We decided to make one last stop on our way to Mesa for the winter. We stayed at the Thousand Trails Verde Valley, which is definitely the nicest Thousand Trails park we’ve seen!

Alcantara is a quaint little winery right next to the campground that had live entertainment and a nice selection of wine.

We had been in the area a few years ago but hadn’t visited the town of Cottonwood. We’re so glad we decided to see it this time. It’s a really cute town with some nice shops, restaurants, and wine tasting rooms.

We knew we were in the right place when we walked into a bar/restaurant for lunch and they were replaying the last Ravens game!

We decided to spend a few days in Page, Arizona to see some things we missed on our last trip through the area. We stayed at Page Lake Powell Campground, which was a good location for visiting the area.

Our first full day here we visited Horseshoe Bend.

Luckily, we had left some extra time here since it rained one day. Then the sun came out and we saw this incredible rainbow!

The next day we went on a group tour to Antelope Canyon and had a decent dinner at Big John’s Texas Barbeque, an old converted gas station. The food was good, but the decor made it an experience.

An amazing photographic tour on Navajo land in northern Arizona. We chose the Canyon-X tour since we read that is was less crowded than the Upper and Lower Canyons.

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(Yes, it’s a lot of pictures! We couldn’t narrow it down any more!)

Three years ago we drove from Denver to Mesa through Utah and visited the “Big Five” National Parks, which were amazing, but one thing we missed was Horseshoe Bend, which is part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. This is such a well known area and we have seen so many pictures of it that we were afraid seeing it in real life would be somewhat of a dissapointment. No worries there – it was amazing to see!! In fact, so amazing that we went three times to view it in different light!

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A long, boring but beautiful drive through Utah on our way to Arizona for the Winter.

About halfway to Arizona we stopped for the night at another Harvest Host, a nice little watering hole called Bar86 in Richfield, Utah. It was nice, quiet place to stay and we had a good dinner!

We drove through Antelope Island which is in Salt Lake. The scenery here is beautiful and we loved seeing the bison.

We didn’t stay long since we wanted to reach Golden Spike National Historic Park in time for the demonstration run of their trains. Golden Spike commemorates the completion of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States. This is where the train tracks from the east met with the tracks from the west. It is named after the four final spikes which were made of gold and joined the tracks. We learned that the gold spikes were decorative only and were removed and replaced with regular spikes after the ceremony! The trains that are on display are replicas of the actual trains but were made to be as authentic as possible from the original engineering drafts.

We stayed at Sun Resorts in North Salt Lake City, which a nice park, although the sites are pretty tight.

Our first full day here we drove to Temple Square and walked – a lot! And had a surprisingly great lunch at a little deli we found by accident!

Then we went to the Genealogy Center. We had never really been interested in researching our family history but figured since we were here we should check it out. We had a dedicated aide who was really helpful and very patient! Neither of us really had the information we needed to get too far, but he showed us how to get started, and we created logins so we could continue at home. This might be addicting!!

The Church History Museum explains the … ummm … curious history of Mormonism.

Unfortunately, the temple is under major construction and is completely covered with scaffolding! Still, we could tell it doesn’t compare to the temple in DC. We did get to hear the choir rehearse at the tabernacle, which was pretty amazing.

I guess it’s no surprise that the area around Twin Falls, Idaho has a lot of waterfalls. What was surprising to us is that the falls the town was named after are no longer Twins! A dam has been put in place that only allows water to fall to one side. Maybe they should rename the town Single Falls?!?

Next we went to Shoshone Falls. Unfortunately, by late summer this fall was less than dramatic, but still pretty.

Perrine Coulee Falls

As we travel we like to visit places we haven’t seen yet. We’re headed back to Mesa for the winter, and since Idaho is sorta on the way – why not? One of the towns along our way was Twin Falls, so we decided to stay for a bit. This is a nice, smallish town. There isn’t a lot to do in the area, but definitely enough for a few days. We stayed at Oregon Trail Campground, which was just outside of town and had a good central location to see the area.

The first full day we were there we went to Perrine Bridge, which spans the Snake River. It is one of the few bridges in the country that allows base jumping and doesn’t require a permit for it!! We watched in awe as several people jumped. Fortunately, they all landed successfully!

Speaking of successful (or not) jumps, we also visited the site of Evel Knievel’s ill-fated attempt to jump the gorge. It really wasn’t very picturesque, but one of those things you have to visit if you’re in the area!

After an incredible summer in Washington it’s time to start heading south again for the winter.

Since we have traveled much of the West Coast of California we decided to take a different route this time. We started off driving three days in a row, which we don’t usually like to do, but at least they were short days.

The first day we drove less than 200 miles to Cle Elum, Washington and stayed at Dru Bru Tap Room and Brewery, a member of Harvest Hosts. They are right off the highway and have a large, level parking lot. We walked a bit around town then came back to Dru Bru to have a few beers and dinner at their pizza truck.

The next morning we got on the road for the longest leg of this trip. Much of this trip was through the Cascade Mountains, which was absolutely stunning! After driving about 300 miles we stayed at another Harvest Host in Baker City, Oregon. Elkhorn Peak Lavender Farm was a little farther off the highway but was easy to get to. We loved having this incredible view for the night! The owners, Craig and Michelle gave us a tour of their farm and we bought a few things from the gift shop that we can’t wait to try!