Page to Bullhead City

4/8/18

After our stay at Goosenecks State Park we wanted to linger in the south and await warmer weather before heading into the northwest. Las Vegas seemed a good place to linger.  To return to Las Vegas we could either retrace our route from our late February stay there or transit to the south of the Grand Canyon.  We opted for the latter.

Immediately south of Goosnecks is Monument Valley.  We had visited for several days in 2017.

 Page Arizona and the Glen Canyon dam and Reservoir are an easy drive from Monument Valley.  We had also visited Page in 2014.  We had done the  tourist thing back then; tours of the dam and Antelope Canyon, etc.

Just a few miles north of Page is the no hookup "Lone Rock" campground in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.  It's beach camping with no designated sites.  It's an absolutely gorgeous place at $7/day (with a senior pass).  The campground has fresh water and a dump station. By staying away from the Easter vacation crowd on the beach it was peaceful with hardly any generator noise.

The Lone Rock

We stayed there five days enjoying a number of colorful sunrises and sunsets.  Temperatures were in the low 70s during the day and 40s at night.  After trips to town for shopping, laundry and other housekeeping shores, we pulled up stakes and headed to Flagstaff, AZ

Thanks to Campendium.com Just a few miles to the west of Flagstaff we found nice dispersed camping in the Coconino National Forest on the A-1 Mountain Road.

Although, due to the higher elevation, the temperatures were in the 60s during the day and down to freezing at night; we welcomed the extreme quiet and good cell signal here. We stayed for three days and then headed on to the warmer temps on the Colorado River south of Las Vegas.

After about a 2 and a half hour drive, we checked in to the Ridgeview RV Resort in Bullhead City.  Ridgeview is an Resort Parks International (RPI) park.  Our RPI membership allowed us to stay for $13 per day. 

 The Bullhead City/Laughlin area is markedly warmer with temps currently in the 90's during the day and 70s at night.

Located on the Arizona/Nevada border the park offered full hook-ups, nicely paved roads, hot tub, pool and well designed clubhouse. We had camped without hookups for nearly a month (since March 5th).  My solar setup has more than proved its adequacy.

A Dove nesting next to our site sits on her eggs.

Black Bear Restaurant

 Although gambling is not our thing, we did enjoy dining at several of the restaurants.

Saturday morning breakfast at the Resort clubhouse.

From the park you can see the many casinos on the Nevada side of the river.  Striving to stay where it's warm for the next few weeks we'll soon head back for a two week stay in Las Vegas.

Goosenecks State Park, Valley of the Gods and the Moki Dugway

3/25-3/27/18

Goosenecks park is in the southeast corner of Utah.  It has been on our bucket list for a while.  We stayed three days.  The next day after arriving, we made the 50 mile loop drive north to Natural Bridges National Monument, then lunch in Blanding, and south thru Bluff to return to Goosenecks.

The San Juan river makes several hairpin turns over its six miles of stream to cover only about two miles.

 

The park has no designated parking places.  Campers simply drive along the canyon rim pitching camp as close to the edge as they desire (or dare). And as you can see, you don't want to be walking in your sleep here.

 We parked about 30 feet from the cliff's edge.  The river is about 1000 feet below.

 There is a path down to the river from the park.  We saw some people hiking on the lower levels.  It looks incredibly dangerous.

Over our three day stay there were about 6-8 campers staying along the edge with many day use visitors just stopping for pictures.

 The colors of the nearby mesas are incredible.

 Our loop drive to Natural Bridges included a section of Utah 261 known as the Moki Dugway.  The road appears to head right into the foot of the mesa.  The road makes some amazing hairpin turns to scale the cliff.

The view from the top is at least 30 miles to the horizon.  

 The ranch house in the center of this picture is a Bed and Breakfast.  It is the only house in at least 20 miles in any direction.

It was a little too hazy to see Monument Valley from here (about 50 miles away)

 About 30 miles north of the Moki Dugway is Natural Bridges National Monument.

The monument has several natural bridge.  Note that the bridges are carved by running water while arches are usually shaped by wind and rain.

East of Natural Bridges is a little known area of Indian ruins in an area named Mule Canyon. We were interested in the ruins known as House on Fire.  We hiked about a a mile up a dry wash.

Some fellow hikers told us that there were more ruins about three more miles up the canyon.  Us old folks were too tired to hike six more miles. After a long day we headed on to the town of Blanding to enjoy a late lunch at a local steak house.

On our last day at Goosenecks, we drove thru the area known as Valley of the Gods between the Moki Dugway southeast to US191 (about 30 miles of fairly good gravel road).

Although not as spectacular as Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods is quite impressive (and free).

The valley is BLM land and is open to camp for free for up to 14 days.  Only a few miles from US191 are navigable by a rig of our size (too many sharp dips for a long bus).

Our drive thru Valley of the Gods concluded our stay at Goosenecks.  The next morning we left for the Glen Canyon Recreation area near Page, AZ.