A new state after several months!!  Hello New Mexico!  We briefly sped through NM on our way to our Mesa, AZ workcamping position so we decided to spend a bit more time as we make our way to Colorado.

We made Cochiti Lake COE park our home for exploring NM.  This park is located halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM, a bit off the beaten path, in an area with a very interesting history.  The park is located within the boundaries of the Pueblo de Cochiti Nation on the Rio Grande.  We talked to someone in the area and it seems the lake and dam was not wanted by the local tribe but was basically forced upon them.  A developer then came in with big plans to create another Santa Fe size town on the lake area with approx 400,000 people.  The deal went south and the developer went bankrupt and there is only about 50 homes.  Supposedly the deal with the tribe is that in about 40 years, that land reverts back to the tribe.  It seems most of the homeowners are seniors, who may not very much care what happens in 40 years.  There is also a gas station, golf course and marina, but they don't seem widely used, except for those that live in the homes.  The one thing that did seem to be used was the mac daddy laundromat there.  In our travels, I have NEVER seen anything like this!  There were big beautiful stainless steel fro-loading wash machines that could handle 8 loads and dryers to that size as well.  There had to be at least 30 washers!!  There were 5 large flat screen TV's, each showing a different cable program, and CLEAN...utterly amazing!  Can you tell I was in heaven???  Alot of the tribe seemed to utilize the facility, especially for their large blankets.  I think it was spring cleaning of all winter blankets while I was there.  

Wow, ok, I'm back!  Went to my laundry happy place for a moment!  So, the reason we asked locals about the little community is that the campground seemed oddly like the COE park that time forgot.  Sure the loop we were in was nice, with pretty copper shelter over our concrete picnic table and pretty level, but there were sections that were closed and looked like they were abandoned.  They looked to be day use type areas, perhaps built with the vision that the numerous local people in the development would come to the lake for a picnic.  The lake also seemed to be pretty empty during our stay.  A far cry from the atmosphere at Lake Pleasant.  I will say, it was quiet.  But with being so remote, we exhausted our sightseeing options and ended up leaving a day early.

On our first day we decided to take a drive on the Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway.  This is a 50 mile drive along Hwy 14 through the Sandia Mountains and the mining towns of Cerillos, Madrid and Golden.  Alot of "artsy" folks have displays and stores along the route and the vistas are beautiful!  It is named for the blue green turquoise first mined in the area in 900 A.D.  The area has been used for several movies, including Wild Hogs and Young Guns.  We stopped in at the Black Bird Saloon in Cerrillos that was really cool and the food was unique and delicious!  

Driving around the four block town was quite interesting as most were dirt roads and the old St. Josephs church still has mass and has an interesting wooden statue of Jesus out front.

While at the campground, we ended up having to replace our convection oven again.  This time we decided to go with a Samsung that was much better quality and fit the space.  We are currently working with Grand Design on some sort of reimbursement since the last one was still under warranty.

We also found another National Monument, Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks.  We did not really know what to expect and were blown away at the beauty!  We decided to go on a Saturday morning and found out upon arrival, that entry is limited, so basically, you wait until another vehicle comes out when they are at max occupancy.  We waited about 5 minutes and were able to go in.  The tents were amazing and the landscape overall was breathtaking.  The skies were a brilliant blue, which made the rocks that much more amazing.  It was such a beautiful day that we hiked both trails and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  

The decision to leave a day early turned out to be a good one.  In reviewing our Drive Weather android app, which by the way is a great tool, we found that it would be getting really windy by afternoon, so we decided to leave earlier in the morning to get to our overnight stay before they peaked there.  The app is great because you can pick the time you want to leave and it will show you varying weather details, including wind speed along your route and then you can adjust time to determine if a different travel time would be better.  It has saved our bacon a couple times now!  We reached Raton Pass, which is the last exit before Colorado and also the highest elevation.  It was quite interesting being on the Pass when the winds started kicking up.  Luckily we were protected a bit against a cliff but still had a bit of rock n roll!  In the morning we were off early again to our Colorado destination to beat the winds, and again, our app helped us decide on the time to leave as there were also storms in Colorado forecasted.  If you travel, I definitely recommend downloading the DriveWeather app.  I know they have it for android but not sure if it is in the Apple store.

