7 December 2019 Kerrville to Spring TX

The drive from Kerrville to Spring took us through downtown San Antonio and Houston. The traffic was horrific. What should have been a four hour drive took over six. We were so happy to pull into Rayford RV Resort ($778 per month). It feels like home! We have a nicer site this year, that we reserved before we left last year, on the end of a row, which gives us more room and privacy. After getting set up we plopped down in our love seat and just were happy to be able to sit still for a few weeks. It has been a busy year and the last few weeks really were a whirlwind. Of course we will not be sitting still, we have repairs to make to the Wanderer, maintenance to get done on the Behemoth, friends and family to visit, and of course the holidays to celebrate. We need to get new hiking boots and walking shoes since we wore our current ones out. 

We can summarize our travels in 2019 with:

1.    Drove over 33,000 Miles in the Behemoth (Our F-350). 

2.    Visited 22 National Parks (total so far of 29 out of 61).

3.    Visited 25 NPS National Monuments (total so far of 31 out of 84).

4.    Visited 5 National Monuments run by BLM/NFS/FWL

5.    Visited 14 other interesting places (Scenic Byways, castles, NRA/NHS/NHR, state parks).

6.    Hiked over 500 miles gaining over 38,000 feet of elevation.

7.    Visited friends and family along the way.

8.    Met lots of interesting people.

9.    Learned a lot about our magnificent country and our national parks.

10. Posted over 205 entries to our Blog (We have had over 3000 views of our blog this year alone from all over the world).

We probably will not be making any posts until we prepare for next years travel season the end of January. We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Norman in his Christmas Decorations

4 December 2019 El Paso to Kerrville TX

The drive from El Paso to Kerrville, was a “butt numbing cannon ball” run for 478 miles across West Texas. The desert mountains along the way provided nice scenery but the long stretches of straight roads still made it mind numbing. We started the audio book of Season 3 of Dear Bob and Sue, which provided many laughs that made the ride tolerable. It was fun to listen to their descriptions of their experiences of some of the parks we had just visited. We pulled into Buckhorn Lake RV resort just after dark, happy to be able to sit still for a couple of days. We will visit some winerys while we are here and have dinner with David’s nephew.   

2 December 2019 Tucson AZ to El Paso TX

This was another long driving day. The drive across the Sonora Desert of southern Arizona and New Mexico on I-10 was both scenic, with majestic mountain ranges, and bleak due to lack of vegetation. The weather was clear with some strong cross winds for the first couple of hours, which turned into a tail wind as we went along. The traffic through El Paso was very hectic so it was with relief we pulled into the Mission RV Park ($40 per night with no discounts) on the eastern edge of El Paso. It’s a fairly large park, in an industrial area, with a fair amount of traffic noise from I-10. But it will do for a couple of nights. The sites is gravel, fairly level, good water pressure, 50 amp, and good (but slow) WiFi. We will be back to visit Tucson sometime in the future since there are so many things we did not get to do, like Pima Air Museum, the Desert Museum, Tombstone, the scenic drive in Chiricahua NM to name a few. But we were very happy to drive across the border into Texas after 11 months on the road and 8 months since we were last in Texas (April). Its good to be back in our home state!

Welcome Home Sign

1 December 2019 Saguaro National Park

With this being our last day in Tucson, we decided to visit Saguaro National Park. Saguaro NP is split in two sections, a western and eastern park. The western park is only a few miles from where we are staying, so we decided to visit it first. After exploring the exhibits in the visitor center, we watched the park film, visited the shop and collected our 67th Passport Stamp. We toured the 6 mile scenic drive in the western portion of the park, then headed over to the eastern portion. Along the way we stopped for a Mexican Sunday fix for lunch. In the eastern portion park we drove the 9 mile scenic drive and then hiked up the Tanque Verde Ridge Trail for a mile before the fading daylight made us turn back (2.1 miles, 459 Feet of elevation gain, 677 calories burned). The western portion of the park is more lush and rugged than the eastern potion. But the eastern portion of the park is larger and has taller mountains (including some alpine areas), but the majority is set aside as a wilderness area with limited access. This is the last national park unit we expect to visit this year. It has been a busy and fun year. At the end of this year, we have visited 60 out of the145 National Parks and National Monuments. To celebrate, we went to a brewery and enjoyed a couple of good craft beers!

