We love our new campsite so much, absolutely the best one so far.  We arrived on the 27th of October but had to drive to an area with a signal to write this post. The campground is 10 miles down Hwy.4, east of Hwy.550;  just north of San Ysidro, New Mexico in the Jemez Mountain District.  We only moved about 45 miles south of Cuba, but the elevation here is only 5800 feet where as Clear Creek Campground was 8200 feet.  What a difference in  climate and vegetation.   Vista Linda Campground has 13 paved sites with a camp host on duty.   There are four outhouses and a fresh water pump.   The scenery is breathtaking as the photo essay will show, and my favorite feature is the bubbling brook along our site.

It is so beautiful, we are going to stay here for the 14 day limit.   
Next post I will get back to Bryce Canyon and the job of getting our travels up to date.  Love to all!  Kisses and hugs to Mom!!

Today I am taking a break from writing posts in chronological  order, because I would like to let everyone know what  our camping life is like now that we have been in our Aliner for the last couple of months.  
From October 10 to today the 26th, we have stayed in four different types of campgrounds.  We like to pick a certain road to go on and then just look for camp sites or campgrounds  that go with the time frame that we would like to be setting up.  We like to stay four days to a week at each place.  We are still in the sightseeing stage,  later when winter sets in we will find places in Arizona and stay the allotted fourteen days at each boon docking  site.
 

October 10-15,   Stayed at a free boondocking site with sandy soil, Prickly Pear Cactus and big Cottenwood trees for shade.  There was only one other camper within sight.  We were near Blanding, Utah  on the South Cottonwood National Forest Service Road off of UT 95.

October 15-20   Stayed in Moab, Utah at a free BLM designated area on Willow Spring Road off of UT 191.  Red sandy soil, big patches of Prickly Pear Cactus, Sagebrush and a few low Pinion Pines; no shade.   Tons of people all over for this is the mecca of bicycle and ORV trails, but it was not noisey since there was so much room.

October 20-24   Stayed in Farmington, New Mexico at Mom and Pops RV Park.  Needed supplies and  items we wanted to get at big stores, so it was convenient to stay in the city.  We found Pops on the internet and he had great reviews which were all true, really nice man, clean bathrooms, hot showers and he provided  hand-outs  of all the things to see around Farmington, with a map of all the big stores, good restaurants, libraries and attractions.  Very strange to stay in a paved parking lot with a chain link fence and no grass but we were gone all day long and only came back to sleep.   

October 24-27   Staying in Cuba, New Mexico  at Clear Creek National Forest Campground on NM 126, $10 per night($5.with Senior Pass).
 We are about 200 miles south of the high desert areas of Blanding and Moab but our elevation is 3000 feet higher and our campground is grass and Ponderosa Pines 100 feet tall. 

No matter were we have landed, it is all so beautiful and so different, we love it all.
In the next posting I will get back to catching up with our travels to Bryce National Park.
To end this post, I am adding some of my favorite shots of  trees along the way.

And one really handsome deer!  Miss you all,  Barb and Dave!

Our plan when we left Great Basin on September 30, was to stay at  Zion N.P. , which was only about 140 miles away.  We got there at 3:00 in the afternoon on a Tuesday and all the campgrounds were full.   We ended up driving another 20 miles to a campground outside the National Park and staying there one night, then we drove to Bryce National Park getting there at 11:00 am and getting a good site.
You actually drive through 15 miles of Zion N.P. to get to Bryce, so I have some great pictures of Zion even though we never got out of the truck!

The bright colored mountains above were just the beginning of what we have been seeing all of this October!   The last picture was right before we got to Bryce, where I had David stop at a Rock Shop.  
Good Night Everyone, All Our Love!