Next up...catching up with friends in Colorado...and a snowstorm!

SHOP AMAZON HERE
Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming?  It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above.  You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same.  Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program,  any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog.  
Thank you for stopping by!!!!

After leaving the Grand Canyon area, we headed east on I-40 to explore another National Park, but first we made a much anticipated stop in Winslow, AZ.

You see, we needed to do an ultimate touristy thing and go Stand on the Corner in Winslow, AZ.  Yes, the Eagles song folks, and the town really capitalizes on it!  They have a corner in town dedicated to the song that you are able to stand there and hang out by the flatbed Ford.  Yeah we weren't the only ones being the cheesy tourists, in fact it was a steady stream of folks!  Did we mention it's is also on Route 66?  Score, kill two birds with one stone there!

We also had heard others talk about stopping at the La Posada Hotel for lunch in the Turquoise Room while in Winslow so we decided to check it out and boy were we glad we did.  What a beautiful place, steep in history.  Mary Colter, who is well known for her architectural masterpieces at the Grand Canyon South Rim, such as El Tovar Hotel, Bright Angel Lodge, Hopi House and the Phantom Ranch at the canyon bottom.  What we found very interesting, is that back during her time, female architects were few and in order for her to get her work considered, she submitted her Grand Canyon designs under her initials and last name.  She also worked for the Fred Harvey company, designing many buildings along the way as the railroad pushed west.  She considered La Posada, a 1930 railway hotel in Winslow, to be her masterpiece.  She designed everything from the sprawling hacienda style hotel, to the acres of gardens, down to the china.   We walked thru the hotel and grounds, admiring all of the intricate details throughout.  The Turquoise Room restaurant within, is also beautiful.  

To top it all off, the food was really good too!  Rick had the Barbacoa tacos with a smoky 3 chili chipotle sauce.  I had a delicious fresh cut turkey sandwich and caesar salad.  Their food had some unique twists that make it really memorable, like the smoked sunflower seeds in my cesar salad, which was really good!

After our stop in Winslow for the afternoon, we were on our way to boondocking spot for the evening.  Petrified Forest Gift Shop has two camping options in their parking lots.  They either have boondocking spots or, across the street, there are spots with electric.  We arrived early enough in the afternoon to score an electric spot for $10.  This spot is literally at the southern gates to the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert, which was exactly what we wanted.  Be aware if you are planning to come to this spot, to have everything you need such as groceries and fuel.  There is literally nothing around except this Petrified Forest Gift Shop!!

The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert are connected and the drive through the 28 mile park takes about 45 minutes, but then add time to stop and see the many pull outs and points of interest.  The Petrified Woods is mostly on the south end of the park, then the landscape begins to change to more desert features as you move north.  The petrified logs from a prehistoric forest date back to the Triassic period, 225 million years ago.   It was surreal to walk among the big logs and try to imagine them being that old.  

​Agate Bridge is a 10 foot long preserved log bridge and many years ago, folks put some concrete underneath it to support it.

​There are several interesting rock formations as you get closer to the painted desert and the colors change as the sun moves.  Seeing them in the afternoon, looks completely different than in the morning light.  Pueblos can also be found in the park.  

​Route 66 ran through the park back in the day and there is a neat little tribute to the ol route.

At the northern end of the park is the Painted Desert with the Painted Desert Inn, which is another Fred Harvey hotel from the early twentieth century.  

The beautiful vistas at the Painted Desert again, did not disappoint and changed with the sun and made for some beautiful views, as well as pictures.

Since the drive through the park is relatively flat with gentle hills and little traffic, we decided to drive through the park the next morning with the RV and I took my turn at driving the big rig for the first time.  I am very comfortable driving the truck but this was something new!  I think I did pretty good and Rick didn't scream or jump out of the truck!

Well that concludes our 3 1/2 months in Arizona.  Up next,  we are off to Colorado, via New Mexico!

SHOP AMAZON HERE
Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming?  It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above.  You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same.  Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program,  any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog.  
Thank you for stopping by!!!!

Who knew that the Flagstaff/WIlliams area had soo many other things to do and see???  We didn't and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found.

