Earlier this week we visited two towns near Dead Horse State Park, where we are staying for a week. Wednesday we drove to Sedona, a city located in what must be the most spectacular setting we have ever seen. This photo was taken from the sidewalk in the center of town.



Before lunch we drove up the Oak Creek Canyon north of Sedona. The scenery is beautiful. We saw fall color, red rock formations and colorful rock walls.







After lunch, we enjoyed exploring Sedona. Other than getting a start on our Christmas shopping, we didn't buy anything. Large paintings and expensive jewelry don't fit in our RV or out lifestyle. But we did enjoy looking. And the town has numerous statues--of javelinas and western subjects.







One very attractive shopping area is Tlaquepaque, a development resembling a Mexican village. We found numerous corners like this as we went from shop of shop.



It is amazing to us that roses are blooming in late October. This was taken in the rose garden at Tlaquepaque.



We found these chairs in front of one of the restaurants. They are surprisingly comfortable, considering they are made of rocks.



Jerome is a small mining community high on a hill, overlooking the Verde River Valley. We thought we would be visiting what amounted to a ghost town and were going to compare it to those we know in Colorado. Were we ever surprised! It is a town that holds ghost hunting bus tours and focuses on the bawdy and the macabre. The House of Joy sells bordello tokens and skeleton statues. This is a view of their garden. If you look closely you will see a casket and a detached arm. (Is it really a casket? John doesn't think so.)



The name of this pizza place shows you what I mean by bawdy.



The town sits on a steep hill. The building roofs on one street are lower than the sidewalk on the next street. Those miners, as well as today's residents, get really good exercise moving around Jerome.

At the very top of the town we found the Jerome Grand Hotel. We were probably the only visitors who walked there, looking for some lunch.



The restaurant is called The Asylum.



It was decorated (for Halloween only?) with a casket and body, spider webs and black cats. The wait staff was in costume. We were served by a jar of mustard and watched a belly dancer serving food. We did enjoy our lunch.

Before we left Nevada, we visited the Nevada Southern Railroad Museum and downtown Boulder City, where are RV park was located. The museum had both steam and diesel engines.





We also found a small switcher engine with an interesting name. It had been used at the rocket development sites operated by the US Atomic Energy Commission and US Air Force in Area 25, which is located in Jackass Flats in Nevada.



Mountains in Nevada are not the tree-covered areas we are used to. But they have their own interesting character. The red mountain below is on the edge of Boulder City. We saw the great formations as we drove south into Arizona.





Downtown Boulder City is very attractive. The city grew to serve the many workers who came in to build Boulder Dam, which created Lake Meade. We enjoyed a beer at the Boulder Dam Brewing Co. The word "dam" is used on the local hotel, as well as on the clothing store.



From Boulder City, we drove to North Ranch, an Escapees RV Park in Congress, AZ. Congress is just a wide spot in the road with a post office. About 15 miles south of North Ranch is the town of Wickenburg. It is an attractive, very western town. We visited the Cowboy Caboose in downtown. It had housed the cowboys who accompanied their cattle on train trips to distant markets. We were told the cowboys were along because every 200 miles, the train had to stop so the cattle could be taken out of the cars, exercised and given food and water. That could make a train trip from Wickenburg to Fort Worth or Chicago a very long haul.



Throughout the town there are statues with a story to tell. This is a young school teacher, fresh off the train, engaged to teach in the local one-room schoolhouse for the year.



We know we are back in Arizona, the land of glorious sunrises and sunsets. These were taken from our site at North Ranch.

We Walked 7 Miles

But where were we? First we drove down into the Virgin River Gorge. The rock formations along the way are very interesting. Not very colorful, but pretty in their own way.





We saw numerous caves in the walls of the gorge.



Eventually, we drove through a Joshua Tree Forest. I really find these trees fascinating. They only grow in a few areas.



Then yesterday we took a long walk. We might have been in the tropics.





Or maybe in Rome.



Or even Paris.



Do you give up? We took our walk on the Las Vegas Strip.



A year ago, we said we wouldn’t return here for several years. But Vegas makes a good stop when you are headed south on I-15. And last year I didn’t take a camera when we toured the southern part of The Strip. So we returned to get a few pictures. And eat a good buffet lunch. That was it. John did put a $1 bill in a slot machine, but he didn’t win anything. Tomorrow we go on to Arizona.

The Color of Zion

After several months of landscapes colored by amber waves of grain, we have arrived in southwestern Utah, otherwise known as Color Country. We have been to Zion National Park twice before, but I had forgotten the real beauty and color that surrounds the visitor there. We hiked there Wednesday, climbing to Scout Lookout. That is a point about 1/2 mile from Angels Landing, a really beautiful place about mid-way into the Zion Canyon through the park.



