Welcome to the 2022 Supercamp Blog. It has two blog posts one named Campground and the other adventures. It has been a wonderful year so far and the chance to visit with all of you. Camping is always fun with the group and with the help of some of you, here are a lot of pictures from our fun time!! Please note that I had lots of photos, I just picked out the best I could, no offense meant if I did not use all that you sent me.

What is the fashion statement with rigs this year, Well the Woodinville Gang got out of a tent and into a new Trailer, and Chrissy renting this year.

Sometimes Even Supercamp can be a dangerous place and Accidents can happen, like chairs not holding their weight or toys getting stuck in trees.

Morning time is filled with breakfast items like Pancakes and bacon, we missed the Bisquit’s and gravy this year but did not miss out on Kim’s Bloody Mary’s

Or Taco Tuesday at the casino just up the street, we just went for gas and then one thing led to another, and we were in the casino, and then we got hungry and hey, 7.77 for 3 street tacos and a margarita, I should just say yummy

Now we would not stay in the same sites next year as it was right next to the playground, but it worked good for our kids, and they made good use of the area

Sometimes we had parents guarding the kids at the playground, well maybe more like watching and talking about important stuff

Lots of down time and relaxing for everyone while in camp, the kids spent tons of time at the playground but also kept themselves busy just running around in the field.

And as always, each family did a great job with dinners. I did not take any food pictures, but we all enjoyed eating .

Thanks everyone for your pictures, Thanks to Caprice for tons of People shots at camp 🙂

Sometimes Supercamp can be exhausting, and you just need to take a nap!!

2022 Flew buy as camp always does and I hope everyone enjoyed their time. I know we did 🙂

Fun times at the Trees of Mystery. It rained some on our drive there but nothing as we explored 🙂

Most of the crew took the gondola ride to the top, every time we have gone it has been foggy, but the ride is still fun.

And some Beach time Pictures next !!

Not really how you bury a body 😉

And don’t forget the Redwood trail hike, the kids could not stop climbing and tons of mosquitos

Adventures are always fun, sometimes it is just sitting around the lake and enjoying the time together and other times we just can’t get the rains to fill those lakes up 🙁 This just leads to other adventures, and everyone still had smiles on their faces, so it was another good time by all!

Well, we made it Out of Yellowstone in time to miss all the Weather and flooding and so glad we got to go when we did. We spent a short week in Caldwell and took care of some Bearing Maintenance on the house 🙂 and stocking up before we headed West to Bothell where we stayed at a nice resort right in the middle of it all, but you still felt like you were camping in the woods.

We had our doctor appointments for our checkups and hung out with the Washington Family. A good visit and a chance to get Caught up. We made time to check out the local Baseball club, part of the Mariners, Love the small close in feeling of a local park. Too bad they lost 🙁

We spent Some time with the Family not doing stuff as well and it was a great visit and a chance to get caught up with the grandkids as well. We also had time to visit Tulalip Casino, very beautiful and large gaming area, and the best was being 100% smoke free. We only paid our dues and did not come out big winners 🙁 still working on that “family Ranch” idea but no luck today!

We then made our way to Champoeg State Park in Oregon for our next stop and visit with The Meese’s. We hit the Japanese gardens one day and the balloon festival the next, both days had beautiful weather and a fun relaxing time. Zoey had friends both days. Here is a blast of pictures from both events.

We got lots of Great weather the rest of the time in the area and the park is beautiful. Like a Dumb ass I forgot to get us a full hook up, so we had to dump part way thru the stay, My bad! The other issue was no Internet, in some ways that was nice, But I keep a close eye on bills, upcoming camp site reservations and research as needed for things, not having Cell service made it hard to keep in touch with the family and changing plans. It was cool to have an actual fire while we were there though.

It’s not hanging out in the PDX area unless you head to Barnes and Noble with Caprice! Jeff and Zoey came along, and we also had lunch after the shopping trip

We had a chance to get in a very nice bike ride and ran into Caprice, Jeff and Zoey before our departure to the next stop.

After being out of touch and so much piling up on my plate we rescheduled and early departure and entry into our next park. Time to head over and see The Dorning’s for 4th of July

We made our way south for Eugene RV resort, in Coburg, and got set up. Then I had the chance to get caught up with all my internet needs…woo-hoo. We are parked here and just heading over to Redmond with the Car and a visit with The Dorning family for 4th of July Weekend. I have come full circle and not worked a Holiday weekend for 1 year now 🙂 The drive over was easy, and we made our first stop in Bend to visit with one of my Store Manager friends, Nice to Catch up. WE then headed back to the family in Redmond. We got the official tour of their house as I had never seen it yet, very nice choices and great work in the back yard by Brian. We spent 2 nights at Eagle Crest and that will be a 1 and done for us. Nice grounds but Hotel was not so great. The next morning, we headed over to hang with the kids again, did a nice walk and playground visit, Dawne saw no age limit, so she had to climb up on this!

