Travelogue

I think we would have appreciated Cedar Breaks much more if we hadn't just come from Bryce Canyon. Like Bryce, Cedar Breaks has a spectacular amphitheater filled with colorful hoodoos and interesting rock formations. However, unlike Bryce, there are no hiking trails that take you down and let you walk amongst the hoodoos. That's the part of Bryce that we loved so much.

Instead, visiting Cedar Breaks was more like a spectator sport. We drove the scenic 5-mile drive through the park stopping at the various overlooks along the way. The first one we stopped at was Chessman Ridge Overlook, where the rock formations below theoretically look like giant chess pieces. It was beautiful, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't see it. I guess I don't have a very good imagination.

Our next stop was the Visitor Center near Point Supreme where there was a truly spectacular view of the amphitheater. Unfortunately, all the boys could work up was, "That's nice, but I like Bryce better." I think they're getting a little too jaded. If we had come here before Bryce, I'm sure it would have been a totally different experience. To the boys' relief, an approaching thunderstorm prevented us from hiking the 4-mile Spectra Point Trail along the rim.

What did interest Herb and the kids more than the amphitheater was a motor home identical to ours, right down to New Jersey license plates, parked in the lot near ours. This might not seem like a big deal, but Lazy Daze motor homes are somewhat rare, especially in the East Coast, and their owners tend to be a bit fanatical about them. Anxious to meet our New Jersey Lazy Daze brethren, we stalked the parking lot watching for their return. Upon their arrival, we greeted each other enthusiastically and spent the next half hour exchanging Lazy Daze stories--all of which were good. What really floored me was that they were traveling with 5 kids in a motor home that I found to be quite intimate with 2. I give them a lot of credit. They looked like they were having a really good time.

Travelogue

Bryce Canyon is up there on my list of top ten favorite places to visit--definitely a place to come back to again and again. Although this was our 3rd time here and the kids' 2nd, we were probably even more excited about stopping here than the 1st time because we knew of the magic in store for us.

Lolo and the boys hiking out of the canyonThere are lots of beautiful places in the west, but there is something special about Bryce--something unique and somewhat unreal. It's also a lot less intimidating than places like the Grand Canyon and much easier to explore. You can just sit on one of the benches on the edge of the rim and gaze down into the hoodoos in the amphitheater below, or if you're more adventurous, you can hike down into the canyon from one of the trails from the rim and wander around among them. We spent lots of time doing both.

This trip, we were lucky enough to get a campsite in the park at Sunset Campground, in walking distance to the rim.

We chose to do the same hike that we had done on our last visit (it really is the best hike down into the canyon), but this time in the recommended reverse direction. Believe it or not, going in the opposite direction makes it seem like a completely different hike. We started this time from Sunset Point and followed the steep switchbacks of the Navajo Trail down through the narrow walls of the canyon into the amphitheater. From there we connected to the Queen's Garden Trail which brought us to some of the park's most interesting hoodoos, including one that actually does look like Queen Victoria sitting on her throne. From there we followed the trail up to Sunrise Point and then walked along the Rim Trail back to the RV.

Sleepy family at sunrise on the rimAfter dinner that evening, we walked back to the rim and watched as the colors changed from the warm yellows and oranges of daylight to the more dramatic pinks and reds that come with the setting sun.

On the drive out the next morning, we just had to stop for one more peek from the rim and a few more pictures. The early morning light was just as good as last night's sunset.

What a great place! I'm sure we'll be back again.

Travelogue

Lolo being playful with Big StoneyIt's hard for me to think of Kodachrome State Park without getting this stupid grin on my face. The park is very beautiful and has over 60 beautiful, multicolored rock pillars called sand pipes that are found nowhere else in the world. The most prominent and by far the most interesting sandpipe is the very large, anatomically correct, phallus-shaped one that overlooks the campground. And as if that wasn't amusing enough, its name is "Big Stoney." It functioned like a magnet. No matter how hard I tried, my beach chair would always wind up being oriented right towards it. I think Herb was starting to get a bit insecure.

Seriously though, the park is a real gem and much less crowded than nearby Bryce. The campground is located in one of the most spectacular settings I've ever camped in--a beautiful natural amphitheater with views on all sides. There are only 27 sites, but we had no trouble getting one. I think it was because there were no hookups and most people don't like to primitive camp.

Lolo hiking the Eagle's View TrailAfter Herb pried me away from my beach chair, we headed out on our mountain bikes to explore some of the other less graphic sandpipes. Fortunately, the Panorama Trail, which we wanted to go on, allowed mountain bikes. It was the only trail in the park that did, but at least they had one. National Parks don't allow mountain biking at all on any of their trails. The trail took us through a pretty valley with some very colorful and interesting sandpipes, such as the Ballerina Slipper spire and a series of wide-brimmed pedestals called the Hat Shop. Very nice and what was even better--we didn't see another soul the entire time.

