Summer Trip 2017

We spent July in Woodstock but found the weather hot and humid.  It had been a very rainy spring.  So in August we headed to Arizona arriving in Green Valley below Tucson in !07 degree weather.  We had been thinking of maybe relocating there but I wanted to experience the hottest time of year.  That is in June but August was terrible also.  We had an appointment with a realtor but after just one night I said "Get me out of here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 

We headed north and Bryce Canyon National Park was our second stop. We stopped at Glen Canyon NRA first. After 3 days I said my goodbyes to Bryce and we headed north again.  Bryce Canyon is over 8,300 feet so it is much cooler.  And it was just as beautiful.  Then I wanted to stop at Salt Lake City, UT for the monument to people and settlers of the area.  It was sculptured by a grandson of Brigham Young and I learned about the artist and the monument when I was volunteering at Weir Farm in CT.  I was impressed with the monument.  From there we headed north and west to Washington State and Oregon.  We accidentally followed the Oregon Trail in Idaho and Oregon and we saw Mt. Rainier NP and Olympic NP before heading to Oregon and friends who taught us to crab from a dock in Bandon.  The smoke was terrible because of the fires and terrible dry summer.  East thru burning national forests we traveled out of our way for roads were closed. What a long day!!!!!! I had a last night saying goodbye to the Rocky Mountains and we saw Grand Teton NP again, then traveled east thru Casper, WY and into Nebraska following the Oregon Trail east thru Scotts Bluff NM and Chimney Rock.  When the emigrants saw Scotts Bluff, they knew they were 1/3 into their journey west. We spent 6 weeks roaming and completing missed parts of history arriving back in Connecticut September 17th.



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Our campsite in North Campground near the rim.

Beautiful as always



Crabbing with our friends

This is the Place Monument, Salt Lake City, UT



The Pacific Ocean at Olympic National Park

The very dry rain forest I had come to see.  (Terrible, very, very dry summr!!!!!!!!)

The Tetons and Snake River  in Grand Teton National Park

Mt Rainier NP gas  pumps from the past.



The mouth of the Columbia River and the Washington State side in the distance

The Nebraska light house dedicated to Hope (Beacon of Hope) build by CCC in 1930's

View from Scott's Bluff.  The Immigrants knew they were 1/3 to Oregon at this point.
 

A view of Mt. Rainier coming into the national park.  It was cloudy so when the mountain appeared it was a shock and impressive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Early Spring

We decided that March was a terrible month in Connecticut so we headed for an early Spring somewhere else.  We left just before a snow storm and came back in April to a wet but warmer month.  We traveled first south ASAP for I wanted water in the house on wheels.  Then we headed west to Arizona and New Mexico.

We stopped in TN at our friends home and we stopped in GA at Cloudland Canyon State Park to take on water and do laundry.  We like the GA parks for they are clean, have a laundry for a reasonable price and state parks are always much more roomy than private parks.  We saw Bradford Pear trees in bloom and green grass.  We headed thru AL & MS to LA where we spend another night in a LA state park where we did laundry again and the next morning had no water.  We were told the main water main broke by workers doing something so we ended up at a horse camp in the state park that had better showers.  Life is always an adventure and we seem to always make out better by just winging it.  Then we arrived in the huge state of TX.  We never went thru the lower part of the Texas  panhandle so this time we entered NM in Clovis stopping in TX at Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway.  At the park we took a ranger tour of the former railway turned trailway and stayed at the park for a night.  The tour was great  (Ranger Piggs leading the tour-love the name and I am not kidding!) and it just happened (again) that we were in the right place at the right time.  We asked and the tour was full........ but one couple did not show up and on the tour we went.

The next day we stayed in Oasis State Park, NM crossing through Clovis.  John missed signs and stopped at a Sherriff's office for directions to Oasis.  We were impressed for we actually got a police escort right to the entrance of the park. That's service!!!!! Or were we strange people who he had to keep an eye on?  We stopped in Alamogordo, NM at another state park (good find, Oliver Lee State Park) and we questioned the visitor center in Alamogordo about housing there.  I love the southwest non humidity!!!!!

We ended up in Arizona and learned all March in AZ = school break somewhere and state parks are full.  We traveled to Chiricahua National Monument in the middle of nowhere but on a Sunday night that was even full (we never make reservations).  I had never been there.  The Class A was too large for the monument.  I recommend the place if you are ever in southern AZ below Wilcox.  We visited a former ranch, (part of the monument) called Faraway Ranch.  Wonder where the name came from?????

Back at ORPI and beautiful as ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flowers everywhere in this green desert!

Next we stopped at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (OPR)I where we were volunteers twice, We stayed 2 nights and visited people we knew.  Then we headed to Lake Pleasant where friends were volunteering.  After a stop we headed north to I-40 and east again stopping at Cottonwood near Sedona on a Sunday night.  Dead Horse State Park was also full.  We stopped at Tizigoot National Monument in Cottonwood (ancient people ruins).  That was an interesting stop.  We never plan anything and things always work out!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the sunshine and low humidity of the southwest but back we came over Route I-40 stopping in the Texas panhandle at Palo Duro Canyon State Park.  We had been there before.  We rested there then traveled on. In GA we went directly to I-95 and north again.  We saw flowers blooming, trees and green grass arriving in Connecticut.   So we traveled many, many miles to enjoy warmth and color and then we were back in CT coming alive for the spring.  We stayed the night at the Danbury, CT Welcome Center which has reopened with a new free dump station.  We arrived home in time for a grandson's 17th birthday party.  A quick trip for an early spring!



Palo Duro Canyon, TX panhandle
Below grumpy John walking