The Wander West - 2022

  Today we had a really relaxing day.  The nights here are really cold, but we sat outside for breakfast in the sun and the day really warmed up.  We read until coffee time, and then went for a bike ride first to the boat launch ramp and then to the dam.  First we just went on the road and we returned on the trail.  It was really fun.  After lunch, we went out again on our bikes.  We again biked to the dam on the trails both ways and then went further on the trail to the other end of the park.  This time we remembered a camera so we got some pictures.  When we returned it was happy hour.  More reading and relaxing until supper time and another day is over.  Tomorrow we will continue our way east.  We are staying south as much as possible to keep good weather.  

  Today was just a day of driving.  We left Page, AZ, and headed east for the whole day.  We are staying on more secondary roads, Hwy. 64 for most of the day.  We stopped for lunch near Shiprock.  We stopped for the day at a beautiful State Park in New Mexico called Heron Lake State Park.  It is on a man-lake because of a dam on the river.  The park is not busy at all and we have water and hydro for $18 a night.  We decided to stay for 2 nights as there are really nice biking trails in the park.  We drove through all kinds of scenery today, desert, interesting rock formations, cliffs, and canyons.  Think Wylie Coyote.  Then it really changed close to where we stopped and it looks more like Ponderosa.  There are lots of log cabins, ranches, and ponderosa pine.  It’s really unbelievable how quickly things change in 350 miles.  

  This morning we left the Kaibob RV Park at around 9:30 a.m. and headed to Zion National Park in Utah.  The lineup was so long to get into this park we decided to turn around and go back a few kilometres and then go to Page, AZ which is on Lake Powell.  We stopped at Kanob on the way and got new windshield wipers for the van and got some more American cash from the bank.  It did rain some on our way to Page.   Lake Powell only has about 26% of the capacity of water in it.  Many of the boat launch ramps can’t be used anymore.  The people here do not seem to be concerned enough about this problem.  There is so much building going on everywhere we go.  People still have green lawns at the houses and the public spaces like schools and parks have green grass.  This is fully in the dessert.  It doesn’t make sense.  We went to a very nice view point which showed Lake Powell and the surrounding area.  The gorge here is super deep...

  This morning after breakfast we had to move just down the road to a different campsite in order to stay for an additional night.  The 2nd site is actually even nicer as we have a great view of the forest and a bit more shade.  The temperature here is wonderful, not hot at all, around 70 degrees in the day and pretty cold at night.  We can’t believe the difference from Nevada.  We then had coffee and made a phone call to extend our health insurance coverage which took some time.  We knew we would have to do this as our original coverage was for only 30 days.  Then we went for a bike ride on the forest roads.  It was really nice to be on our bikes again.  Some of the roads were pretty rough, but it was fun.  We saw a historic ranger’s cabin that was built in 1910 and they put a big window in the doors so you can look in and it is fully furnished for the period.  It is located right across from Lake Jacob.  Then we came home and...

  This morning we left our very lovely park in St. George to drive to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The scenery on the drive was really nice.  There are lots of trees here and the grass and other vegetation is green.  It is just the end of the monsoon season here and they had some really good rain in this part of Utah and Arizona.  We keep crossing into Arizona.  We did at the Hoover Dam, we did on our drive to St. George which is in Utah and we left Utah for Arizona on the way to the Grand Canyon.  We drove through an active forest fire about 1 hour from the rim.  It was very smokey.  We had lunch sitting on rocks at the rim of the canyon.  It was amazing to be here.  We then went to the Lodge where the views are breathtaking.  We also did some hiking, one hike to Bright Angel Point and one on the Transept Trail.  On the Angel Point trail we met a club of rock climbers from Pheonix, Arizona who volunteer their time ...

 This morning we got up and got ready for church.  We attended the only Reformed church in all of Las Vegas, Trinity Reformed Church.  It was very difficult to find as when we arrived it said that it was the Lutheran Church so we had decided to just attend the Lutheran Church but as we were going in, the usher asked if we were looking for this church or Trinity Reformed Church.  Trinity is using one of their buildings as their church, so he directed us to the right place.  It was a somewhat familiar service, but also different.  We had communion, which I think they have every week, and their psalter hymnal was called the Cantus Christi 2020 which was published by Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho.  In it, a writer explained the need for this new hymnal which was an expression of holy discontent with all the liturgical happy-clappy that surrounds us.  That is a direct quote. Haha.  After a lengthy sermon using all 3 chapters of Titus, we carried ...

We left Reno by 7:30 a.m. and stopped for breakfast just outside of town.  By 8 we were on the road to Las Vegas.  The drive was very nice.  The road was excellent and the scenery was very different.  The mountains here look smoother and they are often on both sides of us.  In between, it is sagebrush and other low bushes with either gravel or sand.  There are very few towns, most of them small and very poor in appearance.  We stopped for lunch in one of the larger ones, Tonopah.  There are lots of donkeys, some horses and some cattle.  You cross lots of cattle guards in the roads.  It’s hard to see what the animals can eat.  There is very little green to see.  We think they are going through about a 3-year drought which has probably changed things quite a lot.  We also saw lots of dried-up lakes, but there were also some very large lakes, like Lake Walker.  The boat launch ramps are now about 50 feet from the water's...

 This morning we left our campground around 10:30 a.m. after a relaxing morning.  We were considering staying here for 1 more night but then decided to carry on to Reno, Nevada.  We pretty much just drove for most of the day.  We made one stop to see the snow-topped mountains, Mount Lassen and Mount Shasta.  Mount Lassen is over 10,000 feet tall.  This area is very desolate looking compared to where we have come from.  Much evidence of fires, very dry, sparse trees and lots of them are dead. We can't believe how quickly the landscape changes.  We arrived in Reno around 3 in the afternoon and checked in at the KOA .  It is a pretty poor KOA, but it will have to do.  There are definitely people living here which is a trend we are seeing in lots of RV parks across the US.  It is a sad commentary on where they are headed.  We also have seen people living in their RVs at rest areas and slow vehicle turnouts.  I guess once you a...