Trip to Grand Canyon Including stays in Abilene State Park, TX, Oasis State Park, NM, and Albuquerque, NM See below for the itinerary.
If you've read other parts of this blog you probably see that the trips we have taken
were vacations from work so we bought plane tickets, reserved hotel rooms, and rented a car. We tried to fit in just as much fun as possible into our 9 days of freedom. If we were going to visit a national park, then I'd reserve us rooms at a lodge within the park. I didn't want to waste any time driving to the park. We also had to ask some nice friends if they would look after our 2 cats who would have to stay behind.
We are now semi-retired (I still work remotely) and last year we purchased a fifth wheel trailer. So now I just need to know that I will have cell service or WIFI so that I can work. We aren't limited by time.
We think we would like to be away from the Houston heat for the summer. We don't really have an idea of how long we'll be gone we're just going to try it out and see how it feels.
So this year we are taking our first real trip in the trailer.
We left in mid-April heading toward the Grand Canyon. And we brought the cats.
Our first stop was Abilene State Park in Abilene Texas. If I had it to do again I would
have stopped sooner than Abilene. I think that was too far mostly for the cats sake. We were tired too and the cats seemed to handle it pretty well, but it stresses me out worrying about how they are feeling.
Abilene State Park was a nice place to stay. We walked a couple of trails and got used to living in our trailer. Cell reception was poor.
Here are some pictures from the park:
After two nights we moved on to Oasis State Park. Driving thru New Mexico we noticed two things. A bunch of wind turbines and SO many Holstein cows on dirt lots. You like to think of the cattle grazing in a nice green field and then coming in for the evening to be milked but there they are in the dirt. They are fed in a trough and get milked 3 times a day.
Anyway, Oasis State Park was very nice. Clean and peaceful and roomy. Was able to work here using the cell phone as a hot spot. We stayed a couple of nights and moved on to Albuquerque. Here are some pictures:
In Albuquerque we visited Petroglyph National Monument. I had been here 30 some years ago and it was just as interesting this time around seeing the petroglyphs (rock carving/drawings by the indians). The next day we visited Old Town Albuquerque.
I'm not as fond of shopping as I used to be so we didn't spend all that long here. The Desert View RV Park was pretty good despite its proximity to the freeway. Traffic noise is like white noise to us and not that bothersome. What is bothersome is the dry air out here. I'm used to humidity in the 70's but what I was experiencing was in the 20s. Very uncomfortable to my nose and ears.
Here's some pictures from our time in Albuquerque:
We left for Williams, Arizona to stay at the Grand Canyon Railway Park. I didn't realize I was going to hear a train running in the middle of the night. That train only goes to the Grand Canyon and back. This was a very nice park with a good bathroom and showers and laundry room.
We ate at Grand Canyon Brewing which was an easy walk from our spot.
The next day we drove into the Grand Canyon. It had been 30 some years since I'd been here (at which time I remember being under-impressed.
This was Michael's first trip here so I was mostly excited for that. But I enjoyed the visit much more this time around. The Trailer Village RV Park was pretty nice. Elk came through the park every day. Tmobile wasn't working very well for me. I had to use Michael's Verizon service to get my work done.
We walked a lot of the Rim trail over the next few days. We were only able to get 2 nights in Trailer Village and then we moved to Camper Village in Tusayan not far from the park. We were only going to stay a couple days but ended up staying 4 more days for a total of 6. We used the shuttle buses a lot. One day we drove to the Desert View Tower. The RV park WIFI was very good here (our site 25 was very near the office) and I was also able to pick up the Starbucks WIFI since it was right behind us.
Here are some of our pictures:
See our continuing adventures when we leave for Tuba City, AZ on our way to Zion National Park.
Itinerary:
Houston to Abilene State Park took just under 6 hours
Abilene State Park to Oasis State Park took 4.5 hours
Oasis State Park to Albuquerque, NM took 3.5 hours
Albuquerque to Williams, AZ took 5.25 minutes
Williams to Trailer Village in the Grand Canyon took an hour and 10 minutes
We were able to get 2 nights in the Trailer Village campground inside the Grand Canyon and then we moved to Camper Village in Tusayan for 4 nights.
We had little cell service in the Grand Canyon. On Tmobile we had one bar and it didn’t work very well. On Verizon we only had about 1 bar but there was more useability with that phone. We spent 5 days exploring the Grand Canyon area.
Day 1: Our first day arriving we only had a partial day. Took a shuttle bus to Yaki Point and explored that area and back over to the Visitor Center.
Day 2: Went to Mather’s Point and a Café by the visitor center for refreshments and then took a shuttle bus to the most western point we could which was Hermit’s Rest. There we bought lunch to eat later. We walked 3 miles east past Pima Point and to the next shuttle stop where we could get a ride back to Trailer Village.
Day 3: We moved to Camper Village and stuck close to home this day. Beyond that we looked around the city a bit. This campground had good WIFI and our site was next to the Starbucks where we were also able to get a connection so I was able to get some work done.
Day 4: This day we walked the middle part of the Rim Trail between the east and west areas. We also walked down the Bright Angel Trail a little bit.
Day 5: We drove to the Desert View area today. There is a gas station there and also a café with food and refreshments. Driving back we stopped at all the viewpoints. Then we stopped at Shoshone Point and walked a mile to the very quiet picnic area (with a bathroom) and saw the great view.
Day 6: Today we took the shuttle to Hopi Point and then walked East back to the Village.