Blog Posts
Outdoor Pursuits
Portal Hiking/Biking Trail
Moab, UT - Many visitors to Moab, Utah focus on the two nearby National Parks, Arches and Canyonlands, and view the town as simply a place to sleep and eat. But if you’re looking for a less crowded hike (Arches National Park commonly closes its entrance due to crowds...
Death Valley: 4WD/Hike Marble & Cottonwood Canyons
Stovepipe Wells, CA - We had a great day trip into the Cottonwood Mountains via this 34.3 mile round-trip on Marble & Cottonwood Canyons 4WD/high clearance vehicle roads. At the end of the Marble Canyon 4WD road we hiked approximately 1.6 miles further into Marble...
Death Valley NP: Titus Canyon 4WD Trail
Furnace Creek, CA - As with many married couples, Mike and I do not always agree on everything. On one thing we can agree: Titus Canyon was hands down our favorite 4WD Trail in Death Valley National Park. If you can only do one 4WD trail during your visit, this is the...
Death Valley: Ubehebe Crater & Racetrack Valley
Furnace Creek, CA - Death Valley National Park is located in the northern Mojave Desert on the eastern side California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. For visitors short on time we created our Death Valley "Must-See" Highlights post. For those with more time, this...
Moab Rim Trail
Moab, UT - The Moab Rim Trail is so close to town I’m surprised there isn’t more traffic on it, perhaps because it’s ridiculously steep. Referred to by locals as “The Stairmaster”, this hike/Jeep Trail gets down to business right away, gaining 1000 ft of elevation in...
Crystal Creek Trail, Curecanti Nat’l Rec Area
Gunnison, CO - Crystal Creek Trail is a scenic route in the Curecanti National Recreation Area of western Colorado. The trail winds through wildflowers, gambel oak, aspens, conifers, and a recovering burn area. With its sun exposure, this trail is ideal for spring or...
Dillon Pinnacles, Curecanti NRA
Gunnison, CO - The Dillon Pinnacles Trail in the Curcanti National Recreational Area is 4 miles in length (roundtrip) and gains 600 feet of elevation. Ascending through sagebrush, ponderosa pine and riparian habitats, this trail offers spectacular views of Blue Mesa...
West Maroon Pass
Crested Butte, CO - This is the classic Colorado hike — or at least part of it — that passes by one of the most photographed spots in the country, the Maroon Bells. The 11 mile one way trail connects the towns of Crested Butte and Aspen via a steep, winding trail that...
Emma Matilda Loop, Grand Teton
Grand Teton NP, WY - The Emma Matilda Loop Trail is a 10.3 mile loop that gains about 600 feet of elevation while traveling around its namesake lake. Emma Matilda Lake is a large crescent-shaped lake sitting at 6,873 feet elevation that lies to the east of Jackson...
Attractions
Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
Amargosa Valley, NV - A recognized wetland of international importance, Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) was named after the galleries of ash trees described in expedition notes from 1893. This desert oasis, a very rare and unique ecosystem is recovering...
Death Valley NP: Titus Canyon 4WD Trail
Furnace Creek, CA - As with many married couples, Mike and I do not always agree on everything. On one thing we can agree: Titus Canyon was hands down our favorite 4WD Trail in Death Valley National Park. If you can only do one 4WD trail during your visit, this is the...
Rhyolite Ghost Town & Beatty Burros
Beatty, NV - While visiting Death Valley National Park, we spent a couple of hours touring the nearby ghost town of Rhyolite. The following text about Rhyolite is from the National Park Service website and is presented with pictures from our visit: This ghost town's...
Death Valley: Ubehebe Crater & Racetrack Valley
Furnace Creek, CA - Death Valley National Park is located in the northern Mojave Desert on the eastern side California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. For visitors short on time we created our Death Valley "Must-See" Highlights post. For those with more time, this...
Death Valley National Park: Must-See Highlights
Furnace Creek, CA - Death Valley National Park is located in the northern Mojave Desert on the eastern side California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. The park protects Badwater Basin and its vast salt flats, canyons, badlands, sand dunes, mountain ranges, historic...
East Fork Road, San Juan NF
Pagosa Springs, CO - The East Fork Road of the San Juan National Forest is reached by traveling 12 miles east of the town of Pagosa Springs on Highway 160. Turn right onto East Fork Road also known as Forest Service Road #667. The first several miles of this route are...
Scenic Drive: Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado
Pagosa Springs, CO - We took a scenic drive loop from Pagosa Springs, Colorado through the RIo Grande National Forest, over the Continental Divide, down to the gorgeous valley that is home to Platoro, Colorado, up over the Cambras Pass to Chama, New Mexico, and then...
Treasure Falls & Treasure Mountain
Pagosa Springs, CO - From the town of Pagosa Springs, head east about 15 miles on Colorado Highway 160 to reach the turnout on the right for Treasure Falls. A little further east, just before Wolf Creek Pass is the turnout for Forest Service Road #725 that travels up...
Four Corners Monument
Four Corners, NM - The Four Corners Monument, also known as Four Corners Tribal Park, is the landmark for the only quadripoint in the United States, i.e. location where four states intersect. The spot where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet is commemorated...
Nature & Photography
Death Valley National Park: Must-See Highlights
Furnace Creek, CA - Death Valley National Park is located in the northern Mojave Desert on the eastern side California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. The park protects Badwater Basin and its vast salt flats, canyons, badlands, sand dunes, mountain ranges, historic...
Wildlife in Yellowstone & Grand Teton 2020 Trip
Yellowstone NP, WY - One of my favorite reasons to visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton is the opportunity to see a wide range of wildlife in their natural surroundings. Our focus for this trip was hiking, but I still managed to view some wildlife on our drives to and...
Pagosa Springs Scenic Drive Loop #2
Pagosa Springs, CO - This scenic drive loop from Pagosa Springs is up to 60 miles round trip depending on optional side trips and takes you to high scenic overlooks and breathtaking mountain panoramas. The drive includes the Plumtaw, Piedra, and Williams Creek...
Scenic Drive: Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado
Pagosa Springs, CO - We took a scenic drive loop from Pagosa Springs, Colorado through the RIo Grande National Forest, over the Continental Divide, down to the gorgeous valley that is home to Platoro, Colorado, up over the Cambras Pass to Chama, New Mexico, and then...
Treasure Falls & Treasure Mountain
Pagosa Springs, CO - From the town of Pagosa Springs, head east about 15 miles on Colorado Highway 160 to reach the turnout on the right for Treasure Falls. A little further east, just before Wolf Creek Pass is the turnout for Forest Service Road #725 that travels up...
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
Cortez, CO - Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a national monument protecting an archaeologically-significant landscape located in the southwestern region of Colorado. The monument's 176,056 acres are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, as directed in...
Mesa Verde National Park
Cortez, CO - Mesa Verde National Park is located in southwestern Colorado near the town of Cortez. Mesa Verde is also a World Heritage Site. It protects some of the best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. Created by President...
Favorite Four Corners Trails
Petroglyph Point (Mesa Verde National Park) Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado is one of the crown jewels of the National Park System, both from a cultural perspective and a scenic one. While most people focus on a guided ancient ruins tour (which is a...
Natural Bridges National Monument
Natural Bridges National Monument's "three majestic natural bridges invite you to ponder the power of water in a landscape usually defined by its absence. View them from an overlook, or hit the trails and experience their grandeur from below. Declared a National...
Campground Reviews
Indian Waters RV Resort
Indio, CA - It's always a bad sign when an RV park needs a gate, and this one has a gate. I believe all RV Parks in Indio have gates, which tells you something about the area. But the park itself is nice, having all the amenities a resort name implies, including the...
Kingman KOA
Kingman, AZ - We stayed here just one night enroute from Grants, NM to Death Valley, and this rv park failed the most basic of RVing tests: we had to unhook our tow vehicle in order to fit. We had reserved a spot for a 45' class A motorhome with a vehicle in tow...
Longstreet Inn, Casino & RV Park
Amargosa Valley, NV - Our 4 star rating for this park is more for the price (inexpensive) and location (close to Death Valley National Park) than the amenities (there are few) or aesthetics (gravel parking lot). They do have a small casino, small store, and restaurant...
Crested Butte RV Resort
Crested Butte, CO - Guess how many RV Parks there are in Crested Butte, CO? 1! So here we are, visiting one of our favorite places in the US, staying at this weirdly run RV Park. Let’s get the obvious downside out of the way, which the park makes abundantly clear on...
Headwaters Campground at Flagg Ranch
Moran, WY - Many of the online reviews for this campground, located 2 miles south of Yellowstone National Park and 5 miles north of Grand Teton National Park, are rather negative, averaging around 2 out of 5 stars, and generally I understand why. The price is high...
Cheyenne KOA
Cheyenne, WY - A very convenient campground right off I-80, a few miles east of Cheyenne, WY. We’ve been here twice, both times with 45 foot class A motorhomes towing Jeeps, and both times the interior gravel roads were easy to negotiate and our sites were...
Grand Island KOA
Doniphan, NE - Finally, a campground off a major highway (I-80) in the midwest that offers big rigs plenty of space (well, in length but not width). We had no problems negotiating this campground with our 65 foot rig (45’ RV + tow). The site was plenty long and...
Indianapolis KOA
Greenfield, IN - We continue to look for an easy in/out campground in Indiana on I-70 that can accommodate a 45 foot motorhome towing a Jeep, is fairly level and has enough room for slides. We’ve tried Terra Haute Campground and Richmond KOA, both of which are a tight...
An RV Spot to Call our Own
Pagosa Springs, CO - As we have traveled in our RV throughout the United States and Canada over the past 8 years, we've enjoyed visiting a wide variety of RV parks and resorts in a wide range of locations. One region we have consistently enjoyed is southwest...
RV’ing
Downsizing, Take 3!!
Regular readers of this blog have watched us go through this exercise before, and not just once. We first attempted to go from a 40’ Class A diesel motorhome to a 26’ Class B van based RV (original story here). It didn't go well. A few years later we downsized from a...
Renting a Storyteller Overland Beast Mode Van
Karla and I had been kicking around the idea of buying a 4x4 van for awhile, and when the exact van we’re considering was available for rent nearby we jumped on it. We used the website gocamp.com, which we highly recommend. Easy and seamless. Much like airbnb you rent...
Microwave/convection oven upgrade in RV
We had always thought the convection oven part of the microwave in RVs was pretty much useless until we bought our 2016 Newmar Essex, which had a GE Profile Advantium installed as a special option. It’s an option we specified when ordering our 2020 New Aire. But lo...
Universal Toll Module
We opted for the Universal Toll Module on our 2020 New Aire since we frequent a number of toll roads throughout the country and don’t want to stop to take a ticket and pay a toll. In addition, the Universal Toll Module gives you the discounted rate as if you had every...
Adding Rozie Remote Control to Silverleaf Equipped Coaches
Our 2020 Newmar New Aire came with Rozie, a poorly named and even more poorly designed user interface for remotely monitoring and controlling a coach that runs Silverleaf. Despite looking like the website was designed in the 90s, it gets the job done. Since we store...
An RV Spot to Call our Own
Pagosa Springs, CO - As we have traveled in our RV throughout the United States and Canada over the past 8 years, we've enjoyed visiting a wide variety of RV parks and resorts in a wide range of locations. One region we have consistently enjoyed is southwest...
Goodbye 2020 New Aire, Hello 2019 London Aire
Quick summary: We recently traded in our 35 foot 2020 Newmar New Aire that we had ordered and picked up from the factory for a leftover 45 foot 2019 Newmar London Aire. Background and our reasons to ditch the New Aire: We picked up a 2019 New Aire 3341 from the...
Diesel Particulate Filter Shutdown, Part 3 – Resolution?
A quick summary: The DPF indicator lamp in our 2020 New Aire (with only 3000 miles on the odometer) had come on twice within 90 miles, indicating a parked regen was needed immediately. The first time we pulled over too late (5 miles after the indicator began blinking)...
Diesel Particulate Filter Shutdown, Part 2
As a recap from our prior shutdown the previous day, our brand new motorhome required an emergency DPF regen, which necessitated an expensive mobile technician call to accomplish. After that we figured we had a clean diesel particulate filter and that we were good to...
