Our Last Ride and More Winds

It's my view the  internet is not an information highway, it's an electronic asylum filled with lunatics.

A couple fishermen are out trying their luck.

My last blog told you what the forecast was for this area. It was predicted to be windy with winds blowing at 30 mph Sunday evening. It was windy alright and by the time I went to bed which was around midnight most of the winds had died down – just like the weatherman had predicted. The weatherman was right-on this time ………….. or, was he?

We thought this was just a beautiful place to be.

About 2:00 AM another wave of winds hit us. We didn’t know these were coming. They were coming from the SSE which was a good thing since we were angled just right not to be hit with them broadside. We’ve been in strong winds but these rank close to the very top. Gusts ripped between 60 – 70 mph. Our antenna was brought down as well as our large side brought in. We have slide toppers and we certainly didn’t want that wind to rip them off. The winds blew for several hours before it finally subsided and we could sleep.

Water level is up.  Care to have a picnic in the water?

In the morning we talked to several other folks in the park. Some weren’t quite as lucky as we were as they were hit broadsided with the winds and rocked much of the night. The good thing though is that most of us had already put away what could have been flying objects due to the earlier lighter winds. These winds weren’t just unique to this area. They were the same winds that hit southern California and shook my cousin in Las Vegas on its way here to us. Many folks pulled out of the park early in the morning on their way north. I hope they weren’t going too far or they would have been caught up in them again. I also hope we never see winds like that again.

One thing we did discover was that after the strong winds the sand was smooth again.  All the deep ruts caused by the ATVs and dirt bikes had been blown away.  That was a good thing.

We are traveling on Wednesday.  Weather looks nice, winds are farther north and the sun just may be shining.  We have an appointment for some service work on the motorhome at Camping World.  Our schedule was determined by their schedule and not ours.  They had only one appointment available this week.  We took it!!

On our last ride at the park.

Now I know a lot of people gripe about work done at Camping World. We all gripe about some of the work we have done on our RVs and have more than our share of horror stories. We have used Camping World for many different service items and other than a normal little glitch or two still rate it the best. This is our thought. If you have an RV technician do service work in Portland and something goes bad, you pay for the repair again in Phoenix. If you have Camping World do service work in Portland and something goes wrong, they redo it for free in Phoenix or San Antonio! That’s insurance.

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I think Murphy is busy with Murphy’s Law.  Before we made an appointment at Camping World and made a reservation at another RV park, I checked the wind prediction.  Wednesday was going to be a great day for a beautiful drive.  We paid for one more night, gave the ATVs a bath, loaded them on the trailer and hooked the trailer to the motor home.  This is where Murphy got busy.  I checked the wind prediction …. again.  There was a brand new forecast and the forecast was predicting high winds for about 200 miles north.  Guess what?  Instead of the planned departure time of around 10:00 AM, we’ll be pulling out of here around 7:00 AM.  I hope I didn’t say that too loud because we have a way around the current forecast as long as it’s not changed again. We just leave before the winds arrive.  That’s the plan but we’re not necessarily sticking to it.  I'll be checking the forecast at least one more time before we pull out.

ATVs were unloaded, Terry gave them a bath and we reloaded behind the motorhome.  We’re ready to go.

‘Tis life on the road.

Bryce Canyon National Park

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune in.

There are just some places you have to see and especially if you’re kind of close.  Now I had been to Bryce many years ago.  Terry had not.  We had to go.  It wasn’t a short drive but we still were determined we had to do it.  We did.

You could compare Bryce to Grand Canyon but only becuase you are looking down into the canyon.  However, at Grand Canyon you see canyons.  I think Bryce is much more spectacular.  The vastness of the canyons and the colors are beautiful.   I think pictures just speak for themselves … the good ones and even the bad ones.

Our road trip started fairly early.  For the round trip drive to Bryce we had about 250 miles to go.  We decided to make a loop instead of going and returning on the same route.  The first leg of the trip started with us heading due north on highway I-15.  We climbed and climbed. Then, we went down and down.  Then, we climbed again.  None of the climbs were big but with all the mountains in Utah the only way to get on the other side was to either go through them or over them.  Obviously, without a tunnel we weren’t going through them. 

We stopped at a rest area off of I-15.  We had never seen a fenced pet run at a rest stop.   This was amazing.  It was huge, no other dogs were around and Duchess loved it.   Good job, Utah!

We knew Highway 14 crossing over at Cedar City was closed.  That route climbs to about 10,000 feet but  was closed due to snow.  Thus, we continued on to Highway 20.  We figured it was probably a better route anyway and I’m sure it was.  It was a short 20 miles crossing over to highway 89.  In that 20 miles we saw plenty of snow on the side of the road, icy spots and lots more up and downs including some good 8% grades.  Elevation on this climb took us to about 8100 feet.  We were glad to get on the other side!!

Highway 89 was also a very good road.  We saw several State Troopers with vehicles stopped on the side of the road and lots of varying speed limit signs that waivered between 65 to 55 to 45 to 35 and then back to 65.  We didn’t know if all the varying speeds were a way to catch tourists or what the deal was but we didn’t want to take a chance.

