Capitol Reef and Fruita - Paradise Found

Capitol Reef is a little known National Park that is so wonderful we should keep it a secret!! It reminds me of Zion before it got so crowded and popular they had to limit traffic and bus people in. We were very lucky to get one of the last 2 campsites available at the Fruita Campground just before the start of Memorial Day weekend, right across from the super friendly, enthusiastic and helpful camp hosts, who told us all about some of the campsite's best features: HOMEMADE PIE!!!

Right next to us was a beautiful historic pasture, farmhouse and barn, the Gifford House. Fresh homemade pies are sold at the Gifford Farmhouse!! Wow. We were in heaven. Deer filled up the orchards and pasture every evening, Black-chinned Hummingbirds fought over our feeder in exciting aerial battles, we listened to Robins singing their hearts out every morning and evening, along with Northern Orioles (Bullock's), Cassin's Kingbirds, and what I'm pretty sure may have been Willow Flycatchers. The Fremont River flowed just a few yards away through its willowy riparian corridor, and the hugest Cottonwoods I've ever seen were right around the corner. A trailhead for Cohab Canyon was right across the street, and the Scenic Drive was just out the entrance - what a great location! We lounged in the shade of old orchard trees and cottonwoods, looking up at the massive red cliffs that surrounded us, contrasting sharply with the cool green of the grassy campground and pastures.

We could have done this a long, long time.

We walked over to the home of pie the next morning, got a couple of apple pies, and decided to eat them (they were individual sized) out on the picnic table in front of the old homestead. We sat on the same side of the picnic table and... well, maybe we shouldn't be having pie at all!! We tipped over in a very amusing fashion, if anyone had been watching, that is. I don't know if it's fortunate or unfortunate that no one was. We recovered, assumed a more balanced table arrangement, and ate our pies, which had been spared disaster in the upheaval, thank goodness!

One day, at Devin's urging, I took a hike to Cohab Canyon while he relaxed at our campsite - what a wonderful day! I left one of the two-way radios we have with Devin and was able to check in and let him know when I was at the rim at an overlook - he walked out to where I told him he could see me, a little closer to the river, and I described where I was and waved my jacket over my head - he finally saw me and was amazed at how far away I was - he could only just barely see me because of my waving jacket. It wasn't that far in miles, but it was quite a bit UP! According to the Park's website, "tradition records that Mormon polygamists found refuge in these cliffs during the Federal government's active enforcement of the anti-polygamy statutes in the 1880s." The cliffs are full of holes and caves, and the "Canyon in the Sky" which is Cohab Canyon has numerous narrow slot canyons off to the sides - it would be a great place to hide. I sat in a shallow cave for quite some time just watching and listening to a Canyon Wren, as it sent its lovely descending trill echoing up and down the canyon walls. More interesting rock formations, neat plants, birds, the side trip to the viewpoints, side canyons, and a lot of photos made for a pretty full and enjoyable day. The only hard part was coming back down the switchbacks to the campground - my knees don't do downhill so well, and for some stupid reason I didn't bring my trekking poles on this trip, which would have helped, so that part was slow and painful. The views made it well worth it, though!

A few days into our stay, poor Devin began to not feel well - a return of a kidney infection he'd had before we left southern California, apparently. He stayed in bed and took the Cipro the doctor had prescribed, and waited to get better. We read books and watched movies (all three Lord of the Rings movies over two days) waiting for him to get better. The campsites had no hookups, so we had to go dump our tanks one day, and refill with water, but our electricity was powered by the sun. Our solar panels work wonderfully, and our inverter allowed us 110 AC power to watch movies, which was really nice. Even though he was ill, Devin enjoyed the view out our windows. I went and got pie for us, and reported to him on the campground gossip - it was interesting being across from the host site, as any problems or issues were discussed right outside our door. Mostly it was just poor souls who hadn't gotten there early enough and needed to find a place to camp over the busy weekend.

While parking the Jeep after moving the RV (to dump the waste tanks) one day, another "Jeeper" came by and admired it - I invited her over to take a closer look, and she did. She was really nice - her name was Darcy and she was part of a much larger group that came to Capitol Reef from Orem every year. She loaned me some books on trails and Jeep trails, and even invited me along on a hike with them. I didn't go mainly because I was a little worried about Devin, as he didn't seem to be getting better, and in fact was starting to seem a little worse.

