Grand Junction, CO KOA (15 Sept)

Lat/Long:  39.03517, -108.52943

Location:  Grand Junction, CO KOA

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes

Bathroom: 10 yard walk

WiFi:  Yes

Shower:  Yes

Reserve on web at: http://www.koa.com

Site:  B1

After a 6 hour drive from Kodachrome State Park to Grand Junction, we were ready to call it a day.  There was a stretch of 110 miles where there were ZERO services.  No gas, no potties, no nothing.  Not to mention we left Kodachrome with a TON of wet clothes and gear.  We were desperate to do laundry, hence our stop here at the KOA.  There are some lovely state parks that surround this area and next time we’ll stop there as long as we don’t need a washing machine, shower and rest as soon as possible.  

We left this morning pretty early—as the sun was rising.  It was super foggy for the first 3 hours of the trip.  Gave some gorgeous views…only captured a few though, I could have stopped 70+ times to get shots as the sun burst thru the fog or a barn was lit up “just right.”  We really enjoyed Kodachrome a lot – we recommend that state park to anyone traveling thru the area for SURE! 

For the review on this KOA…thumbs down.  We usually have great experiences with KOAs.  They are clean, people are friendly and the sites are usually pretty nice.  This place…sites are on top of each other, staff is a little gruff and the bathrooms are NOT clean.  They look clean, but it smells as if a dirty mop has been cleaning those floors over and over and over again.  For the purpose of this visit though, can’t complain – got our laundry done, dried some stuff out, was able to cook some dinner, walk the dog, get a shower and sleep before getting on the road again. 

Until we meet again campers!  Next check in will be at home, only a few more opportunities to camp before the season closes…let’s all start hoping now for a SHORT winter!  ;) 

Kodachrome State Park, UT (12-15 Sept)

Lat/Long:  37.52988, -111.99231

Location:  Kodachrome State Park, UT

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes

Bathroom: 200+ yard walk

WiFi:  No (No Cell service either)

Shower:  Yes – FREE, 8 minute button push

Reserve on web at: http://www.ReserveAmerica.com

Site:  28…and also the “Camp Host” Site

After a 5 hour drive we arrived at Kodachrome Monday afternoon.  Was a gorgeous drive compared to last weeks trek thru Arizona.  As much as we loved the Grand Canyon, this place may be on the “Top 3” list of places to see.  Monday we spent setting up camp, showering, going thru all the wet things we brought with us from the North Rim.  It rained there EVERY DAY!  Not sure what the weather patterns are, but I have learned that the North Rim is in the path of a thunderstorm daily, often twice a day and sometimes in the middle of the night just to keep you on your toes.  It felt like everything we owned had a layer of rain on it. 

Kodachrome however seems to be the storm “brewer”.  It looks mean…but rarely rains.  I have taken note…they are moving SOUTH, towards the Grand Canyon.  ;)  The campground is perfecto!  It’s quiet, it’s out of the way of roads/noise, sites are spread out and boy oh boy, are we glad we have electricity again!  Dry camping was fine, but we did miss the ability to charge camera batteries, laptops, have light that we didn’t have to distribute out evenly between hours of the night, the ease of use to turn the thermostat from “Off” to “Heat Pump”, being able to listen to music…but the biggest concern was probably just light.  With the pine tree coverage and the storms, it stayed pretty dark.  Thank goodness for Coleman Lanterns though.  I think we probably could have run the furnace just fine as well as let the lights in the camper on a little longer then we did—but we were definitely trying to play it safe.  I’d dry camp again in a heart beat – easy money, we’re “old hats” now.  

Monday evening we took a nice jaunt around our campsite. There is a cool 2 mile loop that takes you up on top of some of these bizarre rocks.  Not sure why we didn’t bring any water with us, but lesson learned for a hike later on in the week.  Was a good little work out for us though. 

