Fool Hollow Lake

This is a Arizona State Recreation Area in Show Low. There are stories behind the names Fool Hollow and Show Low. I'll explain that tomorrow if I remember. The Fool Hollow Lake is supposed to be 150 acres. It's now just 55. That pic is the boat ramp. The Monsoon has followed us here. I took that picture of the black cloud just before I dashed inside. We are here for 2 nights.

Peach 🍑 Springs day 2

We drove into town to get our permit to drive into the Grand Canyon on the Diamond Creek road and we found out 12 miles of the road is gone. The creek bed is the road apparently. So, that's strike 2 on that adventure. I got on my bike when we returned to the MP and during my exploring I saw a disc golf basket. #5. Very interesting! Disc golf is not advertised or promoted in any way by this campground. After some searching I found #1 and I rode the entire course. Jenny was up for some exercise and I haven't thrown a disc on this entire trip so, you guessed it. I think I have mentioned that I suk at Disc golf. Nothings changed. We finally did the Cave tour. It was beginning to rain and there was a very, very dark cloud approaching. We just ended the tour and we are witnessing what I am sure is a biblical flood. Update: it wasn't a biblical flood. There was a break in the rain and we made it to the car and to the MP. The cave is the largest dry cave in the US. It was outfitted as a bomb shelter during the Cuban missile crisis and all the supplies that were stashed in the cave are still there. Kinda strange but not much surprises me anymore. We move tomorrow but we will still be in Az.

Grand Canyon Caverns RV Park

We are just east of Peach Springs Az. That town is on the Hualapi Indian reservation. We are here to drive on Diamond Creek road. It's a 22 mile dirt road that leads to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. We were going to do the drive last year but an unfortunate series of events precluded that happening. In order to get on that road we need a permit from the Indian tribe. The only problem we have now is the Monsoon has started and the road washed out yesterday. It turns out that river rafters use that road so it's important for the tribe to keep it open. They are working on it as I speak or, as I post. Another problem that has just cropped up is that it's raining right now. That can't be good. The campground has no connectivity so I am posting from the restaurant. Jenny had a fry bread taco. She only ate half of it. We don't do leftovers in the MP. I'm leaving a plate full of fries. Is that TMI? Oh, I almost forgot, Peach Springs is on the old route 66. I'm trying to finish my fries but I just can't. We are here for 2 nights.

last day at Cathedral Gorge

We feel like we have seen this park so we decided to drive a few miles down the road and visit a couple of other parks. The first one we visited had a lake that was so low it was depressing. We kept at it and ended up at Spring Valley State Park outside of Pioche. This park had a lake also but it was nearly full. Turns out the valley has an abundance of springs that drain into the valley and keep the lake full. Since the valley is well watered there is a long history of Agriculture and there are a couple of historic ranch houses that are part of the park. We did a short hike behind one of the ranch houses to visit their spring. That rock is called tuff. It's a type of volcanic ash. It's hard to tell from the pictures but it is pink. We move tomorrow and should be in Arizona.

The Gorge day 2

The reason these weird formations are here is as follows: Many years ago, some time before Trump was born, this area was underwater. A large deep lake. Some long lasting volcanic activity deposited ash 1400 feet deep in the lake. The lake drained or dried up or something and left the thick layer of dried ash. It eroded over time into what we have now. This place has been a park since the '30s. The CCC was involved in making it a park. The campground has 22 sites and only 4 of them are occupied. This place is out there, way off the beaten path. We did a long hike this morning. Jenny thought me climbing that pinnacle would make a good pic. We are here one more day.

Cathedral Gorge State Park

Once you get out of Las Vegas and off the interstate the Nevada roads become pretty lonely. 85% of the land in Nevada is owned by the Federal government and as far as I could tell their doing nothing with it. We did have a scare right before we got here. The Sprinter lost power and I had a hard time getting up hills. The turbos quit. At least that's what I think happened. It's called limp home mode. We had several very long up hills and down hills and I was trying not to brake too much on the down hills so I used the engine brake to control my speed. I'm not sure that was the issue but I had a nice chat with the Google AI and she suggested a reboot. I think it worked. If the Turbos are fried so are we. This park has a number of trails, all of them are bikable. I will bike and we will hike some of them tomorrow.

Yermo California

On our way in we stayed here for one night. I think I mentioned we have to somehow get around Death Valley. We could have gone around it on the North side but there are a few things we want to see along the southern route. We are in the Desert and will be for awhile. It was 110° here today. We have to drive through Las Vegas tomorrow on our way to Cathedral George State Park. We have reservations for 3 nights there. When I made the reservation the park looked interesting but I'm not sure now, that it's going to hold our interest for 3 hot days. Cell and wifi might be a problem. There are 3 small towns near the park: Panaca, Pioche, and Caliente. Neither one of those places gives me any confidence that a Cell company would invest  money to insure the residents can make a phone call. I didn't take a single pic today. I'll see what I can find. More tomorrow-- maybe.