We stayed a couple more days, hoping the antibiotics would kick in finally and he would improve, so we could explore some of the many great trails and scenic drives in the area, but finally had to admit that we needed to get to a doctor. We called his doctor on the payphone (there was no cell service there) and that is what he recommended - it seems the Cipro may not have been the right antibiotic this time around. That sometimes happens, when you take antibiotics, if there are any organisms left that haven't been killed, they are probably resistant to the antibiotic, so they can grow their population undeterred until you find an antibiotic that works on them.

So we packed up and drove to Moab, where there is a hospital and emergency room. Devin came out of the bedroom and sat in the passenger seat while I drove - my first big drive in the Moho, and my first time pulling the Jeep! At first, I was pretty nervous on the narrow winding road that went through the Park, but when we turned north to go to Interstate 70 it got easier, and by the time we got on the interstate, I was an old hand. We cruised up and down Moab's Main street (Highway 191) looking for the best RV park, and found a nice one very close to the hospital with full hookups, Cable TV, and High Speed Internet - just what Devin needed to aid in his recovery!

Farewell to Paradise

Drive through Escalante, Boulder, to Capitol Reef - spectacular Highway 12

Even though Highway 12 has some 8 and 10 percent grades (!), we are glad we took it - wow, what beautiful scenery!! You can tell when you climb the last "step" of the Grand Staircase and then descend to the Escalante part of the monument - miles of smooth pale rock formations - like swells and waves on a stormy sea - it reminded me of the Yosemite high country, only in sandstone instead of granite. The Escalante River is the shaper of this section, as it meanders through canyons and oxbows. We crossed the Escalante in a deep, cottonwood filled canyon and climbed back up, then back down to where Calf Creek Campground is - we were tempted to stop there, but were headed to Fruita because Memorial Day weekend was approaching and we were worried about being pushed out of someplace that took reservations. We would like to go back and further explore that region someday, though!

We made a stop in the town of Escalante and visited a neat little mountain shop (Utah Canyons). They sold a book I had seen at the visitor center in Kanab, With a Measure of Grace, The Story and Recipes of a Small Town Restaurant, which is from the Hell's Backbone Grill in Boulder, Utah. I asked them about it and they said it was amazing, and some people plan their vacations around it, it is so good. Hmmmm.... it's almost lunchtime... let's go for it! So we headed from Escalante to Boulder, through more amazing scenery, and found the Hell's Backbone Grill right by the Burr Road turnoff (next to the Burr Road Grill, which is also supposed to be good, but just not amazing). It sure looked great on the outside, but sadly, it isn't open for lunch. (Moment of silence here to mourn loss of potential gourmet experience... we'll just have to come back!) We were starving by this time, and drove up to the next pullout and made lunch. It was pretty good, too! It turns out it was a really good thing the Hell's Backbone Grill wasn't open for lunch, because when we got to Capitol Reef, we got one of the very last campsites - but a little more about getting there first.

Boulder was a beautiful "town" - it's mostly an area of houses - and one of the most isolated places in the US. It was the very last town in the country to have mail delivered by truck - it was delivered by mule train up until the 40's! Its green pastoral scenes make a lovely contrast with the bare rock formations all around. After Boulder, the highway begins climbing up Boulder Mountain, abruptly leaving the slickrock and sandstone for basalt, pines, aspens and meadows! And from the viewpoints, we could look back on everywhere we'd been, and on the other side, where we were going. Capitol Reef is the eastern part of the "Circle Cliffs" and we could see it from Boulder Mountain.

At Capitol Reef, there were these rounded black boulders scattered across the red sandstone - they came from Boulder Mountain! Geologists think that it was from debris flows and as erosion has carved down the sandstone and limestone and shale, the boulders remain. Fascinating.

Capitol Reef is named that because there are light Navajo Sandstone domes that reminded people of the Capitol Building, and "reef" because it was a giant obstacle to crossing the desert, like a large reef might be to ships at sea.

Our ship ran aground at Capitol Reef and we foundered there happily for a week!

Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bryce

We did some exploring in Kodachrome Basin and learned a little bit about the crazy rock formations - apparently these sandstone towers, called sand pipes, were springs - probably geysers! Here's what the website says:

Geologists believe Kodachrome Basin State Park was once similar to Yellowstone National Park with hot springs and geysers, which eventually filled up with sediment and solidified. Through time, the Entrada sandstone surrounding the solidified geysers eroded, leaving large sand pipes. Sixty-seven sand pipes ranging from two to 52 meters have been identified in the park. Massive sandstone chimneys, change from gray and white to shades of red depending on the day's mood. Numerous rocks and coves offer solitude, quiet and unique desert beauty.

