Four Corners Monument

We had planned on driving out to the Four Corners Monument and then on up to Mesa Verde today. But we checked Mesa Verde's website last night and found out most of it isn't open yet and won't be until mid-April.

We left the campground and went north on US-163 passing by the Valley of the Gods

to US-162 at the town of Bluff and saw this historic fort

then south and entered Colorado on CO-41

to US-160 west to the Four Corners Monument - a trip of 96 miles.

The entrance fee for Four Corners Monument was $5 a person. Behind us you can see the booths that the Navajo set up their pottery, jewelry, woven goods and other items to sell.  We bought a Navajo

Goosenecks State Park, Moki Dugway and Valley of the Gods

Friday we drove north to the town of Mexican Hat and saw the rock formation the town is named for.

Then we continued out to Goosenecks State Park which is 31 miles from the campground. The San Juan flows through a deep canyon called a gooseneck. There are 8 designated campsites here with no hookups and cost $10 a night. There are no services there, so you have to bring in your own water. We paid the day use fee of $5 to look around and take photos.

Then we drove out US-261 to Moki Dugway which is a steep gravel narrow road 1200 feet up Cedar Mesa. Mike had a great time - Sue kept her eyes closed the whole 3 mile trip. 

Mike wanted to turn around and go back down, but we kept going north on US-261.

Then we went East on UT-95 to US-191 and then south to US-163 and the east entrance to the Valley of the Gods. There is a 17 mile unpaved road through the Valley of the Gods. 

We saw several RVs and tent campers on our drive. The valley is under the Bureau of Land Management,

Monument Valley Drive

We left the campground yesterday morning at 9:00 to take a drive through Monument Valley. We stopped at Goulding's Gas Station to get gas and paid $3.39 a gallon. 

We got to the Kiosk at the entrance at 9:30 and paid the $20 entrance fee. We drove up to the Visitor Center and started on the 17 mile loop drive. 

I think I'll just let our photos describe our drive. We paid $20, but our photos and memories are priceless.

We met Steve and Joyce from Ontario at John Ford's Point and exchanged taking photos. They were interested in the type of trailer we had because they are eventually going to buy one.

I think one of our favorite stops was at Artist Point. I told Mike that the view made me wish I could paint.

After our drive through Monument Valley, we stopped at Goulding's Lodge and had lunch at

Laundry Day at Goulding's Campground

This morning I gathered up our laundry and went up to the campground's laundry. Mike had asked at the office when we checked in yesterday how much it was to do laundry and he was told $3 a load.

I found out when I checked the washing machines that it was $3 to wash a load of clothes. There are 7 washers and only 1 was out of order. I ended up using 4 of the washers. I had planned on only having to buy 1 roll of quarters, but I bought 2 rolls from the campground office.

I had brought my laptop with me so I could work on our photos and blog post for our drive here from Zion National Park on Tuesday.

There are 8 dryers and all of them were working. 

Mike walked down with Tinker to see how I was doing.

I ended up spending $14.75 for laundry which is less than I thought it would be. Then after I got back to the trailer after finishing the laundry, Mike grilled hot dogs and we had them and potato salad for lunch.

We all three ended up taking a nap this afternoon. Mike grilled sausages for supper and we had them along with more potato salad.

Driving from Zion National Park to Gouldings Campground

It was 47° with a wind chill of 45° when we got up yesterday morning at 7:00. By the time we broke camp and got to the dump station to dump our tanks, it was 9:00. 

We left Zion National Park about 9:15 and there was already a long line forming of cars waiting to get in the park.

We stopped at a Maverick station in Hurricane to get gas ($2.799 a gallon). I went inside while Mike was pumping gas to find something for a snack and got a couple of Apple Empanadas.

We stopped at Kanab, UT to get gas and paid $2.819 a gallon for premium. We then headed east on US-89.

We needed to buy some groceries, so we stopped at the WalMart in Page, AZ and then got gas at a Shell station ($3.209 a gallon). We saw this houseboat being escorted

Our Second Shuttle Ride through Zion National Park

We got up this morning at 7:00 and it was 42° and the wind chill was 40°, but it was sunny. We left the trailer a little before 8:00 to drive to the Visitor Center to take a Shuttle out through the park. We put Tinker in his crate before we left. He doesn't bark when we leave him in the trailer in the crate.

