Living Our Dream

After dropping Lora and J. Michael off at the airport, we left Las Vegas and headed northwest on I-15 toward Utah. The barren desert of Nevada gave way to the rugged, diverse beauty of the Virgin Mountains as we crossed over the northwest corner of Arizona.

After passing through Arizona, we crossed into Utah. Then after dipping back down into Arizona we crossed back into Utah a second time. The scenery in southern Utah is fantastic! Not only does Utah seem to have more than their fair share of national parks and national monuments, but just the scenery along the roads is beautiful as well. After crossing into Utah the secont time, we were greeted by pink, white, and salmon-colored cliffs along one side of the highway. This is where Margery started involuntarily saying "Oh, wow!" every time we went around a bend or up over a hill. A little later, the road went up beautiful Kanab Canyon just south of Glendale, UT.

North of Glendale, the canyon opened up to a wide, pleasant valley lined with well-irrigated hay fields and pastures. We saw cattle, horses, and even several elk grazing. So far, Utah is one of our favorite states.

Bauer's Canyon RV Ranch in Glendale, UT would be our home base for the next few days. Glendale is about 1/2 hour from Zion National Park and about an hour from Bryce Canyon National Park. Bauer's Canyon Ranch RV Park is located in a canyon along the East Branch of the Virgin River. The parking pads and interior roads are mostly dirt, but we were pleased to see there was lush grass between sites. There were sprinklers and hoses around the campground that kept the trees and grass well watered. Most of the sites are pull-throughs. Overall, the campground is quite nice in spite of the fact that sites are a little close together.

The next morning we set off for Zion National Park. We entered Zion from the east entrance. On Bauer's website, they had provided directions to their campground for RV owners that, although would involve more travel time, it would alleviate the frustrations of elevation climbs and switchbacks on the road through Zion. We would also avoid having to pay the $15 RV escort fee through the 1.1 mile-long tunnel on the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway. The tunnel was the longest in the U. S. when it was completed in 1930. Although stopping in the tunnel is no longer permitted, there are several openings that reveal vistas of the neighboring peaks. RVs are permitted to drive through the tunnel provided they are less then 13' 1" high. The RVs are not actually escorted, but opposing traffic is stopped to allow the oversized vehicle to drive down the middle of the tunnel where there is maximum clearance. After driving through Zion in our car, we can see why Bauer's provided the alternate route.

In 1847, Brigham Young led a band of Mormon pioneers westward establishing settlements around present day Salt Lake City, UT. Within a few years, Mormon settlers were sent to the southern part of the territory to grow cotton. In 1863, Isaac Behunin built the first cabin in Zion Canyon. Zion means sanctuary and the settlers felt safe and protected within the high canyon walls. However, catastrophic flooding of the Virgin River and poor soil made settlements in this area a risky venture.

In the early 1900s, the scenic qualities of Zion Canyon were recognized as a potential for tourism; and in 1909, the canyon was designated as a national monument. Zion was made a national park in 1919.

Zion Canyon follows the Virgin River and has steep cliffs and rugged sandstone formations. Most of the formations have names suggestive of the Mormon heritage of the canyon such as Great White Throne, Court of the Patriarchs, Sentinel, and Angels' Landing. Unlike the Grand Canyon, which is usually viewed from the rim, Zion is viewed from the canyon floor. There is a 6-mile long scenic road up the canyon; but because Zion is such a popular park, the canyon road is closed to private vehicles from about the beginning of April to the end of October. Shuttles run about every 6 minutes from the visitor center and stop at various scenic spots and trailheads. After looking around the visitor center and viewing the orientation video at the Zion Human History Museum, we hopped on the shuttle and headed up the canyon. The first scenic stop is the Court of the Patriarchs. Here, there are three peaks named Abraham (left), Isaac (center), and Jacob. Jacob is the white peak in the rear on the right. The fourth peak in front of Jacob is Mount Moroni, named for a Book of Mormon prophet and angel.

We continued up the canyon stopping to take pictures. At one of the stops, we took a short hike up to the first of three sets of Emerald Pools, so named for the green algae that tints the water at various times of the year. Margery made the 1.2 mile walk using her trusty trekking poles. Although it was a steep climb, the descent is actually more difficult for her because it puts more stress on her knees.

The pools are fed from overhead waterfalls that are actually seeps from the rock layers. Water trickles down through the porous sandstone until it hits a somewhat impervious layer. It then travels along that layer until it finds an exit creating a spring or a seep.

After reaching the upper end of the shuttle route, we made the return trip to the visitor center to pick up the car and return to the campground. We left the park the same way we entered - by the eastern entrance, which is about 9 miles from the visitor center. Many visitors to Zion enter by the more popular Springdale entrance and never see East Zion. This section of the park which lies along the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway is, in our opinion, better in some ways than the more popular Zion Canyon section of the park. While the canyon is rugged with 2000+ ft. high cliffs and monoliths, the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway passes through Navajo sandstone slickrock. The colors and textures of this area of Zion are very striking. In most parts of the U. S., we are used to seeing sandstone in parallel layers alternating with silt, clay, or shale having been deposited at the bottom of some ancient sea, lake, or river. The layers may have been tilted by some past upthrust, but they are parallel. In the southwest, the Navajo sandstone is from ancient desert sand dunes. Consequently, in Navajo sandstone, the layers of texture which come from different hardnesses of the stone and the colors which come from different minerals are at many different angles. The sand was deposited at the side of a dune at one angle; then the wind changed direction, eroded some of the original sand, and began piling new sand at a different angle. The weight of layer upon layer and the infiltration of minerals eventually hardened the sand into stone. The photo below shows some of the interesting colors and textures found in the rock in East Zion.