Lemon Cove day 5

Jenny and I both decided we didn't want to do either one of those drives again, so we didn't. We found a park in a small town near us that had a trail around a lake. That was today's hike. Of course it was 105° so we had the trail to ourselves. Our return trip home starts tomorrow. If we were to drive straight there it would be something like 2600 miles. We have planned several stops that make the drive something other than straight. We are probably 3 weeks from Habersham. I took not one picture today. It was just one of those days. Oh, I did get a haircut today in Vasalia. I am in the database of "Sport Clips" I just used the app and they knew what I wanted and I checked in and moved to the head of the line. It was sweet for me but sucked for the poor fools who weren't in their database. We are back in Barstow tomorrow. A couple of days ago we hiked the Congress Trail in Sequoia. There were two groups of trees along the trail that were named. These are pics of those groups of trees.

Kings Canyon

Last night Jenny paid for and downloaded an app that was a tour of Kings Canyon. Using her phones GPS the app knew where we were and gave us relevant information about what was coming up. It was pretty amazing. Anyway, that was cool but the drive up to the entrance station was another Angels Landing adventure. We are camped at 2000 and the Sequoias grow above 6000. I literally got a cramp in my right hand from gripping the steering wheel. Kings Canyon is a real canyon. The King river flows through the canyon. John Muir was very familiar with this area and played a part in having it protected. We drove up the canyon to a place called Roads End. It was the end of the road. At that point we had to return around and head home. We were out for 9 hours. We are both beat. Tomorrow is our last full day here. Not sure what we'll do 

Lemon Cove day 3

Today was a chill day. We drove into Visalia, the only real city close to us, and bought a few things. We did a few administrative tasks (laundry) and gave some thought to tomorrow. It's a pretty good drive to the visitor center at Kings Canyon, a little over an hour. That's our plan for tomorrow. I took no pics today. These were taken by Jenny on the houseboat.

Sequoia National Park

A lot to cover today. We headed for the park at around 9. The line of cars backed up at the entrance station was over a mile long. It took us 45 minutes to enter. Not a good sign. The 25 mile drive, gaining 4000 feet, is a nail biter. Dozens of 10 MPH hairpin turns made me think the road was an automotive Angels Landing. I had a trailhead in mind when we started the drive. When we finally got there, there was one parking spot left in the entire lot. We nabed it. We were out for 5 hours and saw a bunch of big trees. Our first stop was The General Sherman tree. It is the largest tree on the planet. 37 foot diameter, 103 foot circumference

estimated weight of 1400 tons, 2300 years old. There was a very long line of mostly Japanese tourists waiting to have their picture taken in front of it. Sadly, we didn't get in line. There were very many, very big, Sequoias that we saw on our hike that we did photograph. Too many actually. See pics. Today was so stressful that we are thinking about taking tomorrow off. I really don't want to do that drive again. We are here to also visit Kings Canyon. Hopefully, that drive won't be as exciting. More tomorrow.

Lemon Cove California

You would think a place called something "Cove" would be on a lake. Nope. We drove probably 30 miles through many square miles of citrus. I was blown away. All those trees had to be watered and we were driving through a desert. I'm not sure where the water came from but there had to be a lot of it. We are here to visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. This park is located in the foothills of the Sierras. In order to get to where the big trees are the road climbs 4000 feet in 25 miles. We'll do that tomorrow. The plan is to spend 2 days exploring Sequoia and 2 days in Kings Canyon. This is the farthest away from home we are going to get. When we're done here we"ll head East.

KOA Yermo California

We are just down the road from Barstow. Our destination is Sequoia and to get there we have to get around Death Valley. Because of that we were pretty much due west today and will be due North tomorrow. We were bombarded with billboard adds for a 50s style diner that just happens to be right here in Yermo. We drove over there and had lunch. There is also a Ghost Town a few miles away. We visited that tourist trap after lunch. The town we will be in tomorrow has a population of 400 so I have no idea how connected we will be. We will be in that spot for 5 days.

