2019 Western US Roadtrip
Getting on the Road
The western states are a favorite of ours to travel to and explore. There is so much nature to see. The high desert and even the lower desert is so beautiful and different from where we live in Florida or where we are from in Georgia. Rob and I love to get out on the road and go to places that we have never been to before. That is exactly what we did for this trip.
The last year has been very trying in Panama City and Panama City Beach. Since hurricane Michael hit us hard October 10, 2018, things have been stressful. So for us to finally be able to get away was so necessary! Both of our jobs have been stressful since or maybe it’s us, but either way it was time for us to escape and take a long road trip.
Our trip started out at 3:39 AM. I was hoping to leave at 3 and Rob was thinking that we would leave at 4, so I think we found a perfect compromise! I am NOT a morning person at all and getting up early is usually very hard for me, this day it was pretty easy! I couldn’t wait to get on the road. We had everything other than the food and cooler packed in the car before we went to bed. We filled the cooler and loaded up the snacks and and Dogs and away we went!
Friends, Brett and Ginger
Our first day was a long one and it rained on us from Mobile, AL all the way to Oklahoma City, OK. I felt like the rain was washing all of the negativity of the last few weeks away and cleansing us for a relaxing, stress free trip. We got to our friends house around 8:00 PM. Brett and Ginger are two of the most genuine people that we have ever met. Brett is a retired fireman and a salt of the earth man. He builds and makes all sorts of things and Ginger is the sweetest, nicest true southern woman. I can’t say enough good things about them. They opened their home to us like we were family and we felt so welcomed and at home. Brett built a small log cabin on their property that they use for family meals and gatherings. It is decorated very rustically with found things that they picked up at swap meets and things that they have made. There was a beautiful table that he made from an old table top that he found on the beach of all places! And just for us they put a bed in there so that we could stay there and have privacy and keep our dogs confined. It was warm and cozy from the wood burning stove that they had kept going all day so that we would be comfortable. WHO DOES THAT? In the morning they made us a special breakfast and it was a perfect start to the day. After the meal we took a walk around their property (something that I had said in passing once that I wanted to do one day). They have a great homestead! I feel very fortunate that they came into our lives and we can call them true friends!
Day Two, Driving Day
After our visit, we headed out toward New Mexico. First stop was Chick Fil A for a sweet tea for the ride. We took I 40 to get us across Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. This is a drive that we have done before and it is very boring! The only thing of note from this drive was we saw several hawks on fence post and there were snow patches in Texas. One thing that I like about driving in Texas is they are pretty adamant about keeping in the right lane except to pass. The number of big rigs was crazy, but they were pretty good about passing and getting right back over in the right lane. There are signs along the road that say not to impede traffic in the left lane. So for the rest of the trip (and probably for the rest of our lives,) we would call drivers in the left lane that were going slower than we wanted, “impeders”.
We got in to New Mexico and the landscape changed and we felt like we were finally in the desert! We started to look for a campground a little before dark. We found Santa Rosa Lake State Park and drove around it to the campground and parked for the night. It was pretty cold but we wanted to try our hands at shooting the milky way. There wasn’t a moon out so it was pretty dark and the Milky Way was very visible. Rob hasn’t ever done any star photography with his new camera and was having trouble finding his settings in the dark. I had attempted it once so I had a little better time, but it was difficult getting focused and pointed in the right direction (did I mention that it was DARK and COLD??) Plus we were trying to keep quiet and not use too much light because it was late and we didn’t want to disturb the other campers. I got one decent shot and we gave up.
This was our first night sleeping in the Atlas (my Volkswagen Atlas, named Clara). We have been excited to camp in her since I bought her back in May of 2018. It has plenty of room in the back with the seats down and we had camp mattresses and comforters and a foam topper so it was pretty comfy. Well it was the 2nd night, we had too much air on my side the first night and I kept falling off to the side and the foam topper kept slipping…..it was a rough night, but we stayed warm. The dogs were being pretty good and they make great little heaters!
