5/21/2026 Another day at Bryce

  5/21/2026   A work/play day. Staying one more night here in Bryce.

 Well Sammy woke up before us as usual, realized that our side door was ajar (all night), and gave it a push.  Off he went!  Just needed a potty break and he came right back.  (Dogs are to leashed at all times.  Oops!)

This was a perfect day to do laundry, change the sheets, etc.  Our last laundry cost $7.00 per washer in Safford, AZ.  Today, $2.50!  What a bargain.  I spent some time in the gift shop nearby while Ron made as many reservations for campgrounds as he could.  This coming weekend is Memorial Day, and campgrounds are full.  We are hoping to find a first-come, first-served campground and stay there 3 nights.  If not, we will search out BLM (Bureau of Laned Management) sites which are often rustic/isolated.

Only one pic today, as seen in our campground. 

5/20/2026 Zion National Park

 5/20/2026 We drove from Bryce to Zion and back (for camping)

 Zion was spectacular but very busy. There was a wait to get into the park and lots of cars/RVs in front of us.  The roads are narrow and people park vehicles on both sides of the road in many places.  In Zion, you travel to the bottom of the canyon. When we arrived at the Visitors' Center, there was not one parking place available, so we headed to the picnic area and had lunch. We learned that you can only go on a 7 mile stretch via shuttle bus, so we passed on that.  There is a 1.1 mile tunnel that you pass through on your way in.  You must meet certain height and width requirements in order to go through with other traffic.  If you are oversized (wider than 7 feet and higher than 11 feet, you pay an extra $15 and they allow you to pass through the tunnel while all traffic is stopped.  We met the criteria and went through, but there were no other cars/RVs in there at the time.  

We decided that we would add one more night at Bryce and then head to Canyonlands.

5/19/2026 Headed to Bryce Canyon

 Bryce, here we come!  We were on our descent from 9500 feet and saw this cyclist headed up.  Only 2000 more feet to the top.

Bryce Canyon, UT is beautiful.  We are staying in Sunset Campground for 2 nights. We were able to get reservations a week in advance. (8000 feet and it is cold). 

We stopped at several overlooks on our way up and down.  A few overlooks had no place to park.  

5/18/2026 Goosnecks State Park

  We had a great spot to camp, but we were under a Red Flag warning:  winds with gusts up to 40 mph. This campsite is perfectly flat with a huge crater in the center.  Not one bit of protection here from the wind.  In reality, the winds were probably 40mph sustained with gusts higher than that, and the gusts were almost constant.  We turned the RV so that it was pointed into the wind and that helped.  I was grateful that we had levelers, which seemed to stabilize us.  Ron and Sammy slept well.  Me, not so much!  This morning, the winds have died down somewhat.  

Today we climbed 2 miles of gravel road over the mountain:  steep, narrow and one lane with few places to let another car pass. (Moki Dugway).  Stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument.  These bridges were discovered by a miner in the 1800s.  Beautiful scenery everywhere.  We were concerned about getting a campsite without a reservation, but we pulled into Singletree, Dixie National Forest, and there were only 2 other campers when we arrived.  There are still patches of snow on the ground.  AND IT SNOWED! 

Next few pics:  Moki Dugway climb

 Pic below:  Poppy at Natural Bridges

5/16-5/17, 2026 Canyon De Chelly National Monument, AZ to Goosenecks State Park, Utah.

 Our campground last night was atypical.  Sign-in, $20 cash, was through a slot in an old building and the sites were not maintained.  It was quiet though with few other campers.  This morning we visited Spider Rock Overlook and several others to see spectacular vistas of the canyon.  We drove north near Monument Valley, but RVs were not able to take the 7 mile drive, so we took pics as we passed by.  We expected with sky high fuel prices and the mid-May date that we would have not issues getting campsites. Not true. Tonight we took a chance on the first-come first-served status at Goosenecks State Park, arriving around noon.  We secured a good spot with a small shelter over the picnic area.  This area is adjacent to a deep canyon.  

Mexican Hat

5/16/2026 Coronado Trail to Spider Rock Campground at Canyon de Chelly.

 

5/16/2026

We really aren't sure what time we left since time zones here are crazy. We had three different readings from our Mercedes, my phone and Ron's phone.

We were very surprised after the many curves and climbs yesterday.  Today we had gradual descents and few curves, so we made much better time. Ron had planned for us to go to the petrified forest on our way north.  Neither of us were very impressed.  We saw mostly short petrified stumps.  They did have a dog park on the north end of the drive and we took advantage of that for Sammy.  He needs more running time.  After a brief lunch, we headed for Canyon de Chelly. 

