For years, I have said you couldn’t pay me enough money to drive my RV into Mexico. Wonder upon wonders we had an opportunity to take a Fantasy RV Tours caravan to Baja and I said, “Why not?” Several factors went into the decision.

• It was a unique opportunity.
• The distance we would travel in Mexico was not far.
• Unlike other caravans, we would travel as a group in convoy.
• Fantasy RV Tours had conducted this caravan multiple times with no problems.

As we started our planning, we looked at what we might do on our trip to and from joining the caravan. Our daughter commented that she had always wanted to see the National Parks in southern Utah and that quickly became the basis of our planning. I encourage you to click on any pictures you want to see better – I think it is worth the effort! 🙂

We left our home in Tacoma on October 16^th and made the two-day drive to Salt Lake City. We stayed at the military FAMCAMP at Hill Air Force Base. Hill AFB has a great view of the Wasatch Mountain Range.

We spent a day to rest up and do some last minute shopping, then on October 19^th; we picked up our daughter, Elisabeth, at the airport and headed to our campground near Arches National Park.

We stayed at the Sun Outdoors Arches Gateway RV Park. This is a park that is convenient to both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and had the added benefit of a hot tub that we really enjoyed.We spent the next day hiking at Canyonlands. The weather was great and we covered a lot of ground hiking the Grand View Overlook, Upheaval Dome, and Mesa Arch. It was a wonderful start to our trip.

We had reserved a slot to hike the Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park for the next day. This was to be a self-guided hike and after we attended a briefing at the Visitor Center, drove to the trailhead. This hike is a true adventure. We had no map, there are few trail markers on the trail, and there are a lot of twists and turn and dead ends. However, we had a great time! There were times on the trail where we had to squeeze through, jump across gaps in the rock, crabwalk with our feet on one wall and our hands of the other, and scramble up rocky climbs. We made a few wrong turns and had to backtrack, but that made the hike more memorable.

The next day, October 22^nd, we did another big hike to the Double O Arch through the Devils Garden. On our way in we passed the iconic Landscape Arch, probably the most pictured arch in the park and took side trails to visit Navaho and Partition Arches. The last part of this trail was the most challenging with steep climbs and walking along the narrow spine of a rock fin. We took a break for lunch at the Double O Arch and backtracked on the trail. In many cases, what was a difficult climb was now an even more challenging descent. Before we reached the end of the trail, we took other side trails to view the Pine Tree and Tunnel Arches. After the hike in the Fiery Furnace and then to the Double O, we were definitely ready for the hot tub!

On our last day in the park, we did a number of short hikes. We went to the Wolfe Ranch to see the petroglyphs and view the Delicate Arch. On our way out of the park, we visited Balanced Rock and the Courthouse Towers. That night we treated ourselves to dinner in the town of Moab.

On Thursday (October 24^th) we headed for Bryce Canyon. However, we made a short stop to hike at Capitol Reef National Park. We were faced with the challenge that the Visitor Center parking lot was being repaved and we couldn’t park there. We parked along the road prior to the Visitor Center and drove our car into the park. With the construction, parking was at a premium, but we were able to park close to the Cohab Canyon trailhead. The trail was a mix of terrain, starting with a dry wash on the canyon floor and climbing to rock ledges that overlooked the valley below. The weather was great and there were some great views. We hooked up the car again and headed for Bryce Canyon.

We pulled into Ruby’s Inn RV Park just outside of Bryce Canyon National Park late in the afternoon. We checked in and drove to our site to find it occupied by a trailer. We went back to the office and were given another site that was actually better than our original one. We made a quick trip into the Visitor Center to get updated information and finalized our plans.

We were up early the next morning to go to Sunrise Point to see the sunrise in the canyon, what a great sight! After breakfast back at the RV, we drove to Bryce Point to hike the Peekaboo Loop Trail. Our first mile was a descent to the canyon floor. The rest of the trail was a series of up and down. At one point, we discovered a Bobcat tractor/backhoe and Bob thought he should help with improving the trail! It was quite a change to see the canyon from the floor instead the rim, a totally different perspective.

The next day we hiked a combination of the Queen’s Garden and Navajo Loop Trails. Based on the advice from a park Ranger we parked at Sunset Point, walked to Sunrise Point and descended on the Queen’s Garden Trail. Once we got to the canyon floor, the trail was a lot flatter than our previous day. Personally, I thought the view from the canyon floor was more impressive than from the Peekaboo Trail. When we got to the Navajo Loop, we had a choice of ascending on the Two Bridges loop or Wall Street. Our Ranger has suggested that Wall Street, while challenging, was the best route. It was a significant climb to the top, but we were up to the challenge.

For our last day in the park, we choose to do an easy hike (we thought), the Mossy Cave Trail. As we were hiking up the trail, there was a crowd around one of the interpretive signs, so we passed by. After a climb to the top, we looked and looked for the cave, and we were not alone in our quest, several other hikers were searching for the cave. Finally, we descended on our way back to the car. When we reached the interpretive sign I mentioned earlier we found it pointed the route to the cave! It was a short stroll along an easy path and an interesting feature, although calling it a cave is a bit of a stretch.

Bryce Canyon has a program called, “Hike the Hoodoos.” They have interpretive signs with “benchmarks” on them. You take a selfie with the benchmark or make a rubbing of it. Turn in three of these to the Visitor Center and you can get a rather nice Bryce Canyon sticker. It’s a nice incentive to hike several trails in the park.

On Monday, October 28^th, we headed down the road to Zion National Park. It was probably a good time to leave as they were expecting some heavy snow over next few days. Entering Zion from the East can be a difficult entry with an RV. The Zion Mount Carmel Tunnel is not wide enough for vehicles wider than 7.5 feet. With our 8.5 foot wide RV, we had to wait for Rangers to insure oncoming traffic had cleared the tunnel, and then we could drive down the middle, straddling the centerline. It was certainly a challenging drive and the hairpin turns past the tunnel made me slow down to 15 mph and keep my eyes on the road!

After we set up in the campground, we hiked along the Pa’us multi-use Trail to the Zion Human History Museum. We toured the Museum, and then took the shuttle bus back to the Visitor Campground.

On Tuesday, we got an early start to drive to Page, AZ to visit Antelope Canyon. This is a “go to” destination because of its unique geologic features. Antelope Canyon is on land belonging to the Navajo Indian Nation. The Navajo Tribe of Indians controls the only tours and permits. Reservations are required and need to be obtained well in advance. Antelope is a slot canyon. The rock walls show the different strata. When the sun shines into the canyon, these levels of strata are highlighted, creating a colorful geologic display that is a wonder to behold. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Wednesday we took the shuttle to hike the Kayenta Trail. This trail started at the Grotto (formerly a campground built by the CCC) and ascends the West side of the canyon. Along the trail are three natural pools formed by ephemeral waterfalls from two small streams that originate on the canyon rim. Normally we would hike to the Zion Lodge, but that bridge was being repaired, so we hiked an additional mile and a half to cross the bridge to the Court of the Patriarchs shuttle stop.

Our last day at Zion was the winner. Pat and I were on our third trip to the park and we had often watched people going into the Virgin River to hike the slot canyon, called “The Narrows.” It’s one thing to hike literally in the river in the summer, but definitely a chilling experience to do it at the end of October. We rented bib-overall waders with canyoneering boots and neoprene socks. Our feet were wet, but not close to as cold as they would have been otherwise. The rest of our clothes stayed dry. At least mine did until I slipped on a rock twenty feet before I waded out at the end of the river! I fell down and water poured in over the top of the waders.

On November 1^st we left Zion and drove to Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas. I did some work on the RV, we did laundry, and Elisabeth packed up her stuff before she flew back to Washington.

Pat and I headed for California to join an RV caravan from Fantasy RV Tours. We felt it was too far for a one-day drive so we stopped at a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campground at a hot spring near Holtville, CA. Everyone boondocks (camping without electric and water hookups) here. The hot spring is nothing fancy, essentially concrete pools filled with water from the hot spring. The water was not as hot as some hot springs we had used in the past, but hot enough that we felt relaxed after a long days drive.

The next day we arrived at Protrero Park, a campground operated by Protrero County. We checked in with the Fantasy RV staff and I gave our RV a much needed washing before enjoying an informal happy hour with some of our fellow travelers.

On Tuesday, November 5^th, we had our official Orientation and Get Acquainted Social, a chance to get to know our fellow travelers, and were briefed on our trip by our Wagon Master and Tail Gunner. The next morning we crossed the border (without any problems) and traveled in convoy style to Clam Beach RV Resort in Ensenada, Mexico. This would be our base for the next week. That evening we had our Welcome to Mexico dinner at Splash, a wonderful restaurant with a great view of our first sunset south of the border.

Thursday we had our first wine tasting in Mexico. The Xecue Winery hosted us and they did a great job introducing and describing their wine selections. This was our first taste of Mexican wines and I was pleasantly surprised. Their Malbec was delicious.

Over the next few days we enjoyed a whirlwind of activity. We had a tour guide on our bus that did a wonderful job of describing the history and the current activities of Ensenada and the wine country. In my opinion, one of the highlights was the Tourism and Convention Center. It was here we learned that the Margarita was invented in Ensenada. At the Frida Winery, we had samples of four wines and four samples of Tequila. After that, we were ready for some solid food! We were led on a tour of the Cetto Winery where we saw the wine making process up close. Following the tour, we had samples of four different wines, both whites and reds. We were also able to sample some local olive oil that was delicious.

On our last evening, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Finca Altozano. The next morning we were on our way back to the USA, and traveled independently to our final destinations.

We took six days to get back home. We stayed at a combination of campgrounds and Walmart parking lots, but our one major stop was Yosemite National Park. Most National Park campgrounds have only a few RV sites and are normally fully booked. Consequently, we stayed in a nearby commercial RV park, Indian Flat RV Park. We had done what research we could prior to arrive, but went into the Visitor Center to get current information.

We quickly discovered that we were there at the wrong time of the year. Many of the roads in the park were either closed or restricted to vehicles with tire chains. In addition, some of the trails were already covered with snow and/or ice and not recommended for hiking unless you had the proper equipment. This limited the areas available to us.

We took the shuttle to the Yosemite Falls. Normally the falls are dry this time of year, but there must have been some water from early fall rain on the valley rim because we were thrilled to see the Upper and Lower Falls in full flow.

From there we rode the shuttle to the El Capitan Meadow. We had a great view of El Capitan and the surrounding area. Our next stop on the shuttle was the Swinging Bridge. I’m sure there was a swinging cable or rope bridge at this site at one time, but now it is a very solid, stable trestle bridge. From there we hiked back to the Yosemite Falls and took the shuttle to see the whole route.

Our last stop in the park was a tour of the Historic Ahwahnee Hotel. This hotel has an interesting history. In its early days, the National Park Service had almost no budget. Hotels like this were created to bring wealthy visitors to the park and generate revenue that would fund the preservation of the wilderness. As a result of those early decisions, our National Parks afford everyone an opportunity to see America as it existed before the Industrial Age and urbanization.

We cut our stay in Yosemite short and headed for home. We did run into some not so great weather, but nothing that made the traveling dangerous, the weather forecast was not encouraging and we were glad to arrive home again.