Red Canyon Hikes

We've spent the last week dry-camping in out of the way places.  No water, electricity or sewer.  Just beautiful locations.  Needless to say we've had no internet or cellular coverage.

The view out our RV window.  Nice.

Two years ago when we did the 7 week tour of the "Big 5 National Parks" in southern Utah we kept seeing the areas between, like Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest and 1.9 million acre Escalante.  This trip we are concentrating on the out of the way places in southern Utah.

Eva is ready to go hiking.  Let's go Smokey.

Our favorite hikes were in Red Canyon.  Pink Ledges and Arches Trail were the best.  Here's some photos.

On the trail before sunrise.

Sun starting to come through the canyon.

Eva always wants to walk a log.

We did a hike up Cassidy Canyon but turned around after a mile because it wasn't pretty enough.  The next day we drove 105 miles to Cedar Breaks National Monument as a day trip.

Cedar Breaks is a stunning location who's only drawback is that it is in the middle of nowhere, really nowhere.  It's up at an elevation about 10,000 feet so it is under snow most of the year.  We passed through snow fields in the middle of June.

That's two miles up in the air.  Very thin air.

More hikes and photos to come.  We're at Huntington State Park in Eastern Utah for the night.  So long as I have internet I'll do a couple of blogs.

Life is good.

A Little Culture in Kanab

After many days of hiking and nature it was time to change things up.  It was time for a night out on the town.  The only drawback to my plan was we were in Kanab.  Now don't get me wrong, Kanab is a fine tiny town in the middle of nowhere Utah, so options are limited.  But being resourceful we were able to find "country culture" in downtown Kanab.

It was western movie night at the Crescent Moon Theatre.

Once you arrive and pay your $1.00 admission you get to vote on which movie they will show that evening.  Luckily the audience chose a great movie for the night.  We got to see John Wayne in his first role as a leading man in "The Big Trail".

After purchasing our $1.00 popcorn and $1.00 coke we were ready for a full evenings entertainment.  The evening began with the projectionist showing us his vacation slides from many years ago. Ya gotta love old Kodachrome.

It's a nice theatre with soft seats, good sound and old movie posters decorating the walls.

The lady on the right built the theatre after her husbands death to honor his love of movies.  She's still going strong at 92 and was there to greet us as we came into her theatre.

Big Trail was a great movie and John Wayne played his role as John Wayne well.  In the end he got the girl and all was right with the world.

The final kiss is coming next.

It was a great evening out on the town.  The best part was it only cost me $6.00.  Who says I'm cheap?  I prefer "thrifty" if you don't mind.

Life is good.

Horseshoe Bend Canyon

Last evening we planned a late hike to be at Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River at sunset.  It was about a mile walk in from Highway 89 just outside of Page, Arizona.  It had cooled down nicely from the 90 degree heat of the day.  Eva was ready to hike.

Up over the hill and down to the canyon edge.

The cliffs down to the river.

Looking up river right into the sun.

Peek-a-boo of the river down stream.

The full horseshoe at sunset.

Eva and Terri on the cliffs edge.

We stayed until after sunset.

It's dark and time to hike back out.

We had hoped for a better sunset, but nature doesn't always follow my plan.  It was a beautiful evening, so I'm happy to be with my favorite wife and my favorite dog in a great place.

Life is good.

A Nice Walk Through Antelope Slot Canyon

We have come to love slot canyon hikes.  So long as there is no rain or a flash flood they are a surrealistic experience.  Walking through a very narrow river bed that has carved it's way through the desert for millennia takes us to amazing visual experiences.

Yesterday hike took us through Antelope Slot Canyon near Page, Arizona.  This is one of the most visited slot canyons in the area and is deserving of its' reputation.  Here are a bunch of photos from our walk.

Ready to begin.

It takes about 90 minutes to walk through and return.  It is slightly cooler inside than the desert surrounding the entrance.  The walls of the canyon extend 120 feet above us as we walk.  This is an active riverbed given the right rainstorm.  The water can rush trough this small channel at 50 MPH when there is a flash flood.

