Utah National Parks Whirlwind Tour - by Bill

After a wonderful visit to Orvis Hot Springs it was time to head back through Utah, stopping for the first time to visit several of the National Parks there. We started by visiting Moab, a small town on the Colorado River that’s home to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. We stayed at Ron’s Pack RV park on the south end of town. Ron’s is a rustic spot but has all the amenities and Ron, though a bit chatty, was full of good tips on how to spend our short time there. He suggested seeing the sunset from Island in the Sky @Canyonlands NP, so that became our first objective.

First stop though was at the Moab Brewery, where we had some yummy burgers and excellent craft beers. Best was the Scottish Ale, of which we should have bought much more.

 After lunch we headed to the north end of town and took the road along the Colorado River surrounded by towering cliffs of Navajo Sandstone to see the campgrounds there. We stayed on the road for about 15 miles and wound up at a Vineyard that Ron had told us about, unfortunately, the bar was closed so there were no cocktails or wine to be had. This area is where many westerns were filmed back in the day, and the restaurant was filled with photos of well-known actors in scenes from the movies they filmed here.

Next it was up to the mesa known as Island in the Sky. The drive up was spectacular with incredible views of mesas, cliffs, and vistas beyond compare. We stopped here and there to take in the sights, then headed to the Grand View Point to take in the sunset. We hiked along the cliffs overlooking Canyonlands NP which rivals the Grand Canyon for their beauty and size. The sun was getting low and the shadows and colors playing on the canyons below were amazing. We got to Grand View Point just as the sun was sinking below the horizon and were blessed with one of the most beautiful sunsets ever.

The next day we were off to see the Arches. What a surreal place that is. The arches were pretty cool, but the whole park was filled with unique landscapes carved from the sandstone laid down millions of years ago when this place resembled today’s Sahara Desert. We took a couple of short hikes to see some of the Park’s famous sights and scared ourselves by looking down from the cliffs we were perched on top of. We saw several rock climbers scaling the towers in the park and it’s beyond me how they can do that.

Our next stop was Zion National Park outside of St George Utah. We camped overnight at Walmart (our first Walmart camping) and drove in to the park in the car. This park is basically a valley like Yosemite with steep cliffs and towering mountains all around. They have buses to take tourists through the park so we hopped on board and took in the spectacular scenery. We took a couple of hikes and on one, stopped to sit in the grass in a sunny spot to enjoy our lunch. Just another magical day on the road to nowhere in particular.

Colorado Hot Springs

September 29, 2011

We went to bed on Thursday night  with great intentions to get up early, go the Garden of the Gods and watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, getting out of bed in time to make that happen proved a bit too challenging, so we slept in and started working on a backup plan. Having set “visiting hot springs” as one of our top priorities for our travels, we set about searching for springs not too far from Colorado Springs. Turns out there are many, but the one that caught Debby’s eye was Valley View Hot Springs, about 40 minutes south of Salida, CO, which made it a 3-ish-hour drive from the Academy. On paper, the place sounded terrific. In person, it was awesome.

The journey there and back was just a bit longer than our stay. First stop on the way out was Safeway, where we restocked on Chaka Ummmm sauce, our favorite steak marinade. Ate those steaks tonight with cousin Rick. It would have been fun to have had them with us last night so we could have stayed longer at the hot springs. They have a huge kiosk with multiple grills and a fire pit that also has a grill, where we suspect much mingling occurs at night.

It was the perfect day for a drive through the mountains. From a distance, we saw towering peaks that seemed forever away and in the end we wound up in the foothills on the other side of them. It’s been a delayed fall it seems this year, but as the sunsets get earlier, the trees put on their show in spite of the warm weather. The mountainsides were awash in the glory of autumn; a perfect harmony of colors. We followed the Arkansas River through the Big Horn Canyon without seeing any big horn sheep, but we did see a lot of people—rafting in shallow water and fly fishing for the ever elusive trout.

Let’s get to the good part—the hot springs. Wow. Many times during our visit, we both said, “this is the best yet.” Picture yourself a few hundred feet up the side of a mountain, facing west, sitting in a shallow, gravel-bottomed pool looking out over a valley with a range of snowcapped 14,000 footers on the other side. Magnificent storm clouds over the distant mountains (but not over ours) made the afternoon sky vibrant. It was truly magical.