Sunset Crater Volcano & Wupatki National Monuments

Our first trip was to check out Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki.  Originally I was focused on Sunset Crater only, but the two national parks are actually connected, so it was a two'fer!  We do have the America the Beautiful pass and for us young pups, we have to pay the full price of $80 a year.  However, since we have been fulltime for almost a year, we have been to 12 locations covered by the pass and it has more than paid for itself.  The Grand Canyon vehicle entrance fee was $35 alone!  We also have downloaded a really cool app called Chimani National Parks.  It identifies all of the National Parks, Monuments, Sites, Battlefields, etc and gives you information on each and links to the official site as well as offering discounts on things in the area.  In addition to that, a really cool piece we like is that you can earn badges when you visit and you can then go back and see where you've been and when.  Plus, it's FREE, so it's for ME!
 
Sunset Crater Volcano is relatively young volcano in that it is only about 800 years old.  Upon its eruption it created more than 600 hills and mountains in the volcanic field.  There were then gas vents that opened up on the sides of the volcano, erupting themselves like toothpaste pushing out of the tube, creating the lava fields, with this whole process taking 6 months to a year.  The "grand finale" then was a final burst of red and yellow oxidized cinders that blew out and fell on the rim, giving it a glow that reminded people of a sunset and thus led to its name.

It was soo interesting to see the varying landscape and the coolest part was being able to walk in an actual lava field.  It looked like we were somewhere in Hawaii and the lava flow was fresh! BTW, it was a windy day!!!

From Sunset Crater we drove through the park up to the Wupatki pueblos.  It was interesting to see the how the landscape environment changes from mountain to desert as you make this drive.  Situated on the SW corner of the Colorado Plateau, you start off with Ponderosa Pines around the Sunset Crater, then to a prairie grassland environment on your drive north to the pueblos.  Once we reached Wupatki,  you are in desert surroundings.  

The Wupatki National Monument area consists of several pueblos and villages, from one story to several in a high rise like building.  The largest dwelling had around a hundred rooms.  Sandstone slabs, limestone blocks and chunks of basalt were the main pieces used in construction of these buildings with a clay based mortar and some used large pines as roof beams and load bearing supports.  The community had large gathering rooms and ball courts.  Amazingly, these buildings look really good today, being that they are over 800 years old!

Planes of Fame Air Museum

Another day we checked out the Planes of Fame Air Museum which is on Hwy 64 north of Williams, on the way to Grand Canyon.  This is a smaller location to their main site in Chino, CA, where they also have air shows.  Even so, it was still cool to see the planes and military memorabilia they had.  Amazingly, 90% of the fleet is still flyable.  They even had a boneyard out back that you could peruse.   Rick even was able to get in the cockpit!

Walnut Canyon National Monument

Our last day trip was to Arizona's 2nd largest canyon, Walnut Canyon National Monument.  This canyon could not have been any more different to the Grand Canyon.  For reference, the Grand Canyon is approx 6000 ft deep and 22 miles long and the Walnut Canyon is around 600 ft deep and 20 miles long.  So second in size, but definitely not a close second!  It was still amazing in it's own right.  This canyon is east of Flagstaff and has both wooded and more arid desert settings in the canyon.  One side shows more Ponderosa and Pinyon pines while other areas have prickly pear cactus and yucca growing. 

The Sinagua people lived in the canyon sometime before 1250 AD and built homes into the ledges of the canyon, including on large middle island cliff.  The cliff dwelling were believed to be built and maintained by the women of the tribe while the men were farming and hunting up on the rim of the canyon.  

The park has two trails, one a rim trail which allows you to take in great views from the rim and see some ruins up top and the second, Island trail, takes you down into the canyon to get up close and personal with the cliff dwellings.  This trail is a must!  But know that there are 273  steps down the cliff with over a 185 foot decent and back up along with 190 other steps when you get down to the dwellings.  That's over 700 steps!!!  I will not lie, we thought there was no way we would be able to do the stairs and I thought for sure my hip would call it quits!!!  However, when I saw an older couple coming back up without looking like they were ready to call 911, I thought we had a fighting chance!  There are railings and benches along the way so you can stop on the way up to take a break, which we did!  We are soo glad we did it though!  The views were amazing and the dwellings were surreal.  Knowing that people lived here that long ago and here we were, weathering out a storm, in the same dwelling.  You could see and smell the smoky burn marks still on the walls.  Another great, little known, National Monument!

