Leg 2 Utah to Grand Teton

We left Hurricane Utah and headed for Delta Utah. Delta is about 90 miles south west of Salt Lake City on Highway 50 that goes to Reno. Delta is in the high planes, an agriculture town with no particular redeeming grace other than the fact it is our “Home Base”. For the non RVers, we belong to an organization, Coast to Coast, that allows us to stay at several campgrounds around the country, some of them very nice, for a low nominal fee. To belong to C to C we have to belong to a Home base Park. Delta was the cheapest one (excuse me, the most economically effiecient) we could find, so we are members of Antelope Valley RV Park in Delta, Utah and stayed for free!

The drive from Hurricane on 15 was great for the most part, Utah, unlike California, actually takes care of their roads (nice concept!). When we arrived it was pouring down rain, just what one wants to set up camp in.

After Delta we headed through Salt Lake City (ugh, after so much open, country highway driving, the big city was a rude reminder of how traffic can be) to Brigham, Utah. The first part of the drive, 70 miles, was through gorgeous back country roads. Roads like you would see in an RV book or a TV commercial. In 70 miles we only saw one other car! Funny how just a road can create a memory.

From Brigham we drove to Idaho Falls, Idaho to one of the scrungiest RV parks we have seen. We named it the “Bates Motel” (Remember “Psycho”?) We would have turned around and left were it not for the fact we were meeting Hitchhiker RV friends here (Rich and Joan Walter and Sally and Mike Theroux). We laughed and made the best of it.

Our "neighbor" at the "Bates Motel", that rig ain't ever going anywhere.

Surviving the night at the “Bates Motel” (did I mention the manager knew nothing about RVs and had no front teeth) it was off to Grand Tetons. What a spectacular drive. Big mountains, much of the drive along the Snake River, lush green fields, past potato farms, never not a grand scene. We turned off the main road in Grand Teton National Park to head for our camp ground and almost immediately ran into a big buffalo heard and two herds of Prong Horn Antelope. What an exciting start to our Teton experience. We stayed at the Gros Ventre (pronounced grow vaunt, French for big belly) camp ground.

Our site at Gros Ventre. Wide open spaces, fire pits, sage brush and Gros Ventre river close enough to listen to. We had 7 Hitchhikers at Gros Ventre, great fun.

Happy hour and a camp fire at our rig. Everyone ducked under the awning when a little rain fell but no spirits (human or alcohol were dampened!).

One afternoon we all met in the town of Jackson to explore the town and visit the famous "Million Dollar Cowboy Bar". Jackson is the town, the whole huge area, the valley, is Jackson Hole.



Part of our group under the forever photographed famous elk antler arch. These elk were not killed, they shed their antlers every year.

Inside the Cowboy Bar, those are real saddles and the bar is covered with real silver dollars.

By the way, the opening shot is the remains of the ranch used to shoot the movie "Shane".

This old boy came through our first evening, right in camp. These guys are huge, when he stood up his shoulders were over 6 feet tall. For you photo bugs, it was pretty dark. This shot was exposed for 1.1 seconds, hand held. Thank goodness for Nikon's vibration reduction and for the tree I leaned against, but still 1.1 seconds with very little blur is amazing!

There was a tree in the campground where a great horned owl had hatched two babies. The park was astute enough to cordon off a wide area, including giving up revenue producing camp sites, giving the mom and babies some privacy and protection. This is my favorite shot of the babies.

And here is mom. We watched her coax the babies out of the nest with offerings of field mice for them. Before we left they did leave the nest.

Typical buffalo site, these guys were almost everywhere.

Baby calf crossing the road. Not uncommon to have to stop to let these guys cross the street. Animals in the park do have the right of way.

One morning we took a float trip down the Snake River. We chose the early trip to see the most game. We were on the water by 6:00 am! And it was 38 degrees out, whoo eey. But what an awesome experience. We saw incredible views and we saw ducks, geese, eagle, white pelicans, moose, deer, and elk. Photography was a real challenge as the raft is not allowed to stop and we boogied down the river at about 7 to 10 MPH! Elk

Moose

After the raft trip we had a hearty and warm breakfast with this wonderful view.

