Caliente

Odometer 47153
Trip Meter 198 Miles


Saturday April 4, 2015

Joan and I have been keen on seeing eastern Nevada, and we want to work this into our journey back to our homeport in Oregon.  We left Kanab this morning and headed south actually.  Taking US 89 south across the border into Arizona again lets us do an end-run on the Cougar Mountains and gives us an east to west avenue that doesn't involve going through Zion National Park with our 36 foot long and 102" wide motorhome towing a car.  Not that it can't be done.  You pay a fee and the rangers will close traffic in the tunnel and escort you down the middle in your transit through.  Not for us today, what with spring break and all- we're just as happy to go around.

Red Cliffs on Arizona Route 389

Just over the border in Arizona at the small town of Fredonia we take a left turn and head west on Arizona Route 389.  Route 389  is very scenic and has spectacular red cliffs that flank the road on the north side.

Sign at Pipe Springs National Monument

As we were rolling along enjoying the scenery we came to a sign announcing the Pipe Spring National Monument.  We'd never heard of it and were interested to see what it was about, so we turned in.

Pipe Springs National Monument

Pipe Springs used to be at different times a private ranch, a military outpost, and a Mormon Tithing Center.  The original adobe brick structure is still here and available for tours.  The interesting thing to us is that the structure was built over the spring.  The first settlers were driven out by the Navajos, and it wasn't until an Army outpost was garrisoned here that settlers were able to start farming the land.  We didn't stay long, but enjoyed the tour and the local history.

Arizona 389 loops back up into Utah at Colorado City 33 miles from Fredonia.  Colorado City, AZ is a small town of 4,000 residents.  

Arizona 389 becomes Utah Route 59, continuing on to the small towns of Hilldale, Apple Valley, Hurricane, and La Verkin before ending at Interstate 15 at Toquerville.  La Verkin was a real gem of a town, very pretty, clean and inviting.  We stopped at the Davis supermarket parking lot for a place to fuel up the bus and make ourselves some lunch.   Before lunch we went into the market for a "few things" and came out with 4 bags of groceries.  

Clouds of dust in the mirror

After lunch, we drove 3 miles further north past Toquerville to the I-15 on ramp heading north.  We only needed 13 miles on I-15 to get to our exit to Utah 56.  We spotted a road on the Google Map we were using that would save us from going all the way to Cedar City to catch Utah 56 west, so we jumped off the interstate at exit 51-  Big mistake!

We ended up on a 7 mile long gravel (dirt) road which was potholed and washboard and DUSTY!

If you can imagine your house after a Richter 7 earthquake that lasted 20 minutes you know what out motorhome looked like once we reached pavement again on Utah 56.

After just a few minutes this was my view in the back camera monitor screen

 And this was what the car looked like after finally reaching pavement again.

Border Sign 21 miles east of  Panaca, NV

Sixty miles of good paved road led west to the Utah- Nevada state line, where the highway changed into even a better road as Nevada 319.

Motorhome at the Young's RV park, Caliente, NV

Nevada 319 took us through rolling hills 21 miles to the tiny town of Panaca where we turned south for 13 miles to get to the delightful town of Caliente, Nevada and the Young's RV Park.  Much to my delight, I was told it would be okay to wash the bus and the car in the park as long as I didn't make "a muddy mess".  In about an hour, Joan and I had the vehicles all scrubbed up and decided to take a walk.  We thought we were walking toward downtown but a mile into our walk on the back roads we ran into a border fence and were unable to find a way through or around it?? Weird!  So we walked back to the bus and made burgers (veggie) and cole slaw and baked asparagus- Yum!


Your Traveling Friends

Jeff and Joan