Since Joel and I took off in an RV a couple years ago, we always return home for our regional Burning Man hoop-de-doo in MN, to spend time with family, and take pictures of mushrooms. This all happens thru July. We leave our camper in AZ, pack up our tent & sleeping bags and take just the truck. We always plan 5 days travel time each way so we can experience new places. Once we're back hometown, we stay with friends or pitch our tent in a yard. One of my favorite things about this trip is being spontaneous about where we spend the night. Freecammpsites.net is a wonderful resource that we use often. It has lead us to some really perfect, and amazing places.
Last year we had over two months!! to do this trip. This year was much shorter, as we have a new business to maintain. With the help of our 2 biz partners, they were running the show while we were gone, for a full 4 weeks. (YaHoooo!! and THANK YOU, AGAIN, Counrtenay & Mike 🙏)
At least a month before we took off, i could not stop talking about Zion national park. i was SO excited to go there for the first time.
Friday June 28th
By the time we dropped the RV off at storage, unloaded our hitch into a friend's garage, packed up the bed of the truckand stopped by work for final check-ins, and some long good-bye's, i think it wasn't till after 2pm that we finally left Sedona. We didn't have far to go today, tho! We clocked in a whole 4 hours, and spent the night in BLM area only 15 minutes away from Zion. It was a great spot that was perched high with a view into the distance. The dirt road was an easy drive and tall pine trees stood scattered everywhere. There were many different spots to pitch a tent. The one we picked had an awesome view overlooking some of this funky, canyon-y land. (WooT!) Only two other vehicles were out here with us and they were rather far away. It was a perfect, star-filled night.
Day2
Joel drove us into Zion by 9am with little wait in line. Not so much with the length of this park, but with what is sitting within it- this place is MASSIVE. I didn't take many pictures because it seemed pointless... you really need to be here yourself. I could say that about ALL the parks we've been to, honestly! However, this one takes the cake in its own way. it is unique and beautiful to behold. By the time we'd driven all the way thru to the other end (about 30ish minutes) it was a ZOO!!! (and very hot out). "Let's get outa here!" we laughed! I came to this place thinking we'd probably do a hike or something, but instead Joel turned the truck around and i took over driving so he could oogle out the window all the way back. We were a mixture of focus, taking in Zion for the first time while simultaneously dreaming about coming back in the Fall... (it's only a few hours away from us!) maybe there will be fewer ppl and cooler temps- we'll go hiking, and camp a couple more nights in this amazing land! Mmmm.
Fun.
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| Bryce Canyon area |
Bryce Canyon is another gorgeous place, just a hop over to from Zion. We checked out a possible camp spot before heading into the park area. These were forest service roads, all over the place and connecting together, through flowery fields and pine tree forest. it was here that we collected a few large agates to take home and slice into. (They proved rather cool! not pretty enough to sell, but a fun find nonetheless.) Joel suspected it would be less
busy at this park and he was right. He happened to know of a waterfall we could hike, and it was grand! We spent a couple hours out here, in awe of the erosion, and the waterway that cuts through this arid, strange landscape. We returned to the place we found earlier for the evening, in the middle of a pine tree forest, and made dinner over a fire. Tomorrow we'd go thru Capital Reef.
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| Ball tingles are coming. (Escalante, UT) |
Day3
We made breakfast over the fire then shoved off down Hwy 12 past Escalante (nat'l monument), to finally get out of UT before the day was over, being we still have 4 more states to get through!!! We had no idea the fantastical road surprise that awaited us! We pulled over for a pano shot before dipping down into the cream-colored barren rock below. Lots of winding UP and DOWN through this desolate, lumpy area. It was all quite odd and oddly beautiful. Toward the end of this scenic route we found ourselves up rather high, and suddenly the road became a BALLS-TINGLING DRIVE across the top of a ridge. !!! Looking down either side showed a sheer drop off... that was... RIGHT THERE. HAHA Like... if you dislike heights, hopefully you'd pass out before the couple mile stretch was over. It was something i will never forget! and the views were something else. Eventually the barren-ness fell behind and the terrain became more forest-y, and green. The road was open range and we took it easy, breaking or slowing down for cows. We got out again for another pano shot with a mountain in the distance. The green and pine trees fell away again, and by afternoon we hit Capital Reef. More cool red rock formations and views that go on forever. Lots of places to stop and check out along the way: hiking trails, native ruins, petroglyphs, the creek, etc. We parked at a trailhead and walked for about 20 minutes. It was too hot. We saw some interesting things (rounded basalt? rocks that looked out of place, and a great view up higher than we were willing to climb.) We'd have to come back here another, cooler day, too!