Tuesday we traveled to Bryce Canyon.  I’d been to Zion a few years ago and I remember the lady at the gate telling me to take some time and get to Bryce while I was in the area.  I remember mumbling to myself, “No time, see this (Zion) – continue on.”  I can see why she told me to take the time; it was breath taking.  When I visited Zion I thought that it was absolutely gorgeous…hard to imagine that there could be prettier places…there is:  Bryce Canyon.  We got up at 0530 despite Karon’s argumentative state, had a bagel, put on some warm clothes and headed to the National Park.  It’s 23 miles from here, so was an easy drive.  We arrived right as the sun was peaking over the horizon.  The other bonus about going so early is we missed the crowds.  We finished our “roadside” hike (also known as drive to the next view point before “that guy” gets there…you know, “that guy” that follows you around from view point to view point with his point and click…k, maybe it’s just me) around 10am, just in time to see the masses of tour buses roll in.  Lots of visitors from overseas, French, German and heard a lady at visitors center ask for a map in Czech.  Moral of this story…start early unless you want to be grouped with 100’s of “that guy”.  We stopped to eat at a diner for some chow and to steal some internet access to email all the parents as we have had very limited cell coverage this whole trip, which is fine by me! 

Wednesday…now this was a treat!  We got up, slept in as we had gotten our Bryce Canyon trip out of the way and planned to make a day here at the state park hiking.  We had a delicious breakfast and then got dressed accordingly, hiking boots, light jacket, cameras, water and of course the Kayle dog.  Now…little backstory here.  Anyone who knows Kayle knows she has an adversity to other dogs.  There is a lady who coincidently walks around in a “children patterned Snuggie” who owns a Doberman Pincher.  Every time they walk by our campsite Kayle goes crazy…hair up, barking with foam at the mouth…very protective.  So, back to the hike.  We take note…it’s a little overcast—but, it hasn’t rained since we’ve been here.  Why would it rain now?  .60 miles in rain, hard rain.  Luckily we were right by a cave (Indian Cave) and decide to wait it out.  We waited a good 10 minutes for the storm to pass and when we thought it had – we ventured on…mistake.  About .4 miles after the cave it REALLY started to dump, hard.  Mother nature decided an added bonus to the rain and bitter wind would be lightning.  At this point we are a little frantic, we immediately try and find shelter…we thought we had—we see where the cliff offered a little shelter.  With our heads down and a running pace we head for it.  Who’s there…Snuggie and her Bestest bud.  Karon out loud said, “Great, just our luck.”  So, we go FURTHER down the trail to find NOTHING.  If you can imagine it’s now raining harder so we do what makes sense, double back…Snuggie is gonna have to share and Kayle is going to have to make nice with the man eating friend or we could get struck by lightning.  

 

By the time we get back to the shelter, they had moved on so we sat…in the mud and waited…for the storm “to pass.”  This term “to pass” should have never entered our minds because it never did.  After we heard no thunder for 10 minutes, we started our trek back to the car—by Indian Cave the rain was no lighter, but no thunder or flashes of death light – so we continued.  The other factor we were dealing with was flash floods.  I’ve never experienced rain in the desert, but I now completely understand the term “flash flood.”  Rain finds that low spot and it runs and collects there at a very rapid pace.  With all the mud that is collected, I can see why they are so dangerous.  We made it back to the car, get back to the campsite and try and figure out what’s first – shower for us or Kayle.  Kayle gets the first round at the dump station, luckily the potable water was luke warm for her.  Then we head straight to the showers and notice it’s raining hard again.  We don’t think too much about the campsite, with exception as to how nice it will be to sit in the camper and enjoy a bowl of hot soup.  Upon arrival we both just groaned…flash flood—thru our campsite.  The cornerstone to every campsite…the green carpet is ruined.  Thankfully when we peeled it back, there was no mud there.  Brandon, a Utah State Park Ranger came to check in on us…noticed we had quite the issue with our tiny riverbed.  Offered us the camp host site, which we very thankfully took.  We did a very quick “three wolf moon pack up” and hustled over there.  Rest of the day we spent with our feet up and faces pressed against the windows.  Mother Nature put on a lovely showing of blue skies and some sun later in the day, but right on schedule as Brandon predicted it would…another scary scary storm.  We’ll definitely be sending Utah State Parks a nice letter about Brandon’s helpfulness.  