Take time to browse through Photo Album 020: Zion, Bryce, and the North Rim for more photos of Zion National Park.

Our next destination in southern Utah was Bryce Canyon National Park. As is typical for Utah, we found the road to the park to be quite scenic. Route 12 to Bryce passes through Red Canyon. Red Canyon has red-orange sandstone formations similar to Bryce, but on a smaller scale. It's sort of a preview of Bryce.

After the beautiful drive through Red Canyon, we arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce is not really a canyon, but a series of horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters carved from the eastern edge of a plateau. Bryce is famous for its geological formations called hoodoos. Hoodoos are spires of rock that are created by the erosion process. The rock at Bryce is primarily soft, crumbly limestone. Frost wedging (freezing and expansion of water that has seeped into the rock) and occasional monsoon-type summer thunderstorms are the chief agents of erosion at Bryce. The hoodoos are constantly breaking down while new ones are being formed. The northern end of Bryce has more hoodoos...

...while the southern end has more expansive vistas.

Here are Paul and Margery at one of the Bryce overlooks.

Photo Album 020: Zion, Bryce, and the North Rim has more photos of and information about Bryce Canyon National Park.

After we left Bryce, we drove east on Utah Route 12 to take in more scenery. This route travels down a valley past the bottom side of some of the Bryce formations. It also skirts past the northern edge of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Dixie National Forest. Although it was late in the day and we didn't have time to explore further, we did enjoy the scenery as we drove through. There were several formations similar to the one shown in the photo below that reminded us of Greek temples.

The next day, we drove northwest of Glendale to Cedar Breaks National Monument. Cedar Breaks is a semi-circular amphitheater about 2000 ft. deep and 3 miles across. It is similar in appearance to Bryce Canyon with its pink and white formations of Clarion limestone.

The name Cedar Breaks comes from early pioneers who came to this area. They mistook the junipers that are plentiful in this area for cedars. The term "break" was used for any abrupt change in topography.

Unfortunately, many of the spruce trees on the plateau at Cedar Breaks and in the surrounding Dixie National Forest have died as a result of attacks by the spruce bark beetle. When beetles attack healthy trees, the trees respond by producing an excess amount of sap that plugs the holes the beetles make in the bark and kills the beetles. However, years of fire supression may have inadvertently encouraged a root fungus that weakened the trees. Recent drought has further weakened the trees to the point where the beetles reached epidemic levels. Since most of the spruce trees have now died, the beetle population has also declined. Some of the beetle-killed trees outside the national park are being salvaged by logging. A few spruces survive and a few new ones have begun to sprout, but it will take years for the forest to recover. Because the National Park Service is mandated by Congress to preserve the natural process and since the beetle attack was a natural process, it has been allowed to run its course.

One thing we noticed at Cedar Breaks and at other national parks and monuments is a changed attitude about fire. Forest fires were once viewed as bad and were supressed for many years at any cost. This has lead to an unnatural accumulation of undergrowth, downed trees, etc. which actually make fires worse when they do occur. Suppression of fire has also thrown nature out of balance in other ways such as in the case of the spruce bark beetles. Fire is now seen as an agent of renewal and is only suppressed under certain circumstances such as when it threatens structures, safety, or when it threatens to get too far outside forest boundaries.

After several days in Glendale, UT, we moved south to Jacob Lake, AZ to Kaibab Camper Village. Kaibab Camper Village is located in the relatively dense pine forest of the Kaibab Plateau. The campground management gave us a site where other RVers had been successful at getting a satellite signal and, sure enough, we were also able to shoot up through the trees and get a signal from both the internet and the TV satellites. Hooray!

Although the sites were a little close for us (as usual), we enjoyed our time in the pines at Kaibab Camper Village. There were a surprising number of big rigs there. They were probably people like us who wanted to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but didn't want to go without hook-ups in the Grand Canyon National Park Campground or who couldn't find a site big enough in the park. Although the Kaibab Camper Village has full hook-ups, campers are discouraged from using water because it is scarce on the plateau. In fact, this campground had to truck in all of their water. There was no road noise here - we were in the middle of nowhere. No cell service either. Oh, well. Now we were roughing it. :)

We got up the next morning and started out on the 44-mile drive across the Kaibab Plateau to the North Rim. The plateau is primarily conifer forest dotted with meadows. Once inside the national park, we took the 20 mile scenic drive to Cape Royal. We stopped at the overlooks along the way. One thing we liked about the North Rim is that it seems to be more intimate than the South Rim. At the South Rim, there are a few formations, but they are mostly below you. For the most part, the view is very distant. At the North Rim, there are more ridges and formations closer to the rim. These formations lead the eye into the view and seem to give a better impression of depth.

