VACATION–Saying goodbye to Roger and Lila… heading up to the Grand Canyon!

(this post is about Sunday, March 27, 2011)

Ahhh it’s a Sunday morning in the desert with our friends… but time to say “See You Soon” and head on our way.   After some banana bread and coffee, we had the dogs over by Roger and Lila’s bus for one last treat!   They are here all in a row, learning to behave -----  

(L to R: Lila, Bob, Pam  then down in front: Duchess, Duke and Maggie)

except Duchess!   Who HAD to go inside to find Roger and look for more treats!!

Pam and Lila were heading out to their Bead Week at North Ranch, so the guys said the “See Ya Soon” as we pulled out.  We hit the road and headed north towards the Grand Canyon.  We scooted around on a side road so we missed the scary stuff between Congress and Prescott.  Then on up and across on the interstate for a little bit.  The scenery was amazing!    We climbed up over 7,000 ft above sea level.

 

 

Soon we were near the Grand Canyon, so we stopped in Tusayan at a Trading Post to buy a park pass ($25 for 7 days)  get a map and get our bearings.   We followed some other RVer’s advice and went down Forest Highway Road 302 to scope out some free boondocking spots. 

They had gone 7 miles in to find some good places…  so we went past a few okay looking ones, but we were scoping out for some thing quiet and not too sloped or soft for the motorhome to get in.   Along about mile marker 2 ---- RUT ROH!   BIG MUD HOLE!     We took the Tracker off the tow bar, I turned it around and lead the way back while Steveio had to back up the motorhome quite a ways to find a turnaround spot. 
We made it back out to the first portion of this road and parked in a great location under some tall Ponderosa Pines.  We are kinda sharing a pulloff area with a single gal in a motorhome.  She is going to be working in park soon, so she is biding her time till then boondocking in the area.  She said it was fine to pull in and share the spot with her.  She is travelling with a bird and a cat!  And she has a kayak on the roof of her toad vehicle too.   We pulled in nose first and faced the woods under the tall pines.  The solar will still get some sun here, and we are in a comfortable spot.  And we are NOT stuck in a mud hole!  LOL

Only problem with this spot is that the helicopters and small touring airplanes go overhead all day long…  interesting for folks who love to watch them!  They fly really low and are pesky like mosquitos, but we will get used to them… all part of the Grand Canyon Experience I suppose!
We got settled in and then dashed off into the park for a bit to get a quick view.  We will be here for a few days, so we can go back and explore at our leisure.  Got some maps and checked the lay of the land.

I won’t post tooooo many pics of the Grand Canyon.  Because, afterall, pictures just can NOT show it’s immense presence or magnificent colors!!! 

 

 

For now, we just did a few tourist shots and let the dogs sniff some SNOW!  

Imagine that, traveling 2,500 miles to get AWAY from the snow…

and now they were all excited to see it and lick it and sniff it!   Geesh!

We headed back to the boondocking area to settle in for the night.  The main furnace and fridge seem to be able to run okay on propane, even though we are above 7,000 ft.  But the brick ProCom heater will kick out from time to time when on low or when the hot water heater kicks in.   On high it seems to work okay. The book for the ProCom says anything over 4,500 ft it will sputter out on the pilot light, which it was doing.   We only run the hot water heater right before we need to use it.   I am sure we will be okay.   It will be down in the low 30’s overnight, we are going to be snuggled in and cozy warm in our home on wheels.

We settled in to sleep, with visions of the Grand Canyon vistas swarming in our heads… tomorrow would be a new day of adventure--- 

 

196 miles travelled today
2,952 miles travelled so far