These yellow flowers in the foreground are Balsam Root. They are very abundant and so easy on the eye.

Merganser ducks on the river

Mountain wild flower

Leg 1 Calif to Utah

This blog will chronicle our '09 trip planned to Grand Teton National park, Yellowstone, where we will meet 90 other Hitchhiker owners like us, Minneapolis, to visit friends, back through the Midwest to the Colorado Rockies and home, taking 3 months.

Tons of planning, oogles of loading, trailer and truck are screaming "no more", we are finally ready to go! Roxy says good by to all her great friends in the park and we are off.

First stop is Calico Ghost Town, easy first day run and we though a fun spot to stop. Our friends Ruth and Lyle decided to accompany us, so the 4 of us, plus Roxy and Kane (Ruth and Lyle's boxer) arrive 6/5. Great camp site, but very rustic. In the dirt, but isn't that "real" camping and electric hook up only. Windy as the Dickens, but that keeps it cool and blows the critters away. If you have never been to Calico, it is near Barstow, Ca and was a real booming silver mining town. I think it is much more interesting and fun to visit in an RV than just a day drive up because you can visit when you want and as much as you want when camping.

We would just walk in to the town whenever we wanted, before it opened in the morning, in the day and at night if we wanted. Fascinating place, lots of history, amazing country. The town is very open, you can wonder where ever you please, on or off trail.

The opening image is just one of the streets in town, the image above is the one room school house on the edge of town. Can you imagine going to school when it was 100 degrees out, as it often is in the summer?

Ruth and Shelle decide to try the Chinese bath! Wonder if they spent a nickel or a dime?

While walking around the back part of town we discovered several resident Chuckers, a great upland game bird. I went on an early morning safari to capture a couple of these great birds.

We drove into the town of Yermo, Calico's mailing address town, and had to stop at "Peggy Sue's" diner. A great back to the '50s place, very well done and great hamburgers, recommended stop.

From Calico we shot up the 15 into Vegas to Stay at Sam's Town, an off the strip casino, hotel and very nice RV park. Next morning off to Hurricane Utah, just north of St. George. 15 goes from California into a little bit of Arizona, through a really interesting mountain cut, very picturesque drive. There is a new reservoir near Hurricane, completed in 2003, called Sand Hollow and they have a really nice RV park there. Plenty of room and great scenery. Couple shots below.

One day we were able to visit with a couple of our Hitchhiker friends staying in a near by park, Gill and Alan Sarge. Very pleasant visit and so much fun to run into friends at remote locations.

Of course we had to take a day to visit near by Zion National Park. Just the drive up to Zion is spectacular but Zion is awesome. Virtually indescribable. BIG and RED come to mind, it makes one feel so very small. Lots of red rocks, red sand, even the highway is red. Drove through the park, through the mile long tunnel, and decided to just keep going, which turned into a big adventure, we only went about 100 miles out of our way! But really worth it. Lots of high country horse ranches with gorgeous verdant meadows, through the Dixie National forest (I hadn't heard of it either) over a 10,000 foot mountain pass and ended up in Cedar City, Utah.

Here are a couple of shots of the lake:

And here is a shot of our site:

And the view out the back:

And of course, some sunset shots:Our rig and camp site in foreground. Here is another sunset shot:

Sometimes we like to take the road less traveled, here was a side trip we took on the way up to Zion:That's our little white truck out in the "toolies".

This is the road just inside Zion. Without lots of time (we plan to come back and do a Zion only or Zion focused trip), maybe even with lots of time, Zion is a photographic challenge, it is just so big and awesome it is hard to capture it in a picture.

And then on the other side of Zion, cruising down the really cool byway, we spotted a heard of buffalo. Here is mom and baby:And this ol' boy (does he look like a nickel?)