Salt Lake City

The Salt Lake City area surprised us for a number of reasons. It's much larger than we thought and the mountains are right above the city. Big ones too. Not far on the other side of the city is the great Salt Lake. The thing about the lake is that it is beautiful in a stark, lonely kind of way even though the city is right there.

We stayed at Hill Air Force Base just north of the city. Nice campground. Lots of F-15's and F-16's screaming by. We enjoyed being back on a jet base, but poor Pilot didn't appreciate it very much.

Here is an album of the Mormon Temple Square. It is lovely and the spring tulip gardens they had planted everywhere in the square made us speechless. We were able to attend an organ rehearsal in the Temple Tabernacle for a half hour. It should not be missed. We will be back to visit more of the Salt Lake area.

All you have to do to see the 17 pictures in the album is click on the picture of Alex above.  Once at the album, you can select "Slideshow".  Hope you enjoy them. 

Moab, UT

Moab.  Well, we spent a week here and didn't touch all that there is to see and do.  We'll have to come back and spend at least a month.  The main attactions for us at Moab were Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dead Horse State Park.    Alex had sprained his ankle so we didn't do a lot of hiking but we drove through the parks and were amazed at how beautiful the area is.  Here's a few pics to give you an idea. 

This was the view outside our coach in the RV Park.

Here's a link to Arches National Park slideshow.  For some reason we didn't get any pictures there. 

http://www.nps.gov/imr/customcf/apps/pgallery/display-slideshow.cfm?aid=602&gid=602&park=arch&sort=title&aTitle=Arches%20Slideshow

The following pictures are of Canyonlands National Park.  We believe that this Park is as impressive as Grand Canyon and there are not as many people and cars!!!

North Rim Canyon De Chelly

Antelope House Ruin

Canyon De Chelly

From Chris:   Last week at this time we were in Canyon De Chelly National Monument  http://www.nps.gov/cach/index.htm   in northeastern Arizona.  We spent two days at the park's campground.  There were no hook ups, but there was water and a dump available.  They don't take reservations, but if you can get in, it's free!!!   There are only a handful of sites that could accomodate a large rig. 
Canyon De Chelly is on the Navajo reservation.  This reservation encompasses part of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.  It's BIG. 
We loved Canyon De Chelly.  It's not easy to get to, not easy to camp there and the small town near the park on the Navajo reservation could be considered depressing to some.  The good news is that there are signs that the Navajo government/nation is spending money on schools and drug and alcohol addiction.
To make it more difficult while we were there, there was a 24 hour sandstorm.  A real one.  It was very uncomfortable in 35 mph sustained winds and gusts over 70 mph.  We were stuck in the coach and even though we had everything closed up, we still got dust inside.  I'm still cleaning it up.  We are still glad we went to the Canyon in spite sandstorms and no hookups. 
The park is wonderful.  Words and pictures won't do it justice.  However, here are a few pictures that we took.  If you ever get near the area, GO.

South Rim

White House Ruin (above and below)

Heading North

From Alex:   Hi all,  we've left Canyon De Chelly and are very comfortable in Moab, Utah.  Canyon DeChelly National Park was challenging with no hookups and blowing sand up to 70 mph, but the scenery was breath-taking and worth the effort to be there.  Canyon De Chelly is like a "small-personal-Grand Canyon".  We were tired of the heavy winds and left early Thursday, 29 Apr.  Drove through sleet and snow to Moab, Utah.  It's a relatively small town catering to the kayak's, bicyclists, 4-wheelers and sight-seers of Arches and Canyonlands National Park.  Lots of young adults with boats, bikes and Jeeps.  I twisted my ankle so Chris has been doing just about everything while I rest.  It hasn't hurt this bad since High School basketball.  Chris wants me on the hiking trails in 2 days, so I'm resting.  Enjoy the pictures that Chris is going to download soon.

What's Inside

From Chris:   Some folks have asked to see what the inside of the coach looks like.  Well, we cleaned up the place since Uncle Gene was coming to dinner and we took some pics.  So, here they are.  We like the coach and are very comfortable.  At least Alex and I are, we can't speak for Pilot.  We really hope he likes it.
I think you can click on the pics to make them bigger.  But since I'm not good at this, it's a mystery.

Prescott, Flagstaff and family

More time with Uncle Gene in Prescott

From Alex:    We had a great time with Matt & June in Scottsdale Apr 9-19 (only good, close family can put up with you that long), but then we hit the trail to Prescott when the weather started looking better.  Good thing I'm not a forecaster (weather, Blackjack, fishing spots, stocks etc.) because it snowed/flurried/sleeted/whatever- Northerners-call-it for a couple days.  We got to see Uncle Gene for dinner at the rig and helped move a refrigerator the next day.  We sweated during that little exertion so we ran up to Flagstaff the next day.  We wanted to stay at a National Guard site just west of Flagstaff that was highly touted, but it's not open for 2 more weeks...we're just pressing and sometimes outrunning the Spring season.  We ended up east of Flag in a new RV park (more expensive than the National Guard) that is very pet friendly (walks, parks, baths, poop-bags, memorials).  Went to Bill T's college and walked around.  The campus sure is growing. The high altitude wiped everyone out (except me, I think it's the carbination in the beer that gives me extra oxygen). Speaking of beer, Nephew Andrew Torrance is brewing his own and he and Matt concocted a batch for us while we were visiting.  Letting it rest for a week or two, I'll report the results right here...stay tuned.  We're off to Canyon DeChelly (pronounced Da-shay) tomorrow.  Chris and everyone else seems to want more pics and less talk...adios,   Alex and Chris 

P,S,  Arizona is tough to drive through now days...the Rest Stops are all closed and you have to look legal.

Flagstaff

Northern Arizon University

I'm a Lumberjack!