After exploring Walnut Canyon and Wupatki National Monument from Bonita Campground north of Flagstaff, our next destination was Monument Valley, Utah/Arizona. We stayed at Goulding’s RV, within the Navajo Nation. As you will see, we are traveling with Bruce and Ann and their Airstream, and enjoying (not really) a really hot period. As we check the weather in San Luis Obispo, they’re having a lot of heat too. Anyway, Monument Valley is incredibly beautiful as you will see from the images. We took a tour, in the back of a truck, of the valley with a Navajo guide. A great way to find out the stories from this area.

We’re off again for the summer of 2018. This year it’s Bonito Campground, NFS, north of Flagstaff, Arizona; Monument Valley, Utah; Mesa Verde NP and Durango, Colorado; Ridgway and Ouray, Colorado; Curecanti National Recreation Area (near Gunnison, Colorado); Grand Junction, Colorado; and on to Rocky Mountain National Park – one of our favorites. Then, we head back west to Dinosaur NP, Strawberry Reservoir, and Jordanelle SP in Utah. A lot of beautiful places for a bit over a month. Then on to Oregon and Washington.

So, to begin, we drove to beautiful Needles, CA for a night, then on to Bonita NFS for a couple of nights.

Towards the end of February, we stocked up Ari and headed for Death Valley National Park to attend an Airstream Rally with about ten other rigs. Although the evening weather was chilly (winter you know) and windy, the days were beautiful.

We have been to Death Valley a couple of times before, but this was the first time we hiked the canyons, what an experience! The slot canyons were so interesting and beautiful! As you will see in the photos, the rock formations, color, and textures are hard to describe. Enjoy some of our images.

After Death Valley we headed west with Ann and Bruce to spend a couple of nights in Lone Pine, CA. The trip over to Highway 395 was beautiful, lots of hills and long vistas. When we arrived the wind was really strong and got worse through the evening. Then, it snowed in the night, winter at much higher elevation than Death Valley. The next day the wind continues and the snow reached the valley floor cut in gout our Alabama Hills hiking. Beautiful though.

Judy, Walt, & Ari at Death Valley

View from Boulder Creek Campground, Lone Pine, CA

Smith’s and Bremer’s Airstreams, Boulder Creek Campground

The rock in Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley NP

Side Canyon to Sidewinder Canyon

Trying to check out Lone Pine Campground NFS

Hiking in Mosaic Canyon

Sun on Artist’s Palette

Mosaics in Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley NP

Judy, Dave, Ann, and Bruce looking for Sidewinder Canyon

Marsi & Mike hiking in Mosaic Canyon

Snow on the Sierras from Lone Pine

Judy having lunch, Mosaic Canyon

Hiking to Sidewinder Canyon, Death Valley

Alabama Hills, CA

Judy & Ann in Sidewinder Canyon

Bruce, Walt, Judy, Diane, & Dave at the end of Sidewinder Canyon

Bruce, Mike & Walt in Mosaic Canyon

Trying to find Sidewinder Canyon

Smith’s and Bremer’s Airstream Fiddlers Campground, Death Valley NP

We camped at Pinnacles National Park, near King City, CA, in October with friends from the San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club. Each fall, Dale gathers a group of folks for camping and riding or hiking. This was the hiking year. The weather was warm, fall weather, with cool nights great for sleeping. The hiking was beautiful as you can see from the images.

Well, I had to get out in Ari and Jude agreed. Morro Bay State Park was full so we are at Avila Beach, beautiful, and we were one of only three people here when we came on Wednesday. Even though it’s only 10 miles from home, it’s an adventure.

Now to head home after three weeks of great traveling through beautiful landscapes, seeing new things and revisiting places from previous trips that always seem new. After reading Tony and Anne Hillerman books along the way, it’s seems appropriate to show images of Shiprock and it’s neighboring peaks in New Mexico!

Continuing along our route, our next stop is Chaco Culture National Monument in north-western New Mexico. We checked into our RV park in Bloomfield, New Mexico, packed our tents, food, campstoves, water (lots), and drove to the Chaco campground. The roads were gravel and the last 4 miles very rough dirt. We had rain while setting up camp and through dinner, but the weather cleared and we had a beautiful next day. We’re glad the trailers were safe in Bloomfield.

Chaco is a magical place, not what we expected. We thought it would be more like Bandelier. Check out the photos.

After leaving Taos, we drove a couple of hours up into Bandelier National Monument. The Monument is close to Los Alamos where Walt lived for a four years as a child. After setting up our camp in Bandelier, we drove to Los Alamos and visited the museums and the newly created Manhatton Project National Histirical Park, the first third located in Los Alamos. We had a nice thunder and lightening storm in Los Alamos but it didn’t make it to the campground. The clouds were beautiful over the trailers though! The next day we hiked down into the valley to visit the ruins of Bandelier National Monument. When we left Bandelier, we drove Highway 4 and went along the Jemez crater, check out the photo.

Continuing north we head for Taos, New Mexico, a magical place. I think there’s a reason why so many artists have been and still live there. We spent time in the old downtown, and hiked in the mountains and along the Rio Grande River. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm.

After all the white sand, we went north to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We explored to downtown Santa Fe, road our bikes to the downtown, hiked to Santa Cruz lake near Espanola, and had a wonderful dinner at Rancho de Chimayo, near there. Great sopapillas!