The National  and State Parks this country has to offer really are something else.  I can’t tell anyone to go “enjoy it”, but I would encourage you to take your own journey and appreciate what you see along the way.  We have only hit a minority of the parks out there, there are so many others that I would love to get to.  At the rate we are going (2-3 new ones each year) we’ll get to all of them by the time we’re 103.  ;)  My next big plan is to win the lotto, get a big Tacoma truck-put an Airstream behind it and go for a year or two from national park to national park.  After that I’ll apply to be a ranger somewhere.  Realistically…the lotto will never pan out, so I’ll retire from the Air Force in 5 years and apply for a National Park job, use my retirement paycheck to make payments on a Tacoma and an Airstream.  ;)  For now, the T@b is absolutely perfect for us.  It’s been a dream to have, hard to think we’ve had it for a little over a year—it’s made a lot of fantastic trips! 

North Rim, Grand Canyon (AZ) 8-12 Sept 2011

Lat/Long:  36.21025, -112.06088

Location:  North Rim, Grand Canyon

Electric Hook Up:  No

Water Hook Up: No (water available at different locations thru campsite)

Bathroom: 25 yard walk

WiFi:  No (Wifi at Grand Lodge)

Shower:  Yes – 1.50 for 5-7 minutes

Reserve on web at: http://www.recreation.gov

Site:  67

Wow.  What a place.  We arrived on Thursday, set up camp and drove down to get our first view of the canyon at the lodge.  What a view!  The awesomeness of the canyon is something you can’t explain in words or in pictures.  Neither would bring justice to it, you just have to see it for yourself. 

The trek thru Arizona went fine.  We left Durango around 6 am and arrived here at the Rim around 3 in the afternoon.  We made a few stops along the way for a few “left behind items” and stopped to take some pictures.  I was disappointed in how commercialized the Navajo tribe has made the sites of this gorgeous state.  We paid 6 bucks to see the 4 corners.  Cool, but not worth 6 bucks.  I wanted to stop at a canyon that I had seen a lot of pictures of near Page, AZ – however, 12 bucks a pop to go in and see that.  There were other areas as well that I would have loved to take some pictures of…but they were all at a cost.  Luckily the National Parks owned horseshoe bend – so got that.  It was a .5 mile hike (uphill both ways) in – definitely worth the hike, view and the stop. 

I was really surprised at our drive in – the beginning starts in Kaibab National Forest, which takes you straight into the North Rim Entrance.  The whole area is full of pine trees and aspens.  After driving a whole day in the Arizona desert I pictured a desert area surrounding the North Rim….totally wrong – couldn’t be more wooded.  

The campground is gorgeous.  This was our first experience dry camping.  So far, no issues.  It has gotten a little cold at night – enough for me to “think” about running the furnace.  But, it’s been ok without too.  About 4 am though, it’s mighty chilly.  To chilly to even think about getting up to turn the propane on.  During the day it’s very mild – mid 60s to 70s.  Thunderstorms rolled in everyday around 4 or 5 pm.  Thunderstorms like I’ve never seen anywhere else.  I’ve stood on 14,000 foot mountains and heard thunder…nothing compares to this lightning.  By the time you see the flash, the boom has already started.  The first crack we experienced scared the complete crap out of us.  The welcome newsletter warns visitors of this, it says – “If you should see or hear lightning or if your hair stands on end, RUN.”  Doesn’t say seek shelter, but simply RUN.  Rest of campground is very accommodating.  There is laundry available and little general store attached to campground.  If you drive about a mile south there is the Grand Lodge and other shopping areas (souvenirs, Post Office, Saloon, Sandwich place).  Lots of trails are accessible from the campground as well.  There is one that follows the rim all the way down to the Lodge and also one that follows the road down to the lodge.  Since we are on National land, no dogs allowed…except for trail parallel with road.  Kayle doesn’t seem to mind a bit that we aren’t walking on the rim.  ;) 

Another interesting thing we read in a ranger book is called the “Sipapu”.  This is within the bowels of the Grand Canyon.  The Indians say that it is a place to sacred for human eyes.  They believe it is the portal from which their people emerged into this world to light and into which the spirits of the dead return to darkness.  People hiking within the vicinity of the Sipapu can choose from a long list of torments:  nightmares, ghostly visions, violent episodes of vomiting, madness, lightning strikes, bone breaking falls, flash floods and death.  Woman and whites especially should avoid visiting the area.  So…we will be skipping anything remotely close to a place like this. 