There are fewer people at the North Rim, but there are also fewer facilities and overlooks. Therefore, it doesn't really seem less crowded as advertised. Also, the overlooks themselves are smaller because they frequently extend right out into the canyon. Although this puts you right at the edge, we frequently had to wait to get an unobstructed view. An interesting phenomenon was that the majority of visitors to the North Rim were Americans. In contrast, we were absolutely floored by the number of visitors to the South Rim who spoke French, German, Russian, Dutch, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. English-speaking Americans were definitely in the minority at the South Rim.

We also drove to the Grand Canyon Lodge where there is a 1/2 mile walk to the overlook at Bright Angel Point. Margery had made the walk to the overlook at Cape Royal, so she decided to rest her knees and let Paul make this one by himself. The trail to Bright Angel Point is paved, but it is narrow and steep at some points. It also has a steep drop-off along one side most of the way. All along the trail you can hear parents telling their kids "pay attention," "take my hand," "stay back from the edge," "don't walk backwards," "pick up your feet," etc. The photo below shows the view from Bright Angel Point. Directly across the canyon is Grand Canyon Village where we were about a week and a half ago.

This photo looks back up Bright Angel Canyon to the north from the trail to Bright Angel Point. Bright Angel Canyon follows an active fault line that runs across the canyon all the way to Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim. Hikers on Bright Angel Trail can sometimes feel slight tremors caused by movement of the fault.

Margery was particularly disappointed that we didn't see the much-heard about Kaibab squirrel during our visit to the North Rim which is the only place they live. However, we did see a coyote, albeit more of the back end as we drove out at the end of the day. :)

More photos of the North Rim can be seen in Photo Album 020: Zion, Bryce, and the North Rim.

After visiting the North Rim, we moved on to Page, AZ, which is at Glen Canyon Dam. We stayed at Page-Lake Powell Campground and RV Park. Page-Lake Powell Campground has nice, wide, gravel sites and full hook-ups (including cable at extra cost). Between sites there were small trees, which helped a little with the heat (it was 100+ degrees).

Although we only planned to stay in Page one night, it was less than a 2-hour drive from Jacob Lake so we arrived early enough in the day to take a short, scenic drive to an overlook of Glen Canyon Dam.

This is downstream of the dam overlook. Notice the rafters in the river.

Construction was started in 1956 and the dam was completed in 1966. It took 17 years for Lake Powell behind the dam to fill completely for the first time.

When construction of the dam started in 1956, the town of Page, AZ did not exist. Page began as a small community of construction workers on Manson Mesa above the construction site. By 1974, the Bureau of Reclamation (which was responsible for the construction of the dam) decided to allow Page to stand on its own. Today, Page is a town of about 8,000 people. Page, AZ was named for John C. Page, who had been a Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.

From Page, we will be traveling back up into Utah. We're coming up on our first year of full-timing and although we have tried to pace ourselves, it is really difficult to not plan like vacationers. Thus, we feel a little like "If It's Tuesday It Must Be Belgium." We have not given ourselves enough time in Utah, and we will need to return to fullly enjoy its beauty. The nuances of the colors and patterns of the hills change as the sun passes over them throughout the day. The scenery is never the same!

We decided to leave Bluewater Lake a day early. We were headed to Flagstaff, AZ, four hours away, where we planned to camp with our daughter, Lora, and son by marriage, J. Michael. The Saturn needed a good cleaning, and we had to remove and store the mobility scooter and our folding bikes. The extra day provided us time to do that and reconnoiter the area. We checked in at the Flagstaff KOA shortly after noon. We got a little earlier start than we had planned and Arizona doesn't change to daylight savings time so we gained an hour. That gave us plenty of time to get everything done before we were to drive to the Phoenix airport to pick up Lora and J. Michael.

A lot of people swear by KOA, apparently because they have a reputation for nice, clean restrooms and showers; but we never use campground restrooms or showers so we're not big KOA fans. Our experience is that their sites are too close together, and they are usually at the top of the rate scale for the area. This KOA certainly was no different. The sites were only about 16' -18' wide and and were mostly dirt. Actually, the sites were mostly fine dust. Our dog, Molly, got filthy and with all the wind, so did our motor home. The cost was over $33 a night, even with the KOA Kamper Kard discount and without the additional $3 a night charge for cable. Our neighbor's picnic table was right under our slide-out window. Fortunately there was a ban on charcoal fires due to drought and high winds because the KOA-provided charcoal grill was so close to our motor home the charcoal lighter would have blistered our paint. Unfortunately, we had to set up close to our neighbor's grill because it was the only place we could position the motor home and still reach all the hookups, miss the electrical box with the slides, and have room to get out the door. This KOA has made an effort to leave a few shrubs between sites to help with privacy. Unfortunately, because the sites are so narrow, that means you tend to get poked in the butt by branches when you try to get into your outside storage compartments. There was a fair amount of traffic noise from US 89 and there were a lot of distant train whistles.

