5/23/2026 White Bridge Forest Service Campground, UT

 

5/23/2026

We are staying at White Bridge Forest Service Campground, UT until Monday. We had no reservations so we arrived early yesterday and secured a spot. Our site is just feet from a bubbling brook. Most of the campers here are in tents and last night was on the 40s. Sammy needed to run, so we headed up a dirt road about a mile and he was able to be off leash. What energy that boy has! Ron and I were huffing and puffing!!

Bubbling brook

Our neighbors view of the stream

Come on guys, hurry up

And off he went

Flowers growing in the middle of the road

Poppy from a distance

5/22/2026 Bryce to White Bridge Campground

 When we departed Bryce this morning, there was a very long line of vehicles waiting to enter the park. We drove to Cedar Breaks National Monument (10,000 feet) which only opened 7 days ago for the season. The campground is closed until June. There were still patches of snow and the temp was in the 40s and very windy. In 1933, FDR designated these 6,155 acres as a national monument. This area rivals Bryce. You can see the snowfall marker in the photo. We found a National Forest Campground, White Bridge, with available sites and we will be here 3 nights to avoid the Memorial Day weekend crowds.

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.