We turned off the main highway so that we could take an old portion of the famous "Mother Road" Route 66 through Oatman, a former mining boom town that has been revived in all its western kitschy glory. It is most famous for the wild burros that visit its streets each day to be fed and petted by tourists. They are descendants of domesticated burros that used to work in the mines, and we were warned to keep Coco away from them as they like to "stomp on dogs".
It is also famous as the 1939 honeymoon location of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, who stayed at the Oatman Inn after their "quicky" wedding, which was legal then in Arizona but not California. The bar and restaurant at this place are covered with more dollar bills than we've ever seen. That may sound silly, but for anyone who's traveled to famous haunts around the world, you know it's very popular to write your name on a bill of currency and attach it to the wall. This place was absolutely swarmed in bills, actually hanging from the walls and ceilings like insulation because all the 2D space was already taken. You could barely see the place through the minty green fur. I imagine if they took them all down, all the homeless could be fed in Arizona for a month.
But the best part of this section of Route 66 was the views. It wound through rock peaks and outcrops, and more old abandoned copper mines to count.
The tourist info centre in Kingman recommended a free campsite about 3 miles north of the city, but when we arrived we realized we couldn't stay. While it did feature great hiking trails through fascinating landscape, the only place to overnight was a parking lot just off the freeway. So we went for a short walk then headed north towards Packsaddle Mountain, a state recreation site in the mountains.
It was a 9 mile dirt road here...the first 7 were fairly easy but then we hit the base of the ridge climbing over 2500 feet in a few miles on one-lane switchbacks. Andrew has become a virtuoso at the wheel! It's several degrees cooler here than in the valley, but it's a welcome change. And Coco is having her first sniff of pine trees, and loves pine cones!
Though there is not much to actually "do" here - no hiking trails or anything - so we will probably head towards Lake Mead tomorrow, the large reservoir created by Hoover Dam. Had a roaring fire to keep warm and was able to grill steaks and kebabs right over the flames for dinner.
March 31 - We are heading into Las Vegas tomorrow, baby, for the Rod Stewart concert!
Right now we are sitting in our campsite in Lake Mead watching helicopter after helicopter pass by...about 25 have gone by in the past 10 minutes...they must all be heading to do Grand Canyon tours. It's almost like watching aerial bombers go by during a firestorm!
Maybe they were all backed up because there were such bad winds yesterday and this morning. There were up to 70 mph winds through the Las Vegas area yesterday, and we certainly felt it here at Lake Mead. We had a good walk in the morning, but by afternoon could only stay in the trailer without getting knocked over by wind and dust. It is a very desolate landscape. But there are a few manicured areas with patches of green grass. It's the first manicured lawn Coco has ever experienced, and she LOVES rolling around and jumping in it!
April 3 - At the moment we are holed up in our trailer during a very wet, cold day at Zion. But I'll back up a bit first....
We learned the wind storm on March 30 reeked havoc on Las Vegas and area, with many planes grounded and power out for 40,000 people. Thankfully we were fine hanging in the trailer and the weather cleared the next day. Hopefully this patten repeats itself now...
We got into Las Vegas midday on April 1 and hit an outlet mall before heading to our destination - we reserved a spot at the RV park adjacent to Circus Circus on the Strip. It's basically just a huge parking lot that charges a lot of money to overnight ($60 US!) but at least they have a nice pool, showers, and a dog park where Coco met some other canine travellers.
The Rod Stewart concert was AWESOME! The Colosseum at Caesar's Palace is a small venue holding 2,000 people and we had great seats only about 60 feet from the stage. He played all the hits with the same gusto he had decades ago, kicking and dancing, with amazing backing artists. Each song had its own "story" with well-prepared audiovisual displays on giant screens. At the end, Rod kicked soccer balls into the crowd, demonstrating he still has his footie skills by launching some up into the upper bleachers, and giant balloons dropped for everyone to bounce around.
A crowd can make or break a concert, and one of the best things about this concert was the audience - all very passionate fans who got out of their seats and danced and sang along to every song.
It was the first time Coco was alone for more than an hour, but it was her bedtime and we knew she'd be fine...and she was.
We left Las Vegas early the next morning for southwest Utah. About halfway to our destination, the BLM office, I realized "Darn, it's Sunday - it'll be closed!". But a friend we met in Todos Santos had given me directions to a BLM area just outside Zion called Dalton Wash, so we headed there hoping for the best.
Dalton Wash was a nice area, very popular with mountain bikers, but the road was much more difficult than we bargained for with a trailer. We only made it part way up before deciding to u-turn and pull off on one of the off-shoots we noticed. Even that off-shoot was dicey. We got in okay with some maneuvering and had a nice night enjoying the towering red cliffs around us.
The morning was cloudy and drizzly. Though we'd planned on staying there a few days, Andrew was concerned about getting out if things got muddy and gullies got any deeper with rainfall. And he was right. It took a good 15 minutes of shovelling, and using rocks and planks to breach a large ditch in the dirt road to get the trailer out intact.
So, though we knew Coco wouldn't be allowed on trails in Zion, we headed here as we figured the developed campsite would be safer in the rain. We had bought an annual National Parks pass at Lake Mead, so didn't have to pay the $30 entry fee, and campsites are a reasonable $20 per night. And there is a reason it is one of the most popular national parks in the USA. Just driving into the south entrance, you find yourself in an incredibly surreal valley of towering red jagged cliffs created by the Virgin River.