Saguaro NP Entrance Sign

Rugged terrain of the western sector

Saguaro Row

Behemoth in the desert

Cactus Cross

Cactus Hill

Desert Stream

Tucson Valley

30 November 2019 Chiricahua NM

After two days of weather, we were anxious to get out for a hike. We headed out early to Chiricahua National Monument in the south eastern portion of Arizona. Chiricahua became a national monument in 1924. It protects a rhyolite rock formation. We arrived at the visitor center to find that the scenic drive was closed due to rock slides, caused by the previous days storms, as well as snow and ice. We explored the exhibits, watched the park film and collected our 66th Passport Stamp. The hike we intended to do, the Echo Canyon loop, starts at the end of the closed scenic drive. So after talking with the ranger about our options, we hiked up the Lower Rhyolite Canyon to the junction and took the Sarah Deming Canyon trial until we could just see Balanced Rock in the distance (4 miles, 719 feet of elevation gain and 1163 calories burned). As we climbed up the trail the snow and slush became deeper and the trail more slippery. With our boots worn from over 500 miles of hiking this year and not a lot of tread left, we decided to turn back rather than risk a fall. After hiking back to the visitor center, we checked back in and were told the scenic road was still closed and they had not estimate for when or if it would be opened again today. So we headed back to Tucson. 

Entrance Sign

Rhyolite Rock Formations

Rhyolite Rock Formations

Rhyolite Rock Formations

Rhyolite Rock Formations and a Yucca stalk

David on the snowy trail

Frozen Bushes on the ridge

Yucca in the snow

Rhyolite Rock Formations

Leslie on the snowy trail

Rhyolite Rock Formations

28 November 2019 Happy Thanksgiving

This is our first Thanksgiving away from family. So we cooked up a smaller RV version of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We don’t have much in the way of fancy dishes, due to the space limits, but it tasted just as good out of the pot! We had a wonderful meal and reflected on the many blessings the good Lord has bestowed on us for us to be thankful for. 

Thanksgiving Feast RV style

27 November 2019 Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Today we took the farthest NM away, Organ Pipe Cactus NM, which is in the southwestern corner of Arizona. The NM protects the only stands of Organ Pipe Cactus in the US. The park is at the very northern edge of the cactuses range. There are also a large number of Saguaro Cactus in the park. After exploring the exhibits in the visitor center, we watched the park film and collected our 65th Passport Stamp. After talking to the Ranger, due to our limited time, we decided to take the Ajo Mountain Loop Scenic drive. Leslie drove us around this rustic gravel and dirt road. The terrain was beautiful with the double arch being the highlight. The desert in this area is lush due to the winter and summer rain season rains. There were plenty of Organ Pipe and Saguaro cactus, along with yucca, prickle pear, multiple types of cholla and of course creosote. The weather was moving in so we decided to head back to the Wanderer rather than risk getting caught in the expected flash flooding. We beat the rain to Tucson and took the opportunity to go to the grocery store to pick up some Items for tomorrows feast. 

Critter sighting: We saw a wild burro on the drive to the park and a coyote on the way back.  

Entrance Sign

Organ Pipe Cactus

David by a Saguaro Cactus

The Behemoth in the back country

Double Arch in Arch Canyon

26 November 2019 Two in One

After 8.5 hours traveling yesterday, we really did not want to drive long distances today. So we decided to go to the nearest two National Monuments. We first went to Casa Grande National Monument near the intersection of I-10 and I-8. Casa Grande is an adobe structure built by the Hohokam Indians around 1350. It was made a national archeological site in 1891 and a national monument in 1908. The Hohokam Indians had learned to farm the desert in the area using seasonal and flash flooding to irrigate. The Hohokam had started gathering into larger settlements from 1200-1350 but then reverted to individual farms over the next hundred years for reasons unknown. The base of the walls is over 4 feet thick. It was two stories, which is unusual in early adobe structures. We explored the exhibits in the visitor center, watched the park film and collected our 63rd Passport Stamp. Then walked around the Casa Grande. Two of the portals on the second floor align with the summer and winter Solstice and another two align with the spring and fall equinoxes. In the late 1800s, there was a stage coach line that ran past the building and people carved the names into the adobe!

