2015 - October

On our second day at Zion we took it easy and just did a road trip.  We drove back to Zion National Park and continued on the UT-9 scenic route to Mount Carmel Junction.  The Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel is 1.1 miles long and was completed in 1930.  At that time it was the longest tunnel in the US. Oversized vehicles require one way traffic at $15.00 a vehicle if you are oversized.  We did not come this way from Bryce because we would have been too long towing the trailblazer.  No semis are allowed.  When we went through it was one way traffic coming and going.  Jerry enjoyed some “Ho-Made” Apple Pie at Mount Carmel Junction. 

 

On our third day at Zion we did the Interpretive Tour with the Ranger.  The tour was on a smaller bus that made several stops through the canyon.  The Ranger provided a lot of historical, geological and wildlife information about Zion. 

If you look closely you will see one of the climbers.

 

The top of Angel's Landing, Jerry is going to attempt in a day or two.

 

We spent the afternoon in the city of St. George, which is in the lower southwest corner of Utah.  It is know as a great retirement community.  St. George was originally founded and built by the Mormons. 

 

We visited the St. George Tabernacle which opened in 1876.  We learned about the Mormon faith and their history. 

 

Our second stop was a tour of Brigham Young’s Winter Home.  Brigham Young was the foremost Mormon pioneer and led the church to the Utah Territory. 

 The put hot water in the bottom of the plate to keep the food warm, we had never seen this before.

 Chair made with horse hair, very soft like leather.

 

Our last stop was at the St. George Temple Visitor Center.  The St. George Temple was the first Mormon Temple built in Utah and was completed in 1877.  We were only able to see pictures of the inside which were very peaceful looking.  The outside was all white with beautiful landscaping all around it. 

We ended the evening with dinner at the Gun Barrel Restaurant where we met Angie and Jim.  Angie is Ron’s stepsister who lives in St. George.  Ron is Belinda’s brother-in-law, Sandy’s husband.  We had a very nice visit with them.  Angie decorated the restaurant when it was built in 2005, she did a great job.  We had a very nice dinner with them.

Our next adventure was back into Zion where Jerry hiked as high as he could on the Angel’s Landing Trail.  He made it ¾ of the way up the hike.  The Angels Landing Trail is one of the most famous and thrilling hikes in the national park system. It has Long drop-offs. Not for young children or anyone fearful of heights. Last section is a route along a steep, narrow ridge to the summit.  Belinda did a very nice 3 mile hike (much calmer) while Jerry hiked Angel’s Landing. 

 

After the hikes we did the Kolob Terrace Road that goes through the eastern section of Zion National Park.  We stopped at the Lava Point Overlook for a nice view of the Park.  The Terrace Road was 24 miles paved up to the Kolob Reservoir.  From there we continued on 24 miles of dirt road up to Cedar City, UT. We enjoyed great fall colors.  On the way back to Hurricane we stopped at the Kolob Canyons, the eastern most section of Zion National Park.  The 5 mile scenic drive up to the Kolob Canyons View Point was beautiful, lots of red rock with pines.  This was our last section of Zion to visit. 

 Cedar City Below

 Kolob Canyon View Point

 

Arrived in Las Vegas, RV Park 3 blocks from the Downtown Freemont Experience.  Great location thanks to Jim and Louise, our Fig Tree Canadian Winter Texan friends. 

We drove out to and across the Hoover Dam, one of Jerry’s bucket list items.  It is a massive project that is very impressive as you walk across the top of it. 

 

We spent the evening enjoying the Freemont Experience people watching, the street performers and music entertainers.  We had a very nice Italian dinner at the Grotto in the Golden Nugget Casino.

Our second day was spent grocery shopping and a visit to Lowes/Home Depot and then back down to the Freemont Experience.  We spent a few hours enjoying the sights and sounds with a visit to the Downtown Container Park.  The Container Park is an offbeat shopping center built from shipping containers, with shops, restaurants, bars and a courtyard with a playground.

 

Walking back through the Freemont Experience we stopped at the Detroit Coney Island restaurant at the D Casino and enjoyed a traditional Coney and fries.  A little taste of home was great.

 

Our last full day in Vegas Jerry enjoyed a Segway tour.  He was the only one on the tour and had a great time viewing all the sights around Downtown Las Vegas. 2 hours went too fast.

 

Before the Segway Tour we walked through the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, the world famous “Pawn Stars Show” Pawn Shop. We really enjoyed seeing many unique old items for sale. Something for everyone.

 

 

Belinda made a visit to the Mob Museum, officially the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement.  After our touring we enjoyed personal pizzas at the Pizza Rock, voted the best pizza in Las Vegas.  It was very good along with the refreshments.

 

We were planning on leaving Las Vegas on Friday taking 2 days to get to the South rim of the Grand Canyon.  Unfortunately the Chevrolet Trailblazer didn’t agree with that plan.  Thursday night it decided to have a hiccup.  The Las Vegas RV Park could accommodate us 1 additional night and the Chevrolet dealer was able to get us in and fixed by noon on Friday.  Thank goodness it happened in Las Vegas and not on some 6 hr. back country two track scenic route. 

We arrived at the Grand Canyon South Rim on Saturday.  It took an hour to get through the park entrance gate as the backup was over a mile long.  The Trailer Village RV Park inside the GC National Park is very nice.  We got set up and relaxed the rest of the day. It was definitely time for refreshments after a long travel day.

 

 

On our first full day we did the Kaibab Rim Route (the yellow route).  We hiked the 3 mile rim trail stopping at all the breathtaking view points.  The last stop was the Yavapai Geology Museum, beautiful overlook and lots of geological information about the Grand Canyon. We went back out to the rim later to see the beautiful sunset across the canyon.