It was the 4th of July so we visited, Brian Cooked and BBQ’d, and we hung out for the day. Brian also got to Visit; we did not make him cook all day lol

We finished off the visit with Fireworks, Hard to catch with Kids running around and sparks everywhere but here are the best shots. It was a great two days with our Redmond family and a very nice fireworks show!

Heading back over the hill was another easy trip getting home and sleeping in our own bed again! We had a visit with Dad and Kathy on Saturday, and it was so good to get caught up. Dad is doing so much better and that makes us happy. Kathy Is getting ready for a cruise in September so we will get more visit time with both of them when we return to Rice hill Sept. 1st, and then keep an eye on dad while she is gone! he is still a troublemaker LOL. We forgot to get pictures while we visited so Dawne had to go back and get my glasses, Kathy was off visiting her son so we missed getting here in the picture but here is a great selfie of Dawne and Dad 🙂 We will get all of us on our trip to them in Sept.

It’s time for us to head off to Seven Feathers for our next stop. We have our Skin Care checkup; Xena has a vet visit and we will be getting reorganized in the house. Need to drop off some things at Chrissy’s and pick up some stuff. WE will also Visit with Chrissy and Alex and see some of our old work friends.

We also took the time to head over to Crater Lake for a quick day trip. Been a long time since we visited there and wanted to see it again. The Weather was Beautiful!!

So, it is time to close out this Blog and get Ready for SUPERCAMP !!

See most of you soon, Love to all 🙂

Heading back to Yellowstone and staying in the West side this time. Right next to the IMAX and Grizzly / Wolf Discovery center. About a 6 hour drive from Mountain home, I always try to keep the drives to 5 hours or so, but sometimes you just have to make the miles happen to get to your next destination. The next stop is heading back to Boise and a 6 hour + drive so that will be a longer day. Lucky the rest of our West coast trip will be shorter drives 🙂 Now on to Yellowstone and our visit.

Our first stop since we only had a few hours left in our day was to go visit the wolves, Everyone knows Dawne’s spirt animal 🙂

The weather was not the best for early June, you never can tell up here. Still snow in lots of the park, roads are all cleared, but like at Canyon Village they still had snow piled up in the parking lot and walkways. The weather was overcast on our first day and that never makes for good pictures in my mind but it was not raining so we can go with that. We visited the old faithful area and as always on the way in saw some Bison, they only slowed us down a bit.

I will say even though the day was not the most picture filled we did have a major event, Dawne saw a Wild wolf on the side of the road, at first we thought it was a fox but nope ! She was so excited at looking at it we forgot to get a picture, So I guess it never happened !! LOL

On the way out of the park we got passed the Bison but traffic coming into the park was not so lucky, we think they must have been backed up 6 or more miles with our road hogging friends.

On our 2nd day the weather was on our side for the morning so it was off to West Thumb/Yellowstone lake, it’s only 80 min drive and we needed to get there before the clouds rolled in. On sunny days West Thumb is a great place to visit ! Well the Bison had other plans for us and it took 2 1/2 hours to get there. Lucky for us the sun was still amazing and we got some great pictures. a very beautiful day for sure.

I also have to say that in all our adventures over this last year, From Glacier NP to Alaska, Dawne has thought all the wildlife had died as we saw none ! Well Yellowstone has them all and she is happy again 🙂 but now we have to find a wild bear 😉

West Thumb was fantastic, too many pictures to put on the blog but here is a taste of the day. Dawne took all of the following, well I took the selfie 🙂

I took a picture of the same spot many years ago, the colors were different so it shows you mother nature is always changing. Still a great shot. I used my wide angle lens for the pic below

After the lake we drove up to towards Canyon village, and drove the southern view road to check out “the Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone. After that we headed into the Village and looked around a bit and then headed home.

Friday we Stayed home and waited for the Xena to get better, she had stomach issues again and you don’t want to keep her locked up in the house, or return to a mess if you do. So we relaxed, then checked out downtown when we thought the Xena could handle herself for a bit.

Saturday we got up early and headed back into the park, again trying to beat the weather as it was expected to rain later in the day. Today was north Yellowstone starting out in Mammoth Hot springs area, And today Xena came with us, she was very excited 🙂

We did the upper spring drive and a few shots from lower springs. We did not hike much today as my knee is acting up as well as we had Xena with us and no dogs are allowed on the trails and boardwalks

After visiting the Mammoth area, we headed towards Tower junction so we could take the road out to Lamar valley. Sometimes you are lucky and see lots of wildlife. First was a jack rabbit, then Bison and some Elk and more Bison and the some Antelop. So, all in all a productive animal drive in the valley.

It was time to head towards home, still looking for our bear to top off the list. Well as we passed through an area that would be more bear like, there was traffic stopped by the road with a full pull off area as well. Everyone was checking out 2 bear Cubs that we did not see till it was too late, so we turned around and headed back for our pictures 🙂 one was a lazy bear just hanging out by a tree just right in the parking area, another was just down a hill digging around for food. We did not see mom anywhere around.

We finished our way home, going up and over the pass south of Lamar Valley and snow covered mountains, as well as rain moving in.

