Pictures from the Road Going WEST POST 11

Just some miscellaneous pictures from the trip West!! It's taken me weeks to put this all together later today I will start our trip home. We visited two NP's and stopped at some beautiful spot.

Pictures from going WEST!

Old Man crossing Old Man River!

Our First State Leaving NC entering Tennessee!

#2

Tiny Lanes on this bridge!

Over the Mississippi! #3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

Finally in the Home State #9

Glad I don't live on this road.

Co-Pilot 2

Co-Pilot 3

Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP - Santa Cruz Redwoods (8/13 - 8/15) POST 10

Monday 8/13 we arrived at the KOA in Visalia California. This campground is the closest decent one to these two National Parks. 

We took in a movie and a dinner at Black Bear Diner during our stay in Visalia. The ride to the National Parks is a pretty one. It's about sixty miles from the RV Park to the Visitors Center at Sequoia. We stopped at the main visitor center and picked up the booklets for the Junior Ranger Program. 

The main attraction in Sequoia is of course the giant Sequoia trees. We took the hike to the Sherman Tree. This tree is billed as the world's largest tree when measured by volume. It is 275 feet tall and over 36 feet in diameter. The Sequoia's are not the tallest trees but big in volume. Amazing sight. 

After lunch we shopped a little, completed the Junior Ranger books so the kids could be sworn in.

After the swearing in, we exited the park from Kings Canyon stopping along the way at a vista where you can see for miles. Beautiful trees, beautiful views, a nice way to end our NP tours.

Next day we headed west to Santa Cruz Redwoods RV Park where we met up with Magnus. This park in nestled in the Redwood Trees and is a small but very nice park. This was the turnaround point of our trip and the sad end of our trip with Jen and the kids. 

We went down to Santa Cruz to see the renovation on the Santa Cruz house and were treated by Magnus to champagne and a nice dinner in downtown Santa Cruz. This was the end of our trip with the kids. A sad day for us. Jen and the kids were glad to be home. We just hope there were some good memories created during our epic trip. Eileen and I have many good memories.

Seasoned Travelers! Our last park with Jen and the kids!

Bia A** Trees!

In front of General Sherman!

Rock Climbers!

The final Badge! (Sequoia and Kings Canyon)

Gorgeous views and Rock Piles!

Las Vegas/Orange Grove RV (8/11-8/13) POST 9

We left Bryce Canyon on Saturday morning and boogied to Las Vegas. The heat remained fierce so running the generator to put on the A/C units was necessary. This trip takes you through a small and beautiful northwest corner of Arizona on I15. The Virgin River Gorge. The highway is built above the river that carved this gorge. Really a beautiful ride.

We only had one night in Las Vegas and thanks to Jen we made the best of it. She bought tickets for all the of us to Circus de Soleil LOVE at the Mirage. After some shopping and a quick swim in the pool we went downtown to the show. This show is none stop acrobatics set to Beatles music. Hard to explain the amazing energy in this show. An hour and 45 minutes that went so fast I couldn't believe it. Great show and I would recommend it to everyone.

We hit the big pool at this Las Vegas Motor Coach  Resort in the morning then boogied to Orange Grove RV in Bakersfield Ca. Orange Grove was a one nighter. This is a small but very pretty campground with nice people. We played soccer with a green orange at the campsite. This was our boogie stop before Visalia Ca., the jump off spot for Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP's.

I would recommend Las Vegas Motor Coach Resort and Orange Grove RV.

Theater lobby at the Mirage Hotel. Great Show!

Orange Grove RV!

Before the Soccer Match. Orange Grove RV.

Bryce Canyon NP (8/9 - 8/11) POST 8

We left Moab on Thursday 8/9 and boogied to Ruby's Inn RV Park in Bryce Canyon. We had dinner in the Lodge and that evening Jen and the kids went to a nearby campsite to roast marshmallow's because I was out of firewood.

The next morning we rallied everyone and headed out to my second most favorite NP in the country. We stopped at a very crowded Visitor Center and got the Junior Ranger books for our Junior Rangers. We boogied to the back of the park and were lucky enough to hit a Ranger Hike on the Bristlecone Loop Trail. Eileen and I walked a portion of this trail in the snow back in 2008. It's much more fun without the snow.

Our ranger was a young fellow who gave a very good overview of the tree life in the park and what they are doing to help save many of the trees that are being attached by the bark beetles. The bristlecone pine is not a common tree and it is interesting how it has adapted over the centuries to the changing environments. We met people from Italy and even a young family from the San Francisco area. Small world.

After our hike we stopped for lunch at Bryce Canyon Lodge. After lunch we stopped at Inspiration Point and Bryce point. This park is just so beautiful I can't stop taking pictures. I have hundreds from our three visits here but with all those shots you just can't capture the natural beauty the way you see it live.

In the evening we had dinner and reconnected with the French family. We were able to introduce them to the Smore. Good fun, Great night. Love Bryce Canyon!! Tomorrow Las Vegas!

Enjoy the PICS!

Bristlecone Loop Trail!

Our Ranger talk!

Happy Hiker!

Beautiful Hiker!

Sofia's new friend from California!

Hikers from Italy!

Hikers from the Bay Area!

Sofia's New Binoculars!

Those little dots down there are hikers on the trail!

HooDoos!

All that goes down must come back up! 

Gorgeous Place!

Completed another Junior Ranger Program! This is the Ranger that led our hike. Very nice guy!

Junior Rangers! 3x

What are you feeding that horse?  He doesn't look well!

This is what happens if you spend to much time on your iPad.

You can't capture the real beauty!

Utah Parks are fabulous!