Red Cliffs to Arizona

Red Cliffs NCA is a small campground that we really wanted to stay in, but since the highway tunnels were 9’ 11” and our camper is 12‘ tall we decided to just drive the Jeep up there and leave the top on the camper.  Red Cliffs has several nice hikes that wander through the hills and valleys. We chose a three and a half miler called White Reef/Leeds Reef loop. It was a nice mellow hike with some good views.  Just what we needed as a morning hike. We had some work to do back at the camper and the hike was just the right amount of time. 

We drove back to town and found a public library in Washington City. We paid our dollar and got on-line. We needed to do some camping spot research for the days after we leave the Grand Canyon National Park. Finding spots to camp has been a bit frustrating due to the many people out and about camping.  We would have never guessed that there would be so many RVers competing for places to stay. Our advantage is that if we can’t find a spot with hookups, a spot with nothing will do too. We got lucky and booked a few days at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Many of their sites were booked but we got one reserved so we can take showers and charge all our electric toys. 

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Once we finished with the library we drove to a Farm/Home store and filled up the propane, then WalMart for a couple food items and finally back home to get ready for departure the next day.  We made a great meal, chicken cordon bleu casserole, and played cribbage till bed time.

Our drive the next day took us out of St. George, through Hurricane and on down the highway to Lees Ferry in Arizona. Lees Ferry is the launch point for river trips down the Grand Canyon and we haven’t been here in 18 years. We floated the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon for Linda’s 40^th birthday. Well, actually we were invited to join a group to float the river and the trip permit fell during the end of July and we were on the river for the birthday. Either way, it was a great experience, one of those experiences you never forget and we will always be grateful to Steve and Mike Wassmuth for making it happen for us.

We drove into the campground at Lees Ferry and snagged a great site with a view of the Colorado River. Once set up we drove down to the boat launch to see if we might see John Karpenko and Beth Hanggeli and maybe lend a hand with the unloading of their equipment for their float. Ten minutes after we arrived, their group pulled into the launch site. We greeted them and jumped in and helped them unload. It was fun helping and remembering how excited we were when we did the same thing 18 years ago. Once the equipment was unloaded Linda and I said good bye again and left them to rig their boats. Rigging is a personal thing and it is best to leave the boat captain to their concentration.