Highway 12 took us through Red Canyon on our way to Bryce.  There isn’t much to say in words so I’m just going to post a few photos of this very scenic area.

Once through Red Canyon it was just a short distance on to Bryce Canyon National Park.  The entrance fee is $25.00 per private vehicle unless you have an American the Beautiful Pass … then, it’s FREE!  Free is always good.  Free is actually best.

Our first stop after the Visitor’s Center was Sunrise Point.

Next we were on to Sunset Point.

 

Next it was Inspiration Point.

Finally we stopped at Bryce Point at an elevation of 8300’ for a panorama view and what a view it was.  To make the view easy, even a platform had been built so spectators got the best view of all – the full panorama.

We left Bryce and drove back through Red Canyon.

On our return trip we headed south on Hwy 89 until we came to Hwy 9 which was the route through Zion National Park.  This was the east entrance and as you drove through you dropped from the upper part of the park down to the lower canyon.  We had just driven this route at Zion a few days before (remember the flat tire?) but it was just as beautiful going through it again as it was then.  Besides this was the shortest way to get back to the motorhome.

The winds were expected to blow Sunday over much of Utah and the Southwest and we certainly noticed them as we arrived back at the motorhome.  The forecast was for windy conditions with winds blowing at 30 mph.  We’ve been told by several that the little town of Hurricane was named that for a reason.  Other than today we really haven’t noticed the winds so much and we’ve been hanging around for almost a couple weeks.  Perhaps, it’s been because we’ve been in other very windy locations this winter season.  Or, maybe we’ve just been lucky.  We love this area.  I think of all the places we’ve recently visited we like this best … it just needs a Winco, an ocean and the rest of our family to make it perfect.

This is one of those times I’m really thankful digital cameras replaced film cameras.  I took a lot of pictures.  It would have cost me a bundle to have had all of the film developed. The hard part was choosing which ones to put on the blog.  I knew posting over 100 would be just a few too many!! 

‘Tis life on the road.

ATVing on the Sand Dunes and Great RV Sites

You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.

 

I mentioned the other day we had moved to the Sand Hollow State Park. Well, it’s the weekend and all kinds of RVs and trailers are coming in.  In addition, there are many Jeeps, ATVs, OHVs, motorbikes, kayaks, canoes and boats.  I think you get the picture.  Friday was a pretty busy day for the folks at the park.   

 

The Sand Hollow Lake is fed by water from the Virgin River.  With the blue skies above, the water in the lake looked about as blue as blue can get.

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Picnic tables on the lake.

In addition to all the boaters and OHVs around, there were also areas where folks were having picnics and just enjoying a beautiful day at the lake.  Lots of picnic table surround the water.  Right now the water level is high.  We even found some tables that were in the water as well as the badminton net and fire ring.  I guess that’s more for summer fun or obviously lower water level times.

This is us!

There are many dunes to ride on the north side of the road but the big dunes and numerous trails are on the south side of the road.  There is access from the park via a tunnel underneath that road.  There is also a parking lot staging area.  

OHV tunnel from the park to the dunes.

Sand Hollow may be the name and there certainly is a lot of sand but there are also a lot of rocks.  They are flat rocks and some jut out making a pretty rough ride.  Some of the lower dunes are almost like being in a roller coaster as they are small up and down dips.

Can you see the tunnel in the distance?  That's downhill.

The dunes go pretty high.  I found it was easier going up than down.  I had to do it a few times to get the feel of it before I went all the way to the top.  This may look like an easy climb and it may not seem as high as it really is but when you’re up there, it certainly looks like you’re way up there.

It's all downhill from here!

The view is spectacular.  Some of it is very spectacular.  We’ve done the ride several days now.  Riding at Sand Hollow has been one of the nicest rides we have taken on the ATVs.  The sand is very different than the sand on the dunes in Southwestern California.  Much of this tends to be pretty well packed which makes me happy.  It means I may not have to use that winch again to pull Terry out.  Some of the dunes are also very steep and rocky to get over.  The practice makes perfect and I've been pretty pleased that I've been able to do some of them.

It's all downhill from here too!

We feel pretty comfortable blazing our own trail.  At least we’re pretty confident we can find our way back.  You can almost always follow tracks back and if not, you know that down is where the lake is.  In this particular case we tried to do that.  We ended up in a dead-ended canyon.

Dead end canyon

Friday was a great day.  After riding the ATVs for a few hours, I sat outside in the sunshine and read most of the afternoon.  Dinner was a wonderful steak on the barbecue and a salad.  It was just a super relaxing day.  We need more days like this.

Duchess gives this park a 9* rating.  It would be a 10* but she has to wear a leash!

Only a few more days left on our reservations.  However, it’s been so nice.   The big question is should we extend? This area gets a lot of snowbirds.  The weather warms up in March so they are slowly making their way north and many are heading back to Canada.  The pull-thrus make it easy for folks wanting a lot of space to just pull into.  There are sites with full hookups, sites with partial hookups, some dry camping sites and some that are primitive.  I guess you could say there is a site for every type of camper or RVer.

