Category: Campgrounds

Jacob Lake, AZ – Sunday June 14, 2015

Left Lees Ferry early so we could get a site at Jacob Lake Forest Service Campground at the north road to Grand Canyon north side. The canyon is still 50 miles south of here.  There were a bunch of open sites and we took site 5 which is where we stayed last Fall.
Really nice day in mid 70’s, Lees Ferry is to be 95 and Hurricane 104.  We will head to Cathedral Gorge, Nv tomorrow where it should be 90. 

Bandelier Natl Park Valley – Saturday June 13, 2015

Pictures from my morning hike into Bandelier Natl Park. 
I got up early one morning and hiked to 1.5 miles down into the valley and then did some more exploring of the valley floor.
Looking across the mesa at the  volcano which created this rock.
The higher area is the caldera which created this area.
Frey trail down to the valley floor.
The information I read at the visitor’s center says this is a parrot.
Couple of years ago a flash flood created quite a mess, here are some of the thousands of trees backed up on other trees.
Trail up to the Alcove Area of the park.
It was a nice morning, I was back to the visitor’s center by 9:30 a.m. to catch the first bus back to the campground.  I did have a jog down the trail a ways to catch the bus.

Our first afternoon at Bandelier Natl Park.

Here are a few of the pictures I took during our first day in Bandelier Valley.
A flower that was all over the valley.
An open Kivia.
This shows here some of the houses were built extending from the wall.
Looking up the valley at where the homes are placed.
Showing the homes in the holes in the rock wall.
In the middle you can see the railings and steps up into the homes.
More of the railings between houses.
This rock is just full of holes and is relative soft.
This cool flower again.
You can see people in the middle of this picture.
Here is a herd of Rangers.
The homes on the valley floor.
More of the railings and people looking at homes.

The logs go all the way back into the rock wall to form a roof for the lower unit and floor for the upper home.  Later I’ll have pictures of the log holes in the rock wall.
The holes in this rock is just strange.
See the railings and people.
Couldn’t get enough  of these holes.
Homes down in the valley floor.
Shows homes under an over hang.
Long row of homes.
The small round holes is where the roof and floor supports went into the wall, the homes were three stories.
Roof and floor support holes.
 Abert’s squirrel, look at the ears.
This is from inside the museum, shows how they constructed the homes.
This is from the road leaving the valley.   It was a nice morning.

Lees Ferry Natl Park – Thursday June 11, 2015

Today we drove 300 miles to Lees Ferry National Park just below Glen Canyon Dam and the place where people start their trip floating the Grand Canyon.  The drive out from Navajo Lake added a little interest to the trip.  At 5:00 a.m. this morning a THUNDER storm came through the area so there were several places where there was mud across the road.  The highway folks had already been out and bladed the road however in a couple of spot the mud was still at least a 1/2 in thick.  To say the car got dirty would be an understatement.  We stopped at Kayenta to get gas and I could at least get some of the dirt off the windshield so I’d be able to drive the car after we got to the campground.

When we got to Lees Ferry campground both of the river view spots were taken.  We first moved into site 44 and then moved to 46 which is right next to 44.  We moved because site 46 actually angles into site 44 this way hoping no one would camp to close to us.
A little after 5:00 the people who were camped in one of the view sites showed up and left.  They had left there trailer in the site all day and then left at 5:00 p.m.  Rude on their part good for us, we moved into one of the front view sites, number 47.
This is site 47.
View form site 44, the first site we were in.
This is the view from our picnic table with the large metal cover to keep the sun off ME.

View to the right from the picnic table.

It is going to be warm here 85 to 95 during our stay.  Plan is to leave Sunday for Jacob’s Lake, Az or Sand Hollow State Park by Hurricane, Utah.

 

Bandelier National Monument – Friday June 5, 2015

This morning we got up and went down into the valley to see the ruins.  With limited parking in the valley the county is paying for a bus shuttle system to ensure people keep coming to the park.  My guess is there may be 30 –  40  parking spaces at the parks visitors center.  Visitors can drive their own cars into the park before 9:00 a.m. and after 3:00 p.m.  We left the campground at 8:30 and drive to the visitor’s center, there were about 20 available parking spaces.  The shuttle system allows 100’s of people a day to be in the park.   The shuttle starts at a county visitor’s center in White Rock, NM.  They have a lot of parking spaces for visitors and even spots to park your RV.  The RV spots have power available for $20.00 a day if you’d like to leave the A/C running.  The A/C is important if you have a pet who can not ride into the park on the bus.  This a really great idea.  The $20.00 will than allow you to stay in this RV parking area over night.

Jean and I spent 3 hours walking along the interruptive trail viewing the ruins:  ( when I get some pictures formatted I’ll post them HERE ).  Pictures from today start half way down the page.

Bandelier National Monument – Thursday June 4, 2015

We were up early today and on the road by 7:00 a.m.. I wanted to get to Bandelier early because of the limited choice of campsites.  This campground is an older national park like campground which means there will only be a few sites we’ll be able to fit into.  We got here at noon and got the only pull through site in the park ( lucky Harry  and Jean ) site 55.

