I know we will head back again on another visit.

The RV park that we stayed out was very clean and we could walk down to a creek that was running alongside the park. We found out the next day after we had checked out that we had actually been checked in by a friend's mother who manages the park. What a small world!

May 7th, 2021

Amarillo KOA-Journey

Amarillo, Texas

Today would be our second day in Texas and we chose to stop in Amarillo. It was about a 4.5 hour drive in the RV but it was through a lot of towns that I knew about either through Girl Scout camping or we played football there. North Texas isn't the prettiest part of Texas but the roads were good and we made good time. After getting settled in to our FHU sight, we decided to eat dinner at the Big Texas Steakhouse Ranch. You know the one! Where if you order the 72oz steak and eat it within an hour, you get it free. We just had to check this place out, however, we were not going to "go big or go home". We had a nice dinner and just as we were walking out the rain started pouring down. I got some cool pictures of the cloud formations to the east of our campground. Our next day would be a really long one so we watched a little tv and headed to bed.

May 8th, 2021

Grants KOA Journey

Grants, New Mexico

Yikes, we had at least a 6 hour drive to our next location in Grants, New Mexico. While it's 571 miles, we generally average around 50-55 mph. So when we are looking at our Garmin or Google maps, we always add at least another hour to our day. Time for a 30 minute lunch and some potty stops for Bruce Wayne adds a little bit more time to our day. That being said, it's really nice because on travel days we try to have lunch in the rig. It's so easy to make a ham and cheese rollup when you have access to your refrigerator right in the Class A. Very rarely do we pull over for lunch at a restaurant and that's just because it can be a hassle finding a parking spot. Sometimes we have run into a truck stop and picked up Subway sandwiches if we want a break from a roll up or heated up leftovers but most of the time, we have lunch at a roadside park or rest area.

When we finally pulled into the Grants KOA, we were exhausted. The area is filled with volcanic rock formations and it would have been fun to explore the area but it just wasn't in the stars to do that kind of thing. We were heading to Flagstaff the next day and decided that we needed to go to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest and we needed to figure out the logistics of doing that with the rig. The last time we were in Petrified Forest, our son was about 6 months old and we were driving to Robert's new duty station in Yuma, Arizona. Our son is almost 41 years old now. Crazy, how time flies!

May 9th, 2021

The Painted Desert, Petrified Forest and Flagstaff, Arizona

Woody Mountain Campground and RV Park

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest are must sees in my book. After leaving out of Grants, NM, we headed West on I-40. At Gallup, NM we turned north and then you start heading west again on AZ-264. The Visitor Center has so much information for you to digest and I love that they give you maps. We determined that Hermione could make it all around the loop of the Painted Desert and then south again to the Petrified Forest. Did you know that the Painted Desert was named by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1540 while he was looking for the city of Cibola, or the Lost Cities of Gold. The Spaniards named it El Desierto Pintado. So as not to bore you and keep you from learning more about the Painted Desert, know that there are some easy hikes that can be done in the area but you can drive through just as easily and get out at different stops to take pictures. Since it was a travel day, that is what we opted for.

Petrified Forest is amazing! All the pieces of petrified wood lying around are astonishing and so huge. How did they become petrified though? Over 200 million years ago, tall trees called conifers existed in the area. During the flooding periods, the water forced the trees to be pulled up from the ground. Then minerals, including silica from  volcanic ash absorbed into the wood over hundreds of thousand years, crystallizing within the cellular structure of the wood. This crystallization hardened the wood into a stony material that we now call petrified wood. So over 225 million years ago, the area that now is a desert was a lowland with a tropical environment. Then volcanoes erupted shooting ash and silica into the air and then over those 200 million years, voila! Petrified wood was made. If you want to learn more, here is a great Geology page to look at. 

The road that takes you through the Petrified Forest will wind up on AZ-180 and from there we were able to easily get back on I-40 and start heading to Flagstaff, AZ which was about 90 miles away.

The campsite was very nice and woody. We did have to watch out for some big rocks in the site where we were located but the temperature was pleasant and campground very clean.