Sunday weather was not with us as rain was in the forecast and it was overcast so we took another day to relax, we are retired so why not ! 🙂

Monday, we headed back into the park for our final visit, just a quick short trip for some pictures before the clouds and afternoon rain roll in, oh and the wind, we hate wind 🙂 No Bison Road blocks today but it was still to overcast and chilly for our first stop to get anything good on film. We headed back into the old faithful area and the clouds started to give way to sun and a bit warmer. we stopped at Biscuit Bason at the right time and got a few shots from the boardwalks. The Steam and wind made it hard for super clear pictures today but here is the best of them 🙂

On the way back out of the park we had to slow down at one point for more Bison. Dawne did get a another baby pic, Her mom was just off shot by the river.

We made it back before the wind really picked up and are expecting more thunderstorms tonight. We are going to make use of the IMAX that we are behind, By the way every night you can hear the booms from the movie playing inside and go see Top Gun 2. Tomorrow it is our final day here and we plan on getting the House ready to roll, clean up the car and most likely hit the wolf center again. I still have not got the shot I want so we will see if I can make that happen.

Good Morning Tuesday, I headed off to gas up the truck, I am glad we took out that small loan at the Bank for Gas ! These prices are killing the checking account ! We Then headed to the Grizzly / Wolf discovery center again for our last visit to Dawne’s Wolfs 🙂 here are the pictures from the visit

As we get ready to head back west and towards Boise for a few days and then on to our west coast tour it is time to say goodby to Yellowstone. I really love this area as there is so much to see, a little something for everyone. I am not sure we will make it back here again, now that could change if someone wanted a tour guide and invited us to go with them 🙂 WE also saw so many animals this trip and even though it’s not on film the wild wolf was a first and very special !

Our quick stop in Boise/Caldwell was also for our yearly Maintenance on the rolling home, Time to repack the bearings and get a coat of wax put on. Lucky, we did not skip the repack as we had one blowen seal and they also replaced 3 bearings. Always better safe than sorry and we are glad we always play it safe. The people doing the wax come right to our site and did a fantastic job of the whole rig, she looks beautiful and now I can follow up with my cleaner/wax for the rest of this year

We are so pissed at the current Gas prices, since it is killing our budget. current Diesel price here is 5.75. I know elsewhere it is less, and sure it is even more in California. That being said we are still looking forward to seeing everyone on our West coast swing and on to Supercamp 22. We are having a blast even with these prices, We cant do much about them so on we go.

This Blog is for those fans of Disneyworld and Universal Orlando, I am leaving politics out of the blog. It has maybe too many pictures of us and not enough of nature and cool things, you will have to go look at Utah blog for that 🙂 In any case just a heads up since this time it’s more of a vacation blog and less about exploring. Thinking about that makes me think I should do a Vacation Blog to help others, I have lots of advice on this trip that is not included here ! So here we go, I hope you enjoy.

First off, I was not aware, but you need to “get your nails did, and pick your color” There you go Kim V.

Second off you have to get there, and Alaska miles always come in handy so lets fly with them and save tons of money 🙂 they have always got us there so stick with what works.

I forgot how long the flight is and was uncomfortable most of the way, but we had a tail wind so that cut down on some of the time, and thank goodness we got the Extra leg room seats. Not as good as 1st class but we do notice the difference. Arriving at Orlando, and luggage pick up all went well. Rental car is on the app so we just headed to the garage and picked our car. Getting to Disney was easy, Well there is a toll road but we figured that out. Check into the room was easy as it was on the app. and room key loaded into our Magic bands, the issue was finding the building ! our first night was at Pop Century and we have never stayed here before, the reason is it is a very large resort, lots of rooms and parking is a long walk to your room, once you find it LOL But the resort is fun, nice beds, and clean rooms. Just way too many people, and the pool was packed with screaming kids.

Its a cool looking resort and lots of fun stuff for kids to see. We stayed in the 70’s area just for the one night. We also checked out the Art of Animation right across the river. It’s a newer resort, pool is cool but again packed with tons of people. And not what Walt would have built for sure.

The next morning we packed the luggage back down to the car and headed over to Animal Kingdom for a 1/2 day. WE had a lightning lane ticket for Avatar Flight of passage for 1 pm so we did Kilimanjaro Safaris first then on to Flight. Flight was alot of fun and very cool but both of us got a bit queasy on it, so we will not be doing that again! We rode a few more rides and looked around some and Then got lunch at RainForest Cafe, the table wait was long so we got two seats at the bar, then left when we got the text that our room was ready.

The room key will be on the magic band so you can go straight to the room, Very cool! I requested the building we wanted as well as a top floor room, well at least we got the building but is was ground floor. Oh well. The resort has been remodeled and the rooms are in great shape, WE love this layed back resort and felt at home right away. Right after getting our luggage into the room we had to go and get our normal toast drink to be at the resort and at Disneyworld. A toast we have also done with Mom when she went with us.

We did not stay upstairs but this is still a nice shot of the building at our resort 🙂 It seemed early to us but we lost two hours, from Boise time, and had to get up early the next day for our first full day at Hollywood Studio’s.

