Grand Canyon South Rim, AZ A Site to see!!!

     We arrived on Friday morning, and found a place to stay on Forestry Land off FR 688.  There were very few campers so we a had a wonderful place to stay.  It is on a dirt road about 1 mile off the main road, and about 5 miles from the Grand Canyon National Park.
     So off we went to the Grand Canyon.  What a wonderful site to see!  If you are an American, it should be on your bucket list.  We have gone to the North Rim before, but the South Rim has much more to offer.  WE saw the introductory movie, and went out to Mather’s Point for our first view…awesome!!
There is free bus service throughout the park, and they encourage everyone to use it.  Very user friendly.  On Saturday, we got up in time for sunrise, and even though it was cloudy, the pictures were wonderful, and will make great memories. 
We then headed in the afternoon to Grand Canyon East for some more beautiful vistas.  The watchtower is also there at the visitor center, where if you climb 85 steps, you have a panoramic view.  We climbed 20. The view was great.  I forgot to mention that we are at an altitude of about 7400 feet.  It definitely challenges you.  A wonderful day.
Hope these pictures will share our day.

Camp Verde, AZ From Prescott to Cottonwood

     Yesterday we decided to go to Prescott, and take the scenic way back over 89A.  It is full of switchbacks, and climbs to 7000 feet before we head down.

It was a great ride to do once, and never pull a 5th wheel over.  We went through Jerome on our way to Cottonwood.  We stopped at the Sizzler and had lunch before we headed home with some information about the Grand Canyon.

     We had planned to move today, but thunderstorms came in this morning, so we are hanging out here until tomorrow.  Rollie is really happy about his solar panels.  Even when it is overcast, he is still filling the batteries.  I can see lots of boon docking in my future….lol…

Clarksville, AZ Verde Canyon Railroad Train

 

This day we head to take a train ride in Clarksville, AZ.  This exclusive view of the canyon is only available by train, and is know as the other Grand Canyon.  The historic rail follows the Verde River and ends in Perkinsville Ghost Ranch; then returns to Clarksville.  We started out at 1300 and returned at 1700.  We went first class which gave us complimentary appetizers, and champagne.  It was also living room-like seating with large panoramic windows.  Today was very warm, so we were glad to have some air conditioning.  It was a very relaxing, and scenic ride.

The train was pulled by two FP7 locomotives.Unique to these FP7s is the paint scheme.  Wildlife artist Doug Allen brought the engines to life with depictions of bald eagles in flight.  These two engines were built in 1953 by General Motors for the Alaska railroad.  The engines came on line in 1997 for this historic railroad and are celebrating their 20 years in service. This is a privately owned railroad by Dave Durbano.

Here are some pictures of the scenery we saw along the way.

Thiurday we leave here and head to the south rim of the Grand Canyon for a few days.

Camp Verde, AZ Sightseeing

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There is lots to see and do here.  Yesterday we headed to Montezuma Castle and and Montezuma Well.  It is part of the Singagua pre historic culture that once flourished in the Verde Valley.  The ruins are somewhat preserved, and you can actually see some of the rooms.  These pueblos were then abandoned around 1400 AD.  No one knows why.  Some conclude weather, disease, or the depletion of natural resources.  At one time 300 to 500 Indians lived and farmed this ground.
The Well is about 5 miles away from the castle.  It is a limestone sink hole that is fed by natural springs, and feeds the Beaver Creek river that runs by the Castle.  It was formed when an underground cave collapsed
By noon here it starts getting pretty warm, so we headed home for lunch.  This is the first day of the rally. Time to get our snack ready and meet the rest of the group.  Our Wagon Masters had us do some mixers.  The first one was to find people who were born in the same month as you.  Only one person besides Rollie and I were born in October.  The next thing was find someone that was born in the same state.  Here we were out of luck since most people were from California.  The last mixer was to find someone with the same color of shirt….now we could mix it up since we wore our Quartzite shirts from January.  All in all it was a good time.

Today we took off and went to find Valley View restaurant for breakfast.  Good food, and plenty.  you did not go hungry…

Then we headed to Tuzigoot, another ruins from the 1400 era.
From there we headed to Jerome, AZ.  It is an old mining town that has been turned into a “ghost town” tourist spot.  The mining museum was very informative.  After the mid 1850’s, the mine shut down and the town was drying up.  So the residents made it into a natural historic landmark, and called it a ghost town because everyone was leaving.
Our gas find today was at Fry’s for $4.09 diesel.  so we filled up and are heading back to the 5th wheel….maybe later the casino around the corner!!

Camp Verde, AZ

     We arrived at the spring MOC rally here on Tuesday.  A few of the MOCers were already there, and gave us a nice welcome,  It sure was nice to see familiar faces.  Of course we had to strike the colors for us Texans.

The Monty at Camp Verde

RV Solar Installer

   Before we arrived though, we went to D & R RV , and had our solar panels installed.  Rollie had done most of the wiring, so it was just getting the panels on the roof and making sure that we were working properly.

The four solar panels

 After they were installed, we checked.  We have 800 watts of power, generating  30 amps.  Enough electricity to make Rollie happy, and grin all the way to Camp Verde! 

Ron and Rollie

The solar installer had RV space for us to boondock the night before so we left John Wayne RV park, so we could be ready in the morning.  I very much felt at home when the choo choo trains started around midnight.
 

Tortus and the Kitties

 On a side note, their cat had four kittens, just two weeks old,,,pretty cute!!!

On the road I 17 to Camp Verde

We are at 4000 ft. so the temperature is just right..warm days and cool nights...we still need to adjust to the three time zone changes though so that we are not getting up in the middle of the night.  Now off we go to investigate the area.

Deming, NM

We made an uneventful trip through Texas.  Balmorrhea is also a favorite stop at Saddleback RV park. So we will stay at Dreamcatcher for two nights,, and of course eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant Si Senors! 
Glad we stayed over on Saturday because there were 50+ mph winds with sand blowing for about 18 hours.  We even pulled the slides in to sleep because of the wind.  On Sunday we woke up to a brown Monty!  Guess we will get the microfiber out to dust it off!! Thank goodness for 303

On the Road Again...heading west

This is packing up day. We need to bring the lawn furniture in, and tie down anything that is loose, so if we get hurricane news we are prepared. Our first stop is Austin, TX. We are staying at Oak Forest RV park, since it is central to where we want to go..There is not a Costco in Corpus Christi so that is one of our stops, as well as the AAA to get maps and new tour books!!

We are having supper with Dave our son, and lunch with Rollie III on Wednesday. Stay tune as we head out west. Our first stop will be Camp Verde, AZ.  See you down the road!!