June 27 Las Vegas

Staying at the Oasis RV Resort south of Las Vegas, just off of I-15. We arrived yesterday, Saturday the 26th from Twentynine Palms and checked in to set up. That evening we drove down to the "Strip" for dinner and a walk along the famous Casinos. "New York, New York", Bellagio, etc. Got back to the campground about midnight exhausted from all of the walking. Crowds were thick tonight and ran the gamut from old to very young, from every country in the world it seemed, and from polite to rude. Sunday evening we drove further on past the strip to "Main Street and Fremont". Free shows along the street (covered and foot traffic only), and characters in costume everywhere. Of course Elvis was alive and performing as well as Michal Jackson, and Wonder Woman. Carl got picked up by a pair of showgirls who seemed determined to carry him home as a plaything. Of course, Anna made sure that he was tied to her side.

June 22 - 25th Twentynine Palms California

Over the 22-25th of June we stayed in Twentynine Palms, California and explored Joshua Tree National Park. This is a different NP, joining the High Mojave Desert and the lower Colorado Desert areas. Driving through the park you climb from about 2500 ft up to a high point (Keys Lookout) of over 5,100 feet. The land consists of desert sagebrush and Yucca plants transiting to Joshua Trees above about 3500 feet. The first day we drove around the northern loop from Twentynine Palms over to the town of Joshua Tree. The park is dotted with hugh piles of rocks, magma formed and cooled under ground and then brought to the surface by erosion. Across to the west of the NP is Mt. Jacinto in the San Jacinto range, still snow covered. This is a picture across the desert in the NP with the mountain in the background. We also drove up to Keys point and looked across to the San Jacinto range and the Santa Rosa range and down into a beautiful desert valley. Unfortunately, pollution from Los Angeles had come east and dimmed visibility. The second day we drove south through the park to the Cottonwood Oasis near I-10. We stopped at the Cholla Cactus Garden and walked the trails through the cactus. Very pleasant. At the Cottonwood Oasis we stopped and walked under the tall palms in the oasis. Drove the next day to visit a classmate of Carolyn's, Anna's and Carl's (Bev East) down in Lake Elsinore.

June 19 Sedona Area

Drove across Arizona to Flagstaff, then south on I-17 to the Thousand Trails Preserve at Verde Valley near Cottonwood. This was mostly a rest stop at a very nice campground that Thousand Trails had in the area. That night we drove down to the Rock City Cafe (exit 242 on I-17) which is renowned for their famous pies. Enjoyed a good dinner, and of course a slice of pie each. Sunday we drove up to Sedona for a look around. Mostly a tourist area so after a little window shopping we went back to the campground. Relaxed all day Monday and hiked some of the nature trails laid out in the Preserve.
On Tuesday we packed up our rigs and drove on down the mountain, around Phoenix, and west out I-10 to Twentynine Palms California. This was a long long day for us, around 380 miles with outside temperatures hovering near the 100's. Arrived in the late afternoon and settled in at the Twentynine Palms RV and Golf Resort until Saturday.

Friday, June 18th Navajo and Hopi Territories

Friday, June 18th we relaxed around the campground until around 10 a.m. then took to the road, driving a big loop east on I-40 to AZ-77 and north up to AZ-264 then south down AZ-87 and back on I-40 to Holbrook. The purpose was to drive up through Navajo land to see what the area looked like and how they lived and then over to the Hopi Second Mesa area for the Cultural Museum. The land was long and flat and sandy throughout most of the trip until we reached the area of the Mesas. The Navajo houses were generally very far apart with single building, either modular homes or double wide trailers. We ran into the hills and mesa areas up where AZ-264 ran east and west and followed them past the Hopi "First Mesa" and over to the "Second Mesa" where AZ-87 intersected and ran south to I-40. We had lunch at a small roadside stand serving roasted corn on the cob (in the shuck). Very good. The Hopi houses seemed more permanent and were more clustered together in village style Big schools and hospital and an airport in the Hopi land. Then drove up to Second Mesa to the Hopi Cultural Museum, which unfortunately was closed. Talked to a man operating a Silver store next door and found out that the lady running the museum showed up when she wanted to. Of course a lot of people came there specifically to see the museum so the man was not too happy about her schedule as it hurt his business. Back down from Second Mesa and turned onto AZ-87 and drove a ruler straight line (almost) for fifty miles to I-40. Desert, desert, desert. Flat land and dust/sand broken by the buttes and mesas.

June 17th Holbrook Arizona

The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Parks called today so a short drive down AZ-180 took us from Holbrook to the NP Visitors center. We checked in at the Ranger entrance gate and showed our National Park pass and were granted admittance. At the visitor center we waited about ten minutes for a Ranger lecture on the time periods involved, the environment, the animals that were around, and the fauna. Apparently the river through this area was as large as the Amazon is today with hugh trees. Some of the petrified trunks in this area were thought to have been carried here from 200 miles upstream. They became waterlogged and were then covered with a layer of volcanic ash which permeated itself into the very core of the cell structure. This picture was taken in the visitor's center and shows the skeleton of a local beast. Behind the skeleton is a mural depicting what the land was thought to look like at the time. Next we drove on up through the park to the dry river bed and the remains of the houses that were built by the inhabitants at the time. When the land gradually dried out and the river stopped flowing they abandonded the area and moved on leaving pictographs and stone foundations.

Across I-40 we entered the Painted Desert NP. I took several small movies of the various points along the road which turned out quite good.

June 16th Traveling South to Holbrook Arizona

Wednesday, June 16th we pulled the trailer and motorhome out of the Canyonlands RV Park and turned south on US-191 toward Arizona. Thanks to a low pressure area in northern Utah, the winds were blowing 30-40 mph from the southwest so we had headwinds all the way down. Some parts of 191 were terri ble, others not so bad. Arrived at the KOA in Holbrook about 2:30 local time, after a very nice lunch of Fry Bread and chile that was very good. Taking the rest of the afternoon to do washing and catch up on this blog, then over to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert on Thursday. Having a wonderful time.

June 15th to Red Cliff Ranch

Tuesday June 15th we again loaded into the truck and drove up to Utah 128 east along the Colorado River to the Red Cliffs Ranch, about fourteen miles directly following the winding Colorado River. Of course, the Colorado has cut deep into the land creating deep canyons and we drove along at river level winding through those canyons for mile after mile. It was so breathtaking that we took a video of the entire return trip from the ranch and can show it to you when we get back home. The ranch itself, once a working ranch, gradually turned into a center for many many movies filmed in those lands. They had a very nice pictoral museum of the movies that they participated in. I recommend this drive to anyone who in is the Moab area.