Cathy & Jan's Travels: December 2010

Rainbow Bridge National Monument (Utah)

As winter sets in, we are now safely settled in our winter resting spot in Green Caye RV Park in Dickinson, TX. This is the place that we stay in every year – very quiet and close to our doctors, friends and close to where we lived for 37 years. We are happy to report that the gremlins that dogged us from Vancouver Island thru Oregon earlier in the year have not made their presence known again.

In our last update, we were in southwestern Utah in St. George. From there, we drove in a rented car over some very “lonely” roads to the very remote Great Basin National Park in northeastern Nevada. On the way we drove thru the always beautiful Zion national Park and stopped by Cedar Breaks National Monument (one of our favorite smaller parks) where it had just snowed some overnight. In Great Basin, we drove up the Wheeler Peak scenic drive to view the recently snow covered peak and the next morning we took the tour thru the Lehman Caves (a cave packed with cave “decorations” formations).

After returning to St. George we started meandering thru the southwest heading for Texas. Here are some of the highlights:

Grand Canyon National Park North Rim – We visited here after October 15th when the park “closes” for the winter. It still remains open until the first big snowfall comes (usually around the end of November). During this “shoulder period”, the visitor center/gift shop is open and the campground is open (but without water). The Grand Lodge, rental cabins, campground store, filling station etc. are closed. The views from the North Rim are truly fantastic. From here you are about 1,000 ft higher than on the South Rim and get to look down into the canyon more. The North Rim is really remote (it is 220 miles of driving to get from the South Rim to the North Rim – which as the crow flies is only 12 miles away). But, if ever have a chance to get there, we would highly recommend it. While in the campground, we enjoyed watching a Kaibab squirrel (which is only found in the North Rim area) take pine cones from the top of trees and then scamper to where it had his stash for the winter. We were planning on staying longer, but with cold weather in the forecast, we moved on.. Even then, it snowed on us as we were leaving.
Lake Powell and Rainbow Bridge – Included in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on the Arizona/Utah border is Lake Powell lined with great rock formations. While camping there for 4 nights, we took a tour into the Glen Canyon dam to see the hydroelectric turbines (security was very tight and it seemed that we were rushed thru the tour). On another day, we had a choice of a 100 mile round trip boat ride or go on a 35 mile round trip hike to get to the Rainbow Bridge National Monument – (we, of course, chose the boat ride which was quite scenic). Rainbow Bridge is the world’s largest natural bridge and is almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty and this is the 100th year that it has been protected as a National Monument. What a truly awe inspiring sight to see.
Monument Valley (A Navajo Tribal Park) – This place really lived up to its billing – what a beautiful place. The best part of our visit was that the view from our campsite was fantastic (our campsite is in one of the photos included below). We didn’t have any amenities (like electricity), but for the fee of $10 a night – what a deal! And we got a bonus in watching the sunrise the next morning.
Goosenecks State Park - This is where the San Juan River in southeastern Utah has cut a 1000 ft deep canyon thru the desert in what is known as an “entrenched meander”. Over a distance of 1 ½ miles, the river flows over 6 miles thru the canyon. (See panoramic picture below).
Canyon de Chelly National Monument– This is our 2nd visit here and was as beautiful as before. The last time we had looked down into the canyons from numerous viewpoints and hiked down to see one of the ancient homes in the canyon walls. This time we chose to take a ride with a Navajo guide thru the bottom of some of the canyons over sand and streambeds. What a ride and the canyons are beautiful!
Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site in southeastern Colorado – A fur trading post built in 1833 that was the only white settlement on the Santa Fe Trail between Missouri and Santa Fe and was on the border between the US and Mexico Looks like this might be a possible place for us to volunteer some summer or fall in the future.
Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site (one of the newest National Park sites [2007]) – This is where native Americans (mostly women and children) in 1864 were massacred by a Colorado Territorial volunteer regiment in southeastern Colorado. This is one of the many sad events that occurred when the European settler way of life conflicted with that of the native Americans.

Then it was time for us to leave the National Park sites and take time to visit with family. After a week visiting with our daughter’s family (including 4 grandkids) in North Texas, we headed to Austin for a few days over Thanksgiving spending some time with Cathy’s brother and sister (and also a time to remember her other brother David that died this year).

Another milestone has been reached: With this trip, we have completed visits to ALL of the 173 National Park Service sites that are in the western continental United States (west of Memphis, TN)). In addition, we have visited some of the parks in Alaska and in the Midwest (for a total of 224 out a possible 392). So, we guess it is about time to start focusing on the eastern states now.

Plans: Spend Christmas in the Denver area with our son and daughter in law and visit Jan’s 2 brothers there. After a couple of months here in the Houston area we will spend a couple of weeks in Livingston (our official address) at the Escapees Rainbow End RV Park and then a couple of weeks again with our daughter’s family in north Texas. Then in early March we plan to head to the east coast of the US and visit the Canadian Maritimes (concentrating on New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island provinces).

Hope this update finds you all doing well and we wish you a joyful and meaningful Christmas season and a Happy New Year.