We had two potential RV parks, but after entering both after only 100 yards, it was not good.  Rutted roads, no signage and a bad area where it appeared there had been a lot of parties with broken beer bottles.  So we opted for our 3rd choice which was at Canyon de Chelly National Monument in the Navajo Nation.  People have lived continuously in these canyons for nearly 5,000 years.  Our campground was pretty rustic, but it was a place to park.  

5/15-5/16, 2026

 

5/15/2026 After leaving the canyon campground, we took the scenic drive.  

Then we headed to Safford, AZ where they have several medical facilities.  I opted to go to the emergency room because of insurance.  My tick bite is not better, and several people recommended that I should see another physician.  After he consulted the CDC protocol for tick bites, he ordered a script for Doxycycline.  I am continuing the antiviral, too, since the vesicles do look similar to shingles.  While I spent a couple of hours in ER, Ron did the grocery shopping and a pump out.  Following that, we did our much needed laundry.  (each washer-$7.00  very expensive).

To finish our very busy day, we followed the Coronado Trail to a tiny campground (5  sites) at 7200 feet.   The trail has over 400 switchbacks, high climbs and steep drop-offs (but it is paved).  Mining is a big operation there  The Morenci mine covers a number of miles with some huge mining trucks. This mine is North America's leading open-pit copper mine. It began as an underground mine in the 1870s and transitioned to open-pit mining in 1939. 

Photos from 5/12 and 5/13 (Carlsbad, Frijole Ranch Corral, Pink House-Palomas, Mexico, Paradise Cemetery)

 

Visitors Center Carlsbad Caverns

Frijole Ranch Horse Corral, where we spent the overnight

The Pink House

Paradise Cemetery

5/12-5/14 2026: Lubbock, TX to Chiricahua National Monument Campground

 5/12/2026

 We shared the overnight last night at Cracker Barrel with 4 other RVs and we were awakened by a very noisy semi at 4am.  He was delivering supplies to the business and wanted to be on time!  (Kept his engine running)  We were disappointed that the fuel price with Open Roads was incorrect when we bought diesel, costing us quite a bit more than a station down the road. That has happened rarely.  

We stopped for a Sammy walk in Seminole where they had a very nice park with an active oil well in the middle. A city employee stopped to tell is that there was a free city campground nearby, but it was too early in the day to take advantage of the offer. 

We visited Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center and saw their displays and the movie, but we did not go to the caverns.  Years ago, I had a very claustrophobic experience in a cave, shoulders wall to wall and people touching in front of and behind.  Since Ron didn't want to see the caverns, we skipped them. I know, everyone says its beautiful!

Camping for the night:  Frijole Ranch horse corral.  They have only 1 reservable spot there. Guadalupe National Park Campground up the road was full.  

5/13/2026

Injuries:  Sammy is limping and I discovered a tick over my sternum (May 11th).  Tick removed.   The tick bite area has become reddened has increased in size, so we decided to go to the only clinic in the town of Columbus, NM.  There was no wait, no registration, no fees.  The diagnosis of the reddened area was mild case of shingles, even though I've had my vaccines. I was told I needed an antiviral drug. There were two choices: 1) Drive to Deming, NM (40 miles) or go 2 miles and cross the border into Mexico. We opted for Palomas (Chihuahua) Mexico. The clinic gave us directions:  park on the US side, walk across the border, go to the pharmacy and tell them what you want.  No script necessary.  Oh, and by the way, eat at the Pink House for lunch.  Got my script for $20 which included tablets and 3 tubes of ointment.  The Pink House was a real treat!  Live music, great food and a neat gift shop. 

We drove on to Paradise Cemetery, a place where pioneers and present day people are buried.  It was 5 miles up a rugged dirt road  We spent some time looking at tombstones and let Sammy run around the enclosure for a while.  Ron knows not to tell me things I don't want to hear and this was one of them.  To get to our campground, it was 100 miles on paved roads OR 20 miles on a one way rutted gravel mountain road with ruts and switchbacks. We climbed to 7800 feet and it took almost 2 hours to go 20 miles. Needless to say, I do not like sheer drop-offs!! We met only one parked car on the way up and saw some birders pulled off on a narrow stretch on the way down.  Apparently birding is a big thing there.  The bonus for the day was our beautiful campground (Chiricahua National Monument)  tucked back in a canyon with lots of trees.  We opted to stay 2 nights.