2023 Summer Vacation

 In Search of Cooler Weather.

This summer we definitely wanted to be in cooler temperatures for the summer.  The forecast for this Arizona summer was HOT.  So, we began prepping the motorhome and Jeep for our summer adventure.  Our plans were to travel to the Arizona mountains, Utah mountains, the Grand Tetons and our final summer destination would be Cody, Wyoming to run parts of the infamous Morrison Trail with some 4-wheeling friends.

In the next couple of blogs we will share some of the beautiful places we experienced. Some of the unique things we saw and some of the highlights of our trip.  Yes, there might be some geocaching ultimate finds along the way.

Arizona Mountains - North Rim of the Grand Canyon - June, 2023

Area history, flowers and beautiful views - oh my !

Grand Canyon North Rim camping spot surrounded by pine and aspen trees.
 Low nightly temperature in the 40s (first night here caught us off guard as the LOW was 37 F !).

The nearby town of Jacob Lake. Photo of the very small Jacob Lake.

View of the Grand Canyon never disappoints.

Us

Great views from every angle !

Grand Canyon from the North Rim.

A geocache nearby titled 'Stairway to Heaven' brought us to this National Register of Historic Places.  It is described as one of the best preserved 'lookout trees' that were used from the 1920s into the late 1960s by firefighters on the Kaibab Forest.  Personnel would climb the ladder to the top of the tree to pin point a fires location.

Corral Lake Lookout Tree

Yes, this ladder is over 50 years old but even if it were brand new... I wouldn't climb it!!!

While we were in the Kaibab National Forest we enjoyed the many wild flowers and cactus blooms along the dusty back roads, as the Kaibab Plateau elevation varies from 9000 to 6000 foot .

Lupine

I love pine cones 

Cliff Rose

Field of lupine

Indian Paintbrush and Cliff Rose

Cliff Rose

Utah Mountains - Duck Creek, Utah and Cedars Breaks National Park - July 2023

With July 4th in a couple of days we decided to reserve a site in Kanab, Utah at one of the RV parks for a couple of nights and partake in the 4th festivities and replenish water, food, etc.  While we were there, we were so surprised to run into family friends while waiting for dinner. We enjoyed a great dinner together and spend 4th of July watching fireworks.  From there we moved on to our next mountain spot in the Duck Creek, Utah area.

Steve & Christine joined us for dinner
 at Escobar's Mexican Restaurant

Walking through the Belly of the Dragon near Kanab, Utah.
The cave-like tunnel was originally created as a water culvert
under Highway 89. Drainage from upper canyon water flow
has carved the sandstone walls and now is a rippling tunnel to walk through.

From Kanab where it was about 95-100 F degrees we drove to Duck Creek, in the Dixie National Forest, to enjoy temperatures in the 80s during the day and 40s at night.

Our Duck Creek camping spot. Views go on for miles.

White geranium

Wild Rose

Western Salisfy

Cedar Breaks National Monument 

Uplift and erosion formed the canyon over millions of years, raising and then wearing away the shale, limestone, and sandstone that were deposited at the bottom of an ancient lake 70 by 250 miles, known as Lake Claron, about 60 million years ago before uplifted to over 10,000 foot elevation. It continues to erode at a pace of about 2 inches every 5 years. Atop the plateau, much of the area is covered by volcanic rock known as tuff, formed during cataclysmic eruptions around 35 million years ago. (Wikipedia)

The area consists of hoodoos, spirals, walls, canyons and cliffs which are comprised of iron oxides making the reds, oranges and yellows while manganese oxides provide shades of purple. The following photos do not depict the brilliance of the colors.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Cedar Breaks National Monument 

Not far from Cedar Breaks is the popular ski area of Brian Head. A couple years ago we tried to drive to the Brian Head Peak but was stopped due to the remaining snow on the road, but this year we were able to drive to the top with no problem. Also there were two caches in the area and both offered excellent views of the area.  

Snow at Brian Head Peak

Cutleaf Fleabane

A lot of times our geocaching finds take us to unexpected beautiful areas that we wouldn't have visited otherwise. Below is some of those places.

We took a dirt road which had some deep standing water in a small section of the road that we had to ford with the Jeep, back to this cache titled Lowder Pond. Well worth the effort.

Walked through an aspen forest to find this cache titled Moroni's Treasure. The cache log and
contents were inside this unique host container made of stucco to look like a rock.

Beautiful Aspen & Fir grove !

Cache titled Pond Cache near Swains Pond.

After a day of Jeeping we stopped for a Ho-Made Pie. Yummy

Endless views from camp site.

Before we left the Duck Creek/Cedar City area we ventured to the Wah Wah Mountains to find the oldest geocache in Utah.   It was a long day of driving some 300 miles round trip but we enjoyed more mountain and desert scenery and even explored some historic Coke ovens near the Ghost town of Frisco, UT.

Frisco, UT mining area active between 1879-1929. 

Coke ovens were used to convert raw wood into charcoal to use in the mining boilers

Oldest geocache in Utah titled Wah Wah Stash and my 4000th find!
Mining remnants and tailings in the background. 

Valley view from the Wah Wah Mountains

We ended our day with a stop at The original Veyo Pies and Bakery - Yummy! Best pie we have had on the trip so far.

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Our next blog will be continuing our trek through Utah to Wyoming.  Thank you for coming along with us. We have so much more beautiful areas to share in our future blogs.  

Happy Travels,

Jack & Deb