With popularity comes crowds...we waited about 10 minutes to get into the park and 50 minutes in line for the first-come, first-serve campground! This afternoon, even during the pouring rain, there were huge line-ups for the shuttle that carries visitors to the famed hiking trails. Andrew and I have decided to just chill. At least Coco can walk around the campsite and along a trail that follows the river, and tomorrow when it's predicted to be sunny we can venture forth.
April 6 - It's easy to see why Zion is such a popular national park. The towering cliffs of vermillion, coral and white are utterly other-worldly. Both mornings we were there, I woke early to get on the visitor shuttle up the canyon before the crowds; Andrew was happy to sleep in with Coco instead of joining what he calls "the tourist hordes".
Angel's Landing is the park's most famous hike, rated as a strenuous 4-hour climb up almost 1500 ft to one of the area's peaks. The final half-mile push is a scramble over weathered sandstone with 1000 ft cliffs on both sides of the trail.
I hadn't intended to do this hike as I knew it would be packed, but the trail I did plan on trekking was too muddy from the previous day's rains, and since I was at the Angel's Landing trailhead I went for it. To say it is "strenuous" is an understatement. In fact, I'm quite surprised a national park, notorious for rules and regulations, actually lets people on this trail unsupervised. The first section is quite tame, but you quickly enter a section of 22 crazy steep switchbacks going almost vertical. I consider myself in good shape and I was passing people, but soon my lungs and thigh muscles were burning. Anyone with cardiac issues or vertigo would have a very tough time.
Reaching the plateau called Scout's Landing, it was all worth it, staring down the canyon from over 1000 feet up and all the surrounding towers in the morning sun. But then I looked at the final push to the Angel's Landing peak, my stomach knotted. People literally scrambling on hands and feet over smooth rock on a 45 degree angle, with no fences or supports at all in case of a slip. Apparently seven people have died over the past decade here, and I'm surprised it isn't a higher number. I gathered my courage and started up the path, but only got about 100 feet before freaking out and turning around. I wasn't alone.
The next morning I did the trail I'd originally intended to do as it had dried out. It led to three tiny pools, lower, middle, and upper, formed by a small waterfall as it cascaded down a several-hundred-foot-high rock face. In the early morning, there was no one on this trail - the only creatures I encountered were three mule deer and some squirrels. Magical! On the route back as morning progressed, I counted 83 people on the trail, 90% of which I passed on the final kilometre as they headed up.
In the national parks, dogs aren't allowed on trails and must be on leash at all times. Thankfully, there was one dog-friendly trail along the Virgin River that Coco could enjoy, but she still didn't like being tied up while in our campsite. One time during her usual frolicking and rolling, she kept getting wound up in the rope and we figured "she's usually pretty good at staying close by" so undid the clip. She is a smart dog and realized "hey, this is FREEDOM", and immediately dashed off across the road and through several neighbouring campsites, even enticing our fellow campers to try to coax her to heel. Between the rules and the severely chilly morning weather, we were all happy to depart and enjoy the very scenic drive leaving Zion heading east, up several switchbacks and through a 1.1 mile tunnel to the mesa plateau above.
The BLM office in Kanab recommended a good destination for us that we never would have found out about on our own - a dispersed camping site (ie. no services or specified spots) on Lake Powell just inside Glen Canyon National Recreation Area down Lone Rock Road. Arriving, the reason behind the name became glaringly clear - there is a massive stone monolith jutting out of this arm of Lake Powell. And because we have our national parks annual pass, we don't have to pay the $14/night fee to stay here!
This site is a huge 2 km beach of pale coral sand surrounded by stone cliffs. The only vegetation is low scrub, and that only covers 1% of the land - otherwise it's stark rock and sand ranging from coppery-brown to light sage depending on the layers of the rock.
We set up 20 feet from the water's edge, and best of all, with all the space here everyone lets their dogs roam free. Coco must think she's back in Baja - though it is a bit chillier.
Addendum: We'd been enjoying our good fortune of a great camp site for all of 2 hours when a large party of 4 adults, 5 young children, a yappy puppy, and 2 Sea-doos planted tents within feet of us, sheepishly saying they were scared to go any farther away into deeper sand, and, to add insult to injury, FYI there were more people coming.
We woke in the morning to note that a dozen cars and a virtual tent city had been erected next to us. Apparently, it's a company doing a "team building" weekend and no one in the company informed its members not to feed random puppies wandering into their vicinity. We know Coco got at least one breakfast sausage and heaven knows what else amidst the cooing and ah-ing. So we've moved up into an awesome private spot in the dunes away from the tent city (of Mormons, we've gleaned) and are now fully, finally (fingers crossed) relaxing.
April 10 - We've had several nice days here at Lone Rock recreation site. Went for a kayak yesterday around the rock and to the other side of this arm of Lake Powell, which is just sandblasted sliprock as barren as the moon. For some reason Coco went wild on it, darting and scooting over its surface as fast as she could.
She's started to lose her puppy teeth; the other day she was playing with another puppy (we had ironically first met at Fidel's in Baja!) and he came away with fearsome-looking blood all over his body. But it was just from Coco's bleeding gums!
Much to Andrew's chagrin, she continues to be an attention magnet wherever we go. We went for a brief hike at a place called Horseshoe Bend where the Colorado River has curved a big U through the rock and there were tons of tourists on the path - even many Asians on tour buses. We must have heard about 50 "awwww"s on that path, even getting stopped for pictures!
But it's time to head on - today we'll go east to Monument Valley and then north to Mexican Hat, and later in the week settle down near Moab, Utah, which many say is one of the best places to visit in the state with its plethora of hiking trails and natural beauty.
