Arizona
Saturday - April 16, 2022 Flagstaff KOA
We left Santa Rosa State Park by 7:30 am. Mike drove for 3 hours then I took over. I drove for an hour before we stopped in Gallup, New Mexico for gas. While there we bought lunch at a Subway. After lunch I drove for another 2 hours. After I had been driving for half an hour it got so windy that I couldn't use cruise control any more. We found out later that there were gusts over 50 mph. I had planned to drive the rest of the way to the Flagstaff KOA, but my arms got so fatigued that I pulled off and had Mike take over driving the last hour. We arrived at the Flagstaff KOA around 3:30 pm. After checking in we had the propane tank filled. We noticed that the man filling the tank had to use an attachment to get the propane into our tank. I think the woman in Prairie Grove didn't know to do that. It took 9.8 gallons to completely fill our tank so it was really empty. It was good to know that the gauge was working correctly. We got camp set up and both took showers. We had canned soup for dinner because we were too tired to cook. I tried to use the TV, but couldn't get the cable to work. I was too tired to try and figure things out so we just read for a while before going to bed.
Sunday - April 17, 2022
I got up and cooked spam and egg burritos for breakfast since we had plenty of propane. I washed clothes since we wouldn't be anywhere with a laundromat for a couple of weeks. The laundry facilities at this KOA needed to be fixed. Over half of the washers and dryers were out of order. Otherwise this is a good KOA.
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| Our campsite at Flagstaff |
After I finished washing clothes we took a 1 1/2 mile hike behind the KOA at the base of Mt. Eldon. Mike grilled pork chops for dinner and I steamed some vegetables. This was the only time we could cook out the entire trip because of the wind. This ended up being a nice day and we were glad for an extra day at Flagstaff before heading to the Grand Canyon.
Monday - April 18, 2022 South Rim of the Grand Canyon
We got up fairly early and left camp by 9:00 am. We stopped for groceries and gas at the Safeway about a half mile from the KOA. We took Hwy. 180W and 64N to the Grand Canyon. This was a pretty drive through the national forest and took us about 2 hours. When we got checked in we needed to fill our fresh water tank since there was no water or electric hookups in Mather Campground. We hooked the hose up and water just started pouring out from the tank. We couldn't figure out where the valve for the tank was so I called the Camping World tech support. It only took a couple of minutes for me to be connected to a member of the support staff. He (Eric) was able to tell me where to access the valve for the fresh water tank. It is behind a panel inside the RV. Mike had to remove four screws to access the valve. Once we had that taken care of we were able to get the tank filled with water and get into our site. We stayed in site #157 in the Juniper Loop. The site was good, but over 1/4 of a mile to the shuttle stop. After setting up camp we ate lunch and took the shuttle to the visitor's center. The visitor center was closed so we were unable to get any information, very disappointing. We walked to the rim close to Mather Point and viewed the Grand Canyon for a while then rode the shuttle back to the campground. We saw lots of elk in the park and even next to our campsite.
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| First view of the canyon |
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| Nice weather at the Grand Canyon |
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| View toward Mather Point |
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| Elk next to the campsite |
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| Grand Canyon |
We had leftovers for dinner then sat outside enjoying the weather. This was a good start to our Grand Canyon visit.
Tuesday - April 19, 2022
I woke up at 6:00 am and Mike at 8:00 am. After breakfast we caught the blue shuttle to the Market Place then transferred to the eastbound shuttle to the Hermit Transfer stop at Bright Angel Trailhead. We had to wait in line 30 minutes to catch the red line shuttle to Hermit's Rest. We got off of the shuttle at Powell's Point and looked at the views before walking to Hopi Point. Both of these places have nice views.
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| Mike having to hold on to his hat at Hopi Point |
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| View at Hopi Point |
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| Mary at Hopi Point |
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| A view from Hopi Point |
We got back on the shuttle at Hopi Point and rode until we got to Pima Point where we got off again. We think that this place has the best views of the canyon.
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| Mike enjoying the view at Pima Point |
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| Mary and Mike at Pima Point |
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| Pima Point view |
We got back on the shuttle and rode the rest of the way to Hermit's Rest. We walked around there for a while then caught the shuttle back to Bright Angel Trailhead.
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| Mary at Hermit's Rest |
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| Hermit's Rest |
We walked to Thunderbird Lodge where we waited an hour to get into the restaurant for lunch. We shared a burger and fries for lunch. It was good, but not as good as the restaurant was when we ate there before. We caught the shuttle and rode back to Mather Campground. We arrived back at our campsite around 3:30 pm. We walked a total of 3 1/2 miles. It was pretty nice weather, windy and cool.