On the way back, we stopped at the camp store for some ice cream and had to search out back for someone to wait on us. Finally, we found a nice old lady that ran the place by herself. At first, we felt bad that she might be lonely out here, but after talking to her we realized that she was quite content with her remote surroundings. The town of Cannonville was only 6 miles away so that gave her a chance to be around people whenever she chose to. She told us about a Root Beer and Fiddler Festival they were having in town that weekend and said that she hoped we would be able to stay around for it. I really wish we could have. I think it would have been fun.

Nice Campsite in Kodachrome BasinThe next morning while the kids slept in, Herb and I hiked the Eagle's View Trail, a trail that I had read about and very much wanted to do. The guidebook described the trail as strenuous, narrow, and exposed. They weren't kidding. As we climbed higher up the 1,000-foot, steep cliff face, the trail eventually narrowed to less than a foot wide, with a very steep drop-off. Herb kept pointing out the spectacular view in an attempt to take my mind off of the possibility of my imminent death. "Look you can see the campground and the RV," Herb said pointing at what looked like a matchbox car. Not even "Big Stoney," which from this height wasn't all that big, could cheer me up at this point. I realized that the trail really was quite visible from the campground. In fact, if the kids had woken up and looked out the window, they could have seen their mother crawling on all fours along the face of the cliff in front of the RV. Not a very pretty sight. Fortunately, they didn't.

Travelogue

Tom's micro-bass filletHuntington was a pretty state park with lake access right from the RV--something not to be taken for granted in state parks.

After the previous day of very successful fishing at Flaming Gorge and the thrill of eating their own catch, the boys had become a lot more interested in fishing. In fact, they were quick cocky about their ability. "Don't bother cooking me any dinner," Tommy informed me. "I'll be catching and cooking my own." Sounded good to me.

I went off for a run around the lake while Herb and the boys went to try their luck. After a while, Herb came back, empty handed. Andrew and Tommy stayed on, however, determined to repeat their experience from the day before. Finally, they returned grinning and displaying Tommy's catch--a 3-inch small mouth bass. Undaunted, Tom proceeded to fillet it (it was now down to 2 inches), season it, wrap it in tin foil, and throw it on the grill. I admired his determination.

We watched in amusement as Tom sat down to his feast, which had now shrunk to about 1 ½ inches. After chewing for far too long, he looked up and said the words I thought were coming, "What's for dinner?"

We barbecued a non-fish dinner that night and took a dip in the lake before settling down to a cozy night in the RV.

Travelogue

If I had to pick one activity that we as a family enjoy more than any other, it would have to be river rafting. Combine that with some world-class trout fishing, and I think we were headed for a near perfect day.

Herb and his trusty rubber boatOur first order of business was figuring out the logistics of getting back to our RV after we finished rafting. Rather than hitchhiking back, as we have done in the past, we stopped at the Dutch John Store and arranged for an outfitter to drive our RV from the put-in point right below the dam to the take-out at Little Hole, seven miles down the river. We were just expecting to arrange for someone to pick us up at Little Hole and drive us back upriver, but this was the way they did it here. I wasn't sure if Herb was going to go for the idea of turning over our RV to total strangers, but they seemed quite professional and they did it all the time. So we left them an extra set of our keys and headed down to the put-in point just east of the dam.

Although it was a Monday, the launch was still a very busy place. We had purposely planned to do this on a weekday, because we had heard that it gets very crowded on the weekends. The 7-mile stretch of river between the Flaming Gorge Dam and Little Hole is probably one of the most popular river trips in all of Utah. Besides the wonderful fishing, there were ten Class II rapids along the way to make the trip exciting.

Boys stalking the Green River for troutThe kids and I were quite surprised when we put our feet in the water and they practically turned numb. Wasn't this the same water that we had been swimming delightfully in yesterday at Firehole Canyon? Herb explained that the water below the dam is so cold because it comes from the deep part of the reservoir. That's why the trout fishing is so good here. Trout, unlike us, love cold water. Okay, so this was definitely going to be a fishing rather than a swimming trip.

The river was moving along quite swiftly--so swiftly, in fact, that our trip would be done in under 3 hours if we just let the raft go. That just wouldn't do, so we took as many opportunities as we could to pull over and fish. Our first stop was a large rock in the middle of the river probably less than 500 yards from the put-in. We each claimed a portion of the rock and started casting, fully expecting trout to practically jump onto our lures. Just as Herb was commenting on the poor quality of one of my less than perfect casts, in which my lure barely reached the water 15 feet in front of me, I felt a tug on my line. Herb ate his words as I pulled in our first trout of the day, a 20-inch keeper.

