Finally, Diablo got to get out and stretch his wheels. We were asked to watch the 3 oldest granddaughters, while the parents headed out on a kid-free vacation. We started out by spending a few nights on our own, spending the first night just a couple miles from our house in the member RV park. It’s a nice place to make sure everything is in working order after a long winter. Plus, it doesn’t cost us anything.
Our next couple of nights took us to Lathrop State Park in Southern Colorado. As the campsites do not have their own dedicated water supply, we stopped at the park’s water fill to fill our tank. It was taking forever to fill. We couldn’t understand why until I noticed, we had a kink in our hose. Yep, rookie mistake there, you wouldn’t think we’ve been Rv’ing before, would you?
Got to our site and after much back and forth and help from a neighboring camper, we finally decided how we wanted to park. After that, we just took it easy as we were in the midst of a heat wave.
We got up and did a couple of miles on the Hogback Trail in the park. The trail takes you up a ridge where there are some nice views of the Spanish Peaks and of the park lakes.
Near Lathrop is Route 12 or the Scenic Highway of Legends. It’s a little under 70 miles one-way, if you drive all the way to Trinidad Lake State Park. So, we decided to do spend the afternoon doing just that. I had picked up the Summer Visitor Guide in the visitor’s center and it provided info on various points along the way. Since we had a day permit for the Colorado State Parks, it was an easy decision to stop for a picnic lunch at the Trinidad Lake State Park. It also, allowed us to check it out for future camping opportunities. The area along route 12 was built by coal, which supplied the fuel for the steel mill in nearby Pueblo.
It was interesting to see the remnants of the coke ovens and learn about the history of the area. Also, it is a really scenic area with all the small mining towns and a couple of man-made lakes.
Not sure what this was…
Well time on own was over and we had to pick-up the girls. So, the next morning, we headed on to Larkspur, Colorado and the home of a Jellystone Park. If you’re from the East Coast, you’re probably more familiar with the Jellystone Parks as they are more prevalent in the East. We got ourselves set-up and drove to pick-up the girls. They were excited to be spending a week in the “camper”, but had no idea who Yogi Bear was and how he liked to steal picnic baskets.
Jellystone has so much to do for the kids and they had a great time. There’s a Rec Center that has a schedule of activities including crafts, movies and games. There is also a mini-bowling area with about 4 lanes where you can bowl for an extra fee.
Our granddaughter, the foam monster.
No not my hair… 
Awe, sisterly love.
There’s a large pool at the clubhouse where there’s also a café and arcade. The waterpark with another large pool and it’s next to the miniature golf course. But that is not all, there is a sports area as well. In the sports area, there is a huge bounce pad, basketball court sand volleyball, and pickleball courts. If you didn’t bring your own equipment, they have some available at the clubhouse you can borrow.
If didn’t take long before the girls were checking the schedule and letting us know what they wanted to do. In spite of all the crying, fighting and a little bit of missing mom, dad, and Sebastin (the dog), they had a great time and wore us out. Got them back home and we packed-up and headed home the next morning.
We were home a little less than 2 weeks before Diablo was back on the road. Our first stop was to Acoma Sky City RV Park for a night. I managed to win about $18 and Will lost $20 at the casino. So, all in all, not a bad night.
Just the one night in Acoma and we headed to the Gateway to the Grand Canyon, Williams, Arizona. We were staying at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. As we pulled in, the rain started. We managed to finally get set-up in between bouts of rain and thought it had stopped for the day. So, we walked on over to pick-up our train tickets for the next day. Well, we were wrong about the rain, but managed to make it back to the RV before the worst of it.
We started the next morning, taking in the wild west show provided by the railway before boarding the train.
The train runs from Williams to the Grand Canyon Village along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Usually, there is one train up in the morning and then returns in the afternoon. They have the capacity to run 2 trains a day if the demand is there. The train takes just about 2 ¼ hours each way, while driving from Williams takes about an hour. So, it does take longer, but it was enjoyable, and they try to make the ride fun with entertainment, interesting facts, really bad “dad” jokes and a voluntary “train robbery” on the return trip. And don’t worry they also have a café car, so you can buy snacks on-board. We chose to ride there in a Pullman car. The car itself was 100 years old and is the only car on the train where you can open the windows.
We got to the Grand Canyon right before noon and were able to move up our lunch reservation at the El Tovar.
