Heading home: Oct. 5, 2023

We are on our way home after an adventurous, sometimes stressful, mostly wonderful 2 weeks of travel. It all came about as part of a 1-day family reunion in Las Vegas to see Cirque de Soleil’s “Love”. To get to Vegas, we packed up Pippin and the dogs on Sept. 21st, and headed to Sunset Crater, near Flagstaff, where Alan was sure the movie Starman had been filmed in 1984. (It wasn’t, but it’s an interesting volcanic crater full of lava rocks and some unique ruins next door at Wupatki Nat’l Monument).

From there, we went through the Reservation, across Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon, and on toward the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It started to pour in the afternoon, and when we got to Jacob Lake where you turn into the park, the power was out, forcing us to travel another 30 miles in the opposite direction in torrential rain and lightning to get gas.

All was fine once we finally got to our campsite in the GC. It’s very different visiting the place when you don’t plan to go down in it, but just look from the rim. You feel much more detached: staring at a a giant negative space that’s too large to grasp visually. We reminisced about our last time there with Madelayne, when we spent a week backpacking the Escalante Route.

You can’t really take dogs anywhere in National Parks, which is a drag, but we managed. We drove to Cape Royal, which had stunning views we’d never seen before.

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we went a few miles to camp just outside of the Park. Part of the stress of this trip has been that the whole world seems to be traveling right now. Every place we went was packed. I started looking for campsites over 2 months before we left, and could only find odd spots here and there. Even our usual remote boondocking sites were crowded. And it was very HOT when we left. It’s wonderful to see so many people enjoying the American Southwest, but challenging to see our understaffed/underfunded parks and monuments struggling to keep up.

After the Grand Canyon area, we headed to St. George, UT. It has grown so big, it’s really a small city now. We spent a night at a hotel there, because I couldn’t find a camp site anywhere. To cool down, we took the dogs swimming at Sand Hollow right outside of town. The next night we moved a few miles to Snow Canyon State Park, a place people call Mini Zion, and very worth the visit. Lava Tubes and many hikes can be found through the canyons and slickrock, but it was still very hot, over 95, so our activity was limited.

From St. George, it’s only a couple hours to Las Vegas. I found a campsite in Red Rocks Canyon State Park for 4 nights. It was very basic but we could take the dogs off-leash right behind the camp. Red Rocks itself is full of many day hikes, and we did one, Lost Creek, to a waterfall, but again, it was over 90.

Finally, it was time to descend to the Strip: we abandoned Pippin for a day, and checked into The Flamingo. Amazingly, the dogs handled Las Vegas like long-time gamblers: cruising through the casinos and food courts and hordes of people as if they did it every day. We were very proud of them. The show was as amazing as expected and a good time was had by all.

Enough said about Vegas. We even got in a fun visit visit with my cousin who lives there. The weather finally cooled down. And then it was time to leave.

Our next stop was back in Hurricane, Utah, this time camping at Sand Hollow State Park, where the pups got to swim again. Unfortunately there was a UTV Takeover Event so the place was swarming with Side-by-Sides and ATVs and was loud.

We left early, and landed that night at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park: a cool spot, again full of ATVs, and also sand surfers. We managed a long trek away from the crowds and the campsite itself was lovely. I’d like to go back there again, maybe when it’s a bit less busy.

Last night, we slept at a crummy campground right off the highway near Page, AZ. Everywhere was full, except for a few spots at a private concession campground for $110/night. No thanks. This morning, our nearest neighbor, a couple in a vintage Airstream, sent us this picture they took during the night of Pippin under the Milky Way. That made the place worthwhile. We also found a 3-mile hike nearby called “The New Wave” that circled a rock formation of wavy slickrock. We tried to get down to the lake at a place called The Chains, but the lake was about 50′ below the cliff edge and unreachable.

Tonight, we are hanging out at Navajo National Monument, near Kayenta, AZ. Worth the visit if you’re ever passing through. Beautiful free campground, lovely hikes (no dogs allowed, as usual), and incredible views of both a deep canyon and stunning sunset. Alan found a spot to play ball with Clair and Zane while I write this.

Tomorrow: heading home to 4 Fords. Alan’s ready to make more chocolate chip cookies, as we ran out a few days ago and are both jonesing for them!! Time for home!