Tommy's first filleting of troutAt that point we fully expected to pull in one trout after another, but it just wasn't happening. We could see trout, but they weren't biting. Bait would have been a nice thing, but the fishing regulations are quite strict along this stretch of the river and it's not allowed. Only artificial lures can be used and any trout between 13 and 20 inches must be thrown back, because those are the most prolific breeders. So we moved downstream to try our luck at another stretch of the river.

The scenery along the way was beautiful and since I had already caught my dinner, I was ready to just sit back and enjoy the ride and watch the rest of the family obsess over catching a trout. Finally, a few fish were pulled in, but unfortunately they were in that off-limit 13 to 20 inch range. The kids were getting pretty frustrated. They would catch a trout, hold it up to the measurement lines they had drawn in the sand--pulling a little hard on either end of the fish to stretch it as much as possible--and then throw them back in disgust. None of them was going to leave this river until they each had a fish for dinner.

It was getting a little late on the river, but finally everyone did catch a keeper (after some aggressive stretching). As we approached Little Hole, Herb was relieved to see our motor home sitting safely in the parking lot--much better than having to hitchhike back to retrieve it.

We drove back to Dutch John and got a campsite at Mustang Ridge, one of the Flaming Gorge campgrounds. Although the campground overlooked the lake, there were actually only a few sites that had a decent view. However, since it was already getting dark and all we wanted to do was fillet and cook our fish, it didn't matter much to us.

I astutely excused myself from the fish cleaning process and went inside the motor home to prepare some rice and veggies. When I went out to check their progress, I found each of the kids cleaning and filleting their own fish, hands covered with blood and fish guts. I wasn't surprised at Andrew. Ever since he was little, he had never been squeamish about dealing with fish, but Tommy was another story. Up until today, he wouldn't even remove a fish from his hook. Now he was really getting into it.

Finally the fish were cleaned and they had some very nice looking fillets. They each seasoned theirs to their own tastes, wrapped them in tin foil and put them on the grill. By the time we ate dinner that night it was close to 10:00--much too late, but nobody cared.

Moments like this don't happen every day..

Travelogue

Foolish Egyptian Family ShadowsFlaming Gorge is one of those undiscovered treasures that I hesitate to rave about because selfishly I prefer that they remain just that--undiscovered. However, since I highly doubt that my reflections are going to rock the travel industry, I'll take my chances.

In my opinion, Flaming Gorge has some of the most spectacular scenery in the West--sheer red cliffs dropping 1,300 feet down into the waters of the reservoir, fiery red canyons, intriguing chimney rock formations, etc., etc, Now here's the best part--there's practically nobody here, especially in the northern Wyoming section.

We had briefly gotten a glimpse of the southern section of Flaming Gorge two years ago on one of our cross country trips and promised ourselves that we would come back some day and spend more time here.

Where is everybody?This time we were traveling west on I80 so we entered Flaming Gorge from the more remote Wyoming section. We had already been driving over 8 hours that day so our goal was to find a campground as soon as possible. The only thing I had to work with was a map that I had picked up on our previous visit here that had little pictures of tents on it marking the campgrounds. Almost all the campgrounds were on the southern end of the Reservoir about 90 miles away. The closest campground I could find was something called Fire Hole Canyon, which required driving off the main road (191) and following a winding 9-mile road down to the reservoir. We were a little nervous because we had no idea what we would find there and whether they would have room for us.

Inappropriate Dead Pelican FlagWell, it couldn't have been any better. The location was spectacular and there were only 3 other campers in the place. We backed into a site which overlooked the Green River arm of the Reservoir and the canyons, directly across from a very interesting and colorful chimney rock formation. It was breathtaking. Why was nobody else here? In fact, Herb even asked the campground host that very question, to which he got a very strange response: "They'll probably be coming in on Monday." I think he's been out here alone in the hot desert sun too long. I guess this place just isn't for everyone. There is no development of any sort--no restaurants, no shopping malls, no theme parks, no movie theaters, no electric or water hookup. The only source of entertainment is mother nature and for us, that was just fine.

There wasn't much daylight left, so we quickly hopped on our bikes and followed a winding dirt road down to the river. There wasn't another soul in sight. The evening was hot and the water was warm, so we jumped in for a quick dip before biking back up to the campground.

Tom relaxing in floatThe next morning we launched our Avon inflatable from the campground boat ramp and headed north up the river. Although the boat only has a 6 hp motor and doesn't exactly move us too fast, it's perfect for exploring. It can go in shallow water and into all kinds of nooks and crannies that a bigger powerboat would have trouble with. Also, we can just pull it up on the shore whenever we see something interesting or just want to stop for a swim.

That whole day, we saw only one other boat, but still we were far from being alone. There were cows grazing along the river, hundreds of tiny black birds flitting in and out of holes in the cliff walls, and prong-horned antelope running through the tall grass along the sandy shore. And who says there is no entertainment for kids. Do you have any idea how well cow pies skip on water? Or how fun it is to come upon the intact skeleton of an antelope and the remains of a very large pelican? Or to float on your back and watch clouds float over the rim of the canyon?

