The Gaither’s 2009 “Liv’in The Dream” Roadtrip
Our trip this year started out with a brief stop for the first two days of the “Santa Fe Experience” Airstream rally, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our hosts, Judy and Andy Richers, put on a fine affair as usual and we had a great time visiting with our old and new Airstreaming friends. It was a great kick-off for our trip.
Our next stop was for two nights at Great Sand Dunes National Park (throughout this report, follow the highlighted hyperlinks for much better photos and descriptions of these places than our own), about 5 hours north of Santa Fe, up Hwy 285 - one of our favorite roads. The campground has no hookups but water is available. Many of the sites are too small for our trailer, but there are plenty that are big enough if we unhook. The small sites mean lots of tent campers and paltry few behemoth RV’s - just how we like it. Great Sand Dunes is a beautiful, quiet place and we’re sure to return there many times.
On Our Way - DOG is my co-pilot
Great Sand Dunes N.P.
Kathy at Great Sand Dunes
Our next stop was another favorite, the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area (AHRA) run by Colorado State Parks. AHRA stretches over nearly 150 miles along the Arkansas River from Leadville, CO to just west of Pueblo, CO. There are dozens of campgrounds and day use areas within the AHRA. We stayed at the Ruby Mountain Campground, which is on the east bank of the Arkansas River just north of Salida and south of Buena Vista (that’s B-you’-na Vista, by the way). Thanks to our post labor-day traveling time frame, we were one of only two occupied campsites in the campground. In fact, fairly empty campgrounds were common during our entire trip, except at the most popular National Parks. No hook-ups here either, but our solar panel kept our batteries warm and toasty. Bruce re-taught himself how to fly fish (after a 40 year hiatus). Fishing is really great here in the Fall, after rafting season has ended, since they reduce the river’s flow and make river access much simpler and less hazardous for fishermen. Bruce did some fly fishing right at our campground and caught a very nice 18″ brown trout. Happy hour that afternoon was a great celebration! Ruby Mountain is also pretty reliable for spotting a local herd of Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep.
We made side trips each day. One to Salida where we always stop at Amica’s Pizza for lunch. We have JoAnne Palmer to thank for telling us about Amica’s - the best Pizza and Brew Pub we know of. Buena Vista has a yarn shop that Kathy loves to visit; Bruce prefers the farmer’s market, Arkansas Anglers Fly Shop, and Ace Hardware
Colorado 14′ers (14,000′ plus mountains) and Arkansas River at Ruby Mtn. Campground
Our Ruby Mtn. Campsite at AHRA
Big Horn Sheep at Ruby Mountain
On Day 5, we left Colorado and headed north for Utah and a 2 night stay at Dinosaur National Monument, outside Vernal, Utah. We stayed at the Green River Campground, directly on the south bank of the river. This is another beautiful, water-only campground that is pretty quiet this time of year. We enjoy listening to the sand hill cranes that fly low overhead in the late afternoon, headed for a field of grain across the river from the campground. In the morning, there is always a large flock of 30 -40 wild turkeys wandering along the opposite river bank making a lot of noise.
Green River Campground, Dinosaur National Monument
Split Mountain, Dinosaur N.M
Sand Hill Cranes Landing At Dusk
Our Campsite at Green River Campground,
We departed Dinosaur N.M. and headed for our favorite place on the planet, Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Here, we split our time between Colter Bay Village, located at the north end of the park, and Gros Ventre Campground at the south end of the park and only a few miles north of the town of Jackson, WY. Colter Bay Village has both the Colter Bay Village RV Park, with full hookups, and the water-only Colter Bay Campground (both beautiful & excellent). The Village also features a small but excellent grocery, a laundromat, gift shop, NPS visitor center, restaurant and bar, rental cabins and of course, Colter Bay, on Jackson Lake with a full service marina. The village is an absolutely marvelous environment with easy access to some of the best game watching, sightseeing and fishing in the park. It’s location also makes for an easy day trip to Yellowstone N.P., and the fantastic Jackson Lake Lodge is only a fifteen minute drive away, making it a great stop for happy hour or even a gourmet wild-game dinner.
Kathy and the dogs at Colter Bay Campground
Cloudy Day View From Jackson Lake Lodge, Grand Teton N.P.
Tetons From Ox Bow Bend, Snake River
The Gros Ventre Campground at Grand Teton N.P. is located on the banks of the Gros Ventre River, one of the best fishing rivers in the area. Bruce spent a couple of days on the river with his fly rod and was amply rewarded - not too many fish, but the scenery and environment are so delightful that it really doesn’t matter how many you catch, or even if you catch any at all. Gros Ventre Campground is surrounded daily by the parks large herd of American Bison, who sometimes cause massive “moose-jams” on the park road. The campground is also a pretty dependable place for spotting Moose and occasionally, black bears. We laugh when we think about all the times we got up early at Colter Bay to go “moose watching” at reported wildlife hot spots, all to no avail. At Gros Ventre, the moose practically walk up and look in your RV window to see what you’re having for breakfast. Gros Ventre Campground is located very near to the town of Jackson, where shopping is superb and provisioning plentiful. Jackson is also home of the National Museum Of Wildlife Art which is a true “must see”. We go every year.