The spring’s source is about 300 feet above the entrance to the hot springs. There are a series of pools along the hillside that get warmer as you move up the hill and closer to the source. I think there are other “sources” downhill from what they call the “top pool” but in any case there are a good half dozen or more soaking pools that are built in the stream that flows from the top. Water temperature was not too hot in any of the pools, in fact I would have liked it hotter in the lower pools. All the pools had spectacular views and we found ourselves all alone, which is always nice. From the top pool, formed by a dam in the outflow near the source, you can look down and see three smaller pools cascading below, and the valley and mountains in the distance. When the sun set, it was clear that it was worth the drive. Can’t wait to go back and spend the night.

For our RV-ing friends, there’s about 7 miles of dirt road to get to the springs. Not the worst we’ve been on, but I wouldn’t take my rig there, mostly because there’s not really any space for a big rig at the resort. Class C would be okay. We saw some there. There are a lot of RV parks nearby though, and some BLM land that you may be able to park on. Also, some incredible tent camping sites within crawling distance of the pools.

October 12, 2011

It just keeps getting better. On our way from Colorado Springs to Palm Desert, we took a small detour to visit Orvis Hot Springs in Ridgway, Colorado. Ridgway is located between Montrose and Ouray at the foot of the towering San Juan Mountains. The setting was incredible. It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day and we were surrounded by the snowcapped peaks of the San Juans. The hot springs were just off Highway 550.

These springs were much more developed than the ones at Valley View. They had pea-sized gravel bottoms and the pools had concrete and stone walls that offered plenty of places to sit. The landscaping was very nice and there were several lounge chairs scattered about the lawn where you could chill, away from the pools. The large pool was about 4-5 feet deep and had a pipe waterfall on one end. I tried sitting under the fall, but the water was probably about 110° to 112° and it was hard to stay under it for long. This pool was by far the most popular and it seemed there were a lot of people there for the middle of the week. At noon the water was about 100° but it warmed up gradually throughout the afternoon. Sitting on the north side of the pool afforded awesome views of the mountains through trees afire with the colors of autumn.

There were several other pools on the grounds, including one that was connected to the large pool and had a cooler waterfall and a muddy bottom. The hot pool was super hot at about 110°. It was smallish with room for only 2 or 3 people. It was next to the sauna, which we didn’t use. There were two other pools that were smaller and shallow, one of which was for smokers.

The lodge had nice showers, lockers, and a kitchen for use by guests. We used the kitchen to heat up our chicken quesadillas and were told by one of the employees on our way back to our lounge chairs to be careful not to break our dish. I’m so glad he told us that or I probably wouldn’t have been careful. Dooh!

Colorado 2011

What a fabulous place to HAVE to go visit family, ha ha! Last year Bill's family had a big reunion in Colorado Springs - Bill hadn't seen most of his relatives in 30 years! We had a blast & found out we had a lot in common with his cousin Becky, who is now known as Rebecca... She is about my age and just recently married a guy who is Bill's age & he just happens to also be Jewish. We really had fun with them and definitely wanted to see them again and spend more time together; luckily for us with our lifestyle it's a pretty easy thing to arrange. 

They live in the Snowmass area in Aspen, up a windy, curvy road that definitely put Bebe to the test. Parking Bebe was a huge issue, and we eventually were ticketed but cousin Rebecca pulled her magical strings and got it taken care of. We stayed at their lovely home with their cute dogs, spent hours, cooking, shmoozing, and getting to know each other. We took a long drive out to their cabin along some great river in a beautiful area, the guys fished & Bill pulled a beauty out of the water - Andy put it on his smoker & it was yummy. 


Next we were off to Golden, CO for more visiting - this really happens to be my favorite part of rv-ing, meeting up with family and friends everywhere...


We were very excited to hook up with our Quartzsite NuRVer friends Kev & Angie, & Maria & Brian who were all converging in the Denver area. We had spent a little bit of time in Golden in 2010 visiting our Tahoe friend & Bill's co-worker, Jake, who had moved there and we really loved the town. We stayed in a great little city-run campground that was right on the river, walking distance into town & around the corner from the big city rec center - and oh, did I mention, stumbling distance from the GOLDEN CITY BREWERY?! 

Love, Love, Love Golden...met up with the NuRVers at the brewery & then for all you can eat pizza, much fun ensued...visited Kev & Ang at their campsite for a BBQ & discovered a new & improved way to make s'mores - must toast & melt the choc on the graham first!! Got to see Jake again & then off to CO Springs to stay at the famcamp at USAFA, Bill's alma mater....