Day Three, New Mexico
The next morning, we woke up early and watched the sunrise. We drove down to the lake and looked around. There is an overlook with a bathroom (I wish I had know this the night before!) It was an actual bathroom with running water and real toilets! The one at the campsite was what Rob calls an outhouse, a room with a port a potty type toilet. They are better than port a potty’s but still not ideal.Anyway, from the lookout we could see the dam and some creature, we think it was an otter, swimming across. It was too far away to get a photo but looking at it with the zoom lens, I’m pretty sure it was an otter. On the way out we saw some Mule deer, they looked very healthy and are larger than the deer that we see at home.
Along the drive, we stopped in a small town, Cuba, New Mexico and grabbed lunch at Del Prado, I had a cheese quesadilla and Rob had a green chili chicken sandwich. It really was more like a burrito or something but he said it was the best food he had the whole trip. Mine was good too.
Once we left the park, we headed on into New Mexico and decided to head toward Chaco Culture National Historical Park. We went into Cochiti Reservation and wanted to go to the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, but when we got there they had signs up that they do not allow dogs in the park (at all!). So that left us out. It was a beautiful area and Rob got a cap so it wasn’t a total loss. All in all the first day in New Mexico was a little frustrating. Once we left Chaco we headed north and toward Four Corners. A very healthy coyote ran across the road in front of us and right after a badger crossed the road. It was our first time seeing a badger in the wild. Once it started getting late we looked for a campground but couldn’t find anything. We decided to go to Mesa Verde to Camp. We have been there before and we called and the campground was open but they wouldn’t take reservations, he felt confident that there would be plenty of sites available. On the way to Mesa Verde, we saw that there was a KOA in Cortez, CO so we rode to it, it was closed! So we headed on to Mesa Verde.
Once we got to the campground and got settled, we really weren’t sleepy yet but it was pretty cold so we settled in and laid down looking at the stars through the sunroof. Sometime in the night Rob and I both woke up because Bella, our little girl Italian Greyhound was coughing. Once we woke up, we realized that we were having trouble catching out breath too. Rob looked at the sunroof and said that it looked like it had snowed. No Way, I said because it wasn’t in the forecast plus it was crystal clear when we went to sleep. I touched the inside of the sunroof and windows and the condensation was frozen! There was ice on the inside of the windows. We were comfortable under the covers but it was freezing out from under them. We were still struggling to breathe, so I opened the door and sure enough it had snowed. Had we not been woken up by Bella, we could have suffocated! So note to self, when camping in the car in freezing weather, whether snow is forecast or not, leave a window cracked!!
Day Four, Utah
Once we got everything put back in the back and the dogs situated, we headed out of Mesa Verde and instead of going to Four Corners we decided to go on to Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Driving down the mountain in the snow and ice was very scary! Clara has street tires and they are not meant for snow or ice! Rob drove very slow and I was a total nervous wreck the whole way down the mountain!
When we got to Cortez (a very cute town and I would like to go back there someday) we stopped and got breakfast and Rob a coffee at Burger King. With the dogs we ate everything on the go so we didn’t get to go into any restaurants and have a good sit down meal……but we are fine with that. The drive out of Cortez and toward Canyonlands was pretty and once we got out of the snow, much more comfortable. There were a lot of big rigs on the road this morning but they had a lot of passing lanes so it wasn’t too bad.
We got to Canyonlands National Park, Needles area and WOW! I loved it! We drove up one of the drives that went to a lake, but because of the ice and snow on the road as we got higher up, we eventually turned around. It was absolutely beautiful up there! We drove through the park and stopped several times to take pictures and look around. There was a hike that took us to a “cowboy camp” that we took, but because the dogs are not allowed on trails, I didn’t go very far, Rob hiked farther than I did. It was pretty and it was warming up and turned into a gorgeous day!
I really liked this part of the Park. I like being down in the canyon and seeing all of the formations and landscape from this perspective. We stopped at the visitor center and had a picnic. There was a very pretty scrub jay lurking around waiting for our crumbs. Rob and I and very strict about feeding wildlife so we knew what he wanted but we did not feed him. I did get a few pictures of him though. His was a very handsome bird.