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| View by Thunderbird Lodge |
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| Our campsite |
When I checked the battery indicator it showed that the battery was low so we ran the generator for about half and hour. The battery must be bad because nothing was running that should have drained the battery while we were gone. Just something else to get fixed. We ate leftovers then read for a while before calling it a night. Overall, this was a really good day.
Wednesday - April 20, 2022
When I got up at 7:00 am, the battery was so low that I had a hard time getting the generator to run. I finally got it going and ran it for over 30 minutes. We think we had the refrigerator set wrong, but we changed the setting and will see if that helps. I cooked sausage, egg, and cheese burritos for breakfast. After breakfast, I packed sandwiches for lunch before we rode the blue shuttle to the El Tovar Hotel. We went through the Hopi House gift shop and the visitor center before starting our hike.
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| Mike on rim outside of El Tovar Hotel |
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| Mary by the rim |
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| View from the rim |
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| Hopi House |
We hiked the rim trail from the El Tovar hotel to the Geology museum. This was a good hike with great views. The weather was nice, sunny and warm but a little bit windy. Overall we hiked over 4 1/2 miles on this trail.
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| Another 'Grand' view |
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| View from the rim trail |
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| Enjoying our hike |
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| Final view for the day |
After our hike we got off of the shuttle at the Market Plaza and bought us each a small ice cream from the grocery store. The only place that serves ice cream cones was at the Thunderbird Lodge. Our grocery store ice cream was really good though. We got back to camp around 2:30 pm. We saw several elk on the walk back to camp from the shuttle stop, two were right next to our RV. This has been another enjoyable day.
Thursday - April 21, 2022
We were woken up at 5:00 am with a chirping sound. I finally figured out that it was the CO detector telling us we were out of power. It finally stopped and we were able to go back to sleep until about 7:00 am. I checked the battery and it was virtually dead. I had to start the RV engine and run it for a few minutes before I could get the generator to start. We ran the generator for over an hour with the refrigerator on electric to get everything cold again. The refrigerator temperature was at 45 degrees but went down to 40, however some stuff in the freezer had thawed. We aren't sure why because it should be running off of propane. The manual does say that the refrigerator might not run well on propane at higher altitudes and we are at an elevation of 7000 feet here. Before we left camp for our hiking, I made an extra night's reservation at the Kingman KOA. We decided to leave a day early because the temperature on Friday early morning was supposed to get down to the low 20's and we were afraid that pipes might freeze. We packed a lunch and left camp around 9:00 am. We took the shuttle to the visitor's center stop and hiked from there to the El Tovar Hotel. Once again we saw some really nice views. It was really crowded on the trail close to the visitor's center, but got better as we got further from there. It was very windy on the trail this day.
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| Final view of the Grand Canyon |
We caught the blue shuttle back to the Market Plaza and bought ice cream again. As we walked from the final shuttle stop to camp we saw 11 elk. While Mike was sitting outside six elk walked right through our campsite. We've really enjoyed the Grand Canyon and are sorry that the cold temperatures have forced use to leave early.
Friday - April 22, 2022 Kingman KOA
We got up at 7:00 am and ran the generator for an hour to recharge the battery and get the refrigerator colder. After dumping the tanks we left the Grand Canyon by 9:00 am. It was very windy again. We took I40 to Kingman, AZ getting there by 12:00 pm. This was an alright KOA, nothing special. I tried the TV again and finally found out that something must not be connected correctly for cable to work. It wasn't that big of a deal, we don't feel the need to watch TV while camping, but since we paid for it we want it to work.
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| View from the Kingman KOA |
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| Campsite at the Kingman KOA |
It was too cold to sit outside so we sat in the RV reading. I cooked ground turkey for tacos to have for dinner. We hoped to grill the drumsticks we bought, but has been too windy.
Saturday - April 23, 2022
Not much happened this day. We slept in and I cooked sausage patties, fried eggs, and toast for breakfast. We sat around reading and resting all day. It was cool and windy all day.
Sunday - April 24, 2022 Cattail Cove State Park
We left camp about 10:00 ish, stopping at Wal-Mart in Kingman for supplies. We took I40 to Hwy. 95 where there was a lot of traffic backed up for getting off the interstate. The only way traffic was able to turn left onto Hwy. 95 was for traffic on the highway to stop and let cars/trucks on. We found out later that the huge Desert Storm Boat Race had occurred this weekend on Lake Havasu. The drive took us through Lake Havasu City. This was an interesting town. We were surprised with how large a town it is. It was definitely a vacation town with everything relating to Lake Havasu. The lake is beautiful with a pretty bluish green color. Driving through town took us by the London Bridge which had been dismantled in London, England and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City.
Proof that we saw the London Bridge 
Our view of the bridge as we drove past
As usual, it got really windy the last 30 minutes of the drive. Luckily it was only about two hours from Kingman to Cattail Cove State Park. We made it to the park by about 12:30 pm. This is a really nice campground with asphalt parking pads in each site with trees for shade and blooming oleander bushes lining the road. All of the vegetation has to be watered because this state park is in the middle of the desert. The park has a white sand beach next to the lake for swimming.
Our camping site 
Swimming beach 
Lake Havasu 
Campground with view of oleanders
We walked to the beach and back up to the office to get hiking information. We ended up sitting outside all afternoon. It was warm, but nice in the shade, but just too windy.
Monday - April 25, 2022
This was a really good sleeping night, not too much wind and not too cool. After breakfast we went for a 3 mile hike before it got too hot. We hiked on a trail that began at the boat dock then went into the desert of the park. We hiked the McKinney Loop to Wayne's Way onto Whytes Retreat Trail and back to McKinney Loop to the boat dock. It was sunny and warm, but we never got too hot since we did the hike in the morning. This hike went through the desert with views of cactus and then on the shoreline of Lake Havasu.
Early morning view of campground 
Another view of our campsite 
Mike on our hike. The campground is visible in the distance. 
Another view of the campground 
A view of Lake Havasu 
Some barrel cacti 
Shoreline section of the trail 
Mary toward the end of the hike
We got back to camp by noon then just sat in the shade reading all afternoon. It was too hot (90 degrees) for anything else. We had rotisserie chicken (from Wal-Mart) and steamed vegetables for dinner. After dinner we walked through the cactus garden that was across from our campsite. That was interesting, and we even saw a jack rabbit in the garden.
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| Jack Rabbit in the cactus garden |
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| Final view of the lake and beach area |
While checking the campsite number for our stay at Dead Horse Ranch State Park I discovered that there was a height limit of 10 feet for the site I had reserved. Our RV is 11 feet tall. UGH! I called and cancelled and found that there were no sites suitable for our RV. I spent time searching for another spot and found the Zane Grey RV Village in the same general location. It looked good so probably will be okay, just won't be visiting the Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Very disappointing. We spent the rest of the evening sitting outside because it was so pleasant out. We really enjoyed the short stay at Cattail Cove State Park.
Tuesday - April 26, 2022 Zane Grey RV Village, Camp Verde, Arizona
We left camp at 9:00 am. I had a problem when dumping the tanks; yuck from the black tank came out onto the ground when I took the hose off after dumping. Luckily, this place had concrete around the dumping area so we were able to wash the yuck into the drain. Another thing we have to figure out. We took Hwy. 95 to Hwy. 74 to Hwy. 60 to I-17 to Hwy. 260 to Zane Grey RV Village. We saw a lot of saguaro cactus on this drive, especially as we went past Phoenix. There were thousands of the cactus. Then when we drove over the mountains north of Phoenix all of a sudden no more saguaro. It was very interesting. Driving was okay with it only getting windy at the end of the day. The only negative (and it's big one) was that the air conditioning for the cab quit working. Another thing to get fixed.
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| A section of the Colorado River |
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| A saguaro cactus |
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| Entrance to Zane Grey |
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| Mike relaxing at our campsite |
Zane Grey is a nice RV park even if it is right next to Hwy. 260. It was a relief since I had to pick something in such a hurry on Monday. All of the workers here are very friendly and helpful.
Wednesday - April 27, 2022
I cooked sausage, egg, and cheese burritos for breakfast. When we had finished breakfast we walked the two mile trail behind the campground to West Clear Creek and back. This was the only trail we could access without driving so we made it do.
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| Mike on the trail |
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| West Clear Creek |
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| Mary's hiking photo |
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| Some pretty flowers |
The weather was nice, finally not too windy, and we were able to use the awning for the first time this whole trip. This was not the kind of day that I had planned, but it turned out okay in the circumstances.
Thursday - April 28, 2022
This was our last day in Arizona. We walked the camp trail again after breakfast. I hooked up the sewer hose to get ready for the next morning. Poo water came out when I took the cap off, but luckily I had put a plastic tub under it just in case. We decided to pull the RV up on levelers on the passenger side (opposite the drain) so the tanks will drain better in the morning. We both took showers and I washed clothes to get everything clean for the last stage of our trip. We spent the rest of the day sitting out and reading. We were able to use the awning again, the last time on this trip. This was a 32 day trip and we were only able to use the awning on two of those days.
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| Proof that we actually used the awning |
We have enjoyed our time in Arizona, especially hiking at the Grand Canyon. We are now ready for the last stage of our journey.
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