That night the boys were quite resourceful in their attempts to make a campfire. Having no firewood, they did what any self-respecting pioneer boy would do--burn cow pies. That's right, cow pies have been used as a source of fuel for more than a century. I made sure that I sat upwind from the fire. We stayed up later than usual that night to watch the full moon rise over our chimney rock. It really doesn't get much better.

Travelogue

This was not our first time to Lake McConaughy, nor I am sure will it be our last. We had first discovered Lake McConaughy on our 2001 trip and had found it to be a great first highlight on a cross country trip to the West. It's right along Route 80 near the northeast corner of Colorado, so it isn't even out of the way.

He ain't heavy, he's my big brotherThe lake, or more correctly reservoir, is really quite pretty--beautiful aquamarine water surrounded by miles of sandy shoreline that you can drive your RV on and camp for the night. It's a little busier with jet skis and powerboats than we would like, but there's still plenty of room for everyone to have a good time.

When we arrived, we were surprised to see how low the lake was compared to the last time we were there. Apparently, they were going on their fourth year of drought and Wyoming was being stingy with how much water it was letting out through its dams to flow into Nebraska.

The last time we were here we had primitive camped right on the beach and really loved it. However, with the lake down so low, making the beaches much wider, we were having such a hard time finding sand hard enough to make us feel comfortable about driving on that we decided to try one of the developed campgrounds on the asphalt.

Before committing to staying there, we decided we would try to see how difficult it was to get to the lake from our campsite. As we started walking through the tall grass from our RV, a pickup truck pulled over and said, "You're not from around here, are you?" What was that supposed to mean? Were we that obviously out-of-state tourists. The gentleman in the car then proceeded to tell us that in Nebraska you never walk through tall grass--it's full of rattlers. Oh, great! A campsite without lake access just wasn't gonna cut it, so we got back in the RV to search once again for a primitive site on the beach.

We finally did find a nice spot under some cottonwood trees right off the asphalt. Although it was about a 200 yard walk to the lake, at least we wouldn't be cheating death every time we wanted to swim. Since it was already late afternoon, we immediately headed to the water where we spent the next few hours enjoying the warm waters of the lake. It really is a great place.

That night we barbecued under the cottonwood trees and afterwards had a family game of Frisbee golf. The kids had recently learned this game from their uncle, who claims to have invented it, but I'm not so sure. You basically play it like mini golf, except you use a Frisbee to hit different objects that represent the holes. It's really quite fun and can pretty much be played anywhere.

As always, Lake McConaughy was a great stop and one that I'm sure we'll be back to on our next trip out west along I80. I just hope that the lake is still here. What a shame it would be to lose a place like this.

Travelogue

There's nothing like the feeling you get when you pull out of your driveway and head out on a road trip. All the hard work has been done: the trip has been planned, the RV is stocked with groceries, and everything is packed (hopefully). There is only fun and adventure ahead for the next few weeks. You're packed into tight accommodations with the people you love the most, who now are forced to spend quality time with you whether they like it or not. Excitement and anticipation is high as you head out, unsure of what the next few weeks will bring.

Since most of our trips are to the west, we always start out with some long driving days. Rather than pull into a commercial campground, we usually look for an all night Wal-Mart or a Flying J Travel Plaza. Both allow you to park overnight. I prefer the Flying J's because you feel much more secure in an area designated for overnight RV parking than you do in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Since all we need to do is sleep, these places are perfect. Once you pull the shade in the RV down, you can imagine that you're anywhere. On this particular trip, we were heading west on Route 80, so we drove 9 hours and stopped at a Flying J outside of Toledo, Ohio.

The kids always have to go into the Flying J store to see what kind of candy and junk they can buy. There is always an odd assortment of stuff on sale outside the store. This time there were electric scooters on sale for $199. I had to break it to the kids that dad wouldn't be very happy trying to fit 2 electric scooters in the RV. While I was using the phones to call home, Tom decided to try his luck on one of those machines that you use a crane to pickup some stupid toy that you don't want anyway. I interrupted my phone conversation to tell him not to bother since you never win anything good in those machines anyway. A few minutes later, he walked by me grinning and holding a really cute 2-foot high gorilla that he named Flying Joe. So much for teaching him a lesson about gambling.

I think some of my happiest moments on an RV trip are these first nights in a truck stop. The whole trip is ahead of us, spirits are high, and we haven't gotten on each other's nerves yet.

Travelogue

Well we made it home safely--just a little over 3 weeks on the road. We had seen some pretty wonderful places and had some memorable times.

Our first totally "wing it" trip with no itinerary set in stone had been a definite success--an approach I'm sure we'll take again next year, wherever our travels lead us.