Nevada travels

 Our last couple of days in Escalante were spent with some more exploring of the area.  We did a great 6-mile hike to an easy slot canyon [Bighorn Canyon].  The coolness of the 'slot' portion was a real relief from the heat. We managed to navigate the slots with ease and despite a few snug corners in the rock trail made it out safely without having to gnaw off any limbs.  It's still snowing back in Pagosa and we are not yet used to 80-something degree heat.  Luckily, there were a few small creek crossings that allowed Kasha to cool take a dip and cool off.

Our last day in Escalante led us to a nice, easy 4-mile hike up the Escalante River to a large arch creatively named Natural Bridge.  The hike was pretty easy with a lot of creek crossings which Kasha appreciated very much.  The hike was beautiful, peaceful and I only managed to fall in the river once [even saved the cell phone in my pocket] so the day was a success.  Heading west and leaving Utah behind we went through some more spectacular red-rocks country.  The road west heads right through Bryce Canyon.  We are pretty much avoiding the national parks as they tend to be pretty crowded and are very restrictive on dogs so we didn't stop but that area is definitely on our 'future adventures' list.

The next phase of our trip was spent escaping Nevada.  Now I'm sure Nevada has some wonderful places but the beauty of it escapes us.  The mountain ranges we crossed seemed like they would be very nice but it was still to early to venture into them as they were pretty much still snow covered.  We crossed via Hwy 50 which is called 'the loneliest road in America' and for good reason as outposts of civilization are very few and far between.  Our first night camp was in an "Elk Viewing Area"

along the highway outside of Ely.  It was actually much nicer than you would think as it was A, Free and B. didn't cost anything.  Really though, it was pretty quiet and not a bad place to stay.  In the morning, I decided to be a good camper and check the tire pressure in the trailer tires.  By this time I should know that no good (or smart) deed will go unpunished, but I did it anyway.  A little air escaped one of the valves but it seemed to stop and I figured it was ok.  Five miles out of Ely I saw smoke coming out of the back of the trailer and pulled over to find a shredded tire.  We were able to successfully put the spare on, which was low in pressure too and limp back into Ely for a new tire.  If we had blown that tire in the middle of the desert life would have become a bit of an adventure so it was probably a blessing in disguise.  

On the road

 Well, we made the April 1 take-off date.  Luckily, the week before leaving was unseasonably warm and sunny which allowed us to get a lot of outside clean-up chores done so morning of April 1 we hit the road.  The morning of take-off treated us to high wind warnings [not what we were hoping for dragging a trailer behind us] but, with worse weather predicted for the week, we crossed our fingers and hit the road.  Before leaving, I thought it would be wise to sacrifice an early mistake to the travel gods so I un-ceremoniously backed the trailer into the garage.  Damage was somewhat minor, some damage to the new bike rack, a broken backup light and a hole in the garage stucco so I'd have something to fix when we get back.

Our first stop was Moab, UT  which we made with a bit of white-knuckle driving in wind and snow.  We were scheduled to camp at a dry-camping area [no water, power or sewer] south of town and it was a good place to test out the systems.  We had put solar panels on the RV and had a battery storage unit that allowed us to watch a movie on our TV and for me to be able to work a bit the next morning.  Our first full day on our trip we did some good hiking around our camp area and at Deadhorse Pt up near Canyonlands Nat Park, hiking around 10 miles for the day.  We got back to camp and found the batteries hadn't charged from the solar [I think I tried to charge too many things at once] and spent a chilly night without any heat. Not knowing what the battery problem was we wimped out and moved to a small RV camp up near the entrance to Canyonlands where we, at least, had electricity.  We were able to spend a couple more days in the Moab area and enjoyed it very much.  If you have never been to southern Utah it should be on your bucket list.  The rock formations and terrain are like no place we've ever seen.

Travel day was spent relocating to Escalante, UT, a small town near Escalante Nat Park.  The drive went well and the highway to Escalante goes right through the middle of Capital Reef Nat Park...the scenery was truly spectacular again.  The last section to Escalante goes over a section known as the Hogback.  We would have taken pictures but thought it best that we get past that section so that I might pry my fingers from the steering wheel.  I'm not a fan of heights and this narrowish road runs along a rock spine with steep and exposed drop-offs on either side and no guardrails. Yikes! 

Escalante is a nice, quiet town [population about 800] and we were again in an RV park right in town.  We are close to some really interesting areas; Capital Reef, Escalante and Bryce Canyon Nat Parks, and a lot of local hiking areas.  We hiked up to Lower Calf Creek Falls which was gorgeous and Kasha loved playing 'stick' in the pool at the bottom.  We hadn't had an off day since we left so took the day to do a short hike at a place called Devils Kitchen near town.  Beautiful hoodoos and the short day allowed us to catch up on 'administrative duties' [laundry, ignoring mail, writing blogs] back at camp.  Somehow, each day goes really fast and with several hours of exercise each day we run out of time and energy pretty early.

Ready, set...wait

Well, it's been 10 years since our last big adventure, cycling around Lake Michigan, but we have hardly been idle.  Since that time, Kelly and I have vacated California to relocate and build a new life and home in beautiful Pagosa Springs, CO.  There have been plenty of mini-adventures in the meantime but we are ready for something bigger.  To this end, we have decided to rent our Pagosa home out for a year and travel the country in a 26-ft camping trailer.  

Wow! It was a lot of work to get ready to be gone for a year...deep cleaning the house, getting the RV ready, putting stuff in storage. Kelly stopped working in mid March so she has done the lion's share of the cleaning chores and I've been working overtime [for me anyway] trying to get ahead at work.  I'll be working part time/remote during the next year from the kitchen table of the RV and, hopefully, that will work out.  We plan on taking off on April 1 and should be done by then.  We'll see.