5/15 Two Colorado Campgrounds--James M Robb & Rifle Gap State Parks

I was only at each of these briefly and did not do any sightseeing in this area because of lack of time and I was still recovering from my bout of bronchitis and whooping cough, which meant a lot of time staying indoors and resting.  

They were both very nice places, however, and I would easily go back to either of them.  

James M. Robb Island Section State Park

This Colorado State Park is along I-70 in western Colorado, it is near the towns of Grand Junction and Palisades.  It is a fruit growing area, so good fruit in season.  The area is known also for steep cliffs and nearby high mountains.  Here is a photo of the highway going into the area. 

Campsites are nice, but most have electric only, and the campground is located between the highway and the Colorado River.  One important fact is that the sites on the western side of the campground are shaded by an early-setting sun, which makes them cooler in hot weather.  Basically, when i was there it was cool, but instead of setting at 8 pm, the sun set behind the big cliff on the left of this photo at about 4 pm!

Another photo of the huge cliff on the western side of the state park.

Rifle Gap State Park

This state park is only about 65 miles north of James M. Robb State Park.  It is located at a higher elevation, so there are some snow-covered mountains in the distance.  The state park is about 15 miles from a decent-sized town with major stores such as Walmart.  

Here is the drive into the town of Rifle Gap.  Pretty countryside. 

This is the dam that creates the lake this campground is located on.  

 

 

I should have taken more photos of the campground, but the second day I was there it was very windy and rained.  The important thing to know is that there are several small campgrounds in this state park, all near the lake, and this one had extremely nice, large, paved full-hookup sites.  Each site also had a covered picnic table.  And each evening, the barn swallows came out and went through their acrobatics while grabbing insects during their flight. 

I would easily recommend either of these campsites, although I really liked the paved camping sites and full hookups at Rifle Gap. 

5/8 Views from Dead Horse Point SP

I am doing my best to catch up with my blogging, but I have had two major problems lately that have slowed me down.  The first is that I have been recovering from whooping cough, which I came down with about April 22.  I had been tired and had a slight cough, but when I arrived at Zion National Park on April 23rd, my cough turned into the worst I have ever had in my life.  I would cough deeply and in a long string, and then gasp for air, making a loud whooping noise.  It was very scary to cough so hard you thought you might never catch your breath again.  That lasted a little more than a week.  A trip to the urgent care diagnosed me with bronchitis and gave me prednisone, which unfortunately caused me to come down with thrush.  Just what I needed.

A second urgent care visit a few days later diagnosed me more specifically with whooping cough, and they gave me antibiotics specific to this disease. I am still coughing a little, but it is a normal cough, and I am not coughing as often.  However, I have been very tired, so I have been staying indoors and resting, not taking as many photos or doing much sightseeing.  Recommendation:  Whooping cough is going around, so make sure your Tdap vaccination is up-to-date, as you do NOT want to get this disease!! 

Second big problem is that my camera fell off my dash as I was driving, and the lens is not going in and out easily.  I have to sometimes push it closed, and I have noticed a lot of my photos are not focusing properly, so I have fewer good ones to post.   

Anyway, Dead Horse Point is a state park located on a long promontory that is a few miles off the road from Moab to Canyonlands National Park.  It has a very nice campground, but they are having water problems right now, so are asking you to bring your own.  This is not really a problem for me as my tanks hold 60 gallons of fresh water. 

Even if you don't camp here, if you drive to the end of the road, you will be able to look over the cliffs and have an incredible view of the Colorado River in the valley.  You can also drive down there on a paved and then dirt road that goes from Moab to Canyonlands.  The only problem is the very steep switchback road at the end, so you can also take a tour, which I did several years ago.  

Your first stop should be the visitor center.  This is the view from a side canyon there. 

Spring is here in this part of Utah, so could not resist this photo.  Not sure what shrub this is, but is was amazingly full of flowers. 

Theses are berries on a juniper bush?  Gin, anyone?

A glimpse of the Colorado River in the distance.

It's only a couple of miles to the end of the highway and the best view in the park!

Makes you want to go down there.

A glimpse of the campground.

Nice dirt road that is driveable by most trucks and even cars. 

These are settling ponds of a mining operation in the valley.

Great view of the snow on the mountains in the distance. 

Leaving Dead Horse Point.  Even the drive out is scenic.

Next stop is Colorado. 

5-6 Butch Cassidy & Drive from Bryce to Dead Horse Point SP

I usually focus more on campgrounds and places to visit, but this drive had the boyhood home of Butch Cassidy and some of the prettiest scenery in Utah.  