Speaking of birds, at one of the overlooks, a Raven was getting pretty aggressive toward us and chased me back to the car! He was so determined to get food from us that he followed us to the next overlook and chased me again! If you know me, you know that I have a bird phobia. I have been terrified of birds my whole life. Since I have gotten more into taking pictures of wildlife and nature, I have really enjoyed photographing birds and it has helped tremendously with my fear, but certain birds really scare me. Ravens are one of those birds! And no the movie “The Birds” didn’t have anything to do with my fear. My great aunt and mother both have the phobia and I’m sure that is what influenced my phobia.
We spent most of the day exploring here in the park. As the day was winding down we headed toward the other part of the Park, and the search for a campground. We found Horsetheif campground on the road toward the park entrance and stopped for the night right at sunset. It was a gorgeous sunset and we were pretty tired and ready to settle in. The campsite was my favorite of the whole trip and I feel pretty sure that we will go there again someday. The view from there was amazing.
Day Five, More Canyonlands and Moab
Day 2 of Canyonlands National Park, this time the Islands in the Sky area. This part of the Park is looking down into the canyon, Rob liked this better than the other part. We spent most of the day exploring the park and taking pictures. It was another beautiful day and we had a great time.
After seeing all that we could here we went to Dead Horse Point State Park. There are beautiful views here but a very sad story. Rob went to the visitor center first and got the scoop. Apparently way back in cowboy days, they would corral the wild horses, pick the ones they wanted and leave the others corralled to die.
We got an early start to the day so we finished pretty early. We did a fairly quick ride through of Arches National Park before going into town. We decided due to the freezing weather for the next 2 nights that we would get a hotel in Moab. We booked 2 nights at the Hyatt Place, I have a rewards app with them and they are usually pretty clean and nice. It was clean, but it was a terrible room and the pet area was a joke, no it was an insult! The room was 101, if you are ever in Moab and stay at the Hyatt don’t let them put you in 101! The room is against the lobby bathroom and all night long we heard the stall doors slamming, the paper towel holder and flushing! It was ridiculous! We should have asked to move, but it was too much trouble. The pet area was in a corner of the parking lot fartherest away from the hotel, about a block away form the back door and right next to the road! There was no light there either, so they want us to walk a block with our dogs in the below freezing temps in the dark next to a busy road……NOPE! We did when we first got there, but right before bed and first thing in the morning we took them to a closer area of the parking lot and of course we pick up after our pets so that wasn’t a problem. If they don’t want to allow pets, they should just not allow pet’s!
Day Six, Arches National Park
Arches National Park, I think this was my favorite of the Parks from this trip. The scenic drive through the park is amazing and the short hikes to the arches are fairly easy to walk. The views and formations, the mountains, all of it was just gorgeous! We spent all day driving, walking and hiking. I took more pictures here than anywhere else on the trip. The arches were crazy big and the red, pink, orange colors were beautiful.
My favorite Arch was the Sand Dune Arch, The arch itself was nice but the walk to it was great. The sand, the slot between the rocks, the colors were more intense here. We also walked to the Windows, Landscape, Skyline, Double and Broken Arch. We did a lot of Drive by shooting of the other arches and sights. I’m positive that we will be back and without the dogs or in a motor home so that we can do more of the hikes.
We took a little break and went into town for lunch, we tried Giliberto’s Mexican Taco’s on Main Street. I had a fish and a shrimp Taco, the fish one was not very good but the shrimp one was pretty good. Rob had a combo plate of chicken and beef, he said they were ok. After eating we went back to the park.
After a great day in the park, we went into town and to a few of the shops. We picked up a few nice items and enjoyed the town. I was still full from lunch so Rob just grabbed some food at the hotel.
Day Seven, Driving South
On the road out of Moab, we saw a brown sign for La Sal Mountain Loop Rd, and as we are prone to do, we looked at each other and said let’s do it! I am so glad that we did! We started toward the road and once we got to it, it was beautiful! Although we did get a little nervous in a couple of places that had snow on the road. At one point Rob got out and walked to make sure it was safe and the snowy/icy road got better. We did the full loop and it ended at State Rd 128, which went along the Colorado River and back into Moab. We basically did a big circle and ended up back where we started but it was so worth it! If you are ever in Moab, you have to add this drive to your itinerary.