There were a lot of cars already in the parking lot, but we were lucky and found a parking spot fairly close to where the Shuttles pick up passengers. A shuttle left just as we got to the pickup point, but another shuttle came right behind the one leaving. We got in the second shuttle car, since most of the people waiting in line had gotten on the first car. 

Mike opened one of the windows (they only open about 3 inches) and took photos as we rode along on the shuttle. We got off the shuttle at some of the stops, but didn't do any hiking. We saw a lot more of the mountains and rock formations today than we saw last Friday when it was raining and foggy. 

I think I'll just let the photos we took today to describe our shuttle trip today.

Day Trip to Bryce Canyon National Park

After breakfast this morning, we put Tinker in the car along with his pillow (from an old sofa), blankie, favorite toy Bear and a bag with his bowls, food for lunch, treats and water. Then we left the campground at 9:00 and headed east on UT-9 through Zion National Park. 

We drove through the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel which is 1.1 miles long. It is currently closed to RVs because a rock slide on the west side of the tunnel took out part of the road.

At Mount Carmel Junction we got onto US-89 North and drove for 43 miles. US-89 went through a valley where all you saw were snow-covered fields

and later on the scenery changed completely.

Then we got onto UT-12 for 14 miles. We turned south from UT-12 onto UT-63 South to the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.

We were able to drive out to mile 6 on the park road. They had had 2-3 feet of snow and were working to

Lazying Around at the Campground

We slept in this morning until 8:00. It was in the low 40's and cloudy. It started to warm up as the day went along and by this afternoon the temps were in the low 60's and partly sunny. We just spent today relaxing and I did some genealogy research this afternoon and I'll be doing some more after I post this.

This afternoon after lunch we drove into Springdale to get gas in the car and paid $2.909 for premium grade. Then we stopped at the entrance to Zion National Park to take a photo. There is a pull-off with several parking spaces for people to park and take photos of the entrance sign. We had our tripod and Mike set it up, so all 3 of us were in the photo.

There was a long line of cars waiting to enter the park and a couple of people said how neat it was that we included Tinker in our photo.

Since we didn't do any sightseeing today, I thought I would mention how much we've spent on gas and campgrounds since we left Sebastian.

We have spent $741.48 for gas as of today and we have driven 2710 miles from home to Zion National Park. Our campground fees have been $452.68 so far which makes our daily cost for campgrounds $22.63.

Shuttle Bus Ride at Zion National Park

We got up at 6:30 this morning and it was raining and in the low 40's. After breakfast, we put Tinker in his crate and drove over to the Visitor Center to get on a shuttle bus that would take us out through the park.

We had no problem finding a parking space at the Visitor Center and then we walked over to get on the shuttle bus that pulled in just as we parked the car. The bus was only about half full when we left the Visitor Center. We rode out to the last stop at the Temple of Sinawava and got off the bus. The total bus ride only takes about 40 minutes from the first stop at the Visitor Center to the Temple of Sinawava.

We walked out on the Riverside Trail down to the Virgin River and saw this waterfall.

Then we saw a couple of mule deer feeding alongside the trail.

After walking along the trail for a while, we returned to the bus stop and caught the next bus. Mike took

Rain Most of Today & Grocery Shopping in Springdale & Hurricane

We had planned on driving up to Bryce Canyon National Park today, so we got up at 6:00 this morning since it is an 84 mile drive up there. I checked Bryce Canyon National Park's web page and found out that the main park road is closed at Mile 3 due to heavy snow.

So change of plans, we drove into Springdale and went grocery shopping at Sol Foods. It's a small but very nice grocery store - some items were expensive and others were more in line with what I pay in Sebastian. 

On our way out of the campground this morning, we saw this couple taking down their tent.

We've continued to have problems with our Dish reception and the technician the other day suggested using a shorter cable. So I looked up the nearest WalMart and it was in Hurricane, 28 miles from here. Mike called the store to be sure they had the length of cable that we needed, so after lunch we headed over to Hurricane.

