On to Southern Utah, Arizona and New Mexico which I will detail below. However, I need to pause and pay tribute to Jim’s father, Norman, who passed away October 19th.

While on this leg of the trip, we received word that his health was declining, so when we left New Mexico, we cancelled our remaining stops (mainly in Texas) and drove to Florida making one night stops along the way. We quickly settled the RV into our Siesta Bay spot and flew to Michigan.

We were there several days before he passed and had comfort of the family being together to say goodbye. Norm was such a gentleman, great father and father-in-law, grandfather and great-grandfather; what a 92 year legacy!

We will miss him. I will never forget when, over fours ago, we announced our plans to “full time” RV and travel; Norm’s response: “Do it while you can”!

The last blog post left off with our stay at Death Valley National Park in California. From there, we made our way to southern Utah, traveling east through Las Vegas to I-15 arriving in Virgin, UT west of Zion National Park. A quick two night stay at Zion River Resort, we planned to spent one day in the Park, one of our favorites!

As we drove east through the town of Springdale to the west entrance of the park, we could tell it was extremely busy and waited in line to enter. When the park is this busy, parking is a real issue and many people park in Springdale and take a bus to the park’s visitor center. From there park shuttle buses transport people through the park, especially the Zion Valley area which prohibits vehicle traffic.

We decided to drive through the park, assess our options and hopefully be able to park near the Canyon Overlook Trail for a short “moderate” rated hike to the lower Zion Canyon viewpoint. Not only was there no parking, but the trail was actually closed while they searched for a missing hiker.

So, we made the best of it (easy to do with Zion’s spectacular scenery); passing through the Zion Park tunnel to the east side of the park. We made stops at Checkerboard Mesa and other scenic viewpoints.

From Zion, we continued east (180 miles) to Page Arizona. The City of Page is located near the AZ/UT boarder near the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. We stayed at Wahweap RV & Campground across from Lake Powell with easy access to the lake, nearby Glen Canyon and Glen Canyon Dam, Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon.

Lake Powell is part of the Colorado River created by the Glen Canyon Dam. Although lake levels are down, it’s a beautiful setting. We saw numerous houseboats on the lake, a popular vacation option here.

Horseshoe Bend is located about five miles south of Page. From the parking lot off Hwy 89, it can only be seen from the overlook which is a 1.5 mile round trip hike. The 1000′ deep, 270 degree horseshoe shaped bend carved out by the Colorado River has become a very popular attraction for photographers and tourist.

Antelope Canyon was our favorite stop in this area. We spent one day taking scheduled tours/hikes of both the Upper and Lower sections of Antelope Canyon. The canyon is part of The Navajo Nation and can only be accessed by guided tours with Navajo guides. It was so interesting to hear explanations of their heritage and practices.

The Navajo Nation sets their own rules and COVID mandates that were to be followed in order to tour the canyon. During our tours, they were limiting the number of people to 50% of their normal capacity and requiring masks be worn at all times.

As you can see it really is an amazing place that we highly recommend. The guides also share photography tips to help you get the best shots and offered to take pictures for the small group.

From the Page, AZ area, we traveled south through Flagstaff, AZ to the Sedona Verde Valley area. Unfortunately, a very cool rainy day kept us from doing much site seeing. We visited the City of Sedona a few years ago; a great area to visit!

Heading to southern Arizona, we had a two day stay near Florence located southeast of Phoenix. Rancho Sonora is a nice RV Park in this desert setting. We loved spending the day with friends, Rex & Deb Soper, who moved their several years ago. What a beautiful area; you can see why the area is growing in addition to attracting retirees and snowbirds!

Next stop was Las Cruses, New Mexico for a visit to White Sands National Park. One of the newest national parks, White Sands was upgraded from a national monument to a national park in late 2019, making it the 62nd designated national park.

Located 54 miles east of Las Cruses, the park is surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range. Occasionally Highway 70 to the park is closed for missile rage tests, usually for 1-2 hours, with alerts posted on the park’s website.

The pure white sand dunes in the park are a result of deep layers of gypsum left behind from an ancient sea. The power of wind and rain are still shaping the large dune area.

There are many areas to stop along the park road to walk and hike in the dune area. The park store sells saucers to sled down the dunes that look very much like snow.

From Las Cruses, we started our cross country I-10 route through the never ending state of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and finally Florida. An interesting note in west Texas, as we passed through El Paso, there is an area you can see the US/Mexico boarder wall from the highway, and we were required to stop at a couple of Boarder Patrol checkpoints. We answered a couple of questions and were on our way.

After leaving southern Michigan on August 23, we arrived at Siesta Bay near Ft Myers, FL on October 13th. A little earlier than planned, but happy to arrive at our winter home. We deemed our 7,000+ mile trip a success with all the places we were able to visit; what an amazing country we live in!

The Discovery performed great, no mechanical issues and our advanced planning paid off. Thank you for following our trip and the positive feedback!

Looking forward to our time in Florida with a trip to the Florida Keys planned at the end of November and the Fleetwood Discovery Owners rally in Tampa in late January.

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