We had some amazing fun with cousins, Mike, Gaye and Rick - lots of pool playing time with Rick! Maria & Brian met us again to sample a few breweries. 

The Air Force Academy rv campground was beautiful & except for the constant train whistles it would be the best ever...loved their gym & they had yoga classes every day. We got together with Bill's classmates TJ in the Denver area & Chuck & Shelly in CO Springs, he also got to see classmate & former Phillipines roomate Gary Grant who was visiting from Albuquerque - I got to see the cadets marching & even attended High Holiday services at the Jewish chapel on site. Bill visited a friend's grave there and found a golf ball on it! We'll be back next year for sure as it's Bill's 40th reunion!

Letting go.......

Ok - I have to do this....I can't seem to make myself sit down and write enough to catch up from my last Burning Man post to the current time, so I am just going to let go of my anal self and jump forward to NOW and maybe I'll catch up in a more round-about sort of way!


We are now in Palm Desert, didn't "plan" to be here, but here we are! We were in Colorado Springs parked at Bill's alma mater - the Air Force Academy campground having a wonderful time hanging out with family, old friends and NuRVers too when I received an email from the owners of an rv park where we've stayed before in Indio, CA - 3 miles from my parents home in Palm Desert. I think they had read my resume on the workamper.com site and were wondering if we would be interested in coming to southern California to work at their park. Well, this was an interesting proposition! My mother had just been in the hospital for a week and my sister had flown down from Alaska to help her with her recovery and was making plans to go back home. We weren't sure if my mom was truly on the mend but everyone thought she was. I had been feeling very guilty about not being there with her, but was soooo grateful that my sister could. Our "plans" at the time were to head south to New Mexico for awhile and then slowly make our way east towards Florida to see Bill's mom in Tampa. But the opportunity to go stay at this expensive park, one we were familiar with, for free (well, not exactly free!) and spend the holidays with my parents just couldn't be ignored. When things happen like this you just gotta do it! So we hashed out all the details with the park, I would work in the office about 22 hours a week and Bill would help with some outside work about 5 hours and we started to make plans to leave our little spot in C Springs. Our Florida plans will just start a little later...


Which route to take...oh my, this was quite a decision as Bill was very familiar with these mountains and we had some snow already and he was really concerned about our taking a "safe" route. But I soooo wanted to see some sites and do some fun stuff! He found a route for us that included 3 national parks - in Moab - Canyonlands & Arches and Zion in southern Utah. We finally got to actually spend some time in Utah! (we've raced through this state 3 times driving from CA to CO and back) We also had a fantastic stop at a hot spring, but more on all of that later. We took about a week to travel from CO back to southern California and stopped for two nights at Nevada's Treasure RV Park in Pahrump, where the "famous" pic of Bill working outside in the gazebo was taken. Finally in Palm Desert we arrived around dinner time at my mother's house. We had taken great pains to keep our plans a secret from my parents as we wanted to really surprise them and we did! Although, not exactly according to plan...there is that word again! So here we are in this nice little park enjoying lovely weather, working our real jobs and our rv park jobs and spending some time with my parents and my brother and his family. Next week my kids fly in for a week for Thanksgiving, my sister and her family arrive from Alaska, and cousins from L.A. are coming too, it's going to be quite the family get-together!


Now to get to the fun stuff!

Man Plans and God Laughs...

,,,one of my favorite sayings of my mother. She said it often to me growing up, constantly warning about the dangers of that dreadful word...I think I may have to rename this entire blog to Learning the art of NON-planning!!  I have been getting better, but it's slow going...


Post burning man we had reservations at the Grand Sierra to stay in an upgraded suite for a night while we "decompressed" - ha ha ha! Little did we know that the entire place had been taken over by teenagers (or they looked & acted like them, anyway) to see some fabulous light show that night. The mass of altered people was really more than we could deal with and we couldn't even go hang out at the pool or jacuzzi which was a pretty cool spot. 