Whew, we have been busy little tourists and I still have a couple posts to catch up on, so you will be hearing more from me this week!  Even though the weather has been crazy with a little bit of everything thrown in, we have been making the most of it!  

SHOP AMAZON HERE
Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming?  It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above.  You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same.  Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program,  any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog.  
Thank you for stopping by!!!!

After the Verde Valley and all the red rock of Sedona, we were ready for more trees, you see a theme here right??  Destination, Grand Canyon area.  We have been looking forward to this stop for quite awhile as neither of us have ever been to the Grand Canyon before.

We booked our stay here back in February, knowing we would be coming at the start of the tourist season and wanted to make sure we had a site at Grand Canyon Railway RV Park because we were going to be taking their train up to the canyon.  We checked into the park around noon on a Monday and they had a steady stream of people coming in.  The RV Park is right in downtown WIlliams, AZ and is part of the Grand Canyon Railway complex, including the train, depot, Wild West shootout area, restaurant. pub, gift shop, playground, pet resort and hotel.  We were amazed how nice the entire complex was!  With all of this, it was still very quiet.  I suspect in a couple weeks it will be very busy.

The RV park was all paved, FHU sites, including cable TV and screaming fast WIFI, even with a full RV park.   Most sites were pull thru with a couple back in sites along the perimeter.  The perimeter of the park also had a nice walking trail.  With having the train to the Grand Canyon, this means that you are near the tracks.  I would probably not want to be in a back up site by the tracks, since other trains come through, but otherwise it was fine.  We met some really nice people at the RV Park and spent some time with a couple from FL, who were great travel partners to the train.  

While we were in the Williams/Flagstaff area, we had some wild weather.  Lots of rain, thunderstorm, hail and even snow!

We had reserved dome car seats on the train for the way up and then regular first class coach for the return trip from the Grand Canyon.  This was certainly a splurge for us as the tickets were expensive, even though we got a Sr. discount.  How could we get a sr discount you ask if we're not 65??  Well, it is an AARP discount and as long as you have the card, you are in like flint!  This was a once in a lifetime sort of trip. so that is how we justified it.  Bread and water for us for awhile!  If I had it to do over again, I would probably have booked an overnight stay at one of the hotels in the park and then brought the train back the following day.  This would have given us more time there, including catching a sunset and sunrise.

The train departs the Williams depot at 9:30am, but before boarding, they have a Wild West show for the travelers, which, in my opinion was a bit cheesy, but hey, some folks got into it.

Then it was off to board the train.  Quite the herd of people, but there were about 10 cars and everyone had assigned cars and seats, so it wasn't a mass rush to try and get the best seat.  We lucked out with a front row seat in the dome car on the way to the canyon, which was really cool to be able to see out all around you above the train.  The cowboys followed us on to the train and entertained each car along the 1 1/2 hr ride to the Grand Canyon.  We really were closer than what that seems to the canyon, but the train only goes 35mph.  It was a peaceful ride through the countryside and it was fun to watch how the landscape changed as we got closer to the canyon.  With the tickets we purchased, we also got a continental breakfast buffet on the way to the canyon and a snack bar on the way back from the canyon. 

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate very well on this visit to the canyon.  We were able to check out some of the eastern part of the southern rim on a motorcoach tour, but half way through, the dark skies let loose and the rain continued for a good part of our time there.  With that being said, we decided to go back to the Grand Canyon on Mothers Day since we had our America the Beautiful National Park pass.  That got us in and the parking was free.  We decided to get there early in the morning before the crowds arrived.  We parked around 8am and had such a nice time with very little people, in fact, some times we had a lookout point all to ourselves.  We also saw some elk enjoying the sunny morning as well.  The views were breathtaking and as the sun rose, the views looked different from every angle.  As I am sure folks who have been to the Grand Canyon can attest to, pictures just can't do it justice!

​We'll leave you with some of our favorite memories of the Grand Canyon.

Up next, checking out all the other great things to do in the Williams/Flagstaff area...

​​SHOP AMAZON HERE
Would you like to help support our blog and keep these updates coming?  It is easy to help, just do your Amazon shopping through the link above.  You still get all your Amazon Prime benefits and the prices are the same.  Since we are in the Amazon affiliate program,  any shopping you do through our link, provides a little kickback to support this blog.  
Thank you for stopping by!!!!