7. Utah

Drove 3 hours into Utah to Natural Bridges National Monument. Arrived at 10:30AM, and got one of the last available campsites - no hookups. May is the busiest time of year for the Utah National Parks and Monuments, and campgrounds fill up very early.  Spent the rest of the day hiking down to and up from the 3 beautiful arches that make up the park.

Next morning, drove another 3 hours to Canyonlands National Park, the Needles section (this park has 3 huge sections). Arrived around 10AM and tried to find a campsite inside the park, but they were all full. Luckily, a ranger directed me to a site where the people were getting ready to move to the group area, so got the last open site in the park.  Lots of Europeans were there; this is the norm in Utah in May, as they rent motorhomes for 2-4 weeks from Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and do the National Park driving loop. Used my motor scooter to drive around the Park, and did a few hikes. The scenery was amazingly beautiful. (Camera had bad dates so it shows April.)

Next morning, drove another 2 hours North through the town of Moab, then another hour to the "Island in the Sky" section of Canyonlands National Park. At the start of the drive was a layby called "Newspaper Rock". Pictographs a thousand years old.

Spent the day touring this section of Canyonlands, which was very crowded as it was so close to Moab. My camera does not show the views well, but they were spectacular, looking down to the Colorado and Green rivers.

That evening drove back into Moab, where I stayed at an expensive campground for 4 nights. It was nice to have electric, water and showers after two nights of dry camping.  Took a day off and rode my bike around Moab. Following day toured Arches National Park, on my motor scooter; it is only about 10 minutes drive North of Moab. Most crowded place I had been to so far, with loads of Asian bus tours.  Nice, but way too crowded for me.

Following day, drove my motor scooter on a windy road by the Colorado river. Really nice drive with cliffs and rapids.

Next morning, left Moab and drove North and West to Capitol Reef National Park. Stayed in their beautiful campground called Fruita, in the middle of an orchard. Rode my bicycle all around and did a bunch of hikes. A real nice place, and not crowded like the parks around Moab.

Next day, drove 3 hours West and South over a 9,200 ft. pass to Bryce Canyon National Park. Stayed two nights at a private campground 10 miles outside of the Park.  Drove my motor scooter around which was real cold in the morning as the Park is at high altitude. Renee Schneider said this was her favourite national park and I agree with her as the scenery was spectacular.

After two days of Bryce, drove to Zion National Park. This was Memorial Day weekend, so was lucky to get into a private campground 13 miles outside of the park. Used their shuttle bus for the first day, then my scooter for the second day. The park was super crowded as was to be expected. Did almost all of the easy and moderate hikes, some were good, others way too crowded to enjoy.

After 3 days at Zion, drove 3 hours South and East to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. About halfway, stopped for an hour at Pipe Springs National Monument, which was a real nice surprise. Took the short tour of "Winsor Castle", and checked out the animals.

6. Arizona

First stop was Chiricahua National Monument in Southeast Arizona, home to lots of really nice rock towers. Spent the night in their campground (dry camping -no hookups), and did some hikes that evening and the next day.

That afternoon, drove to Tombstone, "the town too tough to die".  This is where Wyatt Earp had the shootout at the OK Corral. Spent two hours walking the main street, running into loads of old men with long greasy grey hair dressed up as cowboys trying to get the tourists to come into their bar, restaurant or souvenir shop.  Glad I stopped there to see it, but it was a bit too much of a tourist trap for me.

Spent the night in an RV park close to Tombstone, and next day drove to Kartcher Caverns State Park, about an hour East of Tucson.  Took the tour there which was nice as these caverns were only discovered in the 70's and they took their time to set up the tourist facilities there so the formations continue to grow (unlike Carlsbad Caverns which stopped growing due to the way the visitor access was set up).  No pictures are allowed to be taken.
That afternoon, drove to Tucson where I stayed for 3 days (May 5-7).  Visited both the Eastern and Western districts of Saguaro National Park, home to the giant cactus and did some of their hikes.

Also visited the Pima Air Museum (3rd largest in the US) and took a tour of "the Airplane Graveyard" on the adjoining Davis-Montham Air Force Base. This is where they store about 4,000 military airplanes which are not currently needed. Was great to see, but couldn't help thinking about the government waste.

After Tucson, drove 2 hours North to see Casa Grande National Monument, an old multi-story ruin, pre modern Indian.

Spent the night in Coolidge, then next day drove north of Phoenix to Montezuma Castle National Monument, yet another multi-story pre-Indian ruin. Very crowded with tourists as it is close to Phoenix.  About 30 minutes away is a sister site called Montezuma Well which was much nicer and more interesting as it had cliff dwellings, streams and irrigation ditches surrounding this huge water hole.

Then drove another hour to just outside of Sedona where I stayed in a nice RV park right next to Cedar Creek.  Next day  visited Sedona, where I rode my bike and did some hikes through the the red rocks.  Very picturesque but everything there is about getting the tourists to spend all their money so it wasn't all that nice.

