Barracks Trail, Hurricane, UT

Wednesday was a long day. The Barracks Trail leaves from Hurricane, UT and winds it way north to the eastern entrance to Zion National Park. The return was on the highway through the park to Hurricane and on to St George. The trail itself is forty-four miles long, but totals 145 miles when the highway segments are considered.

We visited more dinosaur tracks. The tracks the other day were direct imprints in the sandstone. Today’s prints are cast, meaning the original imprint was filled with material that calcified and are now preserved in relief.

It is a very scenic trail, but not without its challenges since there is a good bit of sand. Here one of our group needed to be strapped back on the trail from the edge of a substantial drop off.

We had lunch in a stream bed, but it was too cold to set up chairs. We all ate in our respective jeeps before continuing on. From this point on to Zion National Park we managed twenty-four water crossings of various depths. The lead Jeep was breaking the ice on the river. As we crossed we could see ice in some places that was nearly an inch thick. I think this was the day that I read Florida was experiencing a heat index of 100 degrees.

The drive through Zion came at the perfect time of day to light the canyon.

This was the night of the wine tasting contest. Six wines were served. Each was presented in a black glass to hide its color. We were to guess its color, varietal, and year. We guessed blindly for the most part, but still came away with nice hand made wood cutting/serving boards as prizes.

Toquerville Falls, Toquerville, UT

Tuesday had us on Toquerville Towers and Falls Trail departing from the wonderful little town of Toquerville, UT.

Our first stop was the top of the mountain behind the town. This is the site of communications towers serving cell phones and local business radio systems. Great view from here.

We had lunch at the falls. The next morning these falls were frozen over.

West Rim Upper, St George, UT

Our first full day on trails had us on West Rim Upper Trail. Interesting stops included the ruins of Fort Pearce an outpost used by the Army from about 1867 to 1870 I believe. The wall leading away in the photo is a remnant of the coral. The actual fort is the small stone structure in the distance. It must have been harsh duty, the longest dimension of the building is only thirty feet.

We continued on to a wash that features dinosaur tracks. There were quite a few imprints of varying size. The one pictured was about a foot in length and is believed to be made by an animal eight feet high at the shoulder and about twenty feet long.

In hundreds of acres of dunes in the State Park we managed to find the one composting toilet.

The views at our lunch spot were beautiful.

Did I mention it is getting in the twenties at night here during Halloween week?

Double Sammy, St George, UT

Today  we attended a trail leader class that involved about three hours of classroom discussion followed by coaching on how to spot jeeps through obstacles. The field work was done on the Double Sammy trail nearer Sand Hollow State Park.

Our club is the FMCA 4Wheelers. The group is approaching its twenty-fifth anniversary and is one of the largest chapters in the Family Motor Coach Association with over four hundred active member families. It is a mature group that advocates safe off highway use of street legal vehicles and responsible use of public lands.

Temple View RV Resort, St George, UT

Pleasantly surprised to find it pretty warm here, too bad we didn’t dress for it. Setting up got a bit warm. Looks like shorts weather for at least a few days.

The drive up was uneventful other than losing a hubcap somewhere along the way. A casualty of the ignored infrastructure.

The mid-point driver change took place with a view of Lake Mead just before plunging into Las Vegas traffic.

We are going to be here for sixteen days, so posts will only occur when there is something of interest to share. Next week we will be out on the trails, so there should, be some photos.

Blake Ranch RV and Horse Motel, Kingman, AZ

We got a late start to a planned short drive day. Our bedroom slide would not retract and it took a couple of hours trouble shooting to resolve the issue. That included removing nearly everything in the  basement storage bays. Amazing the stuff you find when you do that, but that is beside the point.

You know how when you are searching for something it is always in the last place you looked? You wish you looked there first, right? That was my morning. Because the hydraulic pump worked I thought the problem involved low fluid and I went through a lot to find the leak and figure out how to get to the hidden reservoir to add fluid. After I did as much troubleshooting as I could on my own I called Tiffin Tech Support. After the obligatory wait on hold I got a tech who took some time trying to understand my system configuration. I think I was his first call after a big lunch. He went directly to fuses which surprised me since the pump was working. Yes, grasshopper, but fluid was not flowing to that slide while it did flow to the other slides. Each slide has a electric solenoid which sends fluid from the pump to the slide actuator. It is electric. Check fuse. Fuse bad, problem solved. Lesson learned. Do the simple stuff first.

It was a nice, but occasionally bumpy, ride to Kingman where we checked in at Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel. It is a nice place with friendly staff. Besides RVers, they accommodate horse owners traveling cross country. They have a few sites where trailers and tow rigs can hookup, and there are stalls and exercise areas where the horses can stretch their legs. Barbara wanted to go visit the horses until advised that they usually arrive during happy hour and leave at sunrise. Barbara would prefer not to miss the former, and definitely miss the latter.