 We still have a day to visit here, had some time this afternoon and thought now would be as good as time as any to update the blog.  Tomorrow we’ll pack up in the afternoon (pending thunderstorms of course) and be ready to roll bright and early Monday morning.  Bryce Canyon is next on the list, only about a 4 hour trip according to “the google”.  We’re staying at Kodachrome State Park, then it’s east bound thru the mountains towards home. 

Catch you on the flip, coming soon…Kodachrome State Park with some highlights from Bryce Canyon.  ;)

Happy Trails!

Durango, CO KOA

Lat/Long:  37.229, -107.804

Location:  Durango, CO KOA

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes

Bathroom: 50 yard walk

WiFi:  Yes

Shower:  Yes, and very clean!

Reserve on web at: https://www.koa.com

Site:  17

We have arrived in Durango, CO.  Only seven more hours to go after this.  ;)  This won’t be much of a review of this campsite as we are just stopping thru for the night.  But – the overall impression of this KOA is….BRAVO KOA!  Clean, nice people, everything works as advertised and it’s QUIET!  That’s the best part.  

Today’s drive went well.  We took 285 which is a back way, versus taking I-70 where I feel like I’m competing for a pole position at the NASCAR race.  Only had a few big mountain passes where I geared down – for the most part it was open plain driving.  We got a good start at about 10 to 7 this morning, battled with some fog and rain—nothing to serious. 

Plan to get up early tomorrow to beat the heat of the day.  Stopping at a few places to get some photos.  However, should be arriving at Grand Canyon around 3 or so…maybe early.  Kayle is doing great.  She’s outside enjoying the breeze and the silence…we do miss Chase, however his barking and whining…we do not.  ;)  Love you little buddy. 

Moving on.  More pictures from trip today then words about campsite.  Enjoy!

East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park CO (26-28 August 2011)

Lat/Long:  40.32778, -105.57722

Location:  East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes, but not at all sites

Bathroom: 100 yard walk

WiFi:  Nope, not even a cell signal

Shower:  FREE!!!  Beware, the website says there are NO showers…

Reserve on web at: https://www.larimercamping.com/

Site:  A01

Here we are again….our weekend escape.  We got an early start on Friday, arrived around 2:30 Friday afternoon.  We’ve become “regulars” I suppose…she handed me a receipt, pointed toward the wood pile and told me to have a great weekend.  No more checking in….they know exactly who we are.  Was able to set up, shower and kick our feet up to watch the “masses” check in.  Ironically, there really aren’t as many people as in past weeks.  Think it has a lot to do with school being back in session.  Campground was already pretty quiet prior to this weekend, however, it’s REALLY quiet now.  I would estimate that half the campground is occupied…if that.  The tent sites above us are almost empty minus a handful of people.

The bear has been back – Friday he stole himself a cooler in the middle of the night.  I was talking to someone closer to the scene of the crime, he said some lady let out a blood-curdling scream that sounded as if she was being attacked by Freddy or Jason.  There was a sighting of him Friday evening, I went up with camera in hand hoping to get a shot of him.  The campground host greeted me with a .45 and bear mace warning me to be careful.  Told him the same thing, especially if he got near my campsite in the middle of the night – I’d be greeting him with a  .357.  Two weeks ago he got a watermelon, I’m afraid when the ranger or the camp host gets near him he’s going to get himself killed.  He’s spent the whole summer here gathering pic-a-nic baskets and coolers…little to domesticated I’m afraid. 

