Day 6: Mancos, CO

Stop 5 / State 4:  Mancos, CO

Today, we headed directly North (about 156 Miles) to Mancos, CO which is directly across the highway from the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park.  Two years ago, we made a circuit of most of the National Parks in the Southwest and only spent one night at Cortez, CO (a few miles from here).  We spent the afternoon in Mesa Verde but there was so much that we weren't able to see that we just had to come back.

Mesa Verde is the only National Park that is dedicated to the works of man rather than the works of nature.  During the 3rd-12th centuries, the Ancestral Puebloans built over 800 amazing cliff dwellings.  On our last trip, we were able to tour some of the ones that were open for self guided tours.  Tomorrow, we'll be doing some of the larger sites that can only be done with a reservation and a guide.

But first, our trip:

Today's trip was almost entirely across Indian reservations.  Nice roads, little traffic.  At one point, we were passing through one of the reservation towns when, suddenly, oncoming cars and trucks were flashing their lights and pedestrians were waving their arms and pointing behind us.  We decided that we must be on fire and pulled over.  An ambulance went streaking by us and everything returned to normal.  That's the thing about towing a trailer.  We have wide mirrors to see back along both sides of the trailer but, if someone stays behind the trailer, we have no idea that they are there.  I'm sure that, if the ambulance had been there longer than a few seconds, he would have made some noise or pulled out to where we could see him in the mirrors.

The main point of interest along todays route was a huge rock formation called Shiprock.  Kristen took many pictures of what we assumed was Shiprock only to learn that her pictures were of some rock that we can't find the name of.

In this first picture, that's actually Shiprock in the distance on the left:

Here's a closer look at the mystery rock.

Another mystery rock:

Finally, Shiprock!

Entering Colorado (someone had graffitied most of the signs for miles).

Finally, our campsite (that Mesa in the background is at the entrance to Mesa Verde NP):

-J-

Day 5: Gallup, NM

Stop 4 / State 3:  Gallup, NM

Even with a detour, today's leg was a much shorter 113 miles.  The detour was that we headed South out of Holbrook, entered the southern gate of Petrified Forest National Park and then drove back North through the length of the park.

We were surprised when we got back to I-40 that there was no onramp.  We had to loop out through the Painted Desert and back.  It was beautiful.  Wish these pictures did the colors justice.

Just before reaching Gallup, we crossed into New Mexico and changed to Mountain time (Arizona is also on Mountain Time but, since Arizona doesn't do daylight savings time (except on some of the reservations), we didn't experience the change until New Mexico).

Finally, our daily picture of the trailer in its new site.  We had the awning, chairs and table out earlier and stowed them away when it turned cold and windy.  Remembered to snap this picture just before it started to rain (it's sunny again now).

 

-J-

Day 4: Holbrook, AZ

Stop 3: Holbrook, AZ

Today was a shorter trip, about 120 miles and you're probably wondering, "Why Holbrook, Arizona?".  If that's the case, you'll be asking similar questions often during this trip.  Towing a trailer isn't easy and we're trying to limit ourselves to 150 to 200 miles per leg.  Sometimes, you have to make a couple of stops in between the places that you really wanted to see.  Holbrook is one of those.  It's kind of fun to get to those kind of places and try to figure out what there is to see there.

First of all, our campsite:

It looks a little bleak but that's Holbrook.  Holbrook is the gateway to the Petrified Forest National Park (more about that tomorrow) and there's a huge collection of petrified logs next to the campground office.  They were apparently unearthed when they were grading the property to make the campground.

When we checked in, Kristen asked about things to see in the area and received a few suggestions.  The first suggestion was that we visit the museum at the old Navajo County Historic Courthouse.  We did and we enjoyed it.

Our second spot was real pay dirt for fans of the Cars movies (don't know any of those).

 

-J-

Day 3: Williams, AZ (cont.)

Still in Williams, AZ

Great day but not a lot to talk about.  Today was our day to visit the Grand Canyon.  Once we found a parking place (not easy on a Saturday), we caught the shuttle over to the El Toval where we had a wonderful lunch in the dining room.

After lunch, we went for a long walk along the rim.

 

It's probably worth mentioning that Kristen's hair dryer tried to blow itself up this morning.  After an extensive effort we've decided that Williams's, Arizona is not a hair dryer town.  In the meantime, Kristen has decided to live with funny hair until we get to someplace where we can find a new dryer (Gallup, NM looks promising).

 

-J-

Day 2: Williams, AZ

Stop 2 / State 2:  Williams, AZ

After getting up early and walking back down to the river, we got everything together and hit the road before 9:00 AM.  At 184 miles, todays trip was much shorter.  Unfortunately, today was a lot gustier, making towing a trailer a bit of a challenge.

Shortly after starting out, we crossed the first state line of the trip and thought it worth documenting (apologies for the blurriness, but it was taken through the windshield of a moving truck)

We were very pleased with The campground here.  It's the first of many KOA campgrounds and, to tell the truth, we were a little bit worried about what a KOA Kampground (their spelling) might be like.  This one is roomy, and has lots of trees.  They even had a guy in a golfcart lead us to our site and direct us in.

Williams is at nearly 6800 feet and much cooler than Needles.  It was in the mid-60's at when we arrived at noon.  We'll probably need to break out the heater tonight.

On a side note, on our first camping trip, we noticed that the RV heater is loud and only needs to come on for a few minutes every 30 minutes or so.  After a sleepless first night we ran down to Target (every campground needs a nearby Target).  And bought a tiny space heater that is meant to go under your desk to keep your feet warm.  It's perfect!

Side Trip:  Sedona

We're in Williams for 2 nights an want to get to the Grand Canyon and Sedona.  After getting our trailer all hooked up and grabbing a little lunch, we took off for Sedona.  We did a little sightseeing, I bought another pair of my favorite shorts (we've found them on the internet but Sedona has the only store that we know of that carries them), and we had an early dinner at a favorite restaurant from a previous trip.

 

-J-

Day 1: Needles, CA

Starting Out

Had a very rough day yesterday.  I nearly killed the computer and was online with Microsoft until 11:00 PM.  Lost files were recovered but some applications, including Skype, still are MIA but won't install because they are already there.  They're not there enough to uninstall but Windows 8 thinks they are there.  Love it.

We were up at 4:00 AM to shower, eat (drink lots of coffee), do our last minute loading and take off.  We finally set out just before 6:00 AM.  

 

Stop 1:  Needles,CA

At 258 Miles, this was the longest planned leg of our entire trip (there aren't a whole lot of desirable stopping points once you start across the Mohave).  Nice campsite but it's 102° outside.  Good test for the AC (works great).  No cable here so we finally got to test the antenna on the trailer.  Got 30+ channels so we're in good shape.  Didn't get anything on the Leaf antenna but that may still be operator error.

Took a walk down to the river after it started to cool down (still 100° but the absence of direct sun makes a huge difference).  Took some pictures of the Colorado.

 

Kristen (upstream):

 

Me (downstream):

 

Some beautiful Palo Verde trees:

 

We've never seen quail near the water but here they are:



 

 

-J-