Entrance Sign

Casa Grande

After Casa Grande, we drove up to Tonto National Monument on the shores of Roosevelt Lake. David had seen the lake from the air before but this was his first visit to the area. Tonto NM is cliff dwellings that were built around 1350. There are two sets of cliff dwellings. The trail to the upper cliff dwellings was closed due to a flash flood that took out the trail. The lower dwellings were open and we climbed the half-mile trail to the dwellings under a large overhang. Approximately 40 people lived in this set of structures. They are not sure why the Hohokam built these structures since they were quite a ways from the Salt River where their agricultural fields were located. The adobe and rock structures were well preserved and early archeologists found tools, pottery and woven cotton cloth. The Hohokam grew cotton and wove colorful cloth which the used for clothing and traded. We explored the exhibits in the visitor center, hiked up to the ruins, watched the park film and collected our 64th Passport Stamp. Then it was a 2.5 hour drive back to Tucson. Critter sighting: We saw a rather large Tarantula on the hike up.

Entrance Sign

Cliff Dwellings

Tarantula

Leslie in the cliff dwellings

25 November 2019 Palm Springs CA to Tucson AZ

We hit the road early this morning, knowing we had a long drive ahead of us. We wanted to avoid having to drive through Phoenix and its traffic, so we choose to take CA-86 south along the Sultan Sea to I-8. With the mountains to the west and the Sultan Sea to the east, it was a scenic drive. I-8 took us through the Imperial Sand Dunes recreation area at the foot of the Chocolate Mountains in southeastern California. We crossed into Arizona at Yuma (Our 24^thstate) and took advantage of the significantly cheaper fuel prices ($1.50 cheaper per gallon than in California). We arrived at the RV park in Tucson after 7pm, 8.5 hours after we started. We enjoyed visiting California’s beautiful national parks and our wonderful friends. But we won’t miss the earthquakes, horrible roads, smoke and haze from the wildfires, dust, rude drivers, high fuel prices, high grocery prices, and high RV park prices. We are staying at the Sentinel RV Park near downtown Tucson ($44 , with no discount beyond the weekly rate). It’s a small RV park but had plenty of room to maneuver our Wanderer. Water pressure, electric, and sewer connections are all good. Its mostly a gravel and asphalt park with some trees around the perimeter. But is central to what we want to see. There are four National Monuments and one National park we want to visit while here as well as visit with our friends in the area. 

23-24 November 2019 Joshua Tree NP

With this being the week of Thanksgiving, we expected all the desert parks will be very busy this week. So we headed for the West entrance to Joshua Tree NP fairly early. When we pulled into the visitor center parking lot in Joshua Tree, our concerns were confirmed. The parking lot was a zoo of people parking so they are blocking others, double-parking and basically acting stupid. We found a spot for the Behemoth and went into the visitor center. Joshua Tree was a National Monument until 1994 when congress turned it into a National Park and more than doubled its size. After we enjoyed the exhibits, collected our 62nd Passport Stamp, and picked out park hats and a cup, we talked with the ranger to investigate possible hikes. They really did not help much, just pointed at a paper with a description of the various hikes in the park and told us to pick. So David took a picture of the hike description and we headed back to the Behemoth. When we got to the truck, we found that people had parked so that they were blocking us in. We took the time to come up with our plan and by the time we were ready to go, the person had moved from behind us. About a mile into the park we came across a forest of Joshua Trees, so we pulled to the shoulder and got out to explore and take pictures.  Joshua Trees are really yuccas, not trees. Their trunks are not made of wood, but of fibers. They can live up to 150 years. They generally grow 1-2 inches a year and are only found in the Mojave Desert.