Karon and I did some cleaning up of the T@b.  (this was by far our most productive part of the weekend.)  Thanks to Brian and Cole our trip to the Grand Canyon is on an all green GO GO GO status!  Both of them have done a lot of maintenance that we are just too ignorant to do ourselves.  The only thing we really have to do within the next two weeks is fill the tank with propane and check the tire pressure.  I think I have our route all planned out.  We plan to travel thru south Colorado vice going I-70 West thru the mountain pass.  This will give us a night in Gunnison or Alamosa.  I’ve never seen this part of the state, hear it’s beautiful!  On the way home we will more then likely travel I-70 with a sliver of a chance of stopping in Moab, UT.  We are very excited for the trip though, we have a 4 night reservation at the North Rim Campground and 4 nights at a state park outside of Bryce Canyon, UT.  I’m looking forward to getting pictures.  My hope is to fill and refill my memory cards many times over. 

 As far as weekend activity – there was none.  It was pretty magnificent!  We read a lot, played banana-grams, Sequence (board game), snacked, did a little organizing and that’s it!  Totally relaxing to just put our feet up and chill out.  It’s nice to be able to enjoy the days here.  Most of the masses go into town for a $12 burger, ice cream and a small trinket that probably says, “My Mom went to Estes Park, CO and all I got was this stupid plastic bear.”  So, it’s great to be able to shower whenever, take a short walk or just sit outside and listen to nothing.  Next few weeks will be busy with some photo shoots, shifts at work and regular weekly activities. 

See you next time FROM THE GRAND CANYON!  ;) 

East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park CO

Lat/Long:  40.32778, -105.57722

Location:  East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes, but not at all sites

Bathroom: 25 yard walk

WiFi:  Nope, not even a cell signal

Shower:  FREE!!!  Beware, the website says there are NO showers…

Reserve on web at: https://www.larimercamping.com/

Site:  A33

After a long week, it was very nice to escape to the mountains.  This place doesn't seem to get old for us.  Cole and Ashley met us up there again this weekend, they got a good head start on us as they arrived Friday around noon.  We had different spots this weekend that were a little separated, but it didn't stop group food gatherings and Canasta games.  When we packed this time, we did so while in a daze...arrived with no water tank, no food dishes for dogs....the Powells of course rescued us, felt like jerks though.  :)  I will be creating a checklist later tonight FOR SURE!  

Cole helped us do some MORE maintenance this weekend.  Put a new wheel hitch on the T@b and replaced our battery.  Hitch was a little work as we had to drive to about 5 different stores before we found one.  I had purchased one from a store here in Boulder prior to us leaving.  The dude told me, "Yes, all of them are universal, should fit no problem!"  Thanks buddy, you were very wrong--there was nothing universal about it--at all.  We'll be returning that ASAPLY tomorrow.  But--the adventure to find this one took us into town to see and battle traffic with all the Estes tourist shopping up a storm, packing local eateries, clogging up sidewalk and road traffic with looky loo's.  It was nice to drive back into our oasis of quiet.  

To make things exciting this weekend, we did something we NEVER have done while camping....drink.  Started with a few innocent drinks Friday night that turned into a "stop in" to the liquor store for re-supply Saturday which produced phrases Saturday night such as, "We killed both bottles, there are no more shots, Hey ya'll watch this, is it quiet hours right now?, I haven't felt like this in a long time, I need to sit down, I need to stand up, shhhhhh--it IS quiet hours right now-I think, I have to pee again!, I can't believe I did that".  All wrapping up on Sunday to phrases like, "That's why we only do that once a year, Where is the gatorade?, I feel "pretty" good, I can't wait to brush my teeth, do we have advil?"  All in all -- it was a great time.  Zero complaints.  

Cole and Ashley had quite the neighbors.  As we sat Friday playing Canasta we turn to watch newest arrivals position their pop up camper.  It seemed as if this may have been a "maiden voyage" or something as it looked as if it may turn into a train wreck. With some help from Cole they got positioned...as did we to watch the "set up" show.  Everything seemed to go ok until it came to hook up power.  They had power that flickered on and off at random, only seemed to turn on if you stomped on the floor with some gusto.  Cole tried different power, took apart the electric housing to check for lose connections, checked for bad breakers...all to not really find the problem.  However, his efforts definitely constituted him as "weekend hero" to those ladies.

