Jun 1, 2012 - Valley of the Gods

This afternoon I drove through the Valley of the Gods. It is approximately 18 miles south of the RV campground in Bluff, UT. The road itself is approximately 24 miles long. It is extremely bumpy. Total SUV miles today 159.2. Had dinner at Twin Peaks Cafe at the north end of town just a little ways from the campground. Good food and a Gift Shop attached to the diner.

May 31, 2012 - Bluff, Utah

What a beautiful day to start my trip. Bright sunny skies and not a cloud in sight until I reached the Utah border. Quite windy but overall a very nice day. I left Earp, CA this morning at 07:35am stopping across the Colorado River in Parker, AZ for diesel. $3.889 a gallon - 82.887 gallons. Then AZ 95 north to I-10 East. Stopped at Flying J in Kingman and topped off as my next fuel stop will be Springville, UT. $3.789 a gallon, 14.578 gallons. Stopped for a quick lunch at McDonald's in Williams, AZ then on to Flagstaff. From Flagstaff I...

May 3, 2012 - Weird and Interesting Stuff You See

After driving nearly 120 miles, I just couldn't cook dinner. The family dined at Twin Rocks Cafe. We had Navajo Fry bread with butter and honey. It reminded me of funnel cakes you get at the fair. The rocks above the cafe and trading post look like lovers kissing. The Navajo believe they represent two gods that came to kill the bad monsters. I grabbed this shot as we drove back from Moab. It is known as Wilson's Arch. It would be a great shot with the Super Moon we'll see on Saturday. The campground has this pair of nanny goats. Tommy...

Apr 15, 2012 - Through Monument Valley to Bluff, Utah

We loved the drive from Page through Monument Valley and on to Bluff, Utah through the high desert. The scenery was beautiful and the "monuments" spectacular. They are in a Navajo Tribal Park that includes a 17 mile unpaved loop road through the park that you can drive without a guide. Our plans was to do the drive but after bumbing along for a couple of miles, the old van started to complain and we thought it best to turn back. Luckily, there are good views from the visitor centre, along the short portion of the drive we did and even from...

May 18, 2011 - Bluff, Utah

We left Overgaard this morning knowing it was going to be a windy day and hoped we could get ahead of the wind that was suppose to come through northern Arizona. It was 35 degrees when we left. We got off to a good start, and hit the wind about an hour into our trip. Then we hit rain with wind and drove as far as Bluff, Utah. We are staying 2 nights at the Cottonwood RV park. Tomorrow we will explore Monument Valley and the surrounding area. Had dinner at the Cottonwood Steak House. Yummy Brisket and a fun western style restaurant. They...

May 3, 2011 - Hovenweep National Monument

The temperature is going to be 71 today. It’s nice to see it warm up a little. It will be a nice day for going to Hovenweep National Monument. Another 50 mile drive. It has many ancestral Indian ruins. Most are two or more stories tall. We have been to Mesa Verde National Monument a couple of times, but they all used the overhanging rock formations as the roof and built up the walls to meet the roof. These are free standing structures that are built on existing boulders. It’s kind of amazing how they built their homes. It must have been...

May 2, 2011 - Natural Bridges National Monument

We drove 50 miles to see Natural Bridges National Monument. The park has 3 major Natural Arches. They are made out of sandstone and it has taken hundreds of years of water and weather erosion to make them. You can see each of them from an overlook, but Carolyn and I wanted to hike to each of them. The first one is called Sipapu. It is 1.2 miles to the bottom with a 500’ elevation change. It was cold and windy and we had on sweatshirts and rain jackets to keep out the wind. It’s a great hike with all kinds of trees and vegetation. At the...

Apr 30, 2011 - Hospital Visit

Yesterday, Carolyn woke up with a bladder infection. She had one about 15-20 years ago and remembered how it felt. We had to do a little research to find a place open [Saturday] that was in our healthcare network. We had to drive about 50 miles to Montecito, Utah. The door was locked at the hospital when we drove up and we started to panic. They had a doorbell that they answered. Good thing. It was the smallest hospital I’ve ever seen. We got the medication Carolyn needed. The doctor said the pharmacy in town was not open on Saturday, but...

Apr 28, 2011 - Let's Just Stop

Moving day again. We had another cold night in the 30’s. We are still trying to figure out where we want to go next. We have adopted the philosophy of only traveling 100 miles or less and then seeing all the sights in that area. We had been planning on staying at Blanding, but after looking at the weather forecast, we settled on Bluff. It must be lower elevation [4800’] because it’s about 10-20 degrees warmer. We got here about noon and paid for a 2 day stay while we wait for the weather to warm up. The forecast is cold and windy for the...

Oct 19, 2010 - Bluff, UT - Shiprock & Bluff Fort

(Ron Writing) We left Farmington this morning and headed west on US-64 to Shiprock, NM. The town of Shiprock is named for a very unusual rock formation a few miles southwest of the town. The peak is a 27 million year old “throat” of a volcano. Softer rocks around the throat have eroded away leaving this huge rock standing by itself 1,583 feet above the surrounding high desert plain. The peak is 7,177’ above sea level. We could already see Shiprock as we were leaving Farmington this morning, a distance of about 40 miles. We drove south of...

Sep 10, 2010 - Friday, Canyon De Chelly/Bluff, UT (100 Miles)

Early this morning Tony left to take the White House Overlook hike. It is a 2.5 mile hike taking approximately 2 hours that goes straight down into the canyon, and of course, back up. Yesterday afternoon when we looked at it, it didn’t seem like something I wanted to do. He enjoyed it and I took the dogs for a walk around the campground while he was gone, so we were all happy. When he returned we drove the scenic North Rim and stopped at the lookout sights. Afterwards, we drove to Bluff, UT. Our friends, Dick and Karen, recommended the Twin...

May 20, 2010 - Day 30 Bluff UTAH Camp

now here are roads many of you will NEVER go/be on (and some awesome scenery)... these are the back roads in indian country seldom used by tourist or traffic - we stopped at the 4 corners region but it was closed for repairs probably to make it bigger and uglier... anyway, can you guess how i was able to get all 4 states signs without getting to 4 corners which doesn't have these signs anyway... we got the signs all at the same day and within 1/2 hour apart.. 2 at a time... in order to get them here were the hiways we were on us64 -...