Bison at Gros Ventre Vally
Mormon Cabin on Mormon Row, G.T.N.P.
Mormon Barn
Prong Horn “Antelope” near Gros Ventre Campground
Our Gros Ventre Campground Campsite
Two Bulls In Rut (the blood is just shedding antler velvet - no pain involved)
The Winner
Our early morning departure from Jackson Hole was interrupted shortly for a breakfast stop at Nora’s Fish Creek Inn, in Wilson (just west of Jackson), for the most incredible biscuits and sausage cream gravy we’ve ever had. Nora’s is on our “must-do” list every year, along with Amica’s and the Wildlife Art Museum.
Nora’s Fish Creek Inn, Wilson WY
After our hearty breakfast at Nora’s, we struck off for Utah, spending an overnight at Deer Creek State Park, located southeast of Park City, UT on the Deer Creek Reservoir. Even though this was just an overnight “pit stop”, the park was beautiful and the scenery magnificent, and we had the luxury of full hookups.
The next morning we headed out for a planned 3 night stay at Bryce Canyon National Park’s North Campground, another water-only campground. We arrived early in the afternoon and, unfortunately, found the campground crowded, a little to hot (uncommon for this time of year), and lacking very much privacy. We decided we would “get out of Dodge” the next morning, but we were able to spend the afternoon hitting some of the most impressive viewpoints in the canyon.
Bryce Canyon Amphitheater
Our Campsite at Bryce Canyon
Campin’Buddies
The next morning, we struck out without a plan, but quickly decided we’d try for some cooler weather at the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, 44 miles south of Jacobs Lake, AZ (read, in the middle of no-where) . The full service North Rim Campground is always full (no vacancy), months in advance, from March until closing at the end of October. It’s a fabulous campground with full hookups, and it is walking distance from a laundromat, store, and the glorious 1926 Grand Canyon Lodge and Visitor Center. But make reservation well in advance and bring your wallet if you plan to stay here. Happy Hour on the patio of the Lodge might even produce a fabulous California Condor, as it did for us this year.
Patio Happy Hour at Grand Canyon Lodge
Grand Canyon California Condor
For camping at the North Rim, we prefer to stay at the US Forest Service DeMotte Campground in the Kaibab National Forest for $7.50 a night, water-only. It’s located 5 miles north of the park’s entrance station and 17 miles from the North Rim and Grand Canyon Lodge. This is a gorgeous, peaceful campground situated in Ponderosa pines at the edge of a huge mountain meadow. It is immediately adjacent to, and run by the family that operates the 1926 Kaibab Lodge, a privately owned lodge with cabins, a restaurant and bar, and wonderful lounge with a huge fireplace burning nightly. And at 8,772 ft. altitude, we definitely found the cooler weather we had been looking for (60s/30s). We think that DeMotte Campground is a great place to enjoy the north rim. You can take the short trip into the park and enjoy all it has to offer, and you have Kaibab Lodge an easy stroll away.
Bruce on North Rim
Stormy View From Grand Canyon Lodge Patio
After a three night stay at the North Rim, we headed south for the last stop of our trek, the “Discover El Morro” Airstream rally at Grants, New Mexico. Eleven Airstreams participated and the weather cooperated, except for a little wind the first night. Almost everyone participated in the day trip to the featured attraction, El Morro National Monument, and those who had not been there before were very pleasantly surprised by the beauty and historical aspects of this place. The areas contains a wide variety of other interesting attractions, such as El Malpais National Monument, the Ice Caves, and the New Mexico Mining Museum, all of which were explored by rally guests. As usual at an Airstream Rally, happy hours were well attended and delectable hors d’oeuvres were plentiful. Thanks to Art and Lyla Jensen for hosting a great rally.
El Morrow National Monument
Happy Hour at the Rally (Bruce is second from left).This is only about half of the crew.
Bruce and Kathy At El Moro National Monument
Our three week-plus trip was great this year, and we really hated to turn the rig towards home for the last time. We had no trouble surviving with our two large dogs for this length of time and felt like we could easily go another couple of week or more before “cabin fever” set in. You may have noted that almost all our campsites were water-only campsites. We were happy to find that by setting our solar panel out each day, it was easy to keep our batteries at full charge and all systems humming. Only 11 months to next year’s adventure. We can’t wait!
We’ll be watching for you on down the road,
Bruce & Kathy
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