The next day we hiked the Village Rim Route (blue route), including part of the Bright Angel Trail down into the canyon to the lower tunnel and 1/3 of the Hermit’s Rest Rim trail (red route).  In total it was 6 miles.  It was a good day of hiking including some major elevation changes. 

 

Our third day was a road trip to give our feet a rest.  We did the Desert View 25 mile scenic drive to the east end of GC National Park.  That end of the park has Desert View Watchtower and the Tusayan Museum and Ruins.  There were great views of the canyon and Colorado River from the Watchtower.  We stopped at all the scenic points on the way back as each one has something unique to offer. 

 

 

On our last hiking day we hiked the last 6 miles of the Rim Trail from Powell Point to Hermit’s Rest.  Part of it was paved and part was a very nice natural trail right along the rim, a little too close at some points.  Jerry was very happy when there was Ice Cream at the end of the trail, great timing. 

 

The last day at the Grand Canyon we rested and got the RV ready to travel finishing the day with a very nice sunset dinner at the Hotel El Tovar Restaurant with a view of the canyon at sunset.  One of those meals we won’t forget. 

Creamed Acorn Squash Soup, it was great. 

 Halibut with a Jalapeno Sauce, also very tasty.

 Elk herd on our way out of the park the next morning.

 Our next move was to Lake Havasu City, Arizona.  We have an appointment for some jack work on the RV which has been planned since early fall.  As timing would have it our refrigerator decided to die on us and the jack repair place also repairs refrigerators.   We are spending the week waiting for parts to come in so they can fix us up the end of the week.  Lake Havasu City is a not a bad place to be waiting for parts and repairs.   
We have enjoyed Lake Havasu City, it has a nice, clean small town feel.  People are very friendly.  It seems to be quite the retirement community, incorporated in1964 so it is very young.  The big attraction is Lake Havasu, the London Bridge and the great weather.

Lake Havasu is a result of the Parker Dam on the Colorado River.  It reminds us of home with lots of boats, jet skis and kayaks.  California is on the other side.

 London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City.  It is a relocated 1831 bridge that formerly spanned the River Thames in London, England, until it was dismantled in 1967. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge, which was bought by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London. McCulloch had exterior granite blocks from the original bridge numbered and transported to America to construct the present bridge in Lake Havasu City, a planned community he established in 1964 on the shore of Lake Havasu. The bridge was completed in 1971 (along with a canal), and links an island in the Colorado River with the main part of Lake Havasu City.

 All of the street lights on the bridge are recycled cannons, one of the first know recycling projects.

 We have never seen a flower within a flower.

 

Lake Havasu City is home to more lighthouses than any other city in the entire country. These 1/3 scale replicas are actual functioning navigational aids built to the specifications of famous East Coast, West Coast and Great Lakes lighthouses. More than eighteen can be seen on the shores of the lake. Most can be hiked to while some are only accessible by boat.  We hiked to a few of them. 

 When we are home next summer we are going to take a trip to Alpena to see this one.

With our refrigerator out we had to enjoy many of the wonderful restaurants in town although we are ready for a good home cooked meal.  We stayed at Havasu Falls RV Resort waiting for the parts to come in.  They had a very nice pool that we enjoyed everyday.  There was a big car show that reminded us of the Frankenmuth Car show in September.  They had the Thursday night main street show that took up most of downtown then Friday and Saturday in the Rotary Park.  There were many high dollar great looking rods.

 

With the parts finally in we spent Friday at 3-T’s RV Products getting our fridge and 2 jacks repaired.  We are spending 2 more nights here to make sure everything is working okay before heading to Quartzsite, Arizona.  

We spent a week in Quartzsite, Arizona.  Quartzsite is probably the RV boondocking capital of the world. Quartzsite has become a mecca to visitors and exhibitors for rocks, gems, mineral specimens and fossils during the town’s famous two-month-long gem show and swap meet every January and February. From its humble beginnings the now-massive Quartzsite show has grown to RV-epic proportions with vendors offering everything under the Quartzsite sun. This was on Jerry’s RV bucket list to visit at least once.  We are visiting the end of October before the one million RVer’s start coming in.  They will have everything you might want for your RV along with many RV’s for sale.  

 

The most visited site in town is the Hi Jolly Monument.  The famed camel driver was born Philip Tedro, a Greek born in Syria. He converted to Islam and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, hence his first name, Hadji Ali. The American version of that became Hi Jolly. It was also a better name for a camel driver, which is what he was when he first came to this country as part of a U.S. Cavalry experiment in the 1850′s. He is by far the most colorful of the camel drivers because he remained in the desert southwest and became a prospector, scout and was a courier for what was called the Jackass Mail. He was a packer, hauling freight in the area also. Hi Jolly died in December of 1902, in what in now known as Quartzsite, Arizona. In his day the town was called Tyson’s Well, but the history does not stop there. In 1934 the Arizona Department of Transportation erected a monument over his grave. His grave became the beginning of the pioneer cemetery. The monument is a favorite of visitors to Arizona.

 

 

We took a road trip to California (only 17 miles west) then drove north on the Colorado River crossed back into Arizona at Parker then drove back south down the Arizona side of the Colorado.  The California side was a desert.  The Arizona side was very fertile and grows the most hay we have ever seen in one place.  We drove about 20 miles with hay fields on both sides.  Hundreds of stacks of hay, each the size of a pole building. 

 

The rest of the week was very quiet and restful after 2 months of heavy sightseeing.