The campground does, however, have a nice balance of shaded and open sites and they have planted some flowers here and there to help beautify the place. We like open sites because of our satellite internet dish, but a lot of people prefer shade. The road leading from the office to the main camping area is lined with fairly large trees. Unfortunately, there are quite a few that are very close to the road. Most of these trees have large pieces of bark missing in an area about 3' from the ground and again at about 10 to 12' from the ground where unsuspecting RVs have strayed too close. We're happy to say, we did not leave our mark. :)

We went with KOA this time so that Lora and J. Michael could stay in one of their cabins. We could have put them up in the motor home, but being full-timers we have little space left to store luggage for week-long company. Besides, they are relative newlyweds, and we were afraid accommodations with parents in the motor home would be a little too close for comfort. So we thought the KOA Kamper Kabin would be a way for everyone to have their own space and privacy and still be close by to share morning coffee and meals. The office staff at KOA was very accommodating in giving us a site near their cabin that had an unobstructed view of the southern sky for our dish. They also accommodated us arriving a day early.

The 2 1/2 hour drive to Phoenix to pick up Lora and J. Michael at the airport was so interesting as we went from 7,000' pine forests around Flagstaff, through high desert, and down to the Sonoran Desert around Phoenix. Most of the stately Saguaro Cactus had little white flowers clustered at the ends of their arms. After returning to the KOA, Lora and J. Michael checked in to the Kamper Kabin, took a nap, then we all enjoyed a leisurely dinner.

We were all anxious to see the Grand Canyon, but we thought it would be better to have a less strenuous day after Lora and J. Michael's travel day. Additionally, they had just moved the previous week and the 3-hour time change was an adjustment so we decided to take a leisurely drive to Sedona, AZ. Sedona is an artsy community in the Red Rock Country of Arizona. This is a view of the Oak Creek Canyon in the Coconino National Forest on the way to Sedona.

The main street of Sedona is lined with eclectic shops selling anything from western wear to jewelry to tee-shirts to psychic readings. It's not difficult to see why Sedona is a popular tourist destination. The views from almost anywhere in town are fantastic!

On the way back to Flagstaff we stopped by Montezuma's Castle National Monument. Montezuma's Castle is a five-story, 20-room cliff dwelling in the Verde Valley about 40 miles south of Flagstaff just off I17. Early settlers assumed the dwellings were built by the Aztecs and gave it the name Montezuma's Castle. The name stuck even though it was later determined the dwellings were built by the Sinagua people. The Verde Valley had been occupied for thousands of years by hunter-gatherers. The Sinagua, who were sophisticated farmers, moved into the valley around 1125 and built the cliff dwellings around 1150. The dwellings were occupied until the early 1400s. Today the dwellings are somewhat deteriorated by time, weather, and vandals. They have been stabilized, but can only be viewed from the valley floor.

A short distance away is Castle A, as it was named by archaeologists. Because it was built closer to the base of the cliff, it was more exposed to the weather and to vandals and today only a few original foundation bricks remain. However, in its day it was a six-story building with about 45 rooms.

On Friday we drove from Flagstaff to Williams, AZ, to board the train for the Grand Canyon National Park. The train is operated by the Grand Canyon Railway, which provides two regularly scheduled round trips a day between Williams and Grand Canyon Village. Back in 1901 the Grand Canyon Railway (then a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) built a rail line from Williams to the South Rim of the canyon as a means to lure tourists. The three-hour train ride quickly became more popular than the six-hour stage coach ride. However, as use of the automobile grew in the '40s and '50s, the train fell from favor. In 1968 passenger service was discontinued although the train continued to haul freight for several more years. Then the rails lay unused until Max and Thelma Biegert bought the rail line in the late 1980s and began restoration. The Williams Train Depot was reopened on Sept. 17, 1989 - exactly 88 years to the day after the first passenger train traveled from Williams to the Grand Canyon. Max and Thelma retired this year and sold the railroad to Xanterra Parks and Resorts, which is the concessionaire for the Grand Canyon and many other National Parks.

The train provides a fun, relaxing way to travel to the Grand Canyon. There is a staged gun fight before the passengers board the train. Here the "bad guy" has been shot and is about to make a soft landing.

The gun fight characters later stroll aisles of the train after it is underway chatting with the passengers. A singer in cowboy garb also goes from car to car singing old western songs. It was a lot of fun, and we really recommend the train as a way to have a relaxing trip to the canyon.

We made the short walk up the hill from the train station past the El Tovar Hotel for our first glimpse of the canyon.

Words simply can't describe the Grand Canyon. Pictures can't do it justice. It is just so vast that it is beyond words and pictures. You have to see it in person. See Photo Album 19: Grand Canyon and the Flagstaff Area for pictures of the train ride and our attempt to capture the majesty of the canyon in photographs.

We opted for a 1 1/2 hour guided bus tour of a portion of the Hermits Rest Loop, which is just to the west of Grand Canyon Village. This particular tour was only available to Grand Canyon Railway passengers. As first-time visitors, we thought it would be a good way to get oriented. The tour was very informative, and we thought it was well worth our while. Here are Lora and J. Michael at one of the stops along the bus tour.

Here is Paul posing for a photo at the rim of the canyon. Step back a little more...a little more...

Help! Just kidding. Paul is really squatting on a ledge that is about 15' wide and about 4' below the one he is pretending to hang on to. The camera angle makes it look like there is nothing there.