Basically, this was Yellowstone! Later, when we went to the Canyon Visitor Education Center in Yellowstone, we learned that the North American tectonic plate has moved over the hotspot that produces the thermal activity (and created the huge super-volcano caldera) and it used to be under Kodachrome basin, among other places - that is so cool! Yellowstone may look like this one day... The sand pipes are "petrified geysers"!

We then ventured into Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on the Cottonwood Road to Grosvenor Arch (pronounced "grow'-ven-er"). It was a beautiful day with storm clouds approaching - great for photos! The arch is spectacular - it is a double, golden arch... hmmmmm... made us hungry. Ha.

We explored a side road and got a glimpse of the cockscomb and just miles and miles of beautiful open space, before we decided to turn around and go see Bryce Canyon as well. We had a bit of rain on the way back, but the stream crossing was fine. Apparently several cars were stuck on the lower end of Cottonwood Road, though, making an effective roadblock, so it was good that we didn't continue on that way.

We stopped at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Visitor Center in Canonville - they have four award-winning visitor's centers, and we enjoyed the one in Kanab, so we thought we'd check this one out as well. Neat displays on the people who had loved and cared for this land - the Paiutes and the Mormon settlers, comparing and contrasting their approaches. Southern Utah is so beautiful - it definitely feels like someone's "Promised Land."

Bryce Canyon is quite beautiful and I'll let the photos tell the story. You would think from the name that it is down in a canyon, but it is actually on the top of a mountain, and you have views down into the side canyons with the fantastic hoodoo erosion features that are eating into the high Paunsaugunt Plateau that the National Park sits upon. We went to a couple of viewpoints and then headed back for dinner.

More Bryce and other Photos

On the way past Bryce the day before on Highway 12, we had seen a restaurant with a huge banner claiming "HOME OF HOMEMADE SOUP AND PIE" and thought we might give it a try! Their soup was quite delicious - they ran out of the bean soup during our order and I got tomato. I thought tomato didn't sound too exciting, but it was the best tomato soup I've ever eaten! Yum. Homemade IS better. And of course, pie!!

Back to our "home" in Kodachrome Basin to watch the rabbits play and chase each other all over our campsite.

And Harold.

That's what we named the MOUSE that somehow got into our motorhome - it was a very cute, large and healthy Deer Mouse with large round ears, long whiskers, a long fluffy tail... in fact, it could have been a very small packrat. It was about the size of a Kangaroo Rat, but didn't jump like one. Whatever kind he was, I was too busy keeping an eye on where he went and trying to "herd" him back outside to get a picture - have you ever tried to herd a mouse? Doesn't work. I first saw him on top of our stove (ewww) and he walked (not ran) across the dinette and over to the dash. Oh no.

Oh yes. Though we kept watch, sat up quite late and kept the door open watching for him, we never saw him coming out from under the dash. We even tried smoking him out by burning a sage smudge stick and holding it under the dash. (All our wires and ducts smell nice now.) We finally had to give up, and we went to bed (we had "sealed" the bedroom as soon as we saw him so he wouldn't go back there and wake us up in the middle of the night). We kept a very clean motorhome after that - kept all food in upper cabinets and left out no crumbs for a mouse. No sign of Harold.

We wonder - we hope that he got out somehow without us seeing. But we wonder - did he crawl into an open duct and die in there? Anytime we smell a funny smell (which is fairly often in a motorhome), we think it might be Harold's dead and rotting corpse. Then we realize it's our graywater tank or our black tank, most likely. We hope.

Harold. May he rest in peace - or better yet, may he be still enjoying the leftover Chukar food at Kodachrome Basin and making little Harolds!

Quick Update from Utah

We are now in Kanab, Utah, headed toward Bryce Canyon, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Kodachrome Basin, and beyond tomorrow. I have blog updates all written for Arizona - here is where we've been until then:

• Alamo Lake State Park
• Prescott National Forest, Lynx Lake Campground
• Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Cottonwood (between Jerome and Sedona) - we did some exploring from there
• Flagstaff/Sunset Crater - we visited our friend Graci on our way through
• Lee's Ferry (Glen Canyon National Recreation Area) - stayed two nights on the Colorado River at the put-in for Grand Canyon trips, and did the one day float trip from Page (below the Glen Canyon Dam) down the Colorado to here
• North Rim, Grand Canyon/Kaibab National Forest - we were here almost a week - camped for free in the National Forest and explored the North Rim.

