April 17th to April 20th Anacordes - Dawson Creek - Laird Hot Springs - near Tok - Anchorage

April 17th to April 20th Anacordes - Dawson Creek - Laird Hot Springs - near Tok - Anchorage
Well Holly woke up about 3.30 am and suggested that we get on the road, which was a good idea as we had about 2400 miles driving to get back to Anchorage. We had been tracking the weather at the communities along the Alaskan Highway, and it appeared that the next few days the weather was going to be pretty decent and it was, so we thought we had better bolt for home. The 1st day we drove 776 miles to Dawson Creek, got there in the evening and were happy to find a place to camp.
The next day we drove 478 miles to Laird Hot Springs arriving in the late afternoon. We set up camp in the parking lot then wondered along the boardwalk to the springs. We soaked and relaxed in the hot water pools for a couple of hours, chatting with fellow travelers and sharing notes. We both slept really well this evening. Got up and headed for the border, stopping only to take photos of a buffalo herd near Laird and for fuel, lunch and to switch drivers.

Laird Hot Springs

Buffalo Herd (note calf)

This evening we found a nice level pull off beside the road that we decided would be camp this evening, after driving 733 miles. The last day of our trip home we drove 394 miles, so this was the shortest leg on our journey from Anacordes to Anchorage. To greet us home was one of the neighborhood moose relaxing in our front yard.
It has taken me a few days to get this blog posted, as there has been quite a bit of cleaning up and putting gear away after traveling 13,000 miles in about 4 months and consuming about 1000 gallons of gas. Both Chevy and Cassie performed well for us the entire time we were away.
We both really enjoyed the traveling we did in the Lower 48 States. The States that we got a glimpse of on this trip were Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho. In Canada we also saw a bit of Yukon Territory, Alberta and British Columbia. We really enjoyed the places we visited and the people we met and are looking forward to our next trip. For now we shall enjoy being home in Alaska and visiting some of the many wonderful places that are to be seen and cherished here.
This will be the last posting on this blog probably till our next trip. I have enjoyed sharing the sights and experiences that we had on this journey.
Regards Keith

Moose welcoming us Home

April 15th to April 16th Seattle to Anacordes

April 15th to April 16th Seattle to Anacordes
Drove 100 miles up to Fidalgo Bay RV Resort, a very nice campground close to Anacordes. Anacordes businesses were having a Quilt Walk so we went and enjoyed some of the quilts that were on display in the businesses around town. In the evening the campground clubhouse was hosting an old time fiddler jam so we went and enjoyed some fine music. There were 18 musicians making fun music which was great listen music.
In the morning we winterized Cassie, blew compressed air into the plumbing, and replaced the water with antifreeze. We are expecting to get freezing temperatures on the way home so we are taking precautionary measures. Later on in the morning we meet Holly’s family at one of the many Tulip Gardens in the area and enjoyed looking at the many colors of tulips that we were blooming. There were fields upon fields of colorful tulips.
At this stage of our journey we are looking forward to getting home and expect to have some high mileage days between here and Anchorage.

Quilt on Display in Anacordes

Old Time Fiddlers Jam

Tulips

Tulips

Keith and Holly in Tulip Field

Tulips

Tulips

April 10th to April 14th Long Beach, Washington to Seattle, Washington

April 10th to April 14th  Long Beach, Washington to Seattle, Washington
We had a couple of easy days driving to get to Seattle where we are staying at the KOA campground,
the most expensive campground that we have stayed at on this trip. One of the highlights for us was
driving to Tacoma and visiting the Museum of Glass. To get to the museum we walked across the
Chihuly Bridge of Glass which had some amazingly beautiful panels of glass works. At the museum
itself the highlight for us was the hot shop where we sat and watched 3 people making glass vases
with a commentator explaining what was happen. The link to the hot shop
   http://museumofglass.org/page.aspx?pid=419 
   Yesterday Holly's family had a get together at her sister Linda's home in Seattle, her other sister
Willie drove from Bluff, UT and daughter Ajax flew up from Los Angeles. Holly's mother came from
 Anchorage, it has been several years since Holly has been together with all family.   

