Taking advantage of the cooler fall temperatures, we planned a 12 Day Road trip through some Southwestern Desert destinations during the last two weeks of October. Here are some highlights of our travels through Nevada, Arizona and California.
VALLEY OF FIRE STATE PARK
Our first camping location was at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.
We had heard from another RV couple that this was a great destination
and it did not disappoint. We got one of the last few “first come, first
served” dry camping sites available. We loved our site, backed up to a
beautiful wall of sandstone, with towering rocks around us.
This state
park has many amazing sandstone formations, trails through slot canyons
and rainbow colored, rock filled valleys, not to mention scenic drives and overlooks.
Our first hike after setting up our camp was White Domes trail. This is a one mile loop trail meandering through short slot canyons, along giant rock domes and traversing scenic and diverse areas. Along the way we passed the remains of an old movie set.
Other highlights we enjoyed are the ancient
petroglyphs found in several locations, and unusual formations in the rock, such as this arch.
Finishing our afternoon of hiking and exploring, we drove along the Scenic Byway up to a bluff offering views in every direction. We parked and enjoyed the sunset to the West, and at the same
time the full moon was rising over distant mountains to the East.
Fire Wave and Pink Canyon, via Seven Wonders Trail
The next day we hiked out to see the “fire wave,” a wave shaped rock formation in stripes of pink and beige. The trail leads over areas of slick rock and sandy washes for about a mile and a half. Coming up a final steep ascent, the fire wave comes dramatically into view below!
Beyond the fire wave, the signs pointed the way to the Seven Wonders Trail which would loop around to where we had parked, so we headed out along a sandy river bed, through some slot canyons, and crossed over the Scenic Byway not far from our parking lot. The scenery on the second leg of our hike was surprisingly different than what we had hiked through to get to the fire wave.
On either side of the sandy wash, boulders in hues of yellows, purples, and reds angled up the steep sides of the Pastel or Pink Canyon. We soon had to climb up slick rock surfaces that were in every color and looked like they had been swathed in paint! We could not linger too long though, as we would have enjoyed taking in these views! We were nearing sunset and could not tell how much further we needed to travel to arrive back at our truck. Suddenly we came up the last hill to the parking lot, in time to drive back to the view point for another sunset!
The second trail, although marked with posts about every 100 yards, was a challenge to follow.
In one area we went down the side of the sloping rocks, to discover we
needed to backtrack up the hill to get to the next trail marker. A challenging but
rewarding hike!
PAGE,AZ
Heading east our next destination was Page, AZ. This area is famous
for
Antelope Canyon and
Horseshoe Bend and we enjoyed some time at both sites. Our 90 minute tour of Antelope Canyon with
Canyon X Tours, took us to two different slot canyons.
The first canyon was narrow at the top, which was about 100 ft above us, and was 100 feet of
narrow trails taking us through a maze of sandstone walls, leading to a rounded room that felt like being at the bottom of a well. In a sense this is a well, as this is where flash flood waters will first cascade down into this section of the narrow canyon
and then flow throughout all of Antelope Canyon wash. The tour company has to pay
careful attention to the weather and be aware of rains and flooding. This is also why Antelope Canyon is only available to tour with a hired guide or company.
Our knowledgeable tour guide helped all of us on the tour to get some nice pictures, both
those who were using cameras and those with iPhones, before leading our small
group to the next canyon, a short hike down the wash. This canyon was wider at the bottom than the first, 200 feet long and 200 feet
tall, and much darker than the previous canyon was. In some areas it was
hard to see the walls ahead of us and we had to feel our way with our hands to the next
area, lit with only slivers of sunlight from above.
After our slot canyon tour we drove out to Horseshoe Bend for the
hike to the rim to enjoy sunset. Although we have been to this beautiful
site it is just as amazing on a second visit.
FALL FAMILY FUN
From Page AZ we headed south to enjoy a few days visiting with
Brent, Abbie and our grand-kids, Hannah and Ava. It was so nice to
connect and spend a few days with them as we had not seen them since the
end of May. Some of the trees where they live were in their fall colors and the weather was cool and crisp.
Hannah, almost four, is still always on the move, engaged with
everyone in the room. She is almost always smiling and laughing, or screaming with excitement and loves to be tickled or lifted high in the air by her daddy!
Definitely her daddy’s girl, it is so fun to watch Hannah and Brent play together. Walking behind Brent and Hannah through the corn maze, I captured this shot of the two of them walking hand in hand! This reminded me of another shot I took of Brent 25 years ago as a little guy holding his daddy's hand, trekking over the tide pools in Ensenada. Such special father-child memories!
Ava, almost two, is quite the opposite of Hannah in her demeanor. She is content to
sit by herself and play with toys and entertain herself. We babysat Ava alone for a
few hours and she finally started to warm up to Grandma and Grandpa. At last we saw some smiles as she became more comfortable with having us around.
MORTIMER FAMILY FARMS
This local PUMPKIN PATCH AND CORN MAZE provided us with a delightful fall afternoon of family time, letting the kids play on some games, viewing some farm animals and exploring the corn maze. Although I had hoped to get some cute pictures of the girls with the pumpkins, they were not cooperating with sitting on the scratchy hay bales! Instead we just enjoyed walking and exploring. The sunset hour provided for some sweet family pictures surrounded with the dried corn stalks of the maze.
We are so grateful to be able to visit Brent and Abbie and the girls in Arizona. Having the ability to travel in our trailer and stay on the property where they live gives us extra special time to be together. Can't wait till our next trip to see our sweet family!
DEVIL'S BRIDGE TRAIL, SEDONA
While we were visiting in the area, Steve and I took the advantage of a day trip to go to
Sedona, where we did a hike that we had not done before. Enjoying the cooler
fall temperatures, we headed out to “Devils Bridge“. Part of this
moderate level hike was along a jeep trail and then up some rock scramble to arrive at
the natural Bridge. A fellow hiker kindly took a picture of Steve and
me on the top of the bridge. We took a slightly different trail back to
the parking lot, enjoying the sunset views of the bluffs.
QUARTZSITE AND BORREGO SPRINGS
After we left the Camp Verde area we began our trip toward home. We
spent one night in Quartzsite, Arizona. It was a beautiful clear warm
evening with no moon so we saw a magnificent display of stars. The next
day we continued our drive home stopping at Borrego Springs, CA for a night.
Here again we enjoyed the night sky after a great pizza dinner at a
local restaurant.
If you happen to be in the Borrego Springs area, keep an eye out for dinosaurs and serpents playing in the desert sands!
Heading home
From the Borrego area we headed toward the 5 freeway at Oceanside to head home on the last leg of this journey through the southwestern deserts of Arizona, Nevada and California.
We are so grateful to have had this trip and to return safely home! If you look closely at this trailer tire you can see that it was partially de-laminated when we arrived home. We had some concerns with a couple of our tires over the last week of our journey. We had put a spare on the rig to replace a tire that had a small hole in it that we were concerned would continue to degrade as we drove. But this tire surprised us by losing some tread, as it did not have a hole as the other did! Obviously all new tires are on order for the trailer!
We are so thankful that the Lord protected us on our journeys and that this tire held together all the way home!
We had a fabulous time of exploring, hiking, camping and being with family!
Sunday evening, while we used the laundry room we met a sweet couple who are living in the RV park with three kids and two dogs! The husband is working in the area and this was the most affordable option for them. As they had not yet found a church we were able to refer them to Parkside Church! I hope they give it a try.