6:45 alarm comes early so I can get on the app and reserve a spot for Star Wars rise of the resistance, One of the hardest rides to get a lighting lane reservation, or choose to wait 60-120 min in line for it. I was Successful as well as getting The Mickey’s run away train ride. We got ready and headed to the park, A bit later than planned but we still beat most of the crowds. Mickey’s was a new ride since our last visit and was lots of fun, We headed over to Rise after that ride, well It was broke down so we headed toward main street and then i looked on the app and it was back up and running, back over to Rise for our Lightning lane ticket and on we went. This ride is just one of the best out there, It did break down twice while were were on it, once while being guarded and once on the ride. It still was fantastic and we both knew without the delays it would be very immersive.

The ride is free floating, no tracks, and just has the ability to do so much. When the program does not shut down..lol. The rest of Star Wars land is very cool and worth a walk around. We did some more rides and looked around a lot. We also had lunch at 50’s Prime time Cafe. It was lots of fun and food was good.

The next morning I got up before 7 am again and reservered 7 Dawrf’s mine train, One of our favorites at Magic Kingdom. It was scheduled for like 10:15 am so we waited over at Adventure land to check out the new Jungle Cruise ride (redone since the movie release). We were at the front of the line when the rope dropped so were on the first boat out for the day.

The ride was mostly like I remember although the skipper had better lines, mostly like in the movie, When we got off the line was already at 60 Min. wait. Now I would not wait an hour for it for sure, but glad we did it. Next we headed to Pirates, Another Favorite

We also hit Haunted Mansion on our way to 7 Dwarfs. The park was getting very busy at this point so After 7 Dwarfs we spent the rest of the time checking things out and fighting the herds of people.

Saturday it was time to head for Epcot. I got Test track reservations and we did Soaring right when the park opened, then headed over to Spaceship Earth, the ride in the big ball. Well right at the top it broke down, so we waited, and waited…after about 5 min. they said a cast member would be along to help us exit the ride, that’s right and we were on the highest point of the ride. For those who have never been, it is inside the ball so you can’t see down. and for the first time in our Disneyworld experience we had to be walked off a ride, I tried to leave my DNA on everything I could touch as we walked down off the ride 🙂

After the long walk down out of the ball we headed for test track and as always, lots of fun.

We headed back to the room to rest and change so we could return for our dinner and show reservations. We ate at Rose and Crown dining room as part of our show package. We Both had the Scotch Egg Appetizer, and of course I had Fish and chips, Some of the best I have had in a long time and Dawne Joined in. After that we headed over to the 1/2 hour concert with Blood Sweat and Tears. All in all a fun day.

This was the day before Mothers day so as we entered the park we took a picture WITH the picture from 2015 When we also took almost the same picture with MOM. She did love the Flower and Garden show. Thinking of her during this trip.

On Mothers day we thought we would give our feet a rest and relax for the day, with plans to go to Disney springs for dinner. Must have been lots of issues in Disney Springs since our last visit ? so many cop cars and getting in you must go thru Airport like security

When we got to Rain Forest Cafe, in Disney Springs this time, it was a 2.5 hour wait….are you kidding me ?? So we hopped over to the Their Dock side bar and got right in. They also have these cool “boat cars” you can pay to go in. Kinda cool, but we did not do it 🙂

Monday we took another day off from the parks at hung out around the resort. Pool time is always fun and not as crowded as the parks 🙂

Tuesday it was time to head back to Animal Kingdom for our final day at this park. We used our lightning lane pass to book the safari ride and we are glad we did. We just missed the bus to AK so we had to wait about 20 min for the next one. It was very full but we made it on. Notes to self again, early is better, we finally made it to the park and headed to our first ride, mostly a walk right on it ! When we came out the line was very long for standby. 60 min wait, crazy. Headed to the Lion King show, bird show and then on to Everest with our next lightning lane pass, another walk onto the ride. Nice to not be waiting in line all day for 1 ride. After that we saw the Kite tale’s show. At that point we had done all the rides and shows we wanted for the park and it was time to say so long to AK. Still a fun park in our eyes. 

Wednesday we headed over to Epcot for our final day and hit a few rides. This was later in the morning since our main goal was to return to HS but you must check into your reserved park and then hop after 2 pm. We also checked out the American adventure. The show talks a lot about hard work and having imagination and that is what made the country what it is today, as the show ended, I wanted to shout out “so go get a job” but did not. We explored the country’s as we headed back towards the exit and made our way to HS. Once there we did toy story mania and then headed over to our pass for Rise of the Resistance. This time the ride ran smooth and had no issues. Still one of the best Disney rides in our mind. Man was it busy today, again…May now sucks for crowds 

So Thursday was our last day at Disneyworld, we started our last day at Magic Kingdom at 8 am with our pass to 7 Dwarfs mine train and flight of peter pan in hand, or on the magic bands to be correct. After the Mine Train we had time to head over to Splash Mountain. A 45 min wait really was only about 1/2 an hour so not bad, and only got a little wet. ;-). We had to stop in and see the Tiki room, another of mom’s favorites. We caught most of the noon time Prade. Another busy as day as Disney continues to rake in the cash. We are park hopping over to Epcot for the last few lands we need to visit as well as have dinner at the 9 Dragons restaurant. We remember going with mom in 2015 and enjoyed the food. This will be our last Disney Park as tomorrow we head to Universal Studios for our last 4 days in Orlando. We expect it to be just as busy, lucky we have their Express pass so should be able to avoid long waits.  

