Big Trip #9, Utah, Arizona, & New Mexico

 I need to finish this travel log up. I figure I'll do one more Big Trip post after this one. Ten is plenty.

Our granddaughter, Carrington, is an artist. While we were at her and Harrison's house, Frolic was parked out front. She gave us this lovely portrait of our camper before we left. Before we leave, though, here is a picture of Harrison and Carrington with Clark.

We left the Provo area and went South in Utah. When I planned the trip I failed to take into account that this was Labor Day Weekend. That kind of complicated things. We were fortunate to find a campground with an opening. As the name would imply, Bryce Zion Campground is between two of Utah's national parks. 

Here is the entrance to B/Z Campground. The other picture is the view from behind and to the left.

We had hoped to see both National Parks, but crowding at Zion slowed us up, so we decided to just enjoy Zion. As usual, our pictures don't do it justice.

It was a fairly short trip down to the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona. We spent two nights at the Demotte Campground. The campground has no hookups, but the setting is magnificent. We enjoyed the majestic Ponderosa Pines and the quivering, sparkling Aspens. 

Words aren't adequate to describe the Grand Canyon, so I won't try. All of these pictures are from the North Rim.

After the time at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, we were planning to go around to the South Rim. At this time, however, we had the only equipment problem that we had on our whole trip. We decided it would be best to eliminate a few miles. I wrote about the tire issue, drawing some lessons for life from the problem, here & here.

Besides, we were really awed by the North Rim.

We spent the night at a hotel in Albuquerque, stopped to see a friend in Truth or Consequences (Yes, it really is a place, look it up). And then arrived fairly late at the Leasburg Dam State Park Campground.

Gorgeous Desert sunset and sunrise.

After spending a day in a tire shop in Las Cruces, NM, we made our way into Texas. Like everything in Texas, the moon was big. We were ready for bed when we finally pulled in at Van Horn.