We camped at Great Basin for nine days and enjoyed them all, even the two days and nights it rained.We both love thunderstorms and thunder at 7800 feet between two mountains sounds like being at the pin-end of a giant bowling lane.  The top of the mountain we were on was 10,600 feet, so the rain turned to snow up there, with the lows at our elevation at 35 degrees.   It was the day before we left and after the snow and rain that we hiked to the Bristlecones ( they grow at elevations above 9500 feet).         It was 37 degrees when we started up and 34 when we got back, but we were dressed for it and it was great.  To start the hike, you drive up past our campground to 9600feet and then hike up to 10,500 feet.
How cool is that?
Here's an assortment of pictures of our week there, besides the ones from the last post of our all-day adventure with Shorty and Hazie.

The campsite looks small, but there was a picnic table and fire ring behind the camper, and behind that a stream.

Hope you enjoyed.       Love, Barb and Dave 

One month ago on September 22,  we left Craters in Idaho and camped next at Great Basin National Park in Baker, Nevada.  Giant mountains, beautiful trees and international dark sky programs.  For dark sky certification  there has to be no light pollution in a 100 mile radius around the facility. 
We found a camp site in the Upper Leyman Campground, one of four in the park.  Our camp site was at 7800 feet elevation, cool enough at night to run the propane heater but beautiful weather during the day.
The first day there another couple, Shorty and Hazie from Arizona, came in right after us and we got to talking and learned that we all liked exploring the back country.  The next day they drove their jeep and we took our truck and we headed for the mountain top to find the Bristlecone Pines.  Here are some pictures of our adventure.  

We followed them since Shorty talked to the ranger about the directions.
I got some great pictures of them going up the mountain.

Part way up we stopped to look down at an old mining site.  From a distance it didn't look old, but when I put the zoom on you could really see how deteriorated  the equipment was.  It's strange how everything looks like they just stopped working one day and never came back. 

We keep going up and come across an old cemetery, with headstones dating in the late 1800's - early 1900's.  Many of the names were of the founding families of the area around Baker.  We saw the Marriott name
 on some ranches in the town.

Still going up and the view below.

A very old mine near the top comes into view.

We brought out our picnic lunches and enjoyed the fabulous scenery while eating. Then checked the GPS to  find that that the Bristlecone Pines  were still farther above and on the other side of the ridge.  The trail father up was suitable only for off road vehicles and our truck couldn't make it.  It was still worth the trip.

One more great part of traveling is making new friends.

The third and forth days we  hiked several of the other trails in the park and hung around camp relaxing and reading.  There was no phone or internet service at all in or around the park.  The fifth day we went to the nearest town; Arco, Idaho, to do laundry and grocery shop.  While at the laundry someone told David how to get to the Natural Arch in Arco.  So we decided to do that hike while we were in town.  We drove several miles on a one lane dirt road to get to the base of the mountain, parked the truck at the trailhead and started to climb up the mountain trail.  Now, we have lived all our lives at 700 ft. elevation there in Clarkston, so I'm pretty sure starting that hike at 6300 ft. elevation and climbing up to 7600 ft. elevation was a good days hike for us old geezers.  Of course it took us an hour and a half going up and a half hour to come down, David is nice enough to go at my pace.
First I have to put in a couple cloud pictures I took on the way to Arco.

You can see the valley floor down below where our truck is parked.

And we keep going up.  Sometimes the path is narrow and sometimes there were stairs.

                         The view of the valley as we start back down.

On the drive back to Craters of the Moon, we again have a beautiful sky to look at.

The next afternoon we went on a ranger guided tour of the lava tubes.

It was about a mile walk to get to the tubes and on the way the ranger pointed out some of the plant life in the field.  Several flowering plants and a tree called the Limber Pine, which gets it's name from being limber enough to with stand the strong winds and heavy winter ice.

Then down into the cool lava tube;  did I mention that it was 89 degrees outside while we walked the mile out there?

The white in the upper right corner is looking up at the sky from inside the cave. The orange color in the lava was from a high iron content.
After the hike and dinner there was another beautiful sunset.

Our next campground was Craters of the Moon on Hwy.93 only 60 miles south of Mackay.  We arrived there on Sept. 14, set up camp, ate dinner  and then went to the amphitheater for the evening nature program.      The National Parks have so many great programs at their facilities, we had ranger lead walks or talks every afternoon and evening to go to if we choose. We thought we would stay a couple days and move on but we ended up staying a week. 
This is what you first see when coming upon the park entrance...