Ceiling Panel on 

Chihuly Bridge of Glass

Chihuly Bridge of Glass

Chihuly Bridge of Glass

Chihuly Bridge of Glass

Hot Shop Team

A

April 4th to April 9th Salina, Utah to Long Beach, Washington

April 4th We had an easy day of travel from Salina to Salt Lake City, a 140 mile drive. Here we found another campground that we can recommend. It is called Pony Express, which is about a 15 minute drive to Temple Square.

April 5th Salt Lake City. Most of today we spent visiting Temple Square. We parked a couple of blocks from Temple Square; the cost surprised us as it was only $3 for the day. The highlight of our visit here was the Mormon Tabernacle, where at noon we listened to a 30 minute organ recital by Richard L Elliott. Before the recital he demonstrated the acoustics of the Tabernacle by dropping a pin, and the sound could be heard throughout the building-- just amazing. We also toured the conference center which seats 21,000 people, and there is not a bad seat in the house. There are no interior pillars in the auditorium. Later in the day we visited an old river running friend who now works in downtown Salt Lake City.

View of Temple and Tabernacle

Inside Tabernacle

View from roof of Conference Center

April 6th Salt Lake City to Twin Falls Idaho 210 miles, a relatively easy day of travel. The campground we stayed at tonight had a spa pool which we were grateful to soak in this evening.

April 7th We woke up this morning with 4” of fresh heavy snow on Cassie and Chevy. We knew we had to make some miles today so we drove 350 miles to Pendleton, Oregon. There were a couple of high passes we needed to get over to the coast side of in case the weather deteriorated. Tonight we stayed at Wild Horse Casino and Resort Campground. It has everything we needed including a free breakfast.

Twin Falls Campground

April 8th We drove 200 miles today and finished at Ainsworth State Campground, close to the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. We took a tour of the Bonneville dam which was built during the great depression, one of FDR's projects to put America back to work. Our tour guide's job was funded by the Obama work recovery act. It was a real pleasant drive up the Columbia River Gorge with a massive river on one side and the hills on the other. From our camp this evening we took a drive along the historic Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Highway. It was a very narrow winding road right up against the face of the cliffs. We visited Horseshoe Falls and Multnomah Falls, both are very impressive waterfalls with their high drops.

Fish Ladder at Bonneville Dam

Bonneville Da,

Turbines at Dam

Multnomah Falls Road House

Multnomah Falls Trail

Multnomah Falls

Multnomah Falls

 April 9th We drive onto Washington State today and finished up at Long Beach, just a few miles north of Astoria, Oregon, a distance of 180 miles. After settling in at our campground we went for a drive to Cape Disappointment State Park. We visited North Head lighthouse where a wedding was taking place, also passed some fishermen who had been successful.

North Head Light House

Successful Fishmen

March 31st to April 3rd Bluff to Salina UT.

March 31st We left Bluff this morning and headed off to Canyonlands National Park. We were fortunate and found a campsite in Willow Flats Campground, at a elevation of 6000 feet. This campground has 12 sites so we were very lucky that we had found a place to camp this evening. We decided to stay a couple of nights which was a good thing as this is a lovely campground.

On the side of road to Canyonlands

View of Green River Near Campground

April 1st We got up early and visited several of the viewing
points, White Rim Trail, Mesa Arch, Grand View, and our favorite, Whale Rock. We went for a hour hike up onto Whale Rock which is a slick rock. The view and hike were really enjoyable which we would highly recommend.

White Rim Trail

Mesa Arch

Grand View

View from Whale Rock

April 2nd This morning we decided to drive to Arches National Park, where the campground at Devils Rock is at the end of the 18-mile road. This is a very popular campground which is always full, and we waited for a half hour before we knew we had a site. So today we did several small hikes to view some of the many arches here in the park. This evening the wind blew extremely hard, gusts up to 40 mph, that was throughout the evening and into the morning. Neither of us slept particular well as we were forever being woken up with the gusts shaking Cassie.