Day 2 Lost Wages

Lucky it cooled off today. It only 109°. The humidity is 4%. It's a really, really dry heat. This morning we made our way to the Sphere to attend a showing of The Wizard of Oz. The story is the same, the actors are the same, the music is the same but the experience is way different. The scene when Dorothy gets sucked up by the tornado was actually scary. We got blasted in the face with strong wind and leaves and debris were blown all over the theater. The seats vibrated when there was a thunderclap. After she got to Oz, half a dozen giant butterflies began flying around. The screen covers 180° both horizontal and vertical. A unique experience. We head further West tomorrow.

Lost Wages Nevada

We left 10,000 feet and are now at 2000. We left 49° and are now enjoying 110°. I am running out of a couple of my prescriptions. I texted our doctor in Beaufort and he had the prescriptions filled at a Walgreens here. That was our first order of business after we got set up. We drove around some after we did Walgreens and our collective opinion of this town is underwater. The heat might have something to do with our opinion but there is something about the over the top vibe here that is off turning. Tomorrow at 11 in the morning we will be sitting in The Sphere to watch their version of "The Wizard of Oz". I've been trying to figure out where we are going to park. Parking at The Sphere costs $50 so that's not going to happen. It sounds like we are going to have to hike. It should be below 100 at 10:30. Jenny took that pic as we left Cedar Breaks.

Cedar Breaks day 2

We started the day with a ranger led hike to identify wildflowers. One of the attractions here has to be the flowers. They are very abundant. That spikey plant has a story. It's called a monument plant. It grows as a ground covering leafy plant storing energy in its roots for 20 to 80 years. It then shoots that stalk up. The stalk is covered with 200 flowers that produce 60,000 seeds. Death soon follows. No one knows what causes it to bloom. Sometimes whole hillsides bloom the same year. Well, after that, we did the rim hike. There was a forest of Bristle Cone Pine trees along the rim. Most of them were healthy, green, normal looking trees. Some looked weird enough that we took a picture. I'm sure you know that those trees are the oldest living things on earth. Tomorrow we are at a KOA in Las Vegas. We have tickets to see The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere day after tomorrow.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

There is no air up here. I was out of breath just getting the camp set up. The air is cool, it has been in the 70s since we got here. We got here early enough that we were able to do some exploring. There are wildflowers in abundance everywhere. The scenery is spectacular but we are becoming somewhat callused to spectacular scenery. There are only a few hiking trails in the park. The canyon walls are too steep to allow any trails down to the bottom so all the trails are on the rim. We have no hookups at the campsite but there are flush toilets and believe it or not, showers. That's unusual but fantastic. Weirdly, the T-Mobile signal is the strongest and we happen to have a T-Mobile hotspot. We are powering it with our Jackery battery so all is well. More tomorrow.

Best Friends day 2

Today we will have a one way discussion on the Origin of the name (Escalante, Grand Staircase National Monument). I am not sure how Escalante got thrown in there but there is a town of Escalante where the monument headquarters is located. The stairs ascend from South to North with the bottom stair located at the Northern rim of the Grand Canyon. The steps are 5 gigantic rock layers extending from the Grand Canyon into Southern Utah. There are 5 steps. The Pink Cliffs, the highest and youngest layer can be viewed around Bryce Canyon. The Gray Cliffs, a sloping slab of sandstone. The White Cliffs: Jenny and I could see the White Mountains off in the distance during our drive today.The Vermilion Cliffs which are south of Page Az and the Chocolate Cliffs, the lowest and oldest step near Kanab, where we are now. The Monument covers 1.9 million acres. Bill Clinton established it in 1966. We move tomorrow to Cedar Breaks MN near Cedar City Utah. I've said this before but I don't believe we will have any cell while we are there. The campground is at 10,000 feet and the morning temps have been in the 40s. We won't be back in civilization until Tuesday.

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

We were here for a day earlier in the trip. The campground is immaculate with wide, cement, level pads. We are out of town and off the road so it is very quiet. This is a good place to recharge. We might do a drive tomorrow. The town of Kanab has a big shindig planned for the 4th. The main road through town is lined with lawn chairs so we figure there's going to be a parade. That road is the only way in or out of town so I'm wondering how that is going to work. We will probably do a scenic drive tomorrow that apparently has some local history stops. We have been exposed to so much scenery the last few weeks it becoming difficult to absorb any more. That flower is a Desert Willow.

Final Picture

Our next stop is Kanab. It's not far, which is good, because we need a day or 2 to decompress. We are now headed West and will be for a few weeks.

Day 4

One more day. As we have gotten closer to The marina unoccupied campsites that are acceptable to the mob have been more difficult to find. It took us a while to find this one. We are 18 miles from the end. Transition days are always a hassle. We are getting siked up for the inevitable. We move back into the MP tomorrow and the kids head to a hotel in Phoenix for their flights home on Friday.