Now we were back on the road south, we decided to go ahead and go to four corners. We really wanted to get a picture of the dogs there. We have one of Bruno there when he as a baby and so it was only natural that we would want one with Bella and Bazil. When we got there, there were signs up saying no dogs were allowed. We had already paid so we got out to see the shops and maybe grab a couple of Christmas gifts. The lady at the first booth said that we could bring the dogs for a picture if we hurried and kept a look out for the white truck (security). So Rob went to get them and we took a couple of quick pictures. They’re not the exact pictures that I wanted but at least we got them. He took them back to the car and Rob took my picture and we looked at the rest of the booths. Rob bought him an arrow from a guy that was making the arrow heads there on site. It’s really a pretty piece and will look great on our book shelf with other things that we have picked up along our travels.
After we left there we were driving along and saw signs to Monument Valley, so since we have never been through there we decided to go. Years ago we drove up to it but we never went in and drove the road that goes through it. After Arches and Canyonlands, it was a little anti climatic, but it was still beautiful, When the sun started setting is when it really came to life and was absolutely beautiful! The road is not paved and gets a little rough in parts, nothing terrible and a car can do it, but it’s not smooth. The color there is very red. We saw some horses that were right by the road, we wondered if they were wild, as we had seen some wild horses earlier on our drive. A couple of them had brands on their rumps so I guess they belong to someone, or did at one time. Rob and I took turns going in the visitor center, but we really didn’t see anything that we wanted to buy. I did get some pretty pictures of the sunset and of the moon when it came into view.
We left there an headed to look for a campground. We decided to keep driving and get as far south as we could stand to in the dark. We made it to Flagstaff. We got a hotel at a La Quinta Inn because it was getting down in the teens again and it being so late it just made more sense.
Day Eight, Saguaro National Park
We left Flagstaff and headed farther south. We got about 30 minutes or so south and started seeing the saguaro cactus, I yelped with excitement! We have been around this area before but have never seen the cactus, usually when we have been in the Flagstaff area is has been at night or we didn’t get far enough south. One of the things that I really wanted to see this trip was these cactus, so I was really happy! The drive was pretty nice until we got to Phoenix, the traffic there was awful! Once we got out of it it really stated to get warm and when we got to Saguaro National Park it was hot. I was happy to have the warmth but Rob had really been enjoying the cold.
The Park is divided into two parts and we went to both. We started in the West part and went to the visitor center there. It was not very busy at all. When we got out on the scenic drive road, it was empty! We only saw 3 other cars the whole drive. This is my kind of exploring! The vegetation is really different and beautiful here. The birds are different too. We saw several stellar jays and quiet a few other small birds that I couldn’t identify. Rob and I got out at one of the picnic areas and got a little silly with a couple of pictures with the HUGE cacti. Along the road we stopped to try to get a picture of the stellar jays (they are fast!) and at one of the stops we saw a big ole jack rabbit, he stopped in the brush by the road and I got a couple of shots of him but he was on my side of the road so I didn’t want to open my door and scare him off. Rob was able to get out on his side and walk to get a better angle to photograph him from. He got a really nice shot of him.
Driving to the East part of the park, we stopped in Tucson at an In and Out Burger. Since we don’t have one in our part of the country, we thought we would give it a shot, and Hollywood is always going on about them so they must be good , right? (insert rolling eyes here) Rob said that the “double double” was ok, but not anything to seek out and the fries that they claim to be fresh cut, don’t seem to be actually fresh cut…..
The second part of the Park in the East was also pretty empty. There didn’t seem to be as many of the cactus in that part but it was equally as pretty. We watched the sunset from this part and it was another beautiful one. This whole trip we saw a lot of pretty sunrises and sunsets.