Sunday will be a busy day.  We're off to Bryce Canyon.

cathie - to your question about putting all your motorhome's weight on the jacks instead of the tires.  I have no idea of what is right and what isn't.  Personally, we're not comfortable with that but have seen others do it.  There have got to be some pros out there who also have an opinion but that still doesn't mean we'd be comfortable with it.  Thanks for your comment!

‘Tis life on the road.

How High Can Your Levels Lift Your RV?

Old age is when Father Time has overtaken Mother Nature.

I don’t really need an answer to that question of how high can your levels lift your RV?.  I bet we all think about that comfort zone as our RV tires are lifted off the ground with our levels.  I also bet that comfort level is different for different folks.

Our site consists of several acres and no maintenance required!

On my previous blog I posted that we checked out a state park that was just a short distance from where we were staying.  The park was gorgeous and some sites were just huge.  Since  we need to give the northern locations a little more time to dry out and warm up, we were looking for another place to kill some more time.  With temperatures expecting to be close to 80 for a few days this week, we didn’t want to move too far.  Our preference was to continue hanging around instead of dealing with snow shovels, umbrellas,  long coats and heaters.

At first we were just going to stay put but then we decided to go for it.  It took us about a half an hour to get ready to move and arrive at our new location.  We paid for six nights and proceeded to a partial hook-up site on the Sandpit side.  This side was OHV friendly and also had the gorgeous waterfront view.  It wasn’t long until we discovered a little more about the site we had just paid for.  It was on a downhill slope.  Now this wasn’t just any downhill slope.  It was a real downhill slope.  This is a spot great for a 5th wheel but not necessarily a motorhome.  Our levels brought our tires off the ground and we still had a ways to go.  The host offered huge bricks and boards to raise us even more.  With so many other empty sites in the park we decided we didn’t want to do that.  We’ve had to level before by raising those tires up but this was just short of ridiculous.

View from our site.

Instead we moved over to a pull-thru on the other side leaving our ATVs parked in the site of the host.  Our new site is huge, huge, huge.  Not all sites are this big but they are all much bigger than any RV park we’ve been to.  We’ve had some great sites this winter (and some not so great sites) but this one goes close to the top of the good list.   Of course, I must admit that having beautiful sunshine and gorgeous warm weather sure helps. 

I think I really, really like state parks.  Maybe, I just like THIS state park.

P. S.  Duchess thinks this is Heaven!

-- Upriverdavid --  I did get your message about this park.  Thank you!  However, I had no way to respond directly to you.  Any other great parks on our way north?

‘Tis life on the road.

Gorgeous Utah State Park

A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half cracked.

What do you think about having a view like this right out your window?  Some folks would pay a pretty penny to be able to enjoy this 24 hours a day.  In an RV you can have many beautiful views.  This is just one.

Sand Hollow State Park

 

Tuesday the sun was shining and the temperature was expected to continue climbing this week all the way up to 80..  We had been in the same little park for over a week.  It was definitely a good day to venture outside.  We had also thought it was a beautiful day to check out a future move.  Now it’s not that we intended to move a long distance.  We didn’t.  It was just a short distance.  As usual we had started trekking north a tad early.  Well, I shouldn’t say “tad” because we’re really about a month early.  The farther north we head the colder it gets and there’s still a chance of snow up there.

At most state parks when we’ve asked to just drive through and look at it, we’ve been given a short time period to do just that.  However, that wasn’t allowed at this one.  We had to pay the daily rate of $5 to even get on the grounds.  What a beautiful park it is and we felt it beckoning us to move.

Full hook-up RV site

It’s not that we weren’t in a nice park. We were in a nice park but we’ve been corrupted by the people we hang out with. They have introduced us to something we just seem to like better than super duper RV parks or resorts. We’ve become rather attached to wide open spaces where we don’t have neighbors so close they can look in our windows. It wasn’t so long ago I didn’t really want to stay at state parks. We wanted the pool and the hot tub and the other amenities. Things have certainly changed. Sometimes we like those things but most of all we like the space and the freedom. 

There are two sides to this park.  One side is all full hookups with no ATV’s or OHV’s allowed. This side has a beautiful mountain view and partial water view. The other side has a few sites with hookups but most sites are dry camping.  The view on this side is where the top photo was taken … gorgeous!   Some of the RV sites can be booked online and some are reserved for drive-up only.  Then, there are others that are considered primitive.  In the primitive section you can just pull off the road where you’ll fit.  Even picnic tables can be found in the primitive section.

Lots of fishermen and OHV’s frequent this park.   The boat launch and trailer parking is huge.  I don’t know if these fellows were catching or just fishing.

Like I said, the park we’ve been at is nice but the spaces aren’t this large and the scenery doesn’t compare.  Thus, we’ve decided if we need to kill time while the northern temperatures warm up and the snow goes away, we’d rather do it at a place like this. Duchess will be happier!  We’re thinking we might just move the little ten miles.  At least that’s what we’re thinking.

‘Tis life on the road.