Grand Sights - Natural & Manmade

 From Lake Havasu we took the road to Topock and picked up the 'Historic Route 66'. We wanted to make a stop in Oatman, lots of unique old buildings. The highway winds through this small town, crowded with tourists, but it was not possible to find a spot to park our 38' rig, more a Miata or motorcycle town.  We continued on to Kingman and then Williams, camped for 2 days. It was a little strange to see snow on the higher mountains and we needed some heat at night, big change from the 100+ temps in Havasu. In the morning we headed for the 'Grand Canyon', we took a 'flight seeing' tour. Denis got to be the co-pilot and he didn't even have to fight any Asian tourists for the privilege. After our flight we drove to Grand Canyon village and walked a mile or so along the rim, what a sight, a stupendous obstacle for the pioneers. We drove east to Desert View Watchtower, built by the Santa Fe railway in the 1930s for the tourists to view the canyon. Very busy at all stops but I guess that's to be expected with one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. We continued our circle drive to Cameron, Flagstaff and back to Williams.

 

A couple of old fogeys among the rocks

View from the tower

We headed towards Sedona via the scenic route, very beautiful drive but not the best road for truck and trailer, steep grades and hairpin bends. Denis and 'the beast' did very well, the trailer and I just rode along. When we arrived in Sedona, again no place to park so we continued on to Cottonwood. Beautiful little town, historic old places - hotel where John Wayne & other famous actors stayed. We found some wine to taste, there are several wineries but no vineyards, the grapes are imported from California. We went back to Sedona without the trailer and toured and wandered around, very busy place kind of like Banff. We didn't experience any of the 'metaphysical vortexes' which the city is known for but it is a beautiful place to visit. We did go to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, very impressive structure. Also went to Tlaquepaque Village which is a arts/crafts shopping area built to resemble a Mexican village. I wasn't that eager to go there but it was a very peaceful place after the chaos of downtown.

We moved to Camp Verde, east from Cottonwood. We visited Montezuma's Castle, cliff dwellings 15 stories high, Montezuma was never this far north but the name stuck. On the road again, headed west. We stopped in Jerome, lucked out and found a place to park truck and trailer. It was a copper mining town and is built on a mountain, actually called Cleopatra Hill with an elevation of 5,000'. In the 1920's the population was 10,000 and today the permanent population is less than 500, in the 1950's it was considered a ghost town. Now there are a lot of artists, artisans, antiques and collectibles in interesting buildings. But alas we had to leave, headed down Mingus mountain another scenic byway, I saw it referred to as a great motorcycle drive. Denis does love those Miata roads, but this rig is a bit more unwieldy. Well we are trying to avoid interstates and take the road less travelled!

We camped in Ash Fork and then picked up 'historic route 66 again. We stopped in Seligman and wandered through many original businesses from the heyday of route 66. Between there and Peach Springs, we went to the Grand Canyon Caverns. They are 40 miles from the canyon but we were told that if they set off coloured smoke bombs down there, 2 weeks later it can be seen in the canyon. 

A couple icons in Seligman

We spent one night in Kingman where Denis visited the railway museum; and stayed one night in Bullhead City, across the river from the casino lights of Laughlin. Then it was on to Boulder City for a week! While there we visited the Hoover Dam site, an engineering marvel of the 20th century and the new bridge which bypasses the dam, a 21st century marvel. We went into Las Vegas, first visit for both of us. Mind boggling is an apt description of the strip and it's attractions. We experienced the 'Fremont Street Experience' and it's wild and zany characters but didn't gamble, it's too high tech, where did the one-armed bandits go? We took a drive along Lake Mead and through the Valley of Fire, rocks as red as in Sedona or on PEI. We visited the Mormon Fort, who knew, Las Vegas was originally a small settlement of Mormons who built an adobe fort at the springs? Temperatures have been over 100 and Denis is very brown.



In the Valley of Fire

And now we start our journey home - headed into California, we spent a night in Bakersfield
(home of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard) we drove by Buck Owens Crystal Palace. We took another road less travelled from Bakersfield to McKittrick to Santa Margarita and onto San Luis Obispo where we experienced more parking issues so we went to the beach. Spent the afternoon parked by Avilla Beach, listened to the surf and watched the people and dogs frolicking in the waves. When we were in Cottonwood a couple from Santa Barbara chatted with Denis about the trailer then to our surprise, at Avilla Beach they spotted our rig and stopped for a chat again.


Along the coastal highway near Big Sur

We've been having problems finding a place to camp, everything is full so we've headed away from the coast a bit. We are in Watsonville for a few days and will do day trips to explore a bit in this area.