So we spent the night, cleaned ourselves up and took Bebe down to Carson to stay at an RV park to get her cleaned up and replace our carpets with wood flooring. I had found this guy that does flooring while we were in Tahoe - a co-worker had used him and he did good work, I met him and we set up a date post BM.  Unfortunately the product he was using was inferior and after spending 5 days getting it almost 80% in we were very unhappy and he felt the same. At this point we were supposed to be on our way to Utah and Colorado. But he generously offered to rip out all the flooring, get a better product, take the rig to his shop and just work round the clock and try to get it done in 3-4 days.  In the meantime my friend Jen was in the area and we went out for a scrumptious lunch together in Minden - on her way home there was a most interesting experience between her and a porta-potty, and sadly, the porta-potty won! She texted from the hospital that her ankle was broken and she was in a boot up to her knee....not good. AND Daniel, her lover/roomie was out of town for 10 days - she had just taken him to the airport that day! So here we were with no place to live for a few days and here she was almost totally incapacitated and needing some help, how mysteriously God works! So back we went to Tahoe....just can't get away from that place, hmmmm. It all worked out well, we helped Jen out a bit and got to say our last goodbyes one more time! Our flooring guy was working like a mad-man to get it all done and when we finally went to pick up our rig the floors were fabulous! Worth the wait and all the hassle, especially because we could be there for our friend.


So off we went on our mad dash across Utah, once again, totally bummed that this seemed to be the only way we could get to Colorado to see Bill's cousins before they left town & were swamped with other obligations. I WANT TO SEE UTAH!!!

an old army boot camp site in Green River, UT

Now that we had a year of traveling under our belt & a bit more experienced we were committed to try to boondock whenever possible. Boondocking is camping without any hookups, one can do this on the side of the road, in an approved rest stop or far away amongst nature and beauty. Most of the time you will not only save money but have a more interesting experience as well. At some point we hope to really outfit Bebe with a major solar array to do this for very long periods of time...but I digress...  I found the great website OvernightRVParking and for a small annual fee you can pop in your location or zip code and get information on all of the possible spots to park for free or for a very small fee. We used this our entire trip from CA to CO and loved it.

Burning Man 2011

Bill's 5th and my 4th Burning Man brought us to a new camp, living in our home amongst other like-minded nomadic souls...this was quite a switch from our previous visits where we have camped with our hash friends. But since we were bringing Bebe this year we thought this was a better fit & it was! We spent weeks preparing Bebe for her maiden voyage to the playa, hoping against all hope that we could keep her relatively dust-free (hahahaha!) and let me tell you, she looked sweet on the inside - all decked out in orange fur, tie dye pillows, batik prints & crazy throw rugs. Bill bought rolls of filter material and covered the window screens and air conditioner vents & we just hoped for the best. We found a home for our plants with Reno hasher Sir Rubs a Lot & his green-thumbed wife, dropped off our sheepskin seat covers for cleaning, grabbed our Leopard Martini Lounge friend Matt & off we went, playa bound. 

Waiting in line is always an experience!

In the past we have always come in at midnight; driving out to the playa was quite a different experience in the daylight, the vast desert was beautiful. NuRVing friends and fellow Quartzsite camp-mates, Sam & Tracy, were able to get "early-entry" & secure a good location for a bunch of big rigs & we were the 2nd ones in on Sunday evening. 

Sam & Tracy

We had a 2-hour wait to get in, which wasn't bad at all &  it was fun checking out all of the other rigs & people in line.  We set up camp & hopped on our bikes to go see "the Man." By the time we returned several other campers had arrived & we got to meet a bunch of the people we've been corresponding with over the last several weeks.  

Cherie & Chris

Technomads Chris & Cherie originally started this camp a few years ago & I was excited to meet them as they really helped us out when I was trying to decide on internet options when we started full-timing; plus I had been using a couple of the iPhone Aps they had developed. Fellow full-timers Ayo & Yair were "organizing" our camp this year & pre-burn I found out that they were Jewish and Ayo was doing some work with Camp Ramah where my kids camped every summer, and Quartzsite friends Tom and Schelby with KSvert that came to visit us in Tahoe were camping with us too!! So we had some good vibes about this group going in...

We didn't spend a lot of time in camp but we knew a lot of people at BM this year so we did a lot of visiting, which was super fun! Bill's co-workers Steve & Julie, our last camp - Leopard Martini Lounge, the new Hash camp and good friends Daniel & Jen were included in our romps about "town". Monday night was the long-standing Leopard Martini Lounge Party - it was great seeing everyone, especially decked out in their finest "leopard". 