We continued thru more of Utah we'd not been in before. This state is so weird. with its weathered rock sculptures and mountain-y ridges. What's not to LOVE?? We stopped for dinner in Green River, UT, not too far from CO now, and found another possible camp area near Grand Junction, CO. We drove through a big thunderstorm, then watched it pass off to the side of us, where it looked like it was dumping WHITE, like i've never really seen before. was it snow?! i dunno. but it did give us a wonderful rainbow ribbon of sorts.We scoped out the camp area in Grand Junction and didn't like it at all. The sun was gonna set soon. "Well, there's this other one in up in the mountains..." Joel said, "on a lake, but it's gonna be a drive." What else were we gonna do? Besides- it's at a lake? we LOVE landing near water! So we went for it. The skies had cleared considerably, it grew dark and we began to see stars. After 90ish more minutes of driving, we noticed lightening flash up ahead, toward where we were headed. Not long after exiting off the highway it began to pour. It rained and rained (and thundered!! holy cats) and rained hard, and we drove and drove, kinda slow, down the long, hilly, country road. What timing! We arrived at our destination mere minutes after the rain stopped, at a pretty reservoir, called Lake Avery, just after 11pm. We kinda crammed ourselves in between 2 RVs in this smallish area directly in front of the shoreline, and went right to sleep (crashed out hard!)
Day4
it's before the crack of dawn, still dark, and i hear a long "BAAAAAAAH!". And then some more. and more. and more and more and more and... "is that... sheep? goats?? cattle. Wait- WHAT??" it sounded like chaos, and it made no sense... a ways off in the distance, so... i went back to sleep a couple more times. When we drove out that morning, we got to see the view overlooking the pretty lake, in the middle of picturesque rolling green pastures, peppered with many boondicking RVs. What a lovely site! And if that wasn't cool enough, we began to see the sheep. Shitloads of sheep, EVERYWHERE! they were thick in one particular area where multiple rigs were parked in a sort of cul-de-sac. People were out and about, making or eating breakfast, readying things for the day, and all these sheep were just wandering around between them, and their RVs. It was such a cute thing to see! We drove a while, passing some LONG-horn cattle like we'd never seen before, more velvet-y looking countryside, until we hit the town of Gillette, and found a nice city park to hang out in where Joel busted out his handy-dandy twiggy camp stove, that feeds off of small sticks and a fan, to make us coffee on it for the first time, while i took pictures of mushrooms speckled around the park. And ate some breakfast.
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| Howdy, Devil's Tower! |
Just as the sun was in it's final setting stages, we finally took off for our next camp spot, somewhere in these rolling green hillsides, the closest town called Aladdin. We were all alone again down a forest service road. Outside was very dew-y and moist. What a change from the dryness we'd been in for so long! The area was thick with tall, wet grass, and there was a 5th wheel parked here but looked like nobody had been using it. We decided to pitch right in front of a gate that blocked what looked like another road, but it's overgrown with grass. This put us nicely hidden off the road we drove in on and right next to a babbling creek. (See- he's so good at this!) It was sweet to fall asleep to, and in the morning i had a most GLORIOUS bath. (what a treat!)
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| Minnesota mushrooms! |
Tonight is the last one before our camping reservation in Wisconsin with Joel's family for several days. So we gotta get across all of South Dakota. We went through a couple hours more of Wyoming then stopped in Spearfish, SD for breakfast. The drive was quite pretty! That evening we landed at a lovely $10 county-run campground somewhere closest to Windom, MN, with large oak trees, and a creek ran along the edge of the property. The whole place was ours! and when night set in the fireflies were DAZZLING, like we'd never seen before!! We enjoyed a fire, seeing some stars through the treetops, and slept with the fly totally off the tent.
Wenesday July 3rd
Cooked breakfast over the fire. Drove across MN. By afternoon we're back at the campground we got married at. (A couple days ago was our 2 yr anniversary.) Since i've been with Joel, this is an annual thing we do with his sister, her 3 kids, and some other family. So now we've tied the sister time in with our anniversary and,,, it all works out swell. 😊 We spent 4 nites here and had a blast: Loons on the lake, mushrooms all around, and the water was warm enough for comfortable swimming. We had some friends swing by, but none of us were at camp- we were all out on the lake. So lo and behold, the whole family was swimming and floating their way across the water to find us. that was so fun! and we were blessed with a couple hours together. Joel went fishing with his friend Dean (the guy who married us) and they were SO HAPPY to get out together!! Quality time for those two, indeed. The kids caught bass throughout the weekend and we ate fresh fish almost every day. it was delicious. My friend Anne brought her inflatable kayak and Dean had his canoe. I spun fire, we played Kubb, chased the dog, and floated. Lots and lots of floating on the lake. There's a crazy rope swing that we'd float and watch ppl fly off of, too. We were here until the 8th. We should go visit grandma.
Less than 2 weeks now till the cabin burns.
Joel, Anne and I are part of a theme camp with several others, and we're bringing some new creations this year.
So more antics are to be had.
There is still much yet to do.
Playing and working and gathering together-
The rest of that in Part II!
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