One thing that becomes very evident is how deceiving distances are. Your mind knows that canyon is about a mile deep, but when you look down into the canyon and the tour guide tells you what look like shrubs about half-way down the canyon are really 70' tall cottonwood trees, it really surprises you. The photo below shows Indian Garden. The green ribbon in the center of the photo are the 70' cottonwoods along the famed Bright Angel Trail. Bright Angel Plateau with the trail showing up as the light tan line is visible beyond Indian Garden. The edge of the plateau in the upper left is the turnaround point for the one-day mule trip, which means it is a half-day's ride. The trail to the bottom follows the trees and goes off to the right of the plateau. The mule trip to the bottom takes a full day down and a full day back with an overnight stop at Phantom Ranch.

On our way back from the Grand Canyon we all agreed we wanted to experience more of the canyon so we decided to travel back by car. We left bright and early two days later and stopped in Tusayan, which is just outside the south entrance to the park, to see "Grand Canyon Movie" at the National Geographic Society Visitor Center IMAX Theater. This is the most watched IMAX movie of all time having been viewed by almost 40 million people. The movie starts with the Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans or Ancient Ones), who were early inhabitants of the canyon area. It then moves into more recent history with Spanish discovery in 1540. It details the exploration of the canyon by John Wesley Powell in 1869. John Wesley Powell was a 35-year old Civil War veteran who lost his right arm in the battle of Shiloh. Powell, who was also a professor of natural history, and nine companions explored the uncharted and dangerous canyon in 4 small, wooden boats. Three of Powell's companions, in fear for their lives in the dangerous rapids, left the group to climbed out of the Canyon on foot. They were never heard from again. It is assumed they were killed by Indians.

Learning a little about Powell from the movie really piqued Margery's interest in him. She is currently working her way through the 573 page A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell by Donald Worster. How interesting to learn that in the spring of 1857, he stayed on Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh before beginning his exploration down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers where he learned about the geological history that had made the North American continent what it was.

From the IMAX movie, we went to the rim of the canyon and explored the area to the east of Grand Canyon Village as well as Kolb Studio at the Village. The Kolb brothers operated a photographic studio at the south rim of the canyon from 1904 to 1976. In 1990 the building was restored and today operates as a book store, museum, and art gallery. The studio is located near the trailhead of Bright Angel Trail, which descends down into the canyon. Paul and Lora took a short hike down the trail. We saw this mule party a ways below heading back up the trail. Mules have the right of way on the trail and hikers must pass by on the outside next to the drop-off.

In the day between our two treks to the Grand Canyon we stayed a little closer to our home base. Sunset Crater National Monument is about 15 miles north of Flagstaff. It is at the beginning of a 34 mile scenic loop that ends up at Wupatki National Monument, which is the site of numerous pueblo ruins. Sunset Volcano is a 1000' high black cinder cone tinged with yellows and oranges. The volcano erupted sometime between 1046 and 1071 spewing ash, cinders, and lava over a wide area. Below is a view of the Bonito Lava Flow in front of Sunset Crater Volcano.

Even though over 700 years has elapsed since the last volcanic activity, there is surprisingly little vegetation on either the lava flows or the cinder cones. Weather usually breaks down the lava and cinders to turn them into soil, but the low amount of rainfall in this region has slowed the breakdown and thus the plant growth. The area is in the San Francisco Volcanic Field (named for St. Francis and not connected to San Francisco, CA) and is dotted with numerous cinder cones and several lava flows. Although the cinders begin to thin out quite a bit as you get closer to Wupatki National Monument, their black evidence can be seen essentially the entire 34 mile scenic drive,

At Wupatki National Monument we visited two of the seven pueblo ruins that are open to the public. The first was Wukoli Pueblo, which is the best preserved dwelling in the park. Two or three families lived in this pueblo which was occupied from about 1120 to 1210.

The second site we visited was Wupatki Pueblo, which is the largest pueblo in the park. This dwelling had approximately 100 rooms at its peak and rose multiple stories. It also had a circular ceremonial or meeting room and a ball court.

Now, we don't really like big cities, we don't like a lot of glitz, and we don't gamble; but our curiosity got the better of us and since Las Vegas is kind of on the way to our next area to explore in Utah, we planned to spend a couple of nights in Vegas. We wanted to see the lights, see the exotic hotels, and take in a buffet or two.

Lora and J. Michael had arranged their schedule to fly back to Pittsburgh from Las Vegas. We made reservations for us at the Circus Circus KOA and for them at the motel section of Circus Circus. Again, KOA usually isn't our cup of tea, but we needed a campground with reasonably priced motel rooms nearby. The Las Vegas Circus Circus KOA is basically a paved parking lot with side-by-side hook-ups. There's not much shade and not much grass, but it is conveniently located at the north end of The Strip and it does have both a hotel and a motel. But at over $50 a night for a campsite (with a KOA Kamper Klub discount and without the extra charge for Wi-Fi), it leaves a lot to be desired.

The route from Flagstaff to Las Vegas takes you right across Hoover Dam. We had heard about restrictions crossing the dam with large vehicles such as trucks and RVs after 9/11. Although RVs are currently permitted to cross, they may be subject to search. Since, as full-timers, our motor home is well packed and since we didn't know the extent of the search or the length of the backup, we opted for the half-hour longer route through Laughlin, NV. Besides, there are also construction delays at the dam because they are buiding a bridge 1/4 mile downstream to eliminate most of the traffic across the dam and eliminate terror threats to the dam. Completion of the bridge is scheduled for 2008.