Well, its check out day at Disney and making our way to Universal Loews Royal Pacific for the next 4 days of fun, 3 of them in the parks. Checkout at Disney is 11 am, check in time at Universal is 4 pm. We still checked in and left our luggage then headed to CityWalk to look around and grab some lunch. While there they texted us that the room was ready. Not really what I expected when we got there. Water view to me meant a view of the river, to them it was of their front pond. In any case we got to the room and Dawne noticed a bad Odor and it was coming from the shower drain, called room maintenance and they came and poured some Clorox down the drain, we will see if that helps. Then the fridge was not working, called maintenance again ,they brought another fridge…not starting out so good Universal 🙁 The pool area is nice, and overall, the resort has very friendly people. Its not spotless for sure. Are we Americans getting use to less service and conditions at a higher price, with Covid and can’t find anyone who wants to work as the new normal. It seems less busy here. We will see how the parks are tomorrow.

Today we headed into Islands of Adventure and over to Hagrids motorcycle ride. They do not offer the express pass so you have to wait in line, even with early entry it took 2 hours to get to the ride, it was a blast, not sure it was worth a 2 hour wait but it was a fun ride for sure a must if your are in Islands of Adventure. Then we headed over to Kong skull island. This you could use the express pass for, but were told at was still a 40 min wait. We decided to go for it, then while in there the line stooped moving as they were adding more cars to the ride. All in all about an hour in line for this one. It was bad ass for sure. We headed over to take the Harry potter express train over to Universal and used Express pass. This did make for a quicker line. We also had luck at Men in black using express pass, but had to wait for 15 min or more to catch the train back to islands. We also did not have much luck with Jurassic River journey. Although not as long as standby we still had to wait for about 20 min to get on our ride. We spent so much time waiting in line it was now 3 pm and time to give our feet a rest by heading back to our room. This was a negative day for Universal again. After almost walking on to our Lighting Lane rides at Disney, having to wait for Express lines, and paying extra for them, we were not happy with their program.

Today was time to explore Universal Studios. We got there early and waited for park opening at 9 am, now we did not run, since we cant, and headed for Harry Potter and “Escape from gringrot bank” ride. Not first on but only about a 5 min wait. We really could not remember it from 7 years ago and it was a blast to ride it again, if course we had to do Minions ride as well, we also caught 3 shows, relaxed with a coffee, and some Butter beer as well as ate lunch. Our express pass was only so so today and again i would question its worth. If you get up early and have a great plan you can skip it. Its our last day and it was a fun one to end our vacation. In the evening we had a large thunderstorm come through that was quite active for about 1/2 an hour. Glad we were indoors. 

WE skipped the last day at Universal as we did all we wanted to do and we were tired of fighting all the massive crowds. So we slept in a bit and packed our bags to go. We headed to our final night at our hotel near the airport and dropped off our bags then went to return our rental car and take our shuttle back to the hotel. The next morning was a 4 am alarm so we could make our shuttle to the airport for a 7:15am take off. Everything went off without a hitch all the way to Boise.

It was a fun trip and we had good weather the whole time, But vacations have to end and we are back home taking care of daily chores and not fighting people everywhere we go 🙂

Star Wars fans will get this next picture and caption

It’s west coast tour time so see you all Soon, Love to all.

Arches uses a timed entry ticket system that you have to buy for $2, in advance as they sell out. I got ours on opening day of ticket sales for our time frame. Our first day was to enter at 2 pm. Originally it would have been our first day in Moab, but I adjusted our travels to add a day in the area as there was just too much to see. So 2 pm it is 🙂

We started in the visitor center to get maps and check out the displays. We had a plan of only going in part way today as we are back in the park for 3 more days after this and with the late start why push it. So, with that here are some pictures of our first part day and descriptions below them.

It was amazing to drive into the park and all you could see around you. It was a Saturday so lots of tourists, like us, but we managed to get parking in the few spots we stopped at. It was a nice taste of the park, and we only went in a about 2 miles from the entry.

I had our timed entries spaced out so the next day it was off to Canyonlands on a Sunday, you can read about that in the other post. On our 2nd day in I got up early and headed into the park, once you go in you can leave and come back so I wanted to see about some sunrise pictures, but nothing was really great, here are a few shots I got since I was out anyway.

