September 12, 2015 Travel on I-70 east between Hurricane Utah and Green River Utah / We aren't in Kansas Toto!

So here we are in Green River, Utah, after traveling about 290 miles from Hurricane, Utah.   This is a "middle of nowhere" place and when asked why we chose it, it's because we have a rule that we don't drive over 300 miles in one day.  

We got up at 5:30 and prepared for departure.   Now it doesn't take very long to prepare the MoHo but sometimes it takes a while to prepare our bodies!  Anyway - TMI I'm sure - we hit the road, after gassing up the guzzler.   Hey California - gas is cheaper here in Utah and we are hoping to keep seeing that price drop as we work our way east.   

All of today's pictures were taken from the MoHo while motating down the road, so please excuse any blur, bugs, etc.   I do what I can.    All I can say is we definitely are not in Kansas Toto!!!

September 11, 2015 Kolob Canyons / Zion's northernmost point

I just can't wrap my head around the fact that THE 9/11 we will all remember was 14 years ago!  I went to work that morning just like it was any other day.   When I arrived I learned of the horrible tragedy unfolding on the East Coast and all I wanted to do was reach out and touch or talk to all my loved ones.   Definitely one of those "privotal" times of our lives and a day I'll never forget.

But on this 9/11 Gary and I are blessed to be in a part of the country that was touched by God and blessed with beauty.  We traveled north a bit today and visited the Kolob Canyons, which is the northernmost point of Zion National Park.   It was a lot more forested than the others parts we've seen.  Beautiful, amazing and jaw dropping are the only way to describe it.   We also visited one of our favorite places to eat:  CRACKER BARREL!   Yes they have them in Utah - who knew? 

Tonight we will hitch up the CRV and get the inside ready to roll tomorrow.  We are headed for Green River, Utah and Interstate 70/East.    We finalized some plans for the rest of the trip through to Indiana.   We will arrive at Spring Mill in Mitchell on 9-25.  

September 10, 2015 Zion National Park, Utah

Wow!

This is Zion NP - We drove through Zion on our way to Bryce yesterday.  When you drive through you must pass through a tunnel that is over one mile long.  The tunnel was built in 1930.  The tunnel is so narrow that high profile vehicles, such as RV's, require that a park employee man the entrance and exits and control the flow of traffic in one direction.  That way the high profile vehicles can drive right now the middle of the tunnel which is the highest point.    We did not drive the RV through and I would not vote to do that, personally.  The road is a lot of switchback curves and narrow and climbs from the bottom of the canyon up to the top.   Beautiful drive and I would highly recommend it to anyone, just not in an RV.   Along the way we came across this beauty who was just grazing on the side of the road. 

So yesterday we formulated a plan.  Get up at 5AM, be on the road at 6AM and be at the park by 7AM.  We decided to use the Zion Shuttle System today.    We arrived before 7 and the gate to the park was open but no one was working it.   That means if you arrive to the park early enough you don't pay to get in and it is expensive to get in, $30.00 a vehicle.  That is good for 7 days but woozers, that's pricey.   Fortunately Gary had purchased his Senior National Park Pass for $10.00 and we just flash our card and drive on through.   Best money we've spent in a long time!

We got a super close parking spot at the Visitor's Center and jumped on the shuttle that was waiting.  The shuttle makes 8 stops through the park and it is not a route that you can drive through, so it was all new to us.    We stayed on the shuttle to the very last stop, then planned to work our way back to the Visitor's Center.   It was cool and breezy on the canyon floor, just a very few people and what an awesome experience.  We were in the middle of this incredible canyon and felt like we were the only people there.   We walked along the river and just started taking pics.    We would then hop on the shuttle and make the next stop. The shuttle runs between every 7 and 15 minutes.      One of the shuttle stops was at the Zion Lodge and we decided to have breakfast.   It is a beautiful old lodge and we had a yummy breakfast.

We were back at the Visitor's Center and headed back to the RV by noon.  Just perfect because it was starting to get very warm and very busy.   One of our shuttle drivers told us that last weekend, Labor Day, they estimated they had 42,000 visitors.   Glad we missed that.

Our ride for the day

 

Our home here in Hurricane Utah

September 9, 2015 / Bryce Canyon National Park

There is no camera and there are no words to truly share the stunning landscape that is Bryce Canyon.  We got a little bit of later start than we should have, but it all worked out in the end.  We didn't get back to MoHo until almost 6:30pm.  Weather was predicted to be 100 here in Hurricane where we are camped. It was gorgeous at Bryce because we were at a higher elevation, more than 9000' to be exact. I think it was maybe 76/78 tops.   Not too terribly crowded either but still a fair amount of people.   We choose to drive through Bryce, there is a shuttle system, but we drove up to the highest point and then on the return down made all the stops at the various scenic turnouts.   We took over 200 pictures so it was very hard to cull through and pick just a few for the blog.  I'm going to try to upload them to Shutterfly and then send you all an invite.     We Yelped a great little restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner at Bryce Canyon Pines.   Nothing fancy and we had the lunch menu so it was mostly sandwiches and burgers but food was very good.

The fire is growing at Dixie National Forest and the air smells of smoke but it is pretty far away from where we are camped.

For your viewing pleasure:

 

September 8, 2015 California/Nevada/Arizona/Utah

The adventure has begun!   We spent last night camped at the Mills A-OK campground!  Deluxe accomodations for sure and we were treated to a mighty nice dinner at Applebee's too.   We decided to start the journey a day early and get those LA miles under our belt on Labor Day - traffic was very light headed north.

We were in essence boondocking - meaning we had no hookups.  So it was a little warm with no air conditioner but we opened the windows and the desert cooled off nicely.   I didn't sleep (gee nothing new there) but we got up at 7 and were on the road by 7:40.  

Stopped at Lenwood/Flying J for gas and then back on the road.  An uneventful day of travel followed (that's what we like). MoHo did fantastically on the Baker Grade and all the other ups and downs we traversed today.   

We flew by LasVegas and were in Arizona for about 30 minutes, then beautiful Utah.  We are at the Willow Wind RV Park until Saturday.   We will be making the rounds, visiting Zion National Park and Bryce National Park and anything else that strikes our fancy.   This is a very nice RV Resort, we have FHU's, as well as cable TV and free WIFI!   I will post pics of the campground on another day.  

As I uploaded the pics from today, I had a few of my beautiful Lil Miss, so thought I'd include one here for your viewing pleasure.  

 There is a fire in the hills northwest of St. George Utah - see it in the middle of this pic

 Our location for the next few days

 The Virgin River is rust colored.   I'm wondering if that is because of the spill that happened in Colorado a while back?