04-08-10

NOTE,
Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

I inspected the battery connections on Plan "B" yesterday, but didn't notice any corrosion.
I cleaned them up any way and it seems to have helped.
Only time will tell.

Around 12:00 we decided to take a ride. We drove east through Blanding
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and stopped for gas in Monticello. While we were getting gas, we bought a fried pie for Patti and a Cinnamon role for me. That was our lunch.
We continued north from Monticello.

About 20 miles north of Monticello we turned left on highway 211

toward the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.
About 15 miles down the road we came to Newspaper Rock.

we continued down the highway about 10 more miles

and turned south on Beef Basin road, a wide dirt road that looked like it gets graded about once a year, but not yet this year.
I guess the road got a lot of use during the early spring because it was pretty rutted.

A short distance down this road we stopped to check out a door in the rocks.

The door lead to a small room that looked like it might have been a powder magazine.
To the left of the door and in a gully was a mine tunnel with a grate over the mouth.

While we were there Patti took this shot of Clifford in Cleavage.


Our intention was to go all the way to Beef Basin and back. Of course I never saw a jeep road that I didn't like so we spent a lot of time checking out the trails we crossed along the way. About 16 miles down Beef Basin road we came to the turn off that goes to Salt Creek and Lavender Canyon overlook. We had our handy, "Moab Back Roads and Jeep trails" guide book with us and the book said that this road was a little rocky.
We headed up the trail.

By the time we got to the Salt Creek overlook it was about 4:30 so we decided to have dinner there.

The view was spectacular.


We could see two arches in the distance.

One I think is called Wedding Ring arch.

I don't know the name of the other one.

After dinner we continued along the trail to the Lavender Canyon overlook for more spectacular views.


The trail is a loop so we continued along driving over and around large rocks.

All along the route we were treated to beautiful views.

The trail was rough enough that by the time we got back to Beef Basin rd. it was getting late so we decided to head back to the highway and go home.
We got back to Blanding around 8:30 and stopped at the A&W for a root beer float.

04-07-10

Okay, I have put this off as long as I can. We are in Blanding Utah and finally have Internet access so I am out of excuses.

We left Quartzsite Monday morning and drove to Wickenburg where we went south and took a cutoff to I-15. Along the way Patti got a picture of Saguaro cactus almost ready to bloom.

Maybe someday we will see them in full bloom.

We drove north on I-15 to Munds Park, which is about 15 miles south of Flagstaff.
there is a very nice RV park there and the area is very alpine and beautiful.
We got a spot for the night at Munds Park RV Resort.

We thought that we might spend a couple of days in the area, but after we got set up we took a ride to check out the forest roads. Unfortunately all the dirt roads were closed and gated. Apparently they don't open the roads until after Memorial day.

That's to bad because I was looking forward to doing some jeeping in the forest for a while.
We left Munds Park Tuesday morning and drove across many miles of desert

to Chinle AZ, the gateway to Canyon de Chelly National monument. There is a free camp ground in the monument so we decided to spend a couple of nights there.
Wednesday, morning we headed out to drive around Canyon de Chelly.

There are two roads that you can drive to see the canyon. One is called the north rim and the other is the south rim road. Both roads are paved and have view spots where you can park and walk a short distance to look into the canyon. We decided to take the the north rim road first.
We took lots of pictures.

Here are a fiew of them;

We also got some shots of ruins in the canyon.


Near the last turnout we found a little dirt road heading for the canyon so we took it, looking for a nice spot to have lunch lunch.
All day the wind had been blowing verry hard so we wanted a place out of the wind. We got very lucky and found the perfect spot, surounded by Pinyon pines and Junipers. on the edge of a 600 ft cliff with a view of the canyon.

After lunch we went back to the RV for a little rest and a hope, that later in the day the wind would lessen a bit.

No such luck. If any thing, the wind blew harder.
Around 5:00 we headed out the south rim road.
Here are some of the pictures from that ride;

There were also ruins in this part of the canyon.


Patti did get some pictures of wild life (well semi wild anyway). Here is a goat eating on the edge of about a 500 foot drop off.
We checked on a guided jeep tour through the canyon. If you drive your own Jeep it costs $25.00 ber hour. I decided to pass on that tour, thank you very much.

We have been having a little trouble with the starter on Plan "B".
There are little to no services in Chinle so I figured if I could get it to start we would drive non stop to Blanding Utah where I know there is a repair shop.
After several attemps the engine started and off we went. Along the way Patti got several pictures out of the window as we drove along.





We arived at Blanding around 11:00 and got a spot at the Blue Mountain RV park.
After we set up, we drove the jeep back to Bluff Utah for lunch at the Twin Rocks Cafe.

On the way back to blanding we took a couple of dirt roads.
Patti got some pictures of the San Juan River.

One "road" ended on a bluff with a nice view.

OK, I am now going to go clean the battery terminals and see if that fixes the starting problem on Plan "B".

05-01-10

Oh well, Patti didn't win any money at the casino but while she was in Parker she was able to get our prescriptions filled at Wall Mart .
Unfortunately we still haven't been able to leave Quartzsite. There has been a big storm going through the northern part of the state with high winds and snow around Prescott and Flagstaff, which is where we wanted to go.
The plan now is to leave on Monday. That still gives us six days to get to Moab.

I have to admit it has been quite boring waiting for the weather to settle down.

Debby and Mike invited us to go with them on a ride to see the Salton Sea so
yesterday, we all piled into Mike's truck and headed west on I-10 to the city of Indio where we headed south. About 60 miles south of Indio we came to the Salton Sea.

It was much larger than I had expected.

It is a great waterfowl area.

At one time the area was a thriving resort and vacation destination. Now it looks a little run down. Most of the resorts are closed and the ones that are still open are pretty shabby.
Some organization is in the process of rebuilding the Yacht Club, so maybe they are expecting a rebirth.

For more information on the Salton Sea, Google "Salton Sea" and check out the many sights there.

From the Salton Sea we continued south to the town of Niland where we had lunch at Ballasteros Mexican restaurant. The food was very good and reasonably priced.
From Niland we went east to a place called Slab City.

Slab City is an abandoned Army Tank Base.

Now it is a community of Hippies, Artists, and other people with alternative life styles.
The camping is free so of course there are some people who take advantage of the situation and have made a mess of things.

The first thing you see after passing the old Guard shack

is "Salvation Mountain".

There's a church,

a place that sells solar equipment.

A library and two out door preformance area, one called the Range,

and another called the Stage Door,

There is a hitch hiker camping area at the south end of the camp and the Slab City Oasis, for community meetings campfires and movies.
There is even an 18 hole golf course called Gopher Flats and the Slab City Singles Club.
There is an interesting mix of High end RV's,

run down trailers and campers and

Of course there is the inevitable "Magic Bus".

And some art vehicles.


For more information on Slab city just Google "Slab City" there are several sights with photos and info.

After leaving Slab city we drove to the Sam's Club store at Desert Springs.
From there we drove northeast to Yucca Valley to check out a piece of property that Debby's son was interested in buying. It is about 12 miles out of town on a narrow sandy road that took us into some pretty country with lots of large rock outcroppings.



When we finally got to the property there was a guy there that told us that he had just purchased it.
We went back to Yucca valley and turned east.
After traveling across 125 miles of empty desert we finally arrived at Parker AZ, where around 8:30 we stopped at The Crossroads Restaurant for dinner.
We got home around 10:00 and went to bed almost immediately.
Wow! What a long, interesting day!