03-19-2018
thru 03-25-2018
Monday
– After breakfast the wind was light enough so we played Pickle
Ball for about an hour. Not sure when we will find a court again so
want to practice before we leave. Dennis wanted to take the back road
to Oatman so off we went. This is gravel road that you can access off
of the Bullhead Parkway. The road was very wash boardy and bumpy. We
were about 2 mile from Oatman when the truck tire sensor notified us
that one of our tires was low on air. Ah oh! We both got out of the
truck and sure enough I could hear a hissing noise coming from the
front tire on my side. We drove a little ways forward to find a flat
spot on the road. Only took about 30 minutes to change the tire.
Would have been quicker but had to find out where the jack and tire
wrench was located. Anyway we were on our way and made it back to
Bullhead City to the Walmart. We had purchased the current tires at
Walmart with road hazard insurance. They told us they could not fix
the leak. Bummer. We could buy one tire to replace it but they had
over 50,000 miles on them. After getting some prices and some
discussion we decided to get a whole new set of tires. They ordered
them and told us they would be delivered to the store tomorrow. We
plan on leaving on Wednesday so we wanted to get this taken care of.
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| Ah Oh! |
Tuesday
– In the morning we played a little pickle ball again but the wind
started blowing pretty hard so we quit. I took the bedding to the
park laundry while Dennis waited for a call from Walmart. They called
about 12:30 and he headed down there to get into queue to get the
tires mounted. Good thing we are retired as it took about 3 hours
before they were finished with the job. These are a different brand
of tire from the old ones and we were concerned they would be noisy
but they turned out to be just fine.
Wednesday
– Moving day. After being here for two weeks I was getting antsy to
move on and to head for home. We packed up and were on the road by
8:00. Pretty early for us as most of the time we are just getting out
of bed. We wanted to get out of the valley before the wind kicked up.
Our destination today is a free camping spot at a museum at the south
end of the Petrified National Forest Park. It is about a 300 mile
drive so a little longer than we would like. We stopped a few times
along the way to get gas and take a potty break. About a half hour
east of Flagstaff we stopped at the Twin Arrows Casino to take a
break and get a bite to eat. Dennis signed up for a players card as
they had discounts for anyone with a CDL license. He got $24 in
casino credits which he played and won $10. With that and an
additional $3 discounts we both ate at the lunch buffet for under
$10. Sweet! We made it to our destination around 3:00, got parked and
relaxed for the rest of the evening. We are camping at a Crystal Forest Museum and Gifts at the south entrance of the park and its free.
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| San Francisco Mountains north of Flagstaff |
Thursday
– An awesome day at Petrified Forest National Park. Holy cow! What
a beautiful park! We spent all day at the park stopping at the
various pull-offs, overlooks and took most of the trails. The longest
being the Agate House and Long Logs trail which was about 2.5 miles.
In addition to all the petrified wood the scenery is spectacular. The
Blue Mesa and Painted Desert areas were particularly beautiful.
Layers of sedimentary rock eroded by wind and water exposing vibrant
rainbow of colors. The view over the painted desert is very surreal.
Something that has to be experienced.
PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK
Friday
– Moving day again. Today's destination is Grants, NM and El Malpais National Monument. We decided to avoid I-40 and take some
state highways. It ended up to be a very stressful day for a few
reasons. From our Museum campsite we headed east on Hwy. 180 toward
St. Johns and Hwy 93. The road was very hilly and Dennis had the
cruise on. About 20 minutes into the drive the check engine light
went on. Ah Oh! Now what? We drove to St. Johns and stopped for gas.
After starting the truck again part of the warning light went out.
Later when we turned the truck off again everything cleared. We think
it had something to do with having the cruise set going over the
hills and towing the camper. At St. Johns we proceeded north on Hwy
191. OMG! This road was HORRIBLE. Lots of dips and bumps and it went
on for miles. Eventually we turned onto Hwy 53 east which was better.
Around 1:00 we stopped at the El Morro National Monument Visitor
Center. We decided to keep going to Grants and come back to this
monument tomorrow. By now the wind had picked up and was blowing us
around a bit. We ran into a sand storm just outside of Grant. Finally
we made it to the El Malpais Visitor Center. We had lunch in the
camper then went into the visitor center. We asked about access to
the Joe Skeen BLM Campground with our 35 foot rig. They thought the
length limit was 50 so we proceeded east on I-40 to Hwy 117. The
campground is about 10 miles south of I-40. I was worried about the
arroyo that you have to cross going into the campground. That was not
an issue. However the campground road was littered with huge potholes
and was very bumpy. We found a nice campsite but since it was so
windy we were eating dust while setting up. We needed to fill one of
our propane tanks and drove back to Grants to get it filled. While
there we went to a restaurant for supper and stopped at Walmart to use
the WI-FI. It was a pretty stressful day so we went back to the
camper and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Saturday
– More awesome geography today! We started the day by driving back
to El Morro National Monument. This park features over 2,000
signatures carved into a sandstone bluff dating back to Pueblo times.
It is also the site of an ancient ruin on top of the bluff. We took
the 2 mile Headland Trail which included the Inscription Trail at the
base of the bluff. We proceeded up the Headland Trail and climbed the
250 feet to the top of the bluff. It was very neat walking on the
rocks on top of the of the bluff. At least I thought so....I don't
think Dennis was a thrilled as he does not like heights.
El Morro National Monument
We
left El Morro and headed east and stopped at El Calderon trail head part of the El Malpais National Monument.
This 4 mile hiking trail takes you past lave tube entrances,
collapsed lava tubes, a bat cave, a lava trench, around a cinder
cone, across a lava flow and on a portion of the continental divide
trail. We did the whole loop but were pretty tuckered out by the time
we were done. We drove back to Grants, stopped at Walmart to upload
the 50 photo I took. We headed back to Hwy 117 and stopped at the
Sandstone Bluffs Overlook and visited the La Ventana Natural Arch,
one of New Mexico's largest natural arches. Whew! We would have liked
to go check out the Lava Falls area but we were beat. Time to go back
to the camper for a shower, supper and some REST!
El Malpais National Monument
El Calderon trail
Sandstone Bluff
La Ventana Natural Arch
Sunday
– Right before we went to bed Saturday night, Dennis looked at the weather and saw
they were predicting high winds later in the evening. We went to bed
but about 15 minutes later he asked if I wanted to leave and get off
the bluff we were on. I was a little concerned about being up there
as well so we hooked up and headed down the road about 30 miles to
Sky City Casino. We parked in an empty lot next to the Casino
overnight then moved to the Sky City Casino RV Park in the morning. After our
busy day yesterday we spent the Sunday resting at the camper.
Where
we are parked: Crystal Forest Museum and Gifts Shop - Holbrook, AZ – No hookups –
picnic shelters – no toilet facilities. Nice place to stop for a
few nights while visiting the National Park. Free.
Where
we are parked: Joe Skeen BLM Campground - Grants, NM – 10 sites – No hookups –
picnic shelters – pit toilets. There is a large drainage ditch
going into the campground. We made it with our 36' fifth wheel. The
road into and through the park is very rough with lots of pot holes.
There were only a few sites big enough for our rig.
Where
we are parked: Sky City Casino RV Park – Acoma Pueblo,NM – site 17 - 42 full
hookup sites. Nothing special but nice place to stop with reasonable
rates right off of I-40. Regular daily rates: $15-$22.