Lots more details and photos to come!

On to Utah!

After coming down off the Kaibab Plateau from the North Rim, we descended Highway 89A into Fredonia and Kanab. We decided to forgo a 70 mile 4wd adventure to Tuweep, another Grand Canyon overlook which is more down IN the canyon and which sounds spectacular, for another time. Descending the highway, we could clearly see the "grand staircase" formation with the red cliffs, white cliffs, and pink cliffs rising up one on top of the other, and "Mollie's Nipple" jutting up from the east. Mollie must have been really cold, is all I have to say!!!

We stayed in Kanab and did laundry and grocery shopping, and washed the RV and Jeep. Then we headed out the next day for Kodachrome Basin State Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The drive up 89 was so beautiful! Utah is absolutely gorgeous. We enjoyed the scenery and small towns - many just looked like wonderful places to live, with huge Cottonwoods, meandering streams through meadows and fields, farms and ranches, and neat rock formations and cliffs all around in hues of red and white and gray. Hatch was a very lovely valley with the Sevier River meandering through meadows - looked like great fishing (a tackle shop at a place called "Big Fish" clued us in to that).

Turning on scenic highway 12, we went through Red Canyon, which felt like we were driving through the bottom of Bryce Canyon's hoodoo formations! There is a nice bike trail and also a few nice Forest Service campgrounds in the area. Also the road passes right through some of the formations in small tunnels! We passed the entrance to Bryce, and the area reminded us of many Park gateway communities, but this area has a nice combination of tourism and farming/ranching. Turning off after Canonville toward Kodachrome Basin, we began again to see all the colorful rock formations that give the area its name. Lots of rabbits came out to play around our campground that evening, and we could hear Chukars - they even provide Chukar Food!

We went for a short walk around the campsite and found some VERY interesting rock formations... ha. The evening light looked especially lovely on the rock amphitheater we are camped within. It stays light late here, since Utah is an hour later than Arizona.

More photos - click here

Catching Up

This concludes the Arizona section of our trip - for now, at least! On to Utah. But we are actually in Colorado right now (written 6/18/07)... At least now I'm only one state behind. Coming up in the Utah portion:

• Kanab
• Kodachrome Basin, Bryce Canyon and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
• Capitol Reef National Park
  
• Moab and Canyonlands National Park

That doesn't seem so hard - hopefully I will catch up before we leave Colorado!

Currently, we are in Ouray (rhymes with "hooray" and has "you" in it... hooray, you're in Ouray!) and we've been exploring more Jeep trails in the area and taking care of some business... more on that later - wouldn't want to spoil the surprise!

We'll probably be leaving Ouray tomorrow (or maybe the next day) and we are actually not sure where we are going next. We are still "aiming" to Alaska, but have been enjoying this slower pace so much lately, we wonder if we'll make it!

There is Cottonwood snow outside, and the river keeps flowing, and so should we. Stay tuned!

North Rim, day 4: Grand Canyon Lodge, Bright Angel Point, and Point Sublime

Grand Canyon Lodge: We started this day by going back into the Park, filling up the Jeep with the cheap gas (they still had last year's gas at last year's prices!), and checking with the visitor center to make sure the road to Point Sublime was open - it is a four-wheel-drive road out to another viewpoint we wanted to visit. Then we went over to the Grand Canyon Lodge to see about dinner reservations and check out the old rustic style building and views. The Lodge is designed so it will be the visitor's first view of the canyon. When you drive to the North Rim, you don't see canyon views like you do at the south rim - they are hidden by trees and the road is in the center of the promontory, not on the rim. The Lodge is at the end of the road, and when you enter it, you are greeted with huge picture windows affording you your first good view of the Grand Canyon. Quite the entrance!! It's a neat old lodge, with many similarities to the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite - dark timbers, stonework, craftsman style lighting, and native-inspired designs. But its grandeur takes a back seat always to the Canyon itself, naturally, and also by architectural design. The huge two-story windows in the sun room and dining room make sure of that! There are two patio areas on either side of the sunroom, and trails below leading to viewpoints, including Bright Angel Point.

Bright Angel Point: Devin waited on the patio while I hiked down to the points below the Lodge and out to Bright Angel Point - lots of neat bonsai'd trees growing in the rocks along the trail caught my admiration. There were lots of people on the trail, yet at the same time, so many less than on the South Rim. There was a certain camaraderie among us - a willingness to chat and laugh with strangers and share admiring comments. I met a French couple and we talked about coffee and travels for a bit, and a couple of guys were sitting on top of boulders out at Bright Angel Point - laughing about how they were having a macho moment after having "conquered" the paved trail out there. On the way back, I caught this couple in a classic "tourist" pose!

Sometimes the people are the best part;
I call this: "Blondie and Dagwood go to the Grand Canyon"
More Lodge and Bright Angel Point Photos

When I got back, it was lunchtime, and we decided to cancel our dinner reservation (the earliest they had was for 8:45, anyway, after dark) and have lunch instead. Typical park food - okay but not great, spotty service, but great views!!! We then had to find ice for the roast turkey sandwiches I'd made us for lunch (since we weren't going to eat them now), and we were off to our Point Sublime adventure.

Point Sublime: The point isn't advertised on signs - the road that leads to it is only marked with "Widforss Trailhead" which leaves from a parking lot about 1/2 mile in. After that, it just says "primitive road" and we didn't expect it to be a real four-wheel drive road. After all, in Joshua Tree, they call the Geology Tour Road a 4wd road, and it really isn't - it's just a dirt road with some bumpy spots. But the Point Sublime Road soon proved itself to be the genuine article, as we maneuvered over large rocks and deep ruts and "whoops" in the road, up and down steep hills, through very fine silt across meadows, and through some lovely scenery in the 18 mile, two hour drive out to the point. About 1/2 way in was a side road to a camp spot and view of the Canyon up a side canyon, and another side road that lead out to Fire Point and Swamp Point - those points have access roads from the National Forest and we could potentially take that road "home" to our campsite in the Forest! But it was going to be too late when we returned, so we'll have to save that exploration for another time.

When you are approaching Point Sublime, it's very obvious as you begin driving out onto a peninsula of rock separated from its neighbors by deepening chasms. At one point, the road passes over a narrow neck with canyon views on both sides before you get to the top of the ridge and drive right out to the point! We didn't see a single car on the way out there - Saturday in late May in a National Park - imagine! But there were two other cars out at the point -- a Hummer and an FJ Cruiser. So we completed the set of major 4WD vehicles with our Jeep Wrangler! The Hummer belonged to a couple from Switzerland who were out on the very point taking photos. The FJ belonged to some apparently anti-social people who really had wanted the place all to themselves, I'm guessing.

The views from the point were incredible, and yes, it lived up to its name. As the sun went lower, the light just kept getting better and better, and it was hard not to keep taking photos of the same things as each time you looked they seemed more beautiful than before. Again, words won't describe it like photos can!

More photos of Point Sublime

On the way back, we came across a flock of wild turkeys in one of the many large meadows! At first we thought they were deer, as from a distance we could see large animals moving through the grass, but they moved funny, and were darker... as we got closer we saw what they were and took photos and a couple of movies, but since it was quite low light, most came out fairly blurry (especially since the turkeys kept moving rather quickly, too). A nice wildlife sighting to end another adventurous day!

North Rim - day 3: East Rim, Point Imperial, Cape Royal and Angel's Window

East Rim: Starting fresh the next day, we drove the Jeep out of the forest, across the paved road, and back into the forest on the other side to check out the East Rim Viewpoint - that is where the people in the Park Visitor Center had suggested we go. There were LOTS of campsites along this, much shorter, road, and as we got out, even some with views of the canyon! But we weren't going to waste another day moving to a new campsite, and most of these were taken or on roads that the RV wouldn't have made it down. One was definitely a 4wd access road, and had a great campsite at the end with a trail out to a rock overlook of the East Rim - nice!

Point Imperial: Next we drove into the Park and out to Point Imperial - I almost crashed the Jeep when suddenly we had this amazing view open up on the side of the road!! Devin kept saying, "Don't Look!" Ha. At Point Imperial, we realized why this part is a National Park, and the other parts are National Forest. These views are much more spectacular and breath-taking. MUCH more! Most of the Forest views were of side canyons or much farther from the main gorge, and the Park views were like IMAX compared to a home video. Wow!

At Point Imperial, I met a couple and started talking to them about the helicopter we saw in the canyon (no doubt "flightseeing" from the south rim). Turns out the man, Glen, was hiking in the Grand Canyon years ago, doing a long North to South Rim in one day hike, when he came across a man with a helicopter, almost at the bottom. There was a little bit of movie set left, and only this one man, and they'd finished filming for the day, "Brighty of the Grand Canyon"! The man offered Glen a free helicopter ride out of the canyon! He said it was the hardest choice he'd ever made - his heart was set on hiking North to South Rim in a day, but he'd never been on a helicopter before! He chose to complete his hike. Another woman who was listening to the story said he'd made the right choice, because he couldn't do that hike today, but he could take a helicopter ride. He'd just had a hip replacement recently, but I think he may take a few more hikes after it heals. He said his only helicopter ride was in Alaska, going to the Beaufort Sea, flying over pingos (round, ice-heaved hills) - a very surreal landscape. Sounds like he's had an adventurous life, so I suspect there is more adventure to come. But maybe not rim-to-rim hikes.

Angel's Window and Cape Royale: We then drove out to Cape Royale, that has a wheelchair accessible path. I had checked with the visitor center and they said the Segway would be okay to use on this paved path as well. The visitor center loans out wheelchairs for people to take out there if they are not able to walk far, also. Of course, the Segway got a lot of attention, and we spoke to many folks who were very interested in one for themselves or a relative with a disability. We met a woman with Cerebral Palsy out at the main viewpoint who was very interested and Devin even gave her a demo. We seem to be ambassadors for Segway and Jeep wherever we go - ha.

On the way out to the main viewpoint, a wonderful surprise awaited us! There is a narrow promontory of Kaibab Limestone that juts out into the canyon, that has a very large triangular opening in it! It makes a natural bridge, and through the opening, you can see the rose-hued Canyon walls beyond, and in the right viewpoint, the Colorado River. This is Angel's Window, and I'd never heard of it nor seen pictures and it was awe- inspiring! Not only that, but there was a path out onto the top of it, over the bridge and to the very edge! Wow. We decided we had to have a photo of one of us standing out there on it from this viewpoint! But first we went on to the main viewpoint of Cape Royale.

Words can't describe the beauty of these Grand Canyon views, so pictures will have to suffice:

If this slideshow doesn't work for you, or you'd like to see it bigger, you can go to our Picasa Web Albums and view slideshows full screen, too - click here.

North Rim - Days 1 and 2 (May 16-17, 2007)

Journey to the North Rim: The next day, we rolled in the awning, put away the chairs and battened down the hatches of our rolling home once again to head for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. At the NPS dump station at Lee's Ferry, we saw a cool Horned Lizard that seemed to live there - watched it eat ants and do threatening push-ups toward us while we dumped our waste tanks and attempted to fill our fresh water tank.

They had a fresh water hose that works with the type of fill valves that open upwards, that you can just pour water into without pressure. Our fill valve opens to the side, and requires a hose with pressure and a threaded fitting. We had purchased a device called a "Water Thief" for just this sort of situation - it has a rubber sleeve to fit over non-threaded faucets on one side and a threaded hose fitting on the other. This was our first time trying it, and we discovered it can't take much pressure!! The NPS water valve was a lever that was either all the way on, or off, unless you held it manually somewhere in between. After a few attempts and Maggie getting thoroughly wet as the hoses burst apart and whipped wildly around, we learned that we need a hose clamp to make it work well at pressure! We finally figured that if one of us held the hose thief on with both hands (the type of clamps we had didn't work) and the other held the pressure just right, it wouldn't burst open and we could, slowly but surely, fill our tank. This was important as we expected to be dry camping for the next week! Before we were done, Devin looked like he was on the losing end of a water balloon fight - yay! Thank goodness it was hot there and that made it refreshing.

The drive past the Vermillion Cliffs and up the Kaibab Plateau was beautiful, and a study in life zones as we passed from desert scrub to pinyon-juniper woodlands to mixed conifer yellow pine and oak to fir and aspen forests and meadows at the top.

Arriving at the North Rim - hopeful expectations and sad realizations: Opening day was yesterday, May 15th - the road from Jacob Lake to the North Rim is closed until then, and the park doesn't open until the road opens officially. We knew the campground in the Park was full, because we had checked online where you have to reserve now, and there has been nothing for a while. A day here and day there, but no two days in a row anywhere. I wish they set aside a certain percentage of their sites for first come, first served, but now all the National Parks are on this ReserveAmerica or Recreation.gov sites, and you can reserve your campsites a year in advance - and it's specific by campsite, too!! So the few sites that are right on the rim with views are all booked up early, of course. Even so, we hoped there may be a cancellation we could capitalize upon. But we weren't counting on it, so we stopped in Jacob Lake at the Kaibab National Forest Visitor Center and got a forest map, found out about dispersed camping in the forest and some suggested sites with canyon views, and headed down the road.

We first went to into the Park and the Visitor Center to check about possible camping cancellations. We got our first peek through the trees of the Grand Canyon from the North Rim here, just walking along the parking lot to the Visitor Center. There we got more information about dispersed camping in the National Forest and some more suggested spots, then went to the campground to talk to the "Rangers in a box" at the entrance. They had just checked 10 minutes before for cancellations for the whole next week, and there were none. But they waxed eloquent about the great free camping on the National Forest with campsites right on the rim, so we headed back out to the forest.

With all this encouragement, and our dream of camping right on the rim of the Grand Canyon, we headed out to either Timp Point or Parissawampitts Point, where there were supposed to be fantastic panoramic views (according to our book of free campgrounds, too) and campsites all along the rim, and the road in was described as a "good gravel road." Okay, don't believe everything you read! It may have been a good gravel road for a car or truck, but for a 9 ton class A RV with 90 psi tires, it was a torture device designed to shake apart our home!! Washboard, even little washboard, is very hard in the RV, and there were some sections of BIG washboard on this road. Devin was driving 5 to 10 mph and having to slow down when we came to potholes and such. Over twenty miles of this was pretty stressful, to say the least. So we unhooked at the junction of Timp and North Timp points and drove down to decide which one.

Well, North Timp had a road that was do-able, but only a couple of appropriate campsites, with only very partial views on one or two, through lots of trees, and they were all taken already! Timp had a road that was NOT doable because of low tree branches and narrow spots, and one pretty nice campsite available, but we couldn't get there. This was very disappointing after being told by everyone that there were lots of places to camp and no one would be there and it was right on the rim. People exaggerate.

We drove back out to the washboarded "main" road we had come down, and went up toward Parissawampitts Point, but decided not to try it tonight, and found a campsite off a side road that wasn't being used, in a clearing that was probably an old "borrow pit" where they got the gravel for the "good gravel roads." It was nice to camp in the forest, with aspens all around, deer wandering through, and all, but it wasn't what we'd hoped for, and we were going to have to move the next day. We had wanted to find our camp site, and stay put for a while, relaxing there and also using it as a base for exploring further.

North Rim day 2 - finding a "real" campsite: The next day we kept the Jeep unhooked and I scouted ahead. We parked the RV again at the turn off to Parissawampitts, and it was about the same. Some nice campsites, but basically all taken, and no really clear views, and the road was much rougher than we wanted to drive down. So we decided to head back out to near the beginning of this forest road and camp closer to the paved road and park, and give up on the idea of a campsite with a view of the Grand Canyon. We found a nice campsite just 2.5 miles from pavement, in our own little clearing on a ridge surrounded by aspens and nice views of the sunset. We have our own herd of deer that seem to use the aspen thicket to bed down in at night, and there are lots of birds singing all the time. So it's a nice spot and a good location to use as a base camp to explore from.

Lesson learned: Next time we hear about great campsites down a dirt road, we'll unhook and check them out with the Jeep first! The Moho is not for driving down dirt or gravel roads - the Moho is our home, and we can park it nearby and explore and have adventures in the Jeep - that's what it's for! "Adventures" in the motorhome are not the kind we really like having... usually involving flat tires and things breaking. The idea of getting stuck way out on these forest roads was really was affecting both of our ability to enjoy being here. So we re-grouped, started over after two days of finding a campsite, and now we are ready to explore the North Rim.

This is really a beautiful forest, with huge meadows, aspens just leafing out, pines and firs, and we've seen lots of deer, Kaibab Squirrels (really cute black squirrels with tasseled ears and a white tail - we both thought it was a skunk when we first saw one!), Chickarees, bunnies, lots of birds, a coyote, and a flock of wild turkeys! We haven't seen any bears yet , or bison, which apparently have wandered up here now from the House Rock Wildlife Station down below the plateau. So now we can appreciate the Kaibab National Forest for what it is, and enjoy the North Rim of the Grand Canyon as well.