We headed east after this and started the search for a campground. We have decided if we do this again, we may have to do a better job of looking for campgrounds before we leave home. This time because we didn’t have an itinerary of where we were going it wouldn’t have been possible. Searching for a campground in the dark in unfamiliar territory is aggravating and every night was frustrating and the only time that Rob and I got a little testy with each other! We did find Roper Lake State park and camped there. It was a little drive to get to it but it was a nice find.
Day Nine, White Sands National Monument
We left the campground and headed east, we didn’t have a plan, just to go and see what we could find. We saw signs to White Sands and decided to head that way. Until then we really thought that we were just heading toward home. Along the road we saw several border patrol set ups at truck weigh stations and outside of the park they were set up on the highway stopping all vehicles. They asked if we were both US Citizens and sent us on our way.
When we got to the park entrance, it was the most crowded of all the parks that we had been to. The bathroom at the visitor center was the nastiest National Park bathroom I have ever been in! YUCK! The Park itself is very pretty. Some of the dunes looked like snow, others that had vegetation on them looked like being at the beach. They are very dog friendly, which was a nice change and we walked one of the “boardwalks’ out to an overlook with the dogs, they were happy to stretch their legs and so were we. The rest of the road just winds through the dunes and there are a few picnic areas and places to park. You could see people out on the dunes with sleds and dogs and kids, looks like a great local spot to spend a Saturday.
We drove through the whole park and got out to take a few picture and put the dogs on the sand to take theirs too. We ended back at the visitor center and I went in to look for a travel stamp for my book and wound up buying a worry stone, I think I will keep it on my desk at work. It’s smooth and white, it’s really pretty. The shop was crowded so I didn’t look too long and they didn’t have the stamp that I wanted so we headed on our way.
Once we left there Rob wanted to go to Carlsbad Caverns, it would be closed by the time we got there but we thought that there would be plenty of places to camp around there…..we couldn’t find any. On the drive we went through Cloudcroft and got gas there, it was really cute town and we have put it on our list to go back and check out. The drive from White Sands to where we finally wound up was really pretty. We did find one park that was very nice but the camping was pretty full and we didn’t want to park in the parking lot (other people were, but we are rule followers so we just couldn’t). We wound up in Guadalupe Mountains National Park just inside Texas. It too didn’t have any camp spots except for RV’s so we paid the RV price and parked and went to sleep. The next morning we noticed a few other “car campers’ parked in regular parking spots sleeping. It was a beautiful place and the sunrise was very nice. This is probably the most sunrises I have seen in years!
We didn’t go to Carlsbad Caverns, it’s not really a place to go when you have dogs with you and there is no way I would kennel them there (or anywhere) so we headed on east.
Day 10, Headed Home
The drive from Guadalupe Mountains National Park started out pretty but once we got on the interstate, it was really boring. We thought that we might go to the Alamo since we were driving right through San Antonio. The traffic was so horrible that we just wanted to get out of there! Once we got out of San Antonio traffic we thought we would be ok for awhile or at least until we got to Houston, I looked for ways around Houston but there really wasn’t any good routes so we kept east. We got about 90 miles west of Houston and the traffic started getting really thick again. Once we were 70 miles out it was stop and go and or really really slow! So we decided our nerves and my sanity were worth taking a long out of the way route around. It may have added time to our drive, but maybe not, either way it was worth not being in that traffic. I doubt that we will ever go I-10 that way again.
The drive across Texas was so boring and ugly. We saw a lot of pipe line “camps” or whatever you would call them. There were little villages of trailers or dorms set up for the workers and the land was flat and well just ugly….ugly from the work being done to it. I was glad to be back on I-10 and headed home. We drove all day and made it to Louisiana by nightfall. We looked for a campground and found a little privately owned one to stop in for the night, the tent sights were walk up so we paid for an RV spot and parked and went to bed.
Day 11, Home
The campground, White Oak Park, was on a lake outside of Lake Charles, LA and was really a nice park. We found us a Chick Fil A and got breakfast and tea and headed home. We got home about 3:30 and we were so happy to be out of the car! We had a great trip and loved all of it (well maybe not the traffic in Phoenix, San Antonio and Houston)
11 days, 7 national parks, 3 state parks and 5373 miles. What a great trip! We are ready to do it all again…….