Pathway to Devils Garden 

Path to Landscape Arch

Landscape Arch

Sand Dune Arch

April 3rd The wind was still blowing hard when we got up this morning, but then it started to rain so we decided not to stay another night at Arches. On our way out of the park we visited several of the Arches we did not have time to enjoy yesterday. We drove about 150 miles today to Saline Utah, we encountered some adverse weather conditions later in the day as we crossed one of the nearly 8000 foot passes it snowed heavy with gale force winds blowing the snow everywhere causing whiteout conditions.

On Road to Windows Arch

March 26th thru March 30th Canyon De Chelly to Bluff

March 26^th We drove 100 miles to Bluff, Utah which is in the region of 4 corners where the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet. In Bluff we visited and stayed with Holly's sister, Willie and her husband, Red. In the afternoon they led us on a hike up onto the bluff overlooking their home.

Keith, Holly,Red and Cat on Hike

March 27th  Today Holly’s sister, Willie drove us around Bluff and then we went for a hike along the San Juan River. There are many petroglyphs on the rock walls. On this hike we spotted a snake about 6 feet long on the trail; it was a gopher snake. I also saw some people on the boat ramp rigging up for a float down the San Juan River, which looked like a lovely thing to do. 

March 28th Willie drove us 60 miles into Cortez which is in Colorado. Cortez has one of the best visitor's centers that we have seen. They had lots of information about Colorado which we enjoyed looking through.  

March 29th Today we had a day of relaxation in Bluff catching up on things that we have been neglecting for awhile.

March 30th A day of day tripping from Bluff --we drove a 120 mile loop today. We drove thru “The Valley of the Gods” which is very similar to the more visited Monument Valley. We then drove to a park known as Gooseneck Park which overlooks several goose necks on the San Juan River. Then drove up a hill known as Moki Dugway which has 10% grade full of hairpin bends on a gravel road; the drive was a little intimidating. The next park we visited was Natural Bridges Park. Then we drove back to Bluff via Blanding, a full day of enjoying some of the sites near Bluff.

Valley of the Gods

Valley of the Gods

Goose Neck

March 21st thru March 25th Dead Horse Ranch Campground (near Cottonwood AZ) to Canyon De Chelly

March 21st thru March 23rd   
This morning we were heading off to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, after driving thru Sedona  and to Oak Creek Canyon, it started to snow heavy so we  decided it would be better off to turn around and go back to the Campground that we had left 35 miles ago.

March 23rd  Today we went thru Senoda up Oak Creek Canyon and on to a Campground called Root 66 a few miles east of  Holbrook. 
After driving up Oak Creek Canyon I was really pleased that we had not attempted to drive up here during the snow storm the other day as it was quite a step climb with a lot of hair pin bends. Today we drove about 150 miles skirting Flagstaff on our way to Holbrook. 
Oak Creek Canyon Road 


March 24th  it was 10 mile drive to the entrance of the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. We spent a large part of the day enjoying looking at the remains of the Petrified Forest. This is an area of large trees that had been fossilized thousands of years ago. There are also many beautiful Mesa to enjoy when you drive thru here. We then drove the 120 miles to Chinle where we stayed at a lovely National Park Service campground, that was recently upgraded and paid for with funds from the Recover Act.

Construction of Historic Road House Route 66

Road House today

Route 66 

Painted Desert

Painted Desert

Painted Desert

 Petrified Forest

March 25th  After looking thru the visitors center this morning and finding out all we could about Canyon de Chelly National Monument. We drove both the north rim and south rim of the canyon visiting all the overlooks and enjoying the views.  One of the many interesting things about  is there is still farming on the canyon floor. White house trail starts at one of the overlooks and is about an hour walk to the canyon floor. It is fairly easy trail and leads to an ancient cliff dwelling called the white house.

Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly

 

Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly