Alaska by RV 2006

First post

Not a good beginning

Today we went out to purchase the 2006 Milepost at Barnes & Noble. The current edition was published on March 6 so we expected it to be available in bookstores by now. We looked for a copy and couldn’t find it. An inquiry at the customer service desk resulted in a reply that it hadn’t been published yet and wasn’t available. I guess the B&N computers are a little behind. We’ll have to pick up our copy later, perhaps in Salt Lake City in May.

Easier way to get to this blog

You can now access this blog directly by going to here (http://blog.alaskabyrv.us).

We’re still around

Not much to report recently. We still haven’t found a copy of the 2006 Milepost. We did get the Great Alaska Tour Saver coupon book that has a lot of discount and 2 for 1 deals in it. It should pay for itself very quickly once we get to Alaska.

We leave Surprise this Saturday and will be staying in Camp Verde for a week with some very good friends. We will do some sightseeing in southern Utah before our RV Forum rally in Moab starting on April 28. Check our itinerary page if you want to see where we are or where we’re going in the next few months.

On our way

We left Camp Verde on Monday and travelled as far as Flagstaff with Russ and Karl. We parted ways when we turned north on 89 to head for Kanab, Utah.

Staying in Kanab, UT, for 6 days enroute to Moab. Visited Zion NP yesterday for the first time in several years. The last time we could still drive the north road, but now you can only visit that part of the park by shuttle. We drove through the tunnel to the west side and back and took some new photos. Here’s just one:

A sidetrip from Kanab

Today, we drove to the local BLM office to check on the state of the Glendale Bench Road and were told it was rated 2WD, high clearance. Well, we headed out to Johnson Canyon Road, just east of Kanab and drove to the end of the pavement. Then we took the right fork and went about 4-5 miles on an unpaved, but recently graded, gravel road. When we caught up to the grader, we turned around. Back at the fork, we then proceeded up the Glendale Bench Road and found it also recently graded and quite passable, even with the Honda. The scenery isn’t spectacular, but it is a pleasant drive with free range cattle to watch out for.

The forecast for tomorrow is for some afternoon thunderstorms, so I expect it was a good decision to go today.

Easter Sunday Drive

We left Kanab this morning for Cannonville, UT. Filled the tank in Kanab for $2.95/gal. We had breakfast at Mount Carmel Junction at the Thunderbird Restaurant. Very good food and service.

We arrived in Cannonville about 11:30am and are now parked at the Bryce Valley KOA in a pullthrough site with 50A electric, full hookups, and a beautiful view.

We will be revisiting Bryce Canyon while we’re here and also driving through Kodachrome Basin State Park.

Kodachrome Basin and Grosvenor Arch

Today was cool and windy as a cold front moved through southern Utah today. We drove out the Kodachrome Basin State Park but first took a drive out the the Grosvenor Arch. The road out was graded dirt and the Honda handled it nicely. Fortunately, it didn’t rain while we were out there or we could have had a problem.

Grosvenor Arch

A trip to Escalante

Today we drove over to Escalante and then drove about 15 miles on graded dirt roads to the Devil’s Garden. Very unusual rock formations there.

Here’s a view of Powell’s Point on the way down:

Here’s a few shots of the formations in Devil’s Garden:

More photos to come

Right now, it’s ackward to post the photos embedded in the blog entries, so I’m planning on installing a photo gallery to manage the many photos we’ve been taking and will be taking this summer. I hope to get this up and running soon and I’ll post more information when it’s all working. We have lots of photos to show you, the few we’ve shown you thus far are only a small part of our collection. Nobody said this web stuff was going to be easy but it’s a fun challenge.