California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and back to California December, 2003 to January, 2004

One of the Christeson's family trips

Here we are in Grass Valley, after celebrating Christmas with family.  We spent two nights camped next door to Grandpa Del & Karen's house in our "home away from home."

We stopped at Lake Isabella, CA on our way to Death Valley.  We arrived after dark, and had no idea what a wonderful spot we picked until Rose woke up in the morning and exclaimed, "It's soooo beautiful!"   Despite the 30 degree temperature, she couldn't wait to get outside and draw at picture of what she saw.  

Finally, we arrived at Death Valley.  It had been years since Nancy and I had been here, and it was the kid's first time.  We learned all about elevation, and what it means to be above sea level and below.

We camped across from Furnace Creek Ranch at the Texas Spring Campsite. It is tucked back from the main road and there are no hookups.  Our first evening there, we attended a ranger sponsored talk on astronomy.  They invited a group called Sidewalk Astronomers, a group of amateur astronomers who usually take their work to the city sidewalks to get young people interested in space.  Well they were happy to be able to share their stuff in Death Valley for us.  We got to see Saturn, craters on the moon and many other very interesting bodies in space.  We enjoyed it very much   We met a nice couple next to our site.  The lady gave the girls some special wax to form shapes, which they tried later on the trip.  It was much different than working with Playdoh.

We spent two nights in Death Valley.  We learned some valuable lessons about conservation of electricity while there.  We were also lucky enough to witness a rare rain fall and the girls earned Junior Ranger status by completing a little program they put on at the park.  

Death Valley is so beautiful.  We hiked in the "hills" behind our campsite which is something the girls really wanted to do.  We discovered all kinds of rocks and interesting plants, like the desert holly, that grow well there.

We hiked to the Natural Bridge and beyond.  It was spectacular.  I'd recommend this if you're in the area and are looking for an short hike.  We ate our lunch in the canyon which was about a half mile in from the parking area..

Following our hike, we drove out to Artists Palette.  We said it looked like Spumoni ice cream.

The next day drove up to the Ubehebe Crater, near Scotty's Castle at the north end of the valley.  The girls and I hiked down to the bottom, which is 500 feet vertical in very loose gravel.   I must say that we have something to be proud of ... we made it back out!  Nancy hiked over to see the Little Ubehebe Crater and had lunch ready for us in the trailer when we returned.  

We stopped at Scotty's Castle, but decided to skip the formal tour and just go through the exhibit hall to learn a little bit of the history before heading out of the valley.  The girls were tired from the hike and we wanted to see a real ghost town before the end of the day. 

Here's our first state line we've crossed with our travel trailer.  It is our goal to have about 50 pictures like this before we think about being done traveling the states.

Next stop is the famous bottle house in the old ghost town of Ryolite, Nevada.  The builder of the house couldn't afford bricks or other materials, so he collected bottles from the nearby mining camp and used them instead.  There are three 12' X 12' rooms.  The character next to Nancy is the narrator, one of the best we heard.  Most of the town has long since decayed, but there are a few walls and facades left standing.  The cat the girls are holding loves people, and greets anyone willing to stop and pet it.  The girls were very easy targets, of course.

The next stop was Las Vegas.  Rose loves buffet dinners, so we figured "what better place than Las Vegas?"   Well turns out we could have probably done better.  We ended up at Circus Circus in their RV lot and spent more money than we probably should have--and we didn't gamble either!   Anyway we did get a buffet dinner and the girls met a nice little boy from Michigan who was traveling with his grandparents.  There was a nice playground right behind our trailer.  We had our a special breakfast in honor of the last day of the year before heading out.

State #2 for us was a tiny corner of Arizona.  We were hoping to see the Hoover Dam, but due to heightened security, we elected to head up to Zion the other direction, via Highway 15.  

We really enjoyed driving through the Virgin River Canyon there.  The views were simply beyond words, and of course the pictures don't come close to describing the majestic beauty.

Our next state to visit was Utah.  None of us had ever been here before, and we were very excited to see what it was going to be like.  We were not to be disappointed.

Here's one of the views from our campsite.  We stayed in the park at Watchman.  There was an inch or so of snow all around, just enough to bring the colors of the rocks out to the point where we were simply in awe.  And enough snow for the girls to be very excited about getting very cold and wet.  It was a perfect place to spend New Year's Eve.  In the morning we drove through the canyon (they only allow shuttle buses from April-October) and the girls played in the snow.  It was pretty icy and cold so we didn't hike.

Since our original plans for this trip was Ventura and the California coast, we weren't entirely prepared for this kind of weather, so we went out and got the girls some winter coats.  We wanted to see Bryce Canyon, but after talking to the ranger, and taking a look at the weather (60 mph winds), we elected to stay down lower.  We took a driving loop in Southern Utah that started out by going through Zion Canyon.  The vistas are so incredible in there, there's no way any picture could do it justice, certainly not in this format.  You simply must go there.

We went to the Moquii cave on our driving loop, just outside of Kanab, which was an interesting tourist trap.  The owner's father originally used the cave as a bar and dance hall.  Now it's just an interesting cave where you can learn about the family's history, see Indian artifacts, dinosaur foot prints, colorful rocks under blacklight, and some history about the area.  The girls really enjoyed it, and bought a bag of rocks.  Hey, they're pretty rocks, so it's okay.

We had lunch in Hildale, Utah which is just back over the border from Colorado City, Arizona.  It was an interesting experience as it is a polygamist enclave.  We weren't totally surprised about it as a ranger had made an off-hand comment about "polygamy being alive and well" in Utah, but another thing to see it first hand.  

From this point, a storm was rolling in, and we decided to head for home.  We went back through Las Vegas, but this time we only stopped for gas.  We made it as far as Mohave on the first day, where we stayed at a tiny little trailer park.  It was a bumpy night as the wind was howling.  We even got our very own tumble weed in the morning!

In the morning the Tahachapee mountains were dusted with snow, which made them very beautiful.

When we got home, our travel trailer and YukonXL were covered in dirt.  It took quite a while to get them looking presentable again.  We feel like we're starting to get a feel for the whole camping experience in a travel trailer, and we like it.  There's nothing quite like being in the middle of Death Valley, Zion or wherever we find ourselves looking at the amazing beauty of our country.  It's also really nice to have our home right behind us.  It takes a lot of pressure off of trying to get somewhere by a certain time and it always feels like home when you are "there."  We're really happy with our Nash travel trailer, it keeps us warm at night, provides a nice kitchen to prepare meals, and we had some really fun family times sitting around reading or doing jigsaw puzzles when it was too cold to be outside.  Now if we could just find that list of everything we forgot to bring along...