Got going around 8:00am this morning, have a lot of driving to do plus a quick stop at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Managed to finally make it back to Erie at about 1:15am Saturday morning. It was great to be home. It was a long day with the time change again. Drove through about 2 hours of rain near Topeka and another batch of heavy storms around Indianapolis, IN. Then it was pretty smooth sailing.
10490 miles is the final tally. Home Sweet Home! EST
All driving Wednesday from Farmington, NM to Colorado Springs, CO. We ran into 2 construction delays around Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado which slowed us down more than 2 hours. They are widening the road and cutting a tunnel into the mountain side. It was getting late so we decided to just have dinner and relax and then visit Pike's Peak tomorrow.
Got up early Thursday and drove to Pike's Peak. Got to the top and again a haze in the air kept us from really seeing what you really could from these heights. Not much plant life above 13,000ft either, just rocks and gravel. :) We did see one lone animal sitting on a wall at about 13,500ft and he looked out of breath too. We descended down the mountain and started heading towards home.
We drove to Topeka, Kansas, that took us till about 8pm with the time change. Ordered a pizza and retired for the night. 9519 miles, less than a 1000 to go and we hope to do it all on Friday. We will see, we will lose another hour along the way.
Talk to you all when we get home.
Monday we visited Arches NP. Hiked a primitive trail around arches called the North and South Windows. Arches are formed by freeze/thaw cycles, seepage and wind erosion. Later in the day we drove to Canyonlands NP via Potash Road. It is named this because there is a potash mine and factory on this road. We saw more Petroglyphs(old Indian writings) on the rock walls while traveling this road. The road started out paved and then turned into "Shafer Trail" which is a dirt road that leads into Canyonlands NP from the Colorado River up the canyon walls on switchbacks about 2000ft. When we arrived at the Island in the Sky visitor center and talked to the ranger we found out that Shafer Trail is an old uranium mining road. Drove to the viewpoints on this end of the park and saw the White Rim Road which was the trip we did want to take but we just did not have 3 days to do it. You can see in a couple of the pictures there is a white edge on the rim of the canyon below and if you look closely there is a dirt road down there this is why the road is named the "White Rim Road". Then it was back to the Moab, UT KOA for the night. Caught some pictures of a spectacular sunset while Marge and Steph were in the game room. 
Off for a bit of driving Tuesday morning to Natural Bridges NP. On the way we came across a turn off to see some old Indian Ruins. Natural Bridges NP was small and we got to see the 3 larger natural bridges. These are formed by the erosion of running water in contrast to the arches we saw yesterday. Both look similar but are formed by different types of erosion. This information was provided by Stephanie since she is reading the handouts we get from the parks. Then it was a drive through the Valley of the Gods, basically this was a drive through a valley passing by tall rock formations which seem to be just standing in the middle of nowhere. Then we stopped in at a viewpoint which allowed us to see the "Great Goosenecks" of the San Juan River. The San Juan river is a silt laden river like the Colorado which accounts for their ability to cut the deep canyons these rivers run through in places. Then a quick stop at Four Corners where Steph stood in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah all at once. 
Then we drove to our room in Farmington, NM to retire for the night, had a pizza delivered and got a good nights rest. 8590 miles and still counting. About 2000 to go, hope to be home by late Friday night. We have 3 stops left, Pikes Peak and another area near there called Devils Playground and then the Gateway Arch. Lots of driving in between. Talk to you all later.
Today we briefly visited Zion and Bryce. Because of time constraints we were unable to see all of Zion. They do not permit private vehicle traffic beyond the visitor center in the summer months. The only way to see the whole park is via a shuttle. We did manage to take in a 1 mile hike in an area before the "tunnel".
Then it was off to Bryce. We stopped at every overlook and took in the spectacular views. Then it was back to the room in Kanab, UT.
Checked out of our room in Kanab, did some exploration of the Escalante NP. Most of what we drove on were dirt roads in a valley. There were steep canyon walls with very unique erosion patterns. There were holes in a lot of the rock and sometimes they looked like giant sponges. We had quite a bit of driving to do so we moved on to Capital Reef. At Capital Reef we got to see old Indian writing on the walls of rock. We also saw some very colorful rock formations that were perfect for the day since it was the forth!
Then we drove to Moab, UT to a KOA campsite Got to see a July 4th fireworks display in Moab from our campsite. 8055 miles and still going, whew! Almost time for an oil change. VW recommends 10,000 mile intervals after the first 2 so we are still good to go! Talk to you all in a couple days.
Started out in Bullhead City, Arizona today. Drove about an hour and a half to Hoover Dam. We had our car quick searched because of the rooftop carrier in order to drive across the dam. Then we walked out onto the dam. The dam seems smaller than I expected. It is very tall but not very wide. Lake Mead appears to be 20 to 30 feet lower than its maximum heights, a sign of the continuing drought in this part of the country.
After our brief visit to the dam we drove to Las Vegas, and located a place to stay on the outskirts.
Drove to Death Valley and Visited Furnace Creek Visitor Center. Drove a 40 mile unpaved trail in the valley called West Side Highway and managed to puncture the right rear tire with a rock or something laying on the trail. It was only a slow leak and we were able to drive out and back to Vegas and repair the tire with a $5 repair kit from Autozone.
After all that we had dinner delivered to the room and then Marge and I walked to a casino across from our room and played for an hour while Steph watched TV in the room. 