First, the boyhood home of Butch Cassidy.  This was just a quick pull-off and rest area, but it was interesting to see the place where Butch Cassidy lived as a teenager.  His parents eventually had 12 kids, but when they lived here, they had only 6 that somehow lived in this tiny house.  The first photo is of the house.  I assume they chose this area because of the river behind the house. 

 

 

The next few photos were taken of the inside of the house through some extremely dirty plexiglass, so the quality is not very good.  

 

 

I assume the parents slept on the area opposite the kitchen, but that all of the children slept in the attic, as shown below.  

 

 

This is a small barn, with space for a horse on either side of whatever this area was.  Maybe the small back area was for storage???

 

 

I love long, flat, empty roads like this one!  There was not much traffic, and the scenery (and weather) changed constantly.  

Almost sunshine below!

Almost to Dead Horse Point State Park! 

Love the patterns in the sandstone that were formed by eons of sand dunes bordering a lake.

 

5/5 Bryce Canyon and My Favorite Gas Station

 Unless you own and drive a Class C motorhome, you will probably think this is a silly post.  

When I bought my rig way back in March, 2012, I knew I wanted a fairly large gas Class C motorhome.  A Class C motorhome can be identified by the overhang that sits above the cab where the driver and one passenger sit.  It most often contains a full or queen-sized bed for extra sleeping, and can have a gas or a diesel engine.  Many, like mine, are built on a Ford e-450 SuperDuty chassis, which means the front part containing the engine and the middle and rear containing things like the transmission, brakes, and such.  Many, also like mine, have the powerful Ford V-10 engine and transmission, and they work only on diesels, not gas engines.  

Basically, the larger ones like mine are similar to medium-duty delivery trucks.  I chose the gas engine because it had a very long and reliable life in Ford trucks and was likely to give me 300,000 to 400,000 miles of service.  It was also cheaper.   

My other choices were a Class A, which is a big bus with a flat front or a modified van, which is referred to as a Class B van.  The A was too big and the B was too small.  

Most importantly, the dealer who sold me my motorhome told me that since it was a Ford, I could just take it in to any Ford service place.  That was the biggest lie ever told to me!  I soon learned that regular Ford dealers, even ones that worked on pickup trucks, refused to work on my vehicle.  (Obviously, RV dealers can fix the motorhome part of my rig, such as the refrigerator, water pump, plumbing, stove, furnaces, AC, etc. but they DO NOT touch motors, transmissions, or anything else that came from Ford.  

The excuses given by Ford dealers are that their service doors are too narrow or too short, or they don't have a jack big enough to lift my heavy vehicle, their service people don't know how to work on gas engines and/or motorhomes, they don't have the right tools, etc. etc, etc.   

So, when I need engine work, I have to hope I can find a "fleet" Ford dealer who works on commercial medium-duty trucks, but these tend to be found only in fairly large cities.  Very occasionally, I will find a truck repair place or a gas station that will work on bigger vehicles.  I do have a specialized road service company called CoachNet that will tow me or help me find a place that will fix sometime if my motorhome is driveable.   

So, a couple of months ago, after i had been in several dust storms, my motorhome started overheating on hot days, when I was going up very long, steep grades.  When it has happened I turned off the AC and turned on the heater, which burned my feet but cooled off the engine.  I still do not what is wrong, but I wanted to at least get a new air filter installed, and have someone check the radiator.  

So, a few days ago, in the cold and rain, which soon turned to snow, I managed to get to this gas station at the entrance of Bryce Canyon National Park.  I had been here several years ago with a Check Engine light on, and they replaced all 10 spark plugs and half of the coils for a very reasonable price.  However, on this trip, they were swamped with work and could not look at the radiator, but at least put in a few air filter for me.  I'll be in a couple of bigger towns over the next two weeks so will try to get an appointment at one of them.  At least, nothing has overheated in the past three weeks, it is not an emergency. 

First, this is what Bryce Canyon looks like in May with snow!  I'll bet not too many visitors rented electric bikes!   The three photos below are of the Ruby's RV park at the entrance.

This might look like just an ordinary gas station, but when I first drove past it about 6 years ago, I noticed that it has some very large service bay doors!!  That and the sign above one bay that stated that it was a truck/RV wash was a big clue that this was a place I might need some time.  

It is directly across the street from the campground, and even better is that the town shuttle that takes you into the park to the visitor center is right in front!  This meant that when I had the check engine light on and found out I needed new spark plugs, that I could leave my vehicle and spend the day riding the town and park shuttles throughout the park.