After we all got settled, we drove The Strip while it was still daylight and again later at night and marveled at the lavish hotels. The Luxor Hotel is built in the shape of a black pyramid with a huge sphynx in front. Caesar's Palace looks like Roman architecture with a reproduction of the Collesium out front. Paris Las Vegas has a large replica of the Eiffel Tower.

New York, New York looks like the New York skyline with a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. At night, The Strip lights up like no other place you've ever seen. The older hotels and casinos have most of the neon, although even the McDonalds have elaborate neon signs. Many of the newer hotels rely on their design to be noticed and have somewhat more subtle lighting. Most of the newer hotels do, however, have a jumbotron out front previewing their shows and advertising their casinos.

As far as we can tell, the hotels (even the large, expensive ones on The Strip) all have free, self-park garages. They want to make it easy for the general public to stop by and maybe spend a little time in the casino or attend a show. Some even have free shows outside to draw people in. Treasure Island has a pirate show and the Bellagio has lighted fountains that are choreographed to music. There is a 1000' long, eight-acre lake in front of the Bellagio with fountains that can propel water up to 50' high. The fountains twirl, sway, pulse, rise, and fall to the music.

During the afternoons, the shows are every half hour. At night, the shows are every 15 minutes. We were there in the evening and stayed for four shows. The shows are relatively short (about 4 minutes) and by the time each show was over and we found a new vantage point, it was almost time for the next show. Each show had different music and different fountain choreography. There are at least 20 or 30 different music selections including classical, pop, broadway, and Christmas. It was agreed by all that it was one of our favorite parts of Las Vegas.

There are food bargains to be had in Las Vegas if you look for them. The new, large hotels on The Strip are quite expensive, but the smaller hotels and casinos (which are still very nice) off The Strip or downtown have much lower prices, especially if you stick to the coffee shop, grill, or cafe instead of the main dining room. For example, at Kitty's Grill in the El Cortez Hotel downtown you can have an 8 oz. prime rib for $7.95 (12 oz. for $9.95) or surf and turf (7 oz. NY strip steak and 12 to 15 decent-size broiled shrimp on a skewer) for $12.95. All dinners include soup or salad (the blue cheese dressing is excellent), vegetable, and potato. The food is good, especially for the price, and ambiance is not bad (linen napkins, but no table cloths - this is the grill, not the dining room). We also had a great breakfast buffet for $5.99 at Sam's Town, which is off The Strip on Boulder Highway. The hotel is beautiful with a large atruim/lobby, although not as extravagant as those on The Strip, and is very well maintained. The food at the buffet was excellent with all the usual breakfast items (scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, cereal, rolls, muffins, etc.) plus freshly-carved ham and made-to-order omelets. They also had lunch and dinner buffets, but we didn't make it back to try them.

On the one full day that we had in Las Vagas we backtracked 30 miles to Hoover Dam. There is a tour of the dam that easily accommodated Margery's scooter.

The tour includes a movie about the history and construction of the dam and an elevator ride 500' down into the rock of the canyon wall to see one of the two 30' diameter water intake pipes that carry up to 90,000 gallons of water a second...

...and the eight huge generators on the Nevada side of the dam (the Arizona side has nine). The smaller, horizontal generator in the foreground is one of two generators (one on the Nevada side and one on the Arizona side) that power the dam facilities, the Visitor Center, and the power plant itself.

In the 1800s and early 1900s the Colorado River often flooded low-lying farm land and communities as it surged with water from snow melt in the spring. In the late summer and fall it often slowed to a trickle too small to be useful for irrigation. The river needed to be controlled; but before that could happen, there needed to be agreement on how the water could be equitably divided. In 1922, the Colorado River Compact was signed by the 7 states served by the river. Then in 1928, Congress passed the Boulder Canyon Project Act authorizing construction of the dam. Although the act called it the Boulder Canyon Project and the dam was initially called Boulder Dam, the dam is actually located in Black Canyon. In the end, Black Canyon was chosen because it is narrower than Boulder Canyon and it had less silt to be removed to get down to bed rock. Construction began in 1931 with the building of diversion tunnels for the Colorado River. The first concrete was poured in June, 1933. The dam was completed in 1935 - two years ahead of schedule and well under budget. Not only did the dam make it possible to provide water and electricity for much of the southwest, it provided thousands of jobs during the Depression.

Here are some interesting facts about Hoover Dam. It is 726.4' high from bedrock to the top and contains 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete weighing 6.6 million tons. There was such a great mass of concrete that a large chiller was used to circulate cool water through the concrete to cool it as it cured. The dam is 1244' wide at the top, 45' thick at the top (width of roadway and sidewalks) and 660' thick at the base. Some of the equipment used to build the dam was too large to transport so it had to be built on-site. Of the thousands of people that took part in the construction, 96 lost their lives. Contrary to popular myth, none is buried in the dam. There are 17 total commercial generating units plus 2 service units to supply power for the facility itself with a total capacity of 2080 megawatts. Lake Mead, which is behind the dam, is currently 53' below its normal level for this time of year because of ongoing drought. Therefore, the power plant can not be operated at full capacity at this time. The photo below shows Lake Mead with one of the water intake towers in the foreground. The white "bathtub ring" shows the normal water level.