Checked out and drove around in Vegas for about and hour, stopped at the M&M store and picked up a couple souvenirs. Then it was off to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
After about 5 hours driving we arrived at the Grand Canyon NP and went to the north rim area and what can we say, it is just amazing. Took some pictures from there and then looked over the map and located a viewing area called Sublime Point that was accessible by high clearance 4wd vehicles. It was an 18 mile drive. It was rough going in a couple spots but the view was worth every bump. Only passed 5 vehicles the entire way, 2 had turned back before making the trip. We arrived and it was so quiet and surreal, nothing but the light wind blowing through the trees. The sun was low in the western sky and was beautiful. Drove out having to make 3 attempts at one hill which had a lot of smooth rock and with the loose gravel and sand made it challenging to climb.
Retired to our room in Kanab, Utah. 7429 miles and counting. Off to Zion and Bryce tomorrow.
Left the Santa Cruz KOA, probably the worst stay we have had. Nothing specific but just the overall experience was bad. We headed to the Monterey Aquarium. This was a nice aquarium. There was a lot of focus on jelly fish. We have a bit of driving to do today so we took a quick drive of the "17 Mile" drive in Carmel, CA. It took us along the shore where there was some great scenery. It also drove through the Pebble Beach golf course and saw some very expensive waterfront homes.
Then we drove to Yosemite Pines RV Park and Campground about 20 miles west of Yosemite and stayed the night.
Yosemite has totally different scenery, most of the rocks and mountains are a light gray color and have a lot of smooth surfaces. Saw some more mountain climbers. Interesting to watch them scale the face of solid rock.
Then the long drive to Bullhead City, Arizona to Davis Camp and RV Resort. This place was recommended to us by Yosemite Pines. It ended up being a longer drive than expected but it was probably good we got those mile out of the way. Speaking of miles we are at 6531 and still going.
Talk to you all in a couple days. Will upload pictures when we have better access.
Did a lot of driving again today, made it to Highway 1 along the coast. Stopped near Trinidad and saw a lighthouse and walked down 200+ steps to a rocky beach. Did some careful exploring and managed to see sea lions sun bathing out on the rocks. Found anenomes and starfish on the rocks near the shore. Then we continued on down Highway 1 and drove through the "Avenue of the Giants" and saw huge, i mean huge, redwoods. We even took the time to squeeze our car through one. :).jpg)
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Finally we ended up in Petaluma, CA about 20 miles north of San Fransisco and spent the night at a KOA.
Started out by driving over the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Fransisco. Awesome city, so much going on and really easy to get around in. Visited Lombard Street, Pier 39, China Town and Golden Gate Bridge. We did a lot of walking around and a bit of shopping. 
Then we retired to a KOA in Santa Cruz. It will be off to Monterey and Carmel tomorrow. 5716 miles to date. Talk to you all later.
Started out visiting the area around Multnomah Falls. Started a 3 mile hike from the base Horsetail Falls, then behind the upper Horsetail Falls and then through the woods to Oneata Falls, then a bit further in the woods and back to the highway. Then we walked down the highway back to where the we had parked the car.
We visited the Multnomah Falls visitor center. This area was nice but heavily commercialized which took away from the natural beauty of the area.
Then we drove to Larch Mountain and walked up a couple hundred steps to Sherrard Point overlook. You are supposed to be able to see Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson. We could only see Mount Hood clearly and could only see the lower portion of Mount Adams because there were quite a bit of low clouds and haze blocking the others which were up to a 100 miles away. Even Mount Hood was 22 miles away in the picture below, Adams was 54 miles away.
Had another nice stay at the Grants Pass KOA in Oregon. Around 10:30 the grounds keeper came around and told us we were violating campground rule number 13. We inquired what that was, it is that we were not singing while having a campfire going. Hmmmmm no singing from me but Steph broke into a verse of the Star Spangled Banner to keep us in conformity with the rules. :)
Day 15 took us to Crater Lake, lots of snow here too. Marge and Steph took time to have a snowball fight and build our own snowman. Stunning blue water in this over 1000 foot deep lake. All of the water in this lake has come from rain and snow. There are 2 smaller volcanos in the huge volcano caldera that forms the lake. One is above the water as you see in the pictures and the other is more that 400 feet below the waters surface.
Drove to Eureka, CA and stayed at another KOA. As you can see we were roughing it again. :)
5165 miles and counting, should be visiting San Francisco during the day on Monday.
Started out driving from SEATAC airport area to Port Angeles, WA where we reserved a KOA site. We encountered some of the heaviest traffic we have seen during our trip leaving the Seattle area.
Then we proceeded to Olympic NP. Drove to Hurricane Ridge and did a couple 1.5 mile hikes. 1.5 miles doesn't sound like much but when they are "switchbacks" up the side of a mountain at an elevation of 8000+ feet you tire quickly. At Hurricane Ridge they had 374 inches of snow this past winter and in 1999 a record was set with 736 inches of snow. There was still a lot of snow there. The large amounts of winter snow was evident on the pines, most of the lower branches are swept down or dead because they spend so much of the year under snow pack. Smaller trees do not do to well either. Really beautiful country here.
After the night at KOA we spent most of the next day driving to the Columbia River gorge/valley area. Did not have much time for anything after the long drive but we did take in a quick tour of the Bonneville Dam. This is an interesting Dam since the river it blocks is a shipping channel so the Dam has a set of locks for ships to pass through. Many species of fish also travel this river to mate. The dam has a series of "fish ladders" that the salmon and others can travel upstream through the dam area. There are about 30 species of fish that use the ladders and there is someone at the dam that sits in a room below water level and counts every fish that travels the ladders.
We retired to another KOA site in Cascade Locks, Oregon, had dinner and played cards near the campfire. 4440 miles and still counting. Still running a bit behind schedule time wise. We will probably be cutting out a couple of the areas around the Grand Canyon. Will probably just visit the north or south rim instead of both. We may also cut out the Carlsbad Caverns/Roswell areas since they involve about 2 days travel out of the way of our main route of travel.
Welcome to our vacation Blog. Here is where we will post our vacation diary. Check back every few days to see what's new!
