May 2003
just
a few miles west and south of Cortez. We drove into the Navajo Nations
land at Four Corners, paid our entrance fee and parked The Rolling Home
behind the many stands set up by Native Americans to sell jewelry, Fry
Bread etc. We walked to the exact spot where Utah, Arizona, Colorado
and New Mexico come together and took the requisite pictures of each other
standing in all four states. We did a little window shopping and
then went back to the rig to eat lunch.
As we often do, we turned on the sat tv dome to watch the news as we were eating and decided to stay there until President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier on his trip to greet the troops as they returned from the middle east. It is just too cool to be able to watch something like that while sitting out in the middle of nowhere with no shore line connections!
After watching President Bush trap on the carrier,
we headed on west to Monument Valley. We pulled into Goulding's RV
park, situated in a red rock canyon just to the west of Monument Valley.
The next day, we took a tour into the valley, seeing lots of sights that
we are all familiar with. Lots of commercials are made in this area
as are lots of movies. A great number of John Wayne's westerns were
shot here and one of the highlights of our tour was a Navajo man astride
his horse on John Ford's Point. This is where director John Ford
liked to sit while his westerns were being filmed. Gouldings was
$25 a day, but it was spectacular scenery and well worth it. 
We left Monument Valley on May 3 and moved on to Moab. The road from Monument Valley to Moab is very scenic and went through a number of small eastern Utah towns. One of these towns was having a parade and we had to pull off the road to let this parade complete its course. We were delayed for about an hour, but what the heck, we didn't have anything important to do anyway!
We rolled into Moab in mid afternoon and stayed at the OK RV Park. This is a Passport America Park, so it costs us $10 a day and we stayed 8 days.
While getting set up at Moab, I saw a fellow walking his dog who looked familiar to me. It turned out to be Paul Bernhagen. Paul and his wife Stephanie are fulltimers who left their engineering jobs in Colorado when they were in their 30s. Stephanie has written a book on Rving called "Take Back Your Life, Live and Travel in an RV". Paul taught one of the classes we attended at Life on Wheels several years ago and they were parked next to us for a week or so at LOW. We first met them at our first Escapade in 1999 in Goshen, IN. There were several other "Boomers" in Moab that week and we all got together to celebrate one of them having a birthday (it ended with a 0 and we will leave it at that).
While at the birthday dinner, we ran into Tim and Jan Johnson. We first met them in Dawson Creek, BC in 2000 on our way to Alaska. We saw them again at the Liard Hot Springs. They have a lot at Saguaro in Benson, AZ ( an Escapee Co-op) but everytime we stopped to see them there, they were gone!
While we were in Moab, we went to Canyonlands National
Park. We did not go to Arches since it was raining both days we planned
to go there and we had been there before. 
We left Moab on May 11, intending to stop in Richfield, UT and then go on to our summer workplace near Bryce Canyon, NP. However, it was only a hundred miles or so on to Cannonville, so we headed on in.
We arrived at the Cannonville/Bryce Valley KOA in the early evening and picked a spot to nest for the summer. One of the owners, John Holland and his wife Marsha, drove over from their house to meet us a little after we got in and we had a nice little chat before settling in for the night.
We spent the next few days getting to know the immediate area around us and going into Bryce Canyon NP, just 12 miles from the campground.
We started our jobs on Thursday, the 15th. As
of this update, we have been here two months. We have traveled 
to Capital Reef National Park, a little over a hundred miles north and
east of us, Bryce Canyon NP several times, Zion NP about 90 miles southwest
of us and several state parks and the Grand Staircase Escalante National
Monument. The Monument starts right behind the KOA and goes all the
way to Lake Powell and the Colorado River.
These pictures are of the Navajo Trail in Bryce Canyon.
Navajo Trail goes down from the rim into the canyon, passing through a
slot canyon called Wall Street. As you come out of this loop trail,
you will see a double natural bridge. Navajo Trail descends 521 feet
into the canyon and of course, you have to climb 521 feet to get out!
It amazes us how many folks hike these trails without proper footgear and water. We have seen folks down on the canyon floor in flip flops and with absolutely no water. These are wild and primitive areas and heat stroke or twisted ankles are very common. Trust us, when the sign says wear good hiking shoes and take water, you should follow those directions.
We have also hiked in the Grand Staircase Escalante
National Monument. One day, we drove into the monument
to see the Grovesnor Arch and another day we hiked
part of Willis Creek, a slot canyon about 10 miles from us. We plan
to go back to Willis Creek soon and hike to the confluence of Willis and
Sheep creek where there are some petroglyphs.
We would like to visit the Cedar Breaks National Monument
which is about 65 miles west of us. However, we have been up
there twice and the Monument was still closed up until about 10 days ago,
due to snow. (its June 16 today)
The first trip to Cedar City for groceries was about
May 20th. The pass (10,000 feet) still had lots of snow and
Navajo lake near the top was still frozen. Now in mid June, the pass
is almost snow free and the Monument is open.
The second picture above is Zion Canyon National Park viewed from about 10,000 feet on Utah route 14 on Cedar Mountain.
We have so many pictures from May that I am have delayed doing this update trying to decide which ones to use. I was going to post them all, but for dial up folks, it would just take to long to load them. We also have pictures of some trips up Utah Highway 12, which goes right by the KOA. This road is a National Scenic Byway and is just awesome. There is one point on this road where you can see more land than in the state of Connecticut or the country of Luxembourg! The picture below is of Powell Point. This landmark can be seen for many miles here in South Central Utah and was used by John Wesley Powell when he explored the Colorado River and Grand Canyon as a survey marker.
Our May adventures included Monument Valley and Four Corners, Moab, Canyonlands NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Kodachrome State Park and Canyonlands NP. There is so much to do here and so little time! Actually, we have most mornings off, going to work at 3 p.m. and we normally have from Tuesday afternoon to Friday afternoon off to go exploring.
The June update will include Zion NP, St. George, UT, Cedar Breaks National Monument and more hiking!
Camping for May $ 130.00
Diesel Fuel for May $164.87
LP for May
$ 20.00
Return to 2003