This area was very cool, and it was a must return with Dawne as there were more arches in the area. We saved that for day 3 as Day 2 plans were set to go all the way into devil’s garden, the farthest point in the park. This area was surrounded by the same cliffs found all around the park with a few short hikes. One to Tunnel Arch and the other to Pine tree Arch. The Devil’s Garden loop has 6 more arches on it but the whole loop is 7.8 miles, and we were not up to the challenge 😉

It was a fun area, and we had a quick lunch and then started to head back towards the park entry. Along the way we stopped at a few more arches and also took a picture of the most famous Arch in the Park “Delicate Arch”. The Hike to it is listed as Difficult and 3 miles. From the view point you can see everyone up there. AS much as we wanted to tackle it, and I have always wanted a picture of being up there, it was not in the cards today, so we took the picture from the Viewpoint and saved the legs for other things.

We Headed home for here and got ready for our Night Boat tour in the Canyons on the Colorado River. It included buffet dinner and then a cruise up stream telling us the history and point out “faces and animals” on the rock formations. Once it got dark, they start the light show and more history as you float back down stream. It’s not a Lazer show, they just light up the side of the mountain as you travel. It still gave you a different view of the area and was kinda cool. The truck that lights up the cliffs drives on the road next to the river and it was funny as at one point it went by a campground on the river and lit up the whole camp as he went, I guess you get a nightly show every night for about 5 min., hope you’re not sleeping 🙂

Day 3 in the park left us only 1 more area to explore but lots of pictures and 4 Arches to see. IT was a bit overcast but at picture time the sky’s lifted a bit and we got some nice shots. So here we are in the Windows area of the park. Comments below the pictures.

We had a great time at the park, Another Beautiful NP in Utah

We are undecided on our favorite for Utah NP’s They all have something to offer and are beautiful. They all have easy drives to see things and hikes for the more adventurous people. Canyonlands, and Capital Reef have many long vistas and valleys, and both are easy to get around in. Zion is a smaller park but if you explore all of it and not just the narrows it has lots to offer, the thing about it is no cars in the main part of the park, bus service only and Masks required still (when we were there). I like having the car for our stuff and camera gear. Bryce Canyon was Beautiful, lots of overlooks and opportunities to hike. It is at 9000 feet so colder. Arches is vast, beautiful, roadside pictures and hikes a plenty. WE hate the Arches timed entry and advanced tickets for that. it did not seem to control traffic and we waited for about 1/2 hour each day just to get to the pay booth, it was fun to watch cars without a pass be turned around. Failing to plan is planning to fail 🙂 The town of Moab is too small for the traffic, and it is by far the busiest of all the areas and parks. Small Crowds in Capital Reef, and Bryce Canyon, very busy in Zion and Arches. Arches really is very crazy and busy.

If we only had one park to choose to come back to? Well, if we were in better hiking shape it would have to be Arches or Bryce Canyon. If you only want to see Sights and mostly stick to viewpoints and smaller hikes, Arches Wins. Not to be missed !!

We are heading back to Mountain Home Idaho to regroup and get ready for Yellowstone. Have to have a broken Bathroom window replaced and have Les Schwab check/repack the wheel Barring’s. We will be off to Disneyworld, Flying, and then when we return, we will head out to Yellowstone for a week, after that we start our west coast tour 🙂

Utah was fantastic and now off the Bucket list. Thanks to Biden it cost us twice as much in gas to do this trip, but we had safe travels and sure enjoyed all we got to see.

WE love what we are doing and our time together, Miss everyone and looking forward to June and July when we get to visit with all of you 🙂 On to our next adventure 🙂

I am going to work on both Blogs at the same time since they are both close to where we are staying in Moab. This will post first since we will finish it before Arches is done.

It was quite an adventure getting here. We got hooked up in Torrey just in time, as we were leaving it started to rain, it rained about 1/2 an hour and then it was just off and on for the rest of this trip. The roads were rough most of the way, and windy. Once we hit I70 the winds started up really bad and had a side wind that liked to push the trailer, I was not too worried about tipping over but there were a few gusts that made me really feel that mother nature was blowing. Once we Got to Moab and started to check in and get settled, it was raining lightly, but hey we use to camp in bad weather all the time so on I went setting up. It started to rain harder right near the end of my outside set up and was putting up the last thing and the wind came up and pushed all the water off the slide topper, that’s right all over me. lol.

Outside done I changed out of the wet cloths, and we headed into town to check out the local City Market (Kroger) store. As we came out of that store it started to Thunder and, on the way, back to the house it started to hail, and then snow hail. Well then after about 20 min the sun was out again, and it was beautiful. So, a very interesting day for sure. Now let’s visit Canyonlands.

It was an overcast day for us but not very cold. It’s about a 40 Min drive from our camp and mostly beautiful the whole way. We had to wait in line for about 30 min. to get into the park. It was a Sunday, so we expected it to be somewhat busy. We visited the Island in the sky section of the park, it is what most people go to and see. We headed all the way into the parks end for the viewpoint to start with, again the vastness of it is hard to capture on film but was another amazing site to see.

We did some small hiking just around the look out and Dawne put her life at risk again, well if an earthquake happened or something along those lines.