Mounds of lava all along the road side and for as far as you could see.  We certainly didn't know what to expect inside the campground.  When we got inside, all the campsites were built right into the mounds of lava but it was really beautiful, different but beautiful.

Trees growing up out of the lava.

This little guy snatched a chip that blew off of David's plate at lunch and I just happened to have the camera near.
Below is a picture of the amphitheater with the camp in the background.  It was taken from the nearby hill, in which the ranger took us on a nature talk about all the colors to see in the seemingly black landscape around us.

This was especially interesting, no where else in the world can you find blue lava.

Many colors of lichen are the first things to grow on lava.

All that is there in the black lava flow.   They timed the hike so it would end at sun set on top of the hill.

Back country drive in Mackay on Sept. 11, many farms tucked in the mountains. Some times the roads were good, sometimes one-lane twisty- turny. 

( Writing this from Moab, Utah on Oct. 16 )

Sun setting on the mountain behind our campground.

After Lake Como, while still on U.S. 93, our next campground was Joe T. Fallini in Mackay, Idaho.  We fell in love with Mackay, definitely a must-return-to place for us.  A beautiful valley with gorgeous farms and so many backroad driving trails, in the week we stayed there we only touched on some of the great scenery.  Joe T. is a BLM campground on a reservoir lake with electric and water at every site and a sheltered picnic table and grill at every site also. The fee was $15. /day ( $7.50 w/ national pass).  I have lots of pictures I want to share of this area because everything started to look so different  from anything we had seen before.

The dark green roof is a home built right under that huge rock outcropping and it was right on 93.

And that just covered the first day driving around, checking things out.  The next post I have more pictures of Mackay.

On Sept. 7, we entered Idaho and found a camp in the Bitterroot Forest at Lake Como National Forest Campground.   The campground was mostly all Ponderosa Pines, between 80-100 feet tall.  It was so beautiful we stayed for four nights even though the evenings were getting cold.
First I have some pictures of the drive, then Lake Como.

Took these while in a moving truck doing 50mph.  Caught this horse trying to scratch his back.

The following pictures were taken from the one hour helicopter tour we took over Glacier National Park on Sept. 5.  There were two other couples, plus the pilot on our tour.  I was the only one with a camera!  Everyone else was using a cell phone.

These pictures were not edited, this was the true color of the glacier lakes up in the rocky mountains.  I took many, many pictures but these were some of my favorites.

 On  the evening of Aug. 28 we came into Kalispell too late to pick up the camper, so we found Swan Lake BLM Campground. After setting up the smaller Kelty tent and fixing dinner, we walked over to the boat landing to see the sunset.  Lots of boats were coming in for the evening and it was fun to watch.  When it was almost dark, a set of parents were still standing on the dock waiting for their boys to come in and getting worried.  They made it in with no problem ( except the worried parents ) and proudly posed with their catch. 

The next day, Saturday of Labor Day Weekend,  we drove up to Kalispell to get the camper out of storage.   We found out when we got there that the Glacier Int. Airport was holding an air show right then, featuring the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.  We got the Aliner hitched up and pulled it to the front of the Windmill Storage's parking lot so we could watch the show, since it was only one mile from the airport.

We stayed at Swan Lake for a week, since we had many chores to do to convert from tent camping to camping in our Aliner.   Saturday we set up the camper and used the Kelty tent as a screen room and a room that I could use to sort the equipment into things to keep and things  we wouldn't need anymore.  The next day we set up the big Cabela tent so we could air it out and re-pack it for shipping back to Michigan to our son.

Swan Lake was only 30 miles south of Kalispell and we made several trips back and forth to take care of business.  There were so many cool , old barns on the road there, I had lots of opportunities to get some pictures.

There were tons of beautiful, modern farms too, here's just one.

One of the very special things we did while staying at Swan Lake was to take a one-hour helicopter tour of Glacier National Park.  It was the only big excursion tour we did since leaving Michigan and it was defiantly  worth the cost.   We will share these photographs in the next post.