We had a couple of fun "date nights" with hash friends Cheek and Doggie, and Pix & PT aka Sparkle Pony. Both date nights were planned with a specific location & a loose meeting time - and can you imagine, each event we showed up and no one was there! Amaaazing, I know! Of course, it was totally expected that that would happen, but in both cases, a bit later and in different locations we met up with our friends and had a splendid time. Cheek was determined to get us out for an all-nighter, which we had yet to do, even after all the times we had been there. We are more the get up early and explore all day, than the, sleep all day and stay up all night, kind of burners. But we took naps and had a blast....of course, Bill came home bloody and still has scars, but it was a night to remember. The most amazing thing of all was that we found each other, or rather Doggie found us, in the pitch black while riding our bikes!  

Luckily she had seen our bikes in Tahoe and knew what they looked like. We were supposed to meet Pix and Sparkle at the Little Black Dress Party and then have them over for dinner - they were a no show at the party but were waiting for us when we returned and we had a fabulous evening. 

Camp Nomadia held an informal get together for people curious about our lifestyle with a question and answer session, which was fun to be a part of. But it was the same day the hash held their annual Red Dress Run, so off we went! I think there were way over 100 people with a lot of newbies at the hash.  And of course, more blood for Mr. Bill!


We stayed an extra day to avoid the long exodus out and instead baked chocolate chip cookies and delivered them to the people waiting in the 6-8 hour line to get out...we were soooo happy to not be them! 

Camp Nomadia

The weather was the best ever and the playa floor was a joy to ride on, unlike previous years where the dust/sand was so thick it was impossible to bike through. It was a very "chill" burn for us and it was just what I needed this year...clean up is still in progress, months later, and I think this may be the last year for us...at least for Bebe!

POOF! 2 months flew by...

Guess that's what happens in life at this stage of the game....all of a sudden you pop your head up & it's fall! Our last month in Tahoe was a whirlwind - finishing up my workamping gig, preparing for Burning Man, Bill cleaning out his office and saying goodbye, again, to all of our friends. The latter is truly the hardest part, especially because this time we really have no idea when we will be back in town. The Tahoe office of Bill's company is now closed with the remainder of the employees telecommuting from home. We thought they were going to lay him off at the end of August before we went to Burning Man, but that isn't happening so fast. His new company, Polaris Environmental, is getting some attention, so it could be any time now that this takes off. Our NuRVer friend, Maria, helped Bill set up his website and it looks great, just what he wanted, thanks Maria!! You can check it out at polarisenvironmental.com.

Awesome campsite - CHECK!!

We did have a few fun adventures before we left the lake - like going tent camping with Daniel, Jen & Socrates at Buckeye & Travertine Hot Springs, wow, now that was cool! We found an awesome campsite and Soc's agreed as he got the best spot! The weather was perfect, the hot springs divine and the food, well, with foodies Cheek & Doggie (hash names) how could it be anything less than fabulous! Mr. Bill got some fishing in and provided us with trout both mornings, which we had fun dressing and cooking over an open campfire.

You should see the one that got away!

Everything's better with a little bacon ;)

Cheek took us on a long drive up to Mono Lake and we saw the cool Tufa Towers & June Lake, which is the cutest little town. This was an area neither of us had been before and it was super cool to have our own tour guide!

We had some fun times catching our favorite music around town - especially with our Tahoe Valley Campground friends playing at the Flight Deck & Murphy's. 

There were a few concerts at the campground too...

And nothing would be the same without copious visits to our favorite local brewery...Mt Tallac Brewing

We had a visits from friends Tom & Schelby but no pics :(  & from our friend Cindy who we dragged along to tailgate the Phish concert with Michelle - Bill had a tough time of it, to be sure!

One of our last beach days was again planned with Cheek & Doggie...we rode our bikes and met them at Pope Beach & brought all the fixins for a sweet BBQ

good times!

Then our preparations for Burning Man began in earnest...we were taking our home there and tried to take all the precautions we could to protect Bebe. With lots of good advice and some of our own well-earned wisdom we hit the deck, flying! Covering all of the upholstery with the sticky carpet plastic stuff, I then made slip covers for the dinette and captains chairs, purchasing ones for the sofas. I also covered all of the window coverings & remaining upholstery with bright orange fur! The fur works as a great magnet for any flying sticky playa dust & because I just used a staple gun to apply it, the fur came off easily and really did it's job.  I can't even BELIEVE I didn't take a pic of Bebe decked out in her fur! Here are a few pics from our preparations...stay tuned for our Burning Man 2011 Blog

New slipcovers, pre-fur!

Blue hair & feather bangs for Burning Man,
courtesy of my daughter Lauryn!

Our friend & nail technician extraordinaire, Lillian decked Bill
out with the most awesome BLING for Burning Man!