Tuesday, April 25, 2017

On the Road Again

Posted from near Page, AZ
(Click on Pics to Enlarge)

Although we had a great time during our winter stay at Palm Creek Golf and RV in Casa Grande, AZ, we felt it was time to hit the road again.  After all, fulltiming to us is exploring new locations and learning about people and places.

So with that thought in mind we've planned half of our summer destinations thus far and have decided to tour the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona before returning to Palm Creek in the fall.

We left Palm Creek on April 23rd.  Many of the "winter crowd" had already departed and spaces are now plentiful.  Our first destination is near Page, AZ, a short drive of a bit over 300 miles, but we are in no hurry so we overnighted near Cottonwood at the Verde Valley Thousand Trails. This TT campground seems to be very popular in the winter and we attempted, on several occasions, to secure a spot via online reservations before actually securing one.  We found out that one of the reasons that a spot is hard to book is because the park still has a large number of sites "unavailable" due to the upgrading of their electrical system. Nothing special here, just one night and gone the next morning.

We've never visited the Page, AZ area, but thanks to our friends Paul and Laura they steered us toward a campground named Wahweap RV Park. To be honest, it's more expensive than we usually spend (about $48.12 per night with taxes), but we are so glad that we decided to take their advise and book here for a 6-night stay.

The campground is right on Lake Powell and the views are beautiful.

We are staying in a FHU section of the campground. There are 139 FHU sites. All of the roads are paved and in excellent condition. They are easy to maneuver by the largest MHs.

The sites are all paved with either a back-in or "loop-like" pullthru.









Our first order of business upon arriving at a new destination is to head to the local visitor's center and secure guides and information to use to plan our stay.  Being totally unfamiliar with this area, we didn't know what to expect.  After looking at brochures and maps from the NPS and doing a bit of online research, it is clear that 6 days probably will not be long enough to visit.  That's ok, because we can always return!

We headed north on Hwy. 89 from our CG and traveled to the Visitor's Center for the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument located in Big Water, UT (our CG is right on the AZ-UT border). We arrived on Tuesday and it appears that we had not done enough research.  This Visitor's Center is currently closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

We do plan to return on another day, because later in the summer we'll be exploring part of this National Monument from further north in UT. Looks like a neat place from the outside.

The next planned stop today was at the Carl Hayden Visitor Center beside the Glen Canyon Dam.

The visitor center is located right off of Hwy. 89 at the dam. We later learned that Hwy. 89 was an engineering feat in itself, because prior to its' construction a journey of 200 extra miles was needed to get to the location on the other side of the Colorado River.


Tours of the Glen Canyon Dam seemed reasonable at $5 per person, so that sounded like an educational thing to do.  NOT!  I guess they saw the Fischers coming, because the elevators which transport people to the hydroelectric workings of the dam at the base were not functioning today. We'll attempt this tour again on another day.

We concluded today by taking a short hike down from the scenic overlook just below the dam. This turned out to be a great photo-op location for taking a few pictures of the entirety of the dam.

Here's a picture of the Colorado River as it continues the journey beyond Glen Canyon Dam. The canyons are gorgeous everywhere we look here.

Hopefully, a future blog will have a few more pictures of the dam itself.

We see many adventures ahead for this summer.  If we have decent internet access, I'll attempt to do a better job of making posts in a more timely manner than in the past.

Thanks for dropping by to take a look!

8 comments:

  1. I like your campground. When we were in Page we stayed at a different one that was not nearly as nice. We also liked Horseshoe Bend and thought it was worth seeing. I kicked myself for not seeing Antelope Canyon. I thought it was too expensive but those swirls in the canyon walls would have been wonderful to see. Now its on my list as a reason to go back... I think you are right -- lots to see from that area! Great photos!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We will definitely be doing Horseshoe Bend. There is an Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon tour, but they are all required to be guided by the Navajo as it is on the Navajo Reservation. The base price for both of these tours is now $25, plus an additional $8 to enter the Navajo land. We found another canyon tour of Canyon X (which is also on Navajo land), but is supposed to be much less crowded. Will let you know how that works out for us.

      Delete
    2. Sorry we missed you at Verde Valley. We arrived on the 22nd and will leave on the 1st. Antelope Canyon is beautiful. Spend the money. I think you will enjoy it.

      Delete
  2. We left the SKP Saguaro Co-op on Saturday morning 4/22 & arrived at TT in Cottonwood for a 9-day stay. We are in section C (near pool) with poor Internet service. Leaving on 5/1 for Nevada & Washington State before heading to Thayne, WY for the summer. We, too, stayed in the same RV park on the lake. A boat tour on the lake is worthwhile. DO NOT MISS Antelope Canyon...it is a must. Safe travels. Lynn & David Cross

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry we missed you two at the TT. Yes, we will definitely be doing Antelope Canyon. Trying a different part of the canyon (called Canyon X) on the recommendation of many folks here. The other two (upper and lower)seemed to be very crowded and the tours are really rushed through. Will report on how this tour goes in a future post.

      Delete
  3. Glad to hear your motorhome started after its winter nap. Looks like you get some good wear on your tires with all the traveling you're going to do.
    After all, there is more to life than just pickle ball... :cD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're always very happy when it cranks up after sitting for a bit. "After all, there is more to life than just pickle ball." Bite your tongue! Seriously, we are enjoying exploring new areas again.

      Delete
  4. The bridge and dam are really impressive. Looks like a good spot to spend a week.

    ReplyDelete