On Aug. 27, after crossing the border, we found a campsite at Darogo State Park.   We then made our way to Hwy. 2, east, this would take us all the way to Kalispell, Montana where our Aliner was in storage.
On Aug. 28 we drove across the northeast corner of Washington, across the northern part of the panhandle of Idaho and into Kalispell, Montana. That evening we found a BLM Campground south of Kalispell on Hwy. 83 called Swan Lake.
The drive across Hwy. 2 through the three states was miles of beautiful farm land as far as the eye could see, that gorgeous big sky and lots of dust devils.

As the day moved toward evening, the clouds started to change with maybe a storm coming.  This made for some very beautiful skies.

You'll have to excuse some of the blurriness in the pictures, but everyone of these were taken from a moving  truck with a telephoto lens.

Along the Yellowhead and on Hwy.5 , we stayed at some very nice Provincial Parks.  On the way to one park we saw a couple picking berries on the side of the road. Then a short way pass on the other side of the road,  we saw a black bear picking berries.  We worried that the bear might wander in the direction of the couple so we turned around to let them know the bear was close by.  The bear didn't come that way , but the nice, local couple invited us to pick berries with them.  In the course of our conversation, they told us about a hike, only 30 miles south of the campground, that we shouldn't miss.   We were so lucky that bear was there, because the hike through the Ancient Forest of Red Cedar was beautiful, like being in a fairyland.

Can you imagine Fairy Houses around this great tree trunk?

You can never have too many old barn pictures, so I threw this one in that I liked.

In British Columbia, the last 100 miles on Hwy.5 took us past the most beautiful vineyards and fruit orchards.  This continued past the U.S. Border and into Washington.

The return drive through Canada was from Aug. 21 until Aug. 27 ,2014.
Crossing from Alaska to Canada was uneventful, a few questions and we were on our way east along the Alaskan Highway.  We drove this for 650 miles through the Yukon Territory to Watson Lake.  Then we turned south on the Cassiar Highway (Hwy37) into Alberta for 450 miles.  This ends at the Yellowhead Hwy, we took this east about 300 miles into British Columbia where we then took Highway 5 south for 600 miles crossing the U.S. Border in Wastington State until we picked up Highway 2 east to Montana.  Crossing into the U.S. was also very quick.  I do have a funny story about the officer questioning us.  He read our drivers licenses and asked if we were near Holly, we said, yes, that's the next town over. We asked if he was from there and he said no, my x-wife is.  Well, we immediately said we didn't know anyone there, never been there!  He laughed and said have a safe trip.  
Here are a few pictures of the Canadian trip following the Cassiar and Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranges.

The colors are telling us it's time to head south.

Above pictures were views in the Yukon.  Next takes us along the Cassiar, which is noted for bear sightings.  The first 200 miles of the Cassiar was the remains of a 2011 forest fire but as soon as the trees appeared we saw a porcupine and further along a bear scooting back into the trees.  In the next couple of days we saw lots of black bears but couldn't always get pictures because they hide so quickly.

This is the end of the Cassiar Hwy. and there we were back living in a cloud.  I'll pick up in the next post on the Yellowhead Hwy.

On Aug. 20, we said goodbye to a great camp host at the Matanuska River Borough Campground in Palmer for the last time. ( We camped there three times over the summer! )
We drive east on Glenn Highway to the Nabesna Road entrance of Wrangell-St.Elias National Park.  I can't begin to tell you how beautiful it is.    Nabesda Rd. is only 42 miles long and is one of only two roads into the 13.2 million acre park.  Along the road are a few boondocking sites and near the end where we stayed is a rustic campground with 10 sites. 
We only stayed one night because the weather forecast was calling for some really low night temps.  (We heard the nights got down in the twenties right after we left.)

Above pictures show our last day in Alaska.  Remember, summer in Alaska  meant no dark.  We had to wait until our last night to see a sunset without staying up until 4am.
The next day we headed east again on the Tok Cutoff for the Alaskan- Canadian Border.