This Big Horn Sheep had a lunch reservation as well.
That left us just enough time to jump on the Grand Canyon Shuttle system to head to the South Kaibab trail. I had read some reviews of the hike to Ooh Aah Point that said this hike was okay for those with a fear of heights. That was not the case with Will. The trail is indeed wider than others I have been on in the canyon because it is also a mule trail, but that descent into the canyon… He stayed up top and I hiked on down. We were on a time limit as the train returns at 3:30, so I managed the almost 2 miles in under an hour. Took our shuttles back to the depot and made it back to the train with a good 30 minutes to spare. For our return trip, I had booked us in the coach class. I thought we might want the nice, air-conditioned car on the way back. Taking the train down and back in the same day only gives you about 3 hours to spend at the canyon, but it is plenty of time to explore the Village area and get some great views of the canyon. We had explored the Village area pretty extensively on a prior trip and wanted to explore a different area which put us in more of a time crunch then most.
There was a bus load of tourists that were coming down when I was going back up.
You don’t have to take the train back on the same day. If you have lodging reservations in the Village, the train will transport your luggage. There’s even a pet resort in Williams, if you have a furry friend that needs lodging while you explore the canyon for the day or overnight. We found the shuttle system in the park easy to navigate and the buses run about every 15 minutes.
Next stop was Alamo, Nevada. As you know, we travel much slower in Diablo and try to limit driving time to around 5 hours. So, we stopped in Alamo, Nevada for the next couple of nights. We learned that this is also a good stopping point for snow birders as the busy months for the RV park are March/April and September/October.
In looking for things to do in the area, we found there were a number of small Nevada state parks. Cathedral Gorge piqued our interest and we decided to drive up and check it out. It’s the remains of a freshwater lake from millions of years ago. The small slot canyons were fun and interesting.
We did most of the hikes in the park and decided to drive over and visit the Kershaw-Ryan State Park as well. It’s only 17 miles from one park to the other, but totally different landscapes as the Kershaw Park is fed by a natural spring. Another small park, we did the overlook hike and I dipped my toes into the spring-fed wading pool. The cold water was a great way to cool off and refresh.
The next morning, we were headed to Great Basin National Park. Our drive was fairly short and with time to kill we made another stop at Cathedral Gorge to do one of the hikes that we missed the day before. We had a cloud cover that day which made our 4 mile hike a little easier.
We spent the next few nights in Baker, Nevada, which is right outside the entrance to the Great Basin National Park. It is the 10th least visited National Park as it is not near an interstate and is a good 60 miles from the nearest large town. It sits almost in the center of the actual Great Basin of the US, which stretches from the Sierra Nevada to the Wasatch Mountains. Its home to Nevada’s only glacier, the 2nd highest peak in Nevada at 13,063 and a pretty cool cave.
We had reservations the next morning for the Grand Palace cave tour at the Lehman Caves. Currently, they offer a 60-minute tour and the longer 90-minute Palace tour. We enjoyed the tour and were glad we had taken the longer tour as the Grand Palace Rooms not covered in the other tour were the ones that we thought really made the cave tour interesting.
We then made our way up the 12-mile scenic road and tackled the Alpine Lake Loop and the Bristle Cone trail and even managed to make it up aways on the Glacier trail. It was really pretty up there, and we spotted some wildlife. Plus, it’s a lot cooler as you are hiking between 10,000 and 11,000 feet.
The Glacier
Bristlecone pines can live thousands of years. Their pine needles alone can live up to 40 years, where most other pine needles only live 2-3 years. They are the oldest living tree and really withstand some harsh weather conditions and are resistant to fire, rot and disease because of their dense wood.
We had one more day to mess around at the park. So, we decided to try the hike to the Lexington Arch. We knew that this one didn’t have shade, but the day started off overcast, so, we figured it might be a good day to try it. This trail is accessed by an 11-mile gravel road. We had read reviews that the road was washed out about a mile from the trailhead, but the latest review had been 2 months prior. We were hoping that the road had been fixed. Happy to say, that yes, we had no issues driving to the trailhead. Will made hiked until about the 2-mile mark when he decided it was getting too sketchy for him. So, I continued on and met up with a group of rangers doing some trail maintenance. The arch was quite impressive, and I was really glad for the cloud cover for most of the day.