Here are a few more pictures as we headed back towards the visitor center. If you are not Off roading or hiking This is an easy day trip. If you have 4 wheel drive you can make it out to Gooseneck overlook, since we only have the SUV we could not make that trip, it has a beautiful view of the Colorado river.

Since I could not get out to Gooseneck, we decided to go check out Dead Horse point State Park, just a short side trip from our way back to Moab. Like Most state parks it cost money to get into, but we thought it would be worth the look. We might just say it was the most beautiful State Park we have seen. Very open spaces, each site had its own Canopy, and the views were amazing. Towards the end point they had beautiful Picnic areas all kind of private and lots of them. In Oregon they just throw a bunch of tables out in a large grass area and call it good. Very impressive for sure. Enough of the Utah state park review back to our fun.

At the End is Dead Horse Point overlook, again it was even more cloudy when we got there but I took some shots anyway. Captions below the pics 😉

That is the Colorado River. As far Canyonlands and Dead horse SP are concerned, they are both beautiful parks in a beautiful area. both seem to feature “LOTS” of off roading, so with that in mind a Day trip can get you to both with ease.

Here is a picture back at Canyonlands of two guys riding the off road trails

We loved the area and will be glad to advise when any of you get ready for a visit. We would also come back to visit with anyone.

While we were camping in Moab these people stole our ideas and think they are Supercampers ….. lol. They have 1 site set up as Kitchen camp. Everyone meets for breakfast and dinner.

Till Next time, Love to all

We are staying in Wonderland RV Park in Torrey UT. It was about a 4-hour easy drive from Leeds. I try to keep the trips about 4 hours or so. Pulling the house around much longer than that gets, well boring! WE have a long haul after Moab on our way back to Mountain home that is 6 hours. Sometimes there is just no good option between points. But that is still after the last two NP in Utah let’s get to the business of Capital Reef 🙂

We spent our first day in the park on the Scenic drive taking you 2.5 miles into the park. From there it is another 2.4 miles via Gravel Road, no problem for the CRV. So here are some pictures from the drive in.

After the paved road ends you drive on gravel thru the Narrows of this park. Very cool drive as you pass right by steep cliffs. Let’s just say if part of the cliff fell off and hit you, you wouldn’t know it ;-). when you get to the end there is a small hike you can do called the Capital Gorge Trail. It is in the riverbed, dry during this time of year, and at .8 of a mile in you can hike UP, .2 miles, to the Tanks. These are naturally formed pools in the rocks. This time of year one was empty the other two I would not swim in as the water was stagnant. The trail was not well marked but we made it. I would say it was a not the best plan since by the time we were on our return trip we were burnt out. That being said we are alive and it was a good feeling to have done it. Here are a few pictures of our hike.

On our 3nd day here, we waited till the sun was more west so we could go take a few pictures. The Sky was not very blue today but i took some shots anyway, One is the lead off picture in this blog, I went to the parks end and had a nice spot for some more petroglyphs, just a short hike from the road and easy to do.

One the way back I hit another short hike to a great valley view and got a few more shots.

It’s our final day in the area so it’s clean-up day and get ready to move to on to Moab for the final 2 NP in Utah. We had a cider tour today right in town here, IT is slow, so we were the only ones there. interesting tour and tasting.

We will be on our way to Moab first thing in the morning and will try to beat the incoming rain, first we have seen in months 😉

See you all on the next Blog. Safe days and have fun. Love to all

We started this trip on Wednesday 4/6 with an early departure by car. We left the house parked as the roads into this area are a bit tougher to get to from where we are. The one lesson we learned is to check the weather report better going forward. It’s not that the weather was bad but for the last few months we have been in very nice spring weather and in Bryce it is still winter/early spring, so very cold still. We left 80-degree days and headed to 50-degree day and 32 at night. On the way over we drove to the summit road, almost 10,000 feet, and then back down into Bryce Canyon. and by the way, it’s not that much farther down !

We drove in and used Dawne’s Senior America the beautiful pass, this has already paid for itself with the parks we have already seen! We drove to the farthest point in the park for our first look at the park sights. It was so cold and felt like we were back in winter again.

We then worked our way back down and stopped at most of the lookouts. So many beautiful views, most hard to capture on camera as it is just so massive.

We had a nice visit at the visitor center and watched a movie on the park and how everything was formed. It was time to go check into our Cabin. This was about 5 min. outside the park, we are still trying new things and the cabins were nice enough but, right on the road, check-in time was 3 pm, no sooner! and check out the next morning was by 10 am or pay a late check out fee. It’s nice to support local businesses but they have so many rules, like don’t get any make up on the towels or they will charge you to replace them….Etc. the bed was nice and no real issues other than that. Still I think we will be returning to Hotels going forward.

The next morning, we decided to get up before sunrise and “checkout” and head to the park as it was suggested to see it at sunrise. We did not go to Sunrise point as we could see many cars heading that way, so drove past it and I thought let’s head to Bryce Amphitheater. It was the correct guess as we had about 6 other cars there with us and got some great shots. But man was it COLD say 24 degrees, and no winter stuff with us LOL

Bryce Canyon has the highest concentration of Hoodoo’s in the world. WE found it a great place to visit and are so happy that it was on our bucket list. Get this on your list for sure !!