The "ladies" named from left to right, Amy, Julia and Gina...who we affectionally named "Three Wolf Moon".  Why, mostly because there were three of them and we had two nights of a big, bright full moon.  And...b/c they continuously cracked us up.  Their drink of choice Friday night was Fat Tire mixed in with some sort of wine that we caught Julia holding by the neck and Gina and Amy sipping out of camper coffee mugs.  Whether Julia actually drank from this bottle or just carried it around, we'll never know.  Nonetheless, they all cracked us up.   Saturday night they had a formal presentation (please note:  Julia promised to sing and never did) where they had many words of praise for Cole for helping out with the setup.  They pooled "ALL" of their money to get him some fancy chocolate with an Estes Park label.  

The best part about these gals as I've been thinking about it all day long -- it was so refreshing to meet some down to earth people.  Amy, Julia and Gina reminded me that the four of us are all part of a family -- we're a daughter, a son, a sister, a brother, a neighbor, a friend.  While we'll probably never see those folks again -- it was a good reminder that we're all part of something bigger.  It's important to be sincere, genuine and polite...because in the end, we're all kind of connected.  We all got a lot of great laughs for sure.  We all enjoyed the company.  Best of luck next time "Three Wolf Moon" -- Bless YOUR heart!   ;) 

So, the rest of it consisted of animals and smores and fires.   Chase had a tough weekend as he spent most of it grounded in the T@b.  He could NOT help himself to STOP barking.  So, he was out to pee, stretch his little legs and eat.  His "hurt feelings report" status seems to have expired as he's cuddled on my lap now.  The other three dogs were well behaved as long as the gang leader (Chase) was put up.  Weekend was a great success on a lot of different levels.  Had a hard time packing up as I just wanted to stay up there to continue the bliss away from reality.  

Looking forward to next trip, where we'll have more laughs and the ability to enjoy the sensation of not having to look over our shoulder or worry about where to be at what time.  

East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park CO

Lat/Long:  40.32778, -105.57722

Location:  East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes, but not at all sites

Bathroom: 100 yard walk

WiFi:  Nope, not even a cell signal

Shower:  FREE!!!  Beware, the website says there are NO showers…

Reserve on web at: https://www.larimercamping.com/

Site:  A67

Yet, another great weekend spent away…from the grid.  This place is soothing to soul, for real.  This time we picked spots that were right next to each other as Cole and Ashley camped with us.  The spots are kinda out in the open, not as nice as A01 – but we turned the T@b around so we faced the door of their camper, so it’s ideal to say the least.  

Took a nice walk Saturday, walked all the way into the YMCA park – didn’t see any wildlife like we did last time.  But, when we got back we had a deer RIGHT by our campers.  Thank goodness all four puppies were tired, Ashley and I were able to get right next to it to get some pictures.

Coleman did a lot of little maintenance things that we needed help figuring out.  Fixed the track on our ceiling fan, taught us how and where our furnace was and checked our battery.  Which we learned is why we were blowing a fuse every time we hooked the thing up (it was pretty DEAD).  But, he’s a lifesaver as we are planning a big trip to the North Rim in September that will require dry camping…with use of the furnace as it gets SUPER cold there at night.  I swear we are always learning something new about this trailer with the help of our friends.  We sure love it to death. 

We plan to come back in a few weeks.  This time we couldn’t find sites next to each other (as Cole and Ashley will be coming up again too) which is a bummer, but I think we’ll be pretty close to each other which is great.  We have another trip after that in late August…at A01!!!  Woo-hoo!  ;)

Got some interesting neighbors Saturday night.  Oklahoma honeymooners (which we named “Two heart Palm Tree” based on their airbrushed license plates that you would get for 10 bucks at Myrtle Beach) is the story we decided to make up.  Their stay involved a pack of Budweiser, small tent and a charcoal starter.  They made for quite the people watching. 

This place is a best kept secret for sure.  People are nice, environment is GREAT, super quiet, super mellow – right up our alley.  If you are reading this—don’t share this spot with people we are trying to escape from!  ;) 

Happy Trails, see ya next time!