See Photo Album 19: Grand Canyon and the Flagstaff Area for more photos of Hoover Dam. We are disappointed that not many readers are taking advantage of the photo albums. In addition to the pictures, there is other information included that is not in the weblog. If you are having trouble accessing the photo albums in a timely fashion, please let us know. We'll see what we can do to speed up the time.

The time for Lora and J. Michael to return home arrived all too soon. We got them to the airport, then returned to the motor home to finish packing and hitch up the toad just in time for the 11:00 AM checkout time. We were headed for Zion and Bryce National Parks in southern Utah.

We try to travel on Mondays or Thursdays. We LOVE to sit around on Sundays, watching the NASCAR race and saying goodbye to the weekend warriors as they pull out. It wasn't that long ago when WE were weekend warriors and would say to each other, "If we didn't have to go home, where would you go from here?" Arriving on Thursdays gives us more of a choice of campsites before the campground begins to fill up on Friday. We pulled into Rose Valley RV Ranch in Silver City, NM (elevation 6,000 ft.) on Thursday. As the name suggests, Rose Valley RV Ranch has a western theme. The office and shower buildings are designed to look somewhat like storefronts from the Old West. There is a wooden water tower and old pieces of farm and ranch equipment sitting in some of the open spaces between sites. Although Rose Valley has some of the widest campsites we've seen at a private campground (most sites were at least 50' wide), there were also strategically-placed fences made from old barn wood and corrugated metal between sites. In addition to adding to the privacy, the fences also added to the rustic atmosphere. The campground is pretty quiet, although there was some minor traffic noise from US 180 (the main route into town) and from weed-whackers from the neighboring cemetery.

When we arrived in Silver City we were faced with hydraulic jack failure for a third time. This time the problem was the same as the first - one jack would not go down. From troubleshooting the previous failures, Paul could tell it was another burned out solenoid, the same as the cause of the first problem and a relatively complicated fix. A call to the manufacturer (HWH. Corp.) resulted in a very quick callback from someone who obviously had more authority than the usual tech reps that had assisted with the problems before. The person who called back was very upset that this was the third problem with their system and proposed replacement of all 4 solenoids as well as both rear jacks (all still under warranty). He went so far as to call ahead to our next stop and help schedule an appointment with a mobile repair service that would come to us. He would also air ship the parts. Although we were disappointed with a third jack failure, HWH really stepped up to the plate to try to remedy the situation once and for all. We were looking forward to what was, hopefully, going to be the final fix.

Silver City, bordering on the Continental Divide, was founded as a silver mining town. A tent city sprang up in 1870 with the discovery of silver nearby. Within a year, over 80 buildings had been constructed. Butch Cassidy and his gang spent time in Silver City and worked at a nearby ranch between robberies. Billy the Kid spent his early years in Silver City. We have found small, local museums to be very interesting, well-done, and worth the time. Silver City's museum, shown below, was no different.

We had read about the 55-foot-deep canyon that runs right through town. Between 1895 and 1906, floods gutted Main Street creating what is call the "Big Ditch." Margery was looking forward to seeing the effect this had on the town, turning some of the downtown buildings bass-ackwards: the storefronts--once facing Main Street--now face the ditch with access from the backside. However, as often occurs, things rarely look like what we imagine from a written description. Although it is now one of the strangest municipal parks ever created with picnic tables, walkways, and bridges in this deep arroyo, the "Big Ditch" was a disappointment...not at all what Margery had imagined. In fact, there are so many trees, it is hard to see the ditch at all. The main street of the downtown area has now moved one street to the west and the buildings have been either rebuilt or totally remodeled. The main street looks much like any Victorian/Southwest town of old. The "Big Ditch" is immediately behind the buildings to the right in the photo below.

On our way in to Silver City we passed an open-pit copper mine. This area is in the heart of the Central Mining District of New Mexico. There are several open-pit mines in the area, but the nearby Santa Rita Mine is one of the largest in the world. The Santa Rita Mine is owned by Phelps-Dodge and the pit is almost 1,500 feet deep and over a mile across. The photo below is from an observation point overlooking the pit.

From the earliest times the area attracted Native Americans who used naturally-occurring copper for ornaments, tools, and weapons. In the early 1800's the Spanish mined copper in this area and in 1853 ownership passed from Mexico to the United States as part of the Gadsden Purchase. The early copper and silver mines were underground mines, but open-pit copper mining began in the early 1900's.

Higher-grade copper ore is treated in a concentrator. The rock is crushed and processed from the naturally-occurring 0.6% copper to 25%. The concentrate is shipped by rail to a smelter in Arizona. Low-grade ore is treated by a solution-extraction-electroplating process. A weak acid solution is dripped through the ore and dissolves the copper. An electric current is then passed through the solution and the copper is electro-plated onto plates called cathodes.

One of the major problems with open-pit mining is all the over-burden that must be removed to get at the ore. Since 1910, more than 2 billion tons of material have been moved. The over-burden is stockpiled along with tailings (what remains after the ore is processed to remove copper). Phelps-Dodge has begun aggressive reclamation work at the nearby Tyrone mine.