I have taken so many sunset pictures, I think it is about time to get up and check out the sunrises! Let’s see if they are even better than Sunsets 🙂 The photo above just might prove they are!

After our morning pictures we headed back to St. George where our home was waiting and more trips to Zion. (see Zion Blog)

We moved the DRV up the road to Leeds RV park on April 10th, just a short 20 Min. drive. Its a nice older park with trees, and lots of full time people but friendly and quite. The next few days were chore days. Some work on trailer Maintenance, and hitting Costco and Smiths for Food. The next part of our Journey has only mom and pop stores so need to get stocked up.

And life goes on, even on the Road! I got a tooth that started bothering me, so I had to track down a dentist in the area and have that taken care of. So far it has been fine and no reason to move forward at this time. Xena had her stomach issue come up again, so we had to take her into the Vet and get more meds. Seems Great Danes, in part, are Nervous nellies and sometimes this throws their gut off. She is doing better today, and the Vet gave us backup meds for the next time it happens. And another lesson learned today, the post office sucks! it has been a week since Chrissy sent us our mail, to Leeds Utah General delivery. In the past this has been a 2- or 3-day venture. Must be Covid 😉 Not sure if this is a general Delivery thing or just the lack of help? Most of the parks we stay in you can get mail so this is our first General delivery attempt.

Our next stop is in Torrey Utah, just outside Capital Reef NP, our 3rd in the state. I will post that Blog after the visit. Till then Love to all

Our first stop for Utah was to visit Zion NP. We are here for about 14 nights in two parks. St. George Utah and Leeds. only about 15 min. apart. In hindsight I should have just kept us in St. George and called it good. There is lots to see in the St. George area so we will need the time. WE have about 5 days planned for Zion and 2 for Bryce Canyon. 6 nights planned for Capital Reef and 6 nights planned for Moab, ( Arch’s and Canyon lands) so with that said here we GO 🙂

Zion is, well big 🙂 Most people think of only the narrows as that is what they have seen so many pictures of. We started our trip off on the first day up at the northwest end of the park at Kolab Canyon. some of you might have seen a few of the pictures on FB. It has a few hikes but is mostly a scenic drive. It was worth the drive but not as cool as the rest of the park.

The 2nd day we headed to the main entrance early in the AM to beat the crowds and visited the visitor center as well as took the shuttle into a small hike called the lower pools. Just to get this off my chest, I am not a fan of the Shuttle system, I like to drive ourselves, have our stuff with us and come and go as we please. this park is one of those that the only way to see the park is via Shuttle. Also, the park systems just like the airlines still require masks. So really two things wrong here, Shuttle system and Masks. OK now back to the fun stuff. 🙂 The small hike took us to lower pools, and really it is a small version of the main falls at Silver falls State park in good old Oregon. No rain or snow melt so the falls were just trickling over the edge. The hike was still fun.

On the way back from this trip we had to stop at the Rock and Gem store, I should have taken some pictures, but I failed. They had some garden size Glass deco; we did not pick any up, But Dawne did buy some smaller Rocks and glass, so once we got home, I had to get rid of some of my cloths to make up for the extra weight of the rocks we now own. 🙂

The next two days we headed to Bryce Canyon, and you can read about that adventure in the Bryce Blog coming soon.

The 3rd day in Zion we got up early again to catch the Shuttle all the way up into the last stop and the River Walk, that leads into the Narrows. It was a great hike! now before you all get crazy and think we went all the way in, we did not. The place was crowed (Easter week) and after all it is only April. We think it would be fun in the summer, and with that would come even more crowds so not sure it will ever happen, oh to be 30 again 🙂

It was a great walk, and we took tons of pictures so here you go!

When we got back to the visitor center, the lines for the shuttle were something out of Disney Land. Proving again that getting up early is the way to go !

After our Hike into the Narrows area, we drive out the east side of the park so we could see the rest of the park area. It was very beautiful and made us realize so much more to Zion than just the Narrows area. It was super busy on the road, again Easter week, but we just drove and took our time enjoying the sights.

To get to the East side you go thru a Tunnel, Now Kim V. would love this Tunnel…..lol, It is 1 mile long and no way you can hold your breath thru it. It is a two way tunnel but they let traffic go one way at a time. It was very cool and even more so since it was done back in 1930. Amazing !

There are also two other short tunnels you go thru

Getting to the long tunnel was a very nice road with switch backs and advancement in elevation that I would not want to take a trailer on 😉 On the other side the park looks very different from the Narrows area. Again, we have seen so many different landscapes since leaving the PNW. We love this one as well !

We are still having a great time and I enjoy the mixture of taking care of life things and being on the road seeing all these great sights. I kept all the pictures bigger so you can see them better as well as try to take in the scope of things. The camera does a great job of taking pictures, but you cannot believe the size and scale of what your eye can see. Another amazing place you should put on your bucket list.

Till the Bryce Blog, stay safe and love to all.