Traffic in the park was not as bad as we feared, but the parking lots were generally full. We took the unmaintained Geology Road until we reached Quartz Tanks. Beyond that point the ranger warned that the road got pretty rough. Although the Behemoth is four wheel drive and has high clearance for its wheel base, it is too wide and long for true four wheel drive roads. We also no longer have tires made for severe off road travel. So we ate lunch near Quartz Tank, did some exploring around the area on foot, before turning back. On the way back to the road, we saw a coyote with a young one cross the road in front of us. Once back on the pavement, we drove on down to Skull Rock where we jumped out to get a picture of Skull Rock. Continuing on down the road, we stopped at Cholla Cactus Garden to view the interesting Cactus. A little further down we stopped at Ocotillo flats to see the tall Ocotillo. They reminded us of Big Bend and the Ocotillo we used as decoration for our wedding. We drove past several Smoke Trees before stopping in a dry wash to get some pictures of them. We then hiked up the dry wash a mile or so to get off the beaten track. We saw several long eared Jack Rabbits on our hike. Then it was back down the road until we came into the south visitor center. We stopped there to see if they had a park movie, but they did not have a movie theater. We talked with the rangers and got a recommendation for a loop hike that was just minutes away. So we drove to the trailhead parking lot and pulled our water. The sun was setting in an hour and a half, so we needed to do it quickly. We hiked the Mastodon Peak Loop Trail (2.8 miles, 400 feet of elevation gain, 720 calories burned). It was a beautiful hike. From the highest point we could see the Sultan Sea to the south. We also passed the Mastodon Peak Mine. There are over 300 abandoned mines in the park. There were some fun rock formations and the setting sun brought out the colors. Then it was back to the Wanderer.

On Sunday we took a more leisurely approach to the park. We stopped in Joshua Tree to get our Mexican food Sunday fix before heading for Hidden Valley trail in the park. We got lucky and got a good parking spot right away. We hiked the Hidden Valley trail (1.5 miles, 184 Feet of elevation gain, 535 calories burned), which was very interesting. We figured out that the most popular activity in the park is rock climbing, weather its cliff faces by experienced climbers or boulder scrambling by amateurs. We stopped several times to watch the climbers on the cliff faces. Once again the sun was going down fast, so we headed for the north exit to explore that section of the park. We stopped at the north visitor center to see if they had the park film only to find out there was no longer a Joshua Tree NP film since the facilities are not available to show it. The exhibits were better than at the other visitor center, so we took the time to explore them. Then it was back to the Wanderer to prepare for our drive to Tucson in the morning. 

Entrance Sign

Joshua Tree

Joshua Forest

Joshua Trees in the front and snow covered mountains in the back

Shadow Pict

Cholla Cactus

Smoke Tree

Alien Rock Formations

Mastodon Mine Shaft

Jack Rabbit

Sultan Sea in the distance

Sunset

Hidden Valley

Leslie in Hidden Valley

Rock Formations in Hidden Valley

David Boulder Climbing

22 November 2019 Escondido to Palm Springs CA

We had an easy drive to Palm Springs where we are staying to visit Joshua Tree NP. We saw snow in the mountains along I-10! Guess winter is finally catching up to us. We are staying at the Palm Springs KOA ($82.5 with KOA discount). This RV park was made for Big Rigs! Wide roads, easy wide corners, no hanging trees but there are only three pull through sites, the rest are nice wide back-ins. After we got set up we decided to drive into Palm Springs since neither of us had ever been here before. There are 40+ golf courses in the town of Palm Springs. Interestingly there was a large number of townhouse type communities instead of single dwelling homes. We stopped for an early dinner at Rio Azul Mexican restaurant and it was delicious. We will head for the park in the morning.  

20 November 2019 Family visit

It rained hard most of the night and strong showers have come through all day. We went over to David’s Aunt Dorothea and Uncle Chuck’s home in Solana for a visit. It had been over 10 years since David had last been to visit them during one of his business trips to the area. This was their first time to meet Leslie. His Cousin Christina and her son Charlie came over as well and we had a wonderful visit. Everyone seems to be doing well.

David with his Aunt Dorothea and Uncle Chuck