Hopefully you can appreciate the beauty of Angels Landing from this viewpoint on the floor of the canyon--more than 1000 ft above the Virgin River. We had no intention of climbing to the very to. Those climbing beyond Scout Landing use the chain you can see here for the final ascent. It helps keep them from slipping off the trail. We were not the least bit interested in going that last half mile, either this year or four years ago.



This little chipmunk was doing his best to tempt all the hikers into owing a $100 fine for feeding the wildlife. He knew how to get fed and raise money for the park at the same time. We had already eaten our lunch, plus we knew better than to give him anything. Isn't he cute, though?



The many rock formations in Zion range in color from white through several shades of red to black. Here are a some photos of the canyon walls.







The trail to Scout Lookout has an elevation gain of over 1,000 ft and the trail is very, very steep in places. This is looking back down one stretch of the trail.



Here you can see the switchbacks on the lower part of the trail.



Near the top is a stretch of trail named Walter's Wiggles, a series of 21 switchbacks carved out of the side of the cliff and held up by stone walls. We took photos from both the bottom and the top of the wiggles.





The trail gives a good view of Virgin River as it flows through the canyon.

America's Best Idea

"Let those who will, buy lands, hoard money. We will have memories, glad memories of golden experiences together." Margaret Gehrke diary.

Margaret and Edward Gehrke fell in love with America's National Parks in the early 20th Century and visited many of them through the years, first by train and later driving a series of Buicks. I learned about them in the current PBS series, National Parks, America's Best Idea. If you haven't watched it yet, find it on your local station. Record it on your Tivo or DVR if you can. The two-hour segments reflect much of the wonder we feel about those parks. And we are learning so much by watching them.

Our work camping has taken us to three national parks and monuments and today I searched through out Passport Book and discovered that we have visited at least 92 national parks, monuments, historical sites and recreation areas over the years. And we have so many more to see.

We have memories, so many glad memories of golden experiences. That is what we are collecting in our travels. And we treasure the memories. In fact, each morning we have a "history lesson." John goes through past years' calendars and reads what we did one, two and three years ago on this date. Last year on Oct. 5 we were in Hawthorne, NV; in 2007 we were at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon; in 2006 we were at our house in Centennial. The history of days in that house are most often the most boring, especially since our children grew up and left home. That is why we are now full-timing.

What are your memories? Are you collecting golden ones?

A Mixed Bag

The last few days have been a mixed bag. We drove to Utah Lake State Park in Provo from our overnight stop in McCammon. We had read good reviews of the campground on www.RVParkReviews.com. The sites were very good and we found one that was very private.



Everything was fine until we stepped into the restrooms. They were filthy! We had volunteered at Kodachrome State Park in southern Utah two years ago and everything there was spotless. I guess nobody told the management at Utah Lake what was necessary. Maybe they just quit caring after Labor Day. Two days into our stay, they power washed the restrooms. But when something is really dirty, just spraying it with water doesn’t do it.

We had headed south on Monday to get away from the snow coming to Bozeman. We didn’t go far enough, fast enough. Tuesday we woke to find snow on the nearby Wasatch Mountains.



At least it didn’t accumulate at our altitude! We had quail walking through our site. What a treat!



Saturday we drove through the American Fork Canyon to the Timpanogos Cave National Monument. The drive through the canyon was beautiful with great fall colors. We didn’t go on a cave tour, but we did hike the steeeep mile-and-a-half trail to the cave entrance.



We were amazed at how many people were hiking up to go on cave tours. Many of those on the trail were families with young children. The monument will close in two weeks until next spring.






We left Utah Lake today, heading for Sand Hollow State Park near the town of Hurricane and Zion National Park. We didn’t make it that far. There is a storm coming in from the Pacific Northwest and the winds just got harder and harder. So we pulled off at Beaver and found a KOA. We almost never stay at KOA campgrounds because of the cost. We even thought our KOA card had expired. We were delighted to find out it was still in force, plus we had accumulated enough points in years past to receive both our 10% discount and an additional $10 off. So this stop only cost $23. That was a nice end to a tense 150-mile drive.

We're Headed South

Today we began heading south, trying to avoid the worst of the cold and wet that is headed into this part of the country. It was an interesting drive. While in south central Montana, the last farm we observed was the sugar beet harvest.



Today, as we moved into Idaho, we discovered they are in the midst of the potato harvest.



Not all the views were this clear. We were aware that there are forest fires burning in and near Yellowstone National Park. Were we ever glad we aren't staying there. This was the view out our windshield as we passed near West Yellowstone.



Along the way we saw some Sandhill Cranes feasting in a wheat field. Click on the photo to see them better.



We drove through some beautiful farm country.



We also saw a little touch of fall color that is really beautiful.