We stopped at the Visitor Center and bought a few souvenirs. 

It must have snowed in the upper elevations last night, because there wasn't any snow on the mountain tops yesterday.

Then we drove over to Hurricane. We got the coax cable we needed and got some of the groceries I didn't

Domestic Chores at Watchman Campground

We slept in a little this morning. We decided after breakfast that we would take today and tend to some domestic chores.

I vacuumed the rugs and floor. I had washed 2 loads of clothes while we were at Mike and Gayle's house and the clothes were still in the laundry bags. So we put those away and I had had a button come off of one of my blouses and I sewed it back on. Then I rearranged some things in the kitchen cabinets. Not an exciting day, but necessary.

We also re positioned the Dish satellite to see if that would help our reception any - it didn't.

Mike took pictures of our campsite and some of Watchman Campground since we didn't get that done yesterday afternoon.

Then after lunch we gathered up the garbage and walked over to the dumpster to drop it off. Afterwards we walked over to view the Virgin River that flows by the campground and I took this photo of someone camping (?) at the river's edge.

I spent this afternoon going through the photos that I took yesterday and added some of them to our

Driving to Zion National Park on March 19

I would have posted this yesterday, but the internet on my iPhone was so slow I just had to quit trying to do anything at 10:30 last night. The whole drive from Tuba City to the campground was so scenic - I took 285 photos yesterday. I've whittled them down to 270 and then the hard job was to decide which ones to add to our photo album.

So --- here is yesterday's post. We left Trails End RV Park yesterday morning at 9:30 and stopped to get gas ($2.879 a gallon) before we left Tuba City. Then we headed back west on US-160.

We then got on US-89 Alternate and headed north. US-89A is a scenic route and it is aptly named. 

Our route on US-89A took us to the higher elevations

and at one point we were at 6,000 feet with no shoulder on the road on my side - just a looong drop off. I have to give myself credit for not climbing into the driver seat with Mike when I looked down and down and

Driving from Prescott to Tuba City, AZ

We got up this morning at 7:00 and got ready to leave Mike and Gayle's house. Mike fixed us scrambled egg and sausage sandwiches for breakfast. He showed us how he cooks a scrambled egg in the microwave - something we're going to have to try. Gayle gave us a loaf of her homemade whole wheat bread and some of the chicken & rice soup they cooked yesterday.

We hitched up the car and trailer and thanked Mike and Gayle again for their hospitality and left their house around 9:00 and headed north on US-89. We stopped to get gas before leaving Prescott and paid $2.959 a gallon.

We drove north on US-89 to I-40 East towards Flagstaff. There was still snow in a number of places along I-40 at Flagstaff.

Just east of Flagstaff we turned north on US-89 and stopped to get gas ($2.859 a gallon) before driving north. 

Visiting with Friends in Prescott, AZ

We left Meteor Crater RV Park yesterday at 10:00. It was 33° with a wind chill of 27° when we got up at 7:00. We decided to wait on breaking camp until it had warmed up a little.

I walked over to the showers to go to the bathroom and I took a photo of the shower/bathroom. Mike also went to the bathroom and we both agreed that it was one of the nicest we had seen.

We headed west on I-40 and shortly after leaving the campground, I took this photo of Humphreys Peak.

We left I-40 West at Flagstaff and got onto I-17 South and saw quite a bit of snow still on the ground at Flagstaff

and then we saw this sign for an 18 mile downgrade on I-17

with a 6% downgrade.

We stopped for lunch at a Wendy's at Camp Verde at 12:00.

Then we got onto AZ-169 and drove west to AZ-69 and then north to AZ-89 and then to our friends Mike and Gayle's house in Prescott.

We arrived at their house about 2:00 and was able to park the car and trailer in a wide spot on their street.

Mike and Gayle took us out to dinner at Lindo Mexico Restaurant in Prescott. We all ordered burritos and then Mike (my Mike) ordered Fried Ice Cream. The rest of us were too full for dessert, but when the