Spent the night at a state park in  Cedar Creek canyon just outside of Sedona. Next morning drove one hour just to the east of Flagstaff where I visited three national monuments in one day - Sunset Crater Volcano, Wupatki, and Walnut Canyon. Pretty amazing that all 3 are within 30 minutes of Flagstaff, at an elevation of about 7,00 feet.
The San Francisco mountain range is just outside of Flagstaff, which still had snow.

Hiking through the lava fields at Sunset Crater Volcano.

 Wupatki ruins

 Walnut Canyon- pictures did not come out well, but deep, steep canyon with lots of cliff dwellings.

That evening, drove 35 miles East and stayed at Meteor Crater RV Park.  Next morning, toured the crater, which is privately owned. Worth the visit, as it is really huge.

That afternoon, drove 2 hours East towards New Mexico, and toured Petrified Forest National Park. This turned out to be a really nice place as the logs were massive and numerous, and the drive through the park ended up in the Painted Desert, which was very picturesque.

Stayed the night at a dive RV park in the nearby town of Holbrook. Next day drove 1 hour North into the Navajo reservation, stopping at Hubbel's trading post for a short tour. The post was founded in the late 1800's to trade with the Indians and is still in business today.

Then drove 1 more hour to Canyon de Chelly National Monument whose sheer cliffs were truly magnificent, the best place I have visited so far. Drove to all of the viewpoints and did a hike into/out of the canyon.

Stayed the night in the park campground, next day drove a real nice road 2 hours North through the Indian reservation to Monument Valley, made famous by many Western movies and Marlboro commercials. The dirt road around the sights is very rough so RV's are not allowed.  I had to take a guided tour with a local Navajo. I thought I was getting ripped off by paying $40, but later found out that was cheap.  Also did the one and only hiking trail they had, a 3 mile loop. That was the best part of the place.

Spent the night at the Goulding's RV campground which is part of a big hotel/restaurant complex. It was packed with tourists, many Europeans who rented motorhomes.  Next morning, May 15th, drove North into Utah.

5. New Mexico

A short 1 hour ride from Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Stayed overnight Apr 26th,  and next morning drove 20 miles to Carlsbad Cavern National Park. Did the two fantastic self guided tours which take you down into the caverns and then through the Big Room. That afternoon, did a ranger guided tour which was disappointing, as the ranger was condescending, boring and spoke way too slowly.  Pictures did not come out too well inside the caverns.

Entrance to the cavern - a 1 mile switchback path from here takes you down 750 feet to the main cavern area which has a cafeteria, rest rooms and four elevators (so you don't have to walk back up).

One of the formations in the Big Room which is huge - takes about 1 hour to walk around.

Stayed one more night in Carlsbad, toured city next day.  It is on the Pecos River, which they have dammed and call Lake Carlsbad. There is a nice park there which I rode my bicycle all around.

That afternoon, drove up towards Roswell, stayed just outside the city.  Next morning toured the Roswell City Museum which was boring but then toured the UFO museum which was very interesting.

That afternoon drove to Lincoln, site of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War. The entire town is a state historic site, with good displays about the events. Inside the 2nd floor window of this 1880 building was where Billy the Kid was jailed. when he shot 2 deputies and escaped, only to be killed a few months later.

Drove another hour to Smokey Bear Historic Site where Smokey was found  as a little cub after a forest fire. He then lived the rest of his life at the Washington DC national zoo. When he died, his body was flown back here and he is buried in the park's garden.

Then drove another hour to an Apache Indian casino in the town of Ruidoso, where I lost $100 playing craps and slots, and then had to pay $26 to stay overnight in their crappy RV site.  Next day toured a horse museum at Ruidoso Downs, a large horse race track in the middle of nowhere. It was boring.

Drove an hour to Alamogordo where I toured the New Mexico Museum of Space History. It was not too exciting, as I think I have seen so many space museums that there isn't much new out there.

Stayed in Alamogordo overnight.  Next morning had the front end of the RV worked on as the steering wasn't feeling very good in the past few days while I was driving through the mountain passes. $240 later, the wheels were aligned and balanced, and the rotors had been removed, turned (smoothed with a lathe), and replaced.  That afternoon, drove 1 hour to White Sands National Monument, a bunch of gypsum sand dunes in the middle of the desert.  Did a 2 hour hike into the sand dunes, which was eery, as you had to keep the previous and following markers in sight to avoid getting lost.

That evening, drove South through Las Cruces, onto I-10 West and stayed overnight in Deming, NM, about 70 miles east of the Arizona border. Decided next morning to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in NM, so drove 80 miles North into the mountains, which took 3 hours as the road was steep, curvy and narrow.  Toured the small cliff dwellings - only six caves - but the 2 mile hike there and back was very picturesque.

Stayed overnight in a RV park there, which had mostly National Park volunteers staying, so had a good time talking to them and learning about what it is like to be a volunteer - perhaps I might do that sometime.
Next morning, May 3rd, drove 4 hours up and down two passes, by a huge open pit copper mine near Silver City, NM,  and into Arizona.