Paying for the site was an interesting endeavor.  Most things here are pay by credit card machine this includes entry into the park and camping.
Here are the registration instructions on the campground map.
TO REGISTER:  Choose a vacant site (DO NOT put anything on the site until the site is paid for) and return to self-registration area at campground entrance.  Follow directions posted by the fee machine.  Place
receipt from machine on dashboard.  Note: Machine give $1 coins for change.
If you wish to extend your stay you must do so after 12:00 Noon.
Camping fee is separate from the ENTRANCE FEE.
Campers must stop at the entrance station to show valid entrance pass upon every re-entry into park.

Two paragraphs below this on the registration instruction sheet the instructions say; “Campsites must be vacated by 11:30a.m. unless payment has been made for the following night.”

My first question is how can I extend my stay if I must make the “extend your stay you must do so after 12:00 noon” but I must be, ”vacated the site by 11:30 a.m. unless payment has been made.”?
Second question, “DO NOT put anything on the site until the site is paid for,”  When I find the site I want how do I know that someone else has not selected this site and is at the pay station paying for the site.  If I get to the self-service credit card pay station and someone else has already paid for the site I have to find another, this could be an interesting challenge when 10 people are driving around the 3 campground loops looking for a site.

Another great opportunity is at the automated pay station.  On the payment machine it says you can use a credit card $1.00’s, $5.00’s, $10.00’s and $20.00’s.  On the sign about three feet to the right of this payment machine, in the middle of the instruction for registration it says, “ DO NOT USE $20.00’s”  You’ve got to love the great ability of our government.
Oh  yea, on the receipt which is printed from the automated payment machine it says we have to be out of our site by 11:00 a.m.,  Thanks that is really useful information.

 

Pictures From Days Past – Tuesday June 2, 2015

I’m a little behind in posting pictures I have taken.

Here are some of the pictures from our tour around Homoliva ruins.

These were large villages with over 1200 rooms at one of the 4 sites.
This is a drawing of what the village might have looked like:
Some of the rooms where rather large.
This is where they think this kiva was and some of it rebuilt.
And of course there are always lizards:
I also got him out on the side walk, Look at the length of his rear toes.
There is a lot of pottery around these sites and it is illegal to remove anything from the sites, so people place the things they find on flat rocks.

There are a lot of these rocks around the sites, it’s really kind of cool.

Winslow, Az.

This was fun, Jean and I had stopped by here several years ago.   At that time we texted the kids, “Standing on a Corner”.   I think Brian was the first to answer, “Winslow, Arizona”

 

Homoliva State Park, Winslow, AZ – Sunday May 31, 2015

Jean and I went out looking at the two ruins in the park and then drove into Winslow.    While you are in Winslow it is important to go stand on THE CORNER.

This year I got the T-shirt.

Also went by the Flying J truck stop to see if I can get in and out while towing the car.  It looked good and we’ll get gas Monday morning.

Here is our drive around Winslow, we were also out looking for a laundromat.

Homoliva State Park – Winslow, AZ – Friday May 29, 2015

We are in site 32.

There are 53 sites in this campground and only 12 sites are being used. Of that 12, 5 are for one boys youth group.  We stayed here on September 14, 2011 and at that time there was only a couple of people here.  It is really a nice campground with 40 to 50 feet between sites which are level and paved with electricity and water.

Today’s drive was 429 miles.  We were on the road by 6:30 a.m.  and got to Homoliva at 4:00 p.m.
I had planned a stop in Flagstaff to do our grocery shopping at a SuperWalmart however that did not work out so well.  I have read a lot of blogs about how unfriendly Flagstaff is to RV’ers and they again proved it to be true on all accounts.   It was difficult to find the store because of no signage.  We saw a large brown building with a large parking lot and figured it to be the Walmart.  When got right to the turn lane we could see the four foot high Walmart sign at the parking lot entrance.  However, I could not see a good path into and out of the parking lot.  One of the challenges of pulling a car is you can not back up.  If I get myself into a place where I can not make a turn I’d have to stop unhook the car and then backup.  I actually have had to do this once.  We were on Hwy 50 (out in the middle of nowhere) half way across Nevada when we stopped for lunch at a pony express historical site.  The parking lot was empty and I thought I could make a large circle and make it out the only entrance point.  I was wrong, unhooked the car, backed up three feet and made the turn J.  Back to Flagstaff Walmart, the parking lot was so broken up the curbs and light posts I was not sure I could get in and out with all the tight turns and other vehicles in the lot.  After driving around the area looking for a place to park we decided to move on down the road.

Here is a Google Earth view I got after we arrived at Homolovi.  It doesn’t look to bad until more cars and a few motorhomes are added.

Flagstaff was also a scheduled  pee stop for Hank so he went 5 (FIVE) hours without a pee (poor traveling Hank) we usually stop every two hours.
Nice day with a temp of 92 here.