Winslow, AZ

We spent our down day checking out things around Winslow. A great part of the day was actually spent driving since Winslow was twenty miles east of the campground and from ether we drove another sixty miles north to visit the Hopi Cultural Center. The cultural center museum was informative and held many photographs of Hopi life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There are also many samples of weaving, basket making and pottery. Of interest was learning that Hopi potters did not shape bowls on a wheel, but used the coil method to build up the bowl shape. Long ropes of clay were made and then wound on top of one another to shape the bowl. If the bowl was meant to be painted a thin scraper was used to smooth the sides of the bowl, otherwise bowls used for cooking were just smoothed by hand with perhaps some personalizing design pressed into the lip. Sorry, no photos since it was quite dark in the museum.

Back in Winslow we had a great late lunch at the Brown Mug Cafe. They specialize in Mexican food, but have other things on the menu.

After lunch we visited the “Standing on the Corner Park”. It is something of a Mecca for Eagles fans.

Meteor Crater, AZ

We are going to take a day off here to rest up and visit Winslow. Any Eagles fan would.

Barbara prefers to take the first shift driving, and that left her with the worst leg yesterday.  Even though research said the first reasonable rest area for a change of drivers was close to three hours west she went with the first leg again this morning. Wouldn’t you know that rest stop was closed when we got to the Arizona border! She stuck it out a bit longer, but with no rest stops for another hundred miles she finally chose a wide spot on the shoulder of I-40 and we did a quick swap. That was fine for Barbara, but not Bella. She was letting us know she needed out, so we eventually found a gas station with a large lot near some brush and pulled in. The coach and Jeep are now covered with dust. A good downpour would be nice to rinse things off.

Two hours later we pulled in to Meteor Crater RV Park just off I-40 on the access road to Meteor Crater National Landmark. The crater is pretty cool, but we have been there before so we will skip it this time.  Guests at the park get a discount at the crater. Another perk is a five cent per gallon discount on fuel at the gas station adjacent to the campground. Diesel is already reasonably priced for the area, so we will take advantage of the discount when we leave.

This is a nice park. It is well maintained and they have a recreation room for guests, camp store, laundry, and complimentary coffee in the mornings. Like most parks in the southwest it is dusty, but there are plenty of trees for shade and a couple of grassy areas with tables where people can congregate. It is something of an oasis since the surrounding area is treeless.

Cline’s Corner, NM

We knew we would not want to drive seven hours to get through Albuquerque to the RV park we have used in the past. Options for stopping short of Albuquerque, yet get the mileage we need, are limited. Cline’s Corner is an area we have passed through, but thought it a bit rough. New owners have evidently turned that around. The travel center has been expanded and has considerable paved parking. We were interested in overnight camping and an online check looked promising. As it turns out they have recently redone the camping area. All roads are paved. All utilities are new. It is spartan, yes, but great for an overnight. Up at the travel center there is a restaurant and other services if needed.

We were listening to the Virginia Tech vs North Carolina football game that went into 6th overtime so we did not venture up to the travel center. By the way, the Hokies managed to win that game.

The over the air TV here is magnificent thanks to antennas on Sandia peak, so we are enjoying a nice overnight break before another long day on the road tomorrow. Verizon has four bars of LTE  service here, so internet is quite good.

We are on schedule so will take a down day in Winslow, AZ.

Olde Towne Cotton Gin, Quanah, TX

This was a brutal day’s drive. Going through Dallas is never fun, but today it was particularly bad. It took an hour to pass through on I-20 to I-635. We gave up on the plan to take 635 to 35E to 380 due to the number of wrecks making the interstate unbearably tied up. We cut across to 114 to 287. It made for a very long first driving shift for Barbara and poor Bella had to go a very long time before her potty break. There just wasn’t any good  place to pull the big rig over for a break until we reached Decatur, TX.

We arrived at our campground just at five and since we had pre-paid we were able to just pull into our site and setup. The office was still open checking in a young international couple in a rental RV, so I went in and picked up some ice cream as a reward for Barbara having such a rough drive this morning. I like those kinds of rewards because I get some too!

We have enjoyed stopping here several times now. The campground is on the site of an old cotton gin, and the main building that housed the gin is still here. It is now a nice social hall for guests. Even on the hottest days we have found the air flowing through the large open doors to cool the interior to a comfortable level. There is a nice pool out back, too.

Another six plus hour driving day is ahead tomorrow.

Longview, TX

It has been awhile, but we are on the road again. We are westbound headed to St George, UT to join the FMCA 4Wheelers for some jeeping fun.

For those reading that are looking for RV park information we can highly recommend our present stopping point. Just inside the Texas line westbound on I-20 is the Fernbrook RV Park in Longview, TX. It is two miles off the interstate and very quiet. The property is immaculate and the staff are wonderful. We are not unhooking the toad, so can’t say for sure, but it does not appear that there are any restaurants or shopping nearby. I am sure they are out there in the town of Longview, just not real close.

The Louisiana interstates continue to beat you up pretty bad, but they do seem to be working on improving I-10. Interstate 49 had some nice spots, but damn, most of it was like riding a hobby horse. We will be revisiting it next month as we return by way of Natchitoches for catfish etouffee at Momma’s Oyster House.