Crooked River Ranch is a development 8 or 10 miles up the Crooked River Canyon from the Cove Palisades Park. It has some beautiful homes overlooking the canyon, but the main attraction for us was the golf course. The course was just average except for the magnificant views. Many of the holes ran along the canyon rim and on one hole you could reach the green from the tee by cutting across an arm of the canyon. Of course if you pulled it a little, you could double the distance of your drive (the last 200 yards being straight down into [View Full Entry]

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The Cove is a large park located at the convergence of three rivers, the Crooked, Deschutes, and Metolius. Each river has formed its own 600 foot deep canyon with sheer rock walls. There are 2 large campgrounds in the park. The Crooked River Campground (our home) is on the eastern rim of the Crooked River canyon. The Deschutes Campground is in a lower area between the Crooked and Deschutes rivers. It's a 5 mile drive between the two that takes you down into the Crooked River Canyon, upriver about a mile, across a suspension bridge and back up out of the [View Full Entry]

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In Reno we had to make a decision. We wanted to take US 395, a scenic mountain route, to northern California, but reports of heavy snow and impassable roads forced us southwest on I-80. We crossed the Sierra Nevada at the notorious Donner Pass headed for Sacramento before turning north on I-5 through the farm country of the Sacramento Valley. We overnighted in a pleasant little campground along I-80 in the tiny mountain village of Gold Run, CA. Tuesday we reached Round Mountain, CA, where Ray's daughter Jane lives on a cute little mountain ranch, complete with horses. After a deliciou [View Full Entry]

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We're crossing Nevada on US highway 50, called the lonliest road in America. Stretching over a series of mountain passes and valleys from Baker to Reno it's about 400 miles with few towns, the largest of which is Ely (pop 3,691). You can drive for a hundred miles without seeing a human, but there are lots of cows and antelope. The Baptist church in Austin (pop 360) runs a "campground" in their parking lot. Pretty bare bones, but they did have electrical hookups. The lady told us they weren't open yet but we could stay overnight as long as we didn't [View Full Entry]

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To get to Utah from the Grand Canyon South Rim you must go east about 35 miles and then north a hundred miles or so to the first bridge over the Colorado river at Marble Canyon AZ. From there its west over to Fredonia and north into Utah. We moseyed (sp?) up US 89 to the Hitching Post Campground in Panguitch, UT. Panguitch is a neat little cowboy town and is the gateway to Bryce Canyon. A local wrangler told us about a butcher shop where we bought some great ribeye steaks for the grill. It's about a 60 mile round [View Full Entry]

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Heading southwest from Monument Valley the landscape is much less dramatic until you make the turn westward on route 64 at Cameron, AZ. About 30 miles later we entered the Park. It's still another 25 or 30 miles to the Grand Canyon Village, but we soon got our first glimpse of the Canyon, and is it Grand. We must have stopped at 6 overlooks along the way, and it kept getting more impressive each time. We arrived at the campground in the village and saw a sign reading "Full", but the attendant told us that she had one no-show. We grabbed [View Full Entry]

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First overnight stop out of ABQ was Farmington, in Northwestern NM. This is our gateway to Four Corners and Monument Valley. Most of this country is Indian reservation, and there are lots of wide open spaces. Out of Farmington early for the short drive to 4 Corners. Not much to see here except the monument and Indian Vendors selling mostly jewelry, but it is a unique geographical spot. We then headed west along the Arizona/Utah border to Monument Valley. Wow. We have never seen such scenery. These huge formations rising from a relatively flat valley floor in brilliant color just overp [View Full Entry]

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Nothing very exciting across Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. We overnighted in a dreary campground (not much more than a parking lot behind a motel) in Amarillo. We were up early and outta there for New Mexico. We stopped for a break in Tucumcari. What a neat little town on the old Route 66. Found a great-looking little Mexican restaurant, but it was only 10:00 AM, so we had to pass. We found a nice campground 5 miles east of Albuquerque on top of a mini-mountain overlooking the city down in the valley. Quite an impressive view. We planned to stay [View Full Entry]

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After a week in Atlanta, we began our trek westward. After overnighting on Lake Sardis near Oxford, MS and beside the Arkansas river in Russelville, AR, we settled in Newcastle, a suburb of Oklahoma City for a couple of days. We are in a nice campground with WIFI, so we are enjoying high speed internet instead of the slower access we normally get over the cell phones. Went down to the memorial on the site of the Murrah Federal Building. It is a very sobering and moving experience to see the "chairs" set up on the lawn overlooking the reflecting pool. [View Full Entry]

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