May 10th, 2021

The Grand Canyon trip

Flagstaff, AZ

We were so close and honestly, it would be stupid for us not to at least try and see the Grand Canyon. It was a Sunday and it was also Mother's Day. It was pretty amazing though that we waited no longer than 5 minutes to get through the gate into the park. We were closest to the South Rim so we took the day and did a pretty long walk along the rim till we got to the El Tovar area. There we had lunch and called Mom to let her know we were in Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon and the El Tovar hotel are very special places for my parent's and I knew she would love the significance of us calling her from there. Again, the last time we were in the Grand Canyon was when our 41 year old son, Pat was 6 months old and we tent camped with a border collie and a baby in a two man tent. Never again!

We parked at the Grand Canyon village and started our walking tour there. We started at Mather Point and then started walking west along the South Rim. It was such a gorgeous day. It takes you over to Yavapai Point and Museum where you can still walk along the rim. Somewhere between the Yavapai Point and the Verkamp's Visitor center starts a new exhibit to us...the Trail of Time. It's a great walking and reading tour with pieces of rock from the different geological time periods. 

It's outside of El Tovar and the Verkamp's Visitor center that the Bright Angel trailhead starts. The Bright Angel trail is a 15.3 mile out and back trail that has an elevation gain of 4,478' and is rated as a Hard trail. With my Nikon D850 I was able to get images of the trail itself. We knew that we weren't up for this trail so we opted to take the Red route bus and head all the way over to Hermit's Point. It is a hop on, hop off bus so you can stop at any point, get out, look around and then wait for the next bus to come along and pick you up. We really enjoyed that! The bus then drops you back at the Verkamp's Visitor Center and then from there we had to walk the 3 miles back to the car. I racked up 6 miles of hiking that day, Robert did 8 miles, because he went for the car while I waited at the Yavapai Lodge parking lot. Man! What a day! We had so much fun and our expectations were met and exceeded at the Grand Canyon. 

Check out some of the images we captured while visiting the Grand Canyon.

May 11th, 2021

Cannonville/Bryce Canyon KOA

Cannonville, Utah

To get to Cannonville, UT from Flagstaff, AZ you take 89N out of town. Not a bad drive because there is so much to see along the way. You go by the North Rim area of the Grand Canyon and past Navajo land. We saw the sign for Horseshoe Bend a little too late to make the stop and the hike to see it but decided on another trip we would make it a point to visit Page, Arizona. I think we knew it would be a long day...Google Maps said 5 hours but it would be more like 6 hours and that is a hard day for us. I don't drive the RV much on the open road so all the driving falls on Robert.

Once you get past Page, you can see the Glen Canyon Dam. It's a pretty impressive place and would love to spend some time camping there. Within a half an hour we were entering into Utah and how the terrain changed. It was still rocky, like the Grand Canyon area but the colors and rock formations became different in looks. I'm fascinated with the geology of the area and hope to one day get a book about that area but for now, pictures will have to be my reminders of what we experienced. It's also at the time that we officially entered the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument area. This is a vast area with three main regions...the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits, and the Canyons of the Escalante. Most of the acreage is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. You can find out more by going to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

At Kabab, we stopped to get gas and a Subway sandwich. It's at Kabab that you start heading north on 89 for quite a distance before you see the sign for Scenic 12. At that point, you make a right hand turn onto 12 and begin the journey through the Dixie Forest National Park, past the road that will take you into Bryce Canyon National Park and on into Tropic and finally into Cannonville, where we would stay for the next 9 nights. In reality, we would fly out of St. George, UT to come back to Texas for our daughter's graduation for her Master's Degree in Counseling.

The drive through the Dixie Forest was beautiful and once you got through Red Canyon, you could start seeing the unique red rock formations that Bryce is known for. It's about a 30 mile drive from Red Canyon to Cannonville, but it is really so beautiful. There is always construction on this road in the summer time due to the fact that spring and summer are when the roads can be repaired from the winter snows and frost heaves. Expect that you will be delayed every day of your visit so give yourself an extra 30 minutes to your drive time. 

After getting settled in our spot that we had for one night (we would have to move to another spot the next day due to a clerical error), we ran into Tropic to have dinner at Showdowns. It's a pretty nice steakhouse with live entertainment and outdoor eating area. We found Tropic to be one of the places we would eat at a lot while in Cannonville, as it doesn't have a restaurant one open at this time.

I think I'll end this post here. We are about to have an incredible experience in Bryce Canyon and I think it needs it's own post! Thanks for joining us on this journey!