Looking up to see the light.

Do you see the heart shape?

Something you can't see from the photos is the falling sand.  Remember we are 100 to 120 feet below the desert floor.  On this day there is a sand storm blowing up there.  Each time we look up we may be greeted by small sand particles falling in our eyes.  It doesn't stop us from looking up.  A few tears and it washes right out.

My favorite photo of the day.
Terri looking to catch enough light in a dark section of the canyon.

We will be finding more slot canyons as we enter Utah in the next few days.  Today is a kick-back day - laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning house.

Life is good.

South to Tucson, Slowly

Terri deep inside Antelope Slot Canyon - Page, Arizona.

It has been a long time since I've updated our travels. Following our Panama Canal cruise we stayed around Seattle and Tacoma for a few days to recover from colds we both caught upon our return to the PNW's fine rainy weather.

We decided that we were in no big rush to get back to Tucson to retrieve the motorhome from storage, so we spent a full month working our way down the West coast.  We stopped along the way and visited family and friends.

On the Oregon coast.

We traveled down Highway 101 along the coast and enjoyed the small towns along the way.  The Redwood forests of Northern California were next and we wandered every small road we could find.

We visited Terri's sister in Dublin, California and went to her grandson's little league baseball game.  Next we went to San Diego to visit Terri's childhood friend.  All our slow wandering took care of the month of May.  It was time to head east to Tucson.

Dangling her feet into the Grand Canyon

It was 103 when we arrived in Tucson so we only stayed a couple of days.  Phoenix was 107 so we only overnighted there to visit friends Daryl and Cindy from our old yacht club, DIYC.  We needed to gain some altitude so we headed for the Grand Canyon and the temperatures dropped to 90.  We stayed two nights in Camaron which is a town that I couldn't even find on a map.

We are now in Page, Arizona for three days to see slot canyons.  Here is a picture from Antelope Slot Canyon.  The next blog will contain many more photos.

We have 5 or 6 weeks to complete a 5 day drive back to Tacoma.  We aren't sure of our route but we will make it up as we go.  There's lots to see since we're not in a hurry.  One or two hundred miles every few days with a few vacation days in between.  No big hurry for us.  Once we get back we will begin our Summer travels to Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta, Canada on July 27th.

Life is good.

Norwegian Pearl - Panama Canal Cruise 2017

Norwegian Pearl

We have had a busy Panama Canal cruise.  Even though we purchased an internet package the speed and data limits have not allowed me to blog during our trip.  The daily schedule made me choose  between writing and actually doing the things we were here to experience.  “Doing it” won out over sitting around writing.

Hiking through the jungle in Costa Rica.

We have experienced interesting ports in each country along the way.  A few we loved and we will add those countries to our future bucket list, a few we have been to for our final and only visit. 

Columbia - proving that drug money can build a beautiful city. 

It had been 15 years since our last cruise, so one of our goals was to see if we enjoyed the lifestyle that cruising provided.  The short answer today is NO.  The biggest drawback for us is the short amount of time that is allowed in each port.  5-8 hours is not enough time for us.

Going through the locks in the Panama Canal.

In our normal RV travels we can stay in any location as long as we are interested.  If we don’t like where we are we move along the next day, if we like a place and need more time we stay as long as we want. New Orleans required 3 extensions to our stay, after 1 ½ weeks it was finally time to move along.

Guatemala even gave us an exploding volcano. 

Now cruises can be good and bad at the same time.  The food is too good!  I find myself overeating continually.  The staff has been amazing, I may need a steward to attend to my every need from now on.

Escargot anyone?

The entertainment has been great.  We have laughed, sung along, danced, clapped and cheered each day.  Some of the music round the ship is awesome and seems to go from afternoon until late night.  Although most nights I am asleep by 10:00.

Always friendly people.

If and when we do our next cruise it will be a 7-10 day trip.  We have a short attention span and 17 days is to long for us.

It’s good to be home.  Next week we will be headed back to Tucson to pick-up the motorhome to start our Spring RV travels.

Life is good.