They are redistributing stockpiles, constructing water-control channels, capping the area with soil, and mulching and seeding. They plan to move the reclamation project to the Santa Rita Mine in 2008.

About 40 miles north of Silver City is Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. The Gila Cliff Dwellings are surrounded by the Gila National Forest and are on the edge of the Gila Wilderness. The Gila Wilderness is the nation's first wilderness area. The wilderness designation means the area will not be altered by the intrusion of roads or other evidence of human presence.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings are said to have been the home of a band of 40 to 60 Mogollon (pronounced muggy-own or moe-go-yone), an agricultural and deeply religious people from about 1280 to the early 1300's. There are 7 caves in the face of the cliff, but only 6 have evidence of human activity. The 7th is small and fairly inaccessible. In the caves are one and two-story stone structures.

It was a one-mile round trip up the path to the dwellings. Once again Margery was a trooper and made the hike up and back using the trekking poles.

And here we both are resting during the climb.

There's so much that we're not able to see because of the hike required to reach those off-the-beaten-path locales. However, it seems a mile is doable and maybe even farther if the trip is more level.

The volunteer interpreter at the entrance to the dwellings was interesting. After over 5 years of research and interpretation, he advanced the theory that these and other so-called cliff dwellings were not really dwellings at all, but were actually purely ceremonial sites. The Mogollon were agricultural and usually lived near riverbanks. Although the cliff would have provided good protection, the riverbank would have been a more logical choice for daily living and there is evidence of habitation from this time period along the nearby Gila River. Whether the Mogollon actually lived in the cliffs or on the banks of the river, they were attracted to this area by the reliable water supply of the Gila River. No one knows why they left. See Photo Album 018: New Mexico II for more pictures of the Gila Cliff dwellings and the Gila National Forest.

After a week in Silver City we moved on to Elephant Butte State Park at Elephant Butte Lake near Truth or Consequences, NM. Elephant Butte Lake is named for a butte that is said to look like an elephant. The butte is now in the middle of the lake which was created by a dam constructed across the Rio Grande River in 1916. The lake is about 40 miles long and has over 200 miles of shoreline. It is the largest lake in New Mexico.

The campsites are spacious and most have at least a partial view of the lake, although the lake is quite far from most of the developed RV sites.

Elephant Butte State Park is a very popular park, as we found out since we were there over Memorial Day weekend. The park was fairly quiet when we arrived on Thursday and again on Tuesday after the holiday, but it was a zoo over the weekend. Being the largest lake in New Mexico and being relatively close to Las Cruces, NM, Albuquerque, NM, and even El Paso, TX, it attracts large crowds. In addition to the developed campsites, dry camping is permitted on the beach. RVs were lined up end-to-end along the beach and tents were crammed in wherever they would fit. Even in the designated RV sites there were multiple families sharing sites. The 2 sites in front of us had 2 RVs (one on each site), 5 tents, at least 5 or 6 vehicles (it was hard to tell because they kept coming and going), at least 15 people (they kept coming and going, too), at least one motorboat, and one large pontoon boat. They left the pontoon boat in the water most of the weekend. That way they could use the trailer as a drying rack for all their towels and wet bathing suits. We were glad to see the holiday end.

The town of Truth or Consequences, NM (T or C for short) was named for the radio (and later TV) game show of the same name. In 1950 on the 10th anniversary of the Truth or Consequences radio program, radio and TV producer Ralph Edwards (1913-2005) said he wished some town liked the game show enough to change its name to Truth or Consequences. Hot Springs, NM (as it was known then) heard Ralph's proposal and decided in a special election (1,294 for, 295 against) to change its name to try to take advantage of the publicity to increase its tourist activity. For many years, Ralph Edwards and his Hollywood friends came back to T or C to celebrate the anniversary of the name change.

The mobile RV repair service showed up bright and early the morning after we arrived and completed the repairs to our jacks in a little over 2 hours. The jacks now work better than when they were new, so we hope this is the end of the story on the jacks.

We spent our time at Elephant Butte working on some projects around the motor home and relaxing. Paul built a small bookshelf to take advantage of some unused space between two cabinets in the motor home.

He also climbed up on the roof and cleaned the outside of the vent covers. The other thing we did was to work on our itinerary for the summer. Margery plotted a number of possible travel routes, calculated travel times, and researched possible campgrounds. For the near term, we will be heading for the Grand Canyon and will then tour southern Utah and Colorado.

Our next stop was Bluewater Lake State Park located about halfway between Grants, NM and Gallup, NM. The campground is fairly remote with 30 amp electricity on only 14 out of 149 campsites. Bluewater Lake is a relatively small lake, although they say you can water ski. The campground filled up on the weekend, but we didn't see many with boats. All in all, it's relatively quiet and not a bad spot for a stopover.

Some of the sites could use a little fresh gravel and fewer weeds. Most of the sites and the interior roads are lined with large rocks so you need to be careful backing and maneuvering some of the tighter turns. There are several Native American sites and pueblo ruins in the area, but they are a fair drive from Bluewater Lake so we decided to just spend our time relaxing and enjoying the clear New Mexico skies.

Our next stop will be Flagstaff, AZ. We're meeting family to explore the Grand Canyon and Sedona area together.