Summer ‘24 Week 2

Hi all. Week 2 of our 8-week summer 2024 road trip is over. Here’s an update on what we did this week.

We started the week in Williams, AZ, the coolest place we’ve stayed so far this trip (as far as temperature goes). That was quite a relief from the triple digit heat we had at our first week’s destinations. The town of Williams is at 6900’ elevation. It’s at the southern end of Highway 64, the 60 mile road that takes you to the South Rim entrance of the Grand Canyon. We didn’t go back to the Grand Canyon this trip, though. Instead, we stayed around the Willams area for the two nights we were there. The RV park we choose was the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park. It is part of a facility that includes an RV park, a hotel, and the train depot where the tourist train to the Grand Canyon departs from. The park itself was nice, clean, and within easy walking distance to the stores and restaurants along their stretch of “Historic Highway 66”. We did some shopping in their tourist focused stores, and enjoyed a couple meals, including a nice BBQ lunch at Frontier Barbeque & Beer Garden. On our day off (after the first night), we took the truck to “Dogtown Lake”, a small reservoir about a 20 minute drive from town, and did the 3 mile hike around the reservoir. We enjoyed our time in Willams, and I’m glad we decided to stay two nights instead of just the one night we originally planned.

Grand Canyon Railway RV Park in Williams, AZ

The start of our hike around Dogtown Lake. Williams, AZ

Hiking around Dogtown Lake. Williams, AZ

After Willams, our next stop was Sedona, AZ, one of my favorite places to visit. Like we did in summer 2021, we stayed at Rancho Sedona RV Park, a small, well shaded RV park next to a river (Oak Creek), and within walking distance to Sedona’s tourist section of town. Our site was large, with big shade trees on both sides, and a grassy area behind us that led to the river access. Even with all the trees around and above us, I still managed to find a place to put the Starlink dish that gave us pretty reliable internet service (which was good since the park’s wi-fi isn’t fast enough for streaming). We stayed 3 nights in Sedona. Unlike our stay in Williams, Sedona was very hot during the day, but at least it cooled down a bit at night, allowing us to sleep without the air conditioners running all night. On the first day off in Sedona, we did a 6-mile hike on the Boynton Canyon Trail, one of the highest rated “dog friendly” trails in the area. We enjoyed hiking up the canyon, but by the time we were almost down, the temperature had risen significantly, and the last half mile was pretty miserable. Luckily, we found a good vegan-friendly pizza place for lunch (Picazzo's Healthy Italian Kitchen) with a nice shaded dog-friendly patio that allowed us to re-hydrate, and relax after the hike. Our second day off started with a 7:30am private Jeep tour that we booked with Red Rock Western Jeep Tours. That was a lot of fun, and I’m glad we did it instead of trying to take our 4x4 truck off-roading in the area. After the jeep tour, we had a late breakfast at another place we ate at last time we were in Sedona, The Secret Garden Cafe at Tlaquepaque, and then we went to the Sedona Dog Park, a fantastic dog park with large fenced-in wilderness area for dogs to run around and explore, After that, we mostly just relaxed around the campsite, and played in the river. For dinner, we got take-out from Thai Spices Natural Restaurant, and that was delicious (especially their spicy peanut sauce that came with the satay we ordered). Even though it was hotter than I had hoped it would be, I’m glad we got to spend more time in Sedona again, and I am looking forward to returning some time in the future, hopefully during a cooler time of the year.

Roșie cooling down in the river at Rancho Sedona RV Park

The start of our hike on the Boynton Canyon Trail. Sedona, AZ

Our jeep driver Nathan, from Red Rock Western Jeep Tours. Sedona, AZ

Rosie enjoying our jeep tour. Sedona, AZ

Our next stop was a one-night stay in Page, AZ, near Lake Powell. I choose a brand-new RV park, Roam America Horseshoe Bend. It’s a very modern, and clean RV park, with a swimming pool, a cafe, and nice bath houses with large private toilet/shower rooms. It was very hot at the park, and since it’s brand new, all the trees are small, and provide no shade. The park it self was mostly empty, and in the section of the park we were in, there were very few spots occupied. The big bummer though was that when we got there, we found out that the air-conditioner in our bedroom had stopped producing cold air 🥵. I did some basic troubleshooting, and I think it’s either the compressor or a start-up capacitor that failed. Looks like we’re going to need to get a mobile tech out to try to fix (or replace) it once we get to the Park City / Salt Lake City area this coming week. We did the best we could to stay cool with only the front-room air conditioner working, but it certainly wasn’t ideal.

After Page, our next stop was Virgin, UT, about a 15 minutes drive to Springdale, UT, the gateway to Zion National Park. Like last year, we stayed at Zion River RV Park again. The main reason we came back to this area was to visit with one of my closest friends, Chris, who retired, and moved to the area a few years ago. Our original plan was to stay in Virgin for 3 nights, but Virgin was also in the grips of the triple digit heat wave we’ve experienced in most places so far on this trip. So, we called the second audible of this trip, and decided to stay for only two nights, so we could head north (to cooler weather) earlier than planned. We spent time our time visiting with Chris at the RV park, and at his house in the nearby town of Toquerville, and we went to dinner at “Balcony One” in Virgin, a really nice restaurant we had enjoyed last year. We also spent time visiting Springdale, and had a nice breakfast at Oscar’s Cafe in Springdale. We did not go back to Zion National Park this year, mostly because of the heat, but also because Zion NP isn’t very dog-friendly (the only hike in the part that they allow dogs on is the (hot cement) trail along the river, that has very little shade, and we had done that hike last year). Overall it was too hot in Virgin, and the lack of a working bedroom air conditioner made it difficult to sleep at night. But, it was great seeing Chris again, so that made it all worthwhile for us.

So, that’s it for week two. The stops were more beautiful than week one, and we did still find fun activities to pass our time, but the higher-than-normal temperatures certainly had an impact on what we were willing to do, and how much time we could spend outside of the RV. And the broken bedroom air conditioner is still something we need to address, hopefully when we get to Park City in a couple days. I’ll give you all an update next week about our upcoming time in both Heber City, and Park City, UT. Thanks for following along.

Summer ‘24 Week 3

Summer ‘24 Week 1