Stunning Lake Powell......29th Sept

Our first day at Lake Powell and we planned just a look see /rece and ended up doing quite a lot.....
Lake Powell was formed by the building of The Glen Canyon Dam on The Colorado River......construction started in 1956 with completion in 1963, however, it took 17 years for the lake to completely fill for the first time....it is 3700ft above sea level and 560ft deep at the dam face........

After the monsoon rains of August the shrubs and flowers are blooming.......

One of the many marinas on the lake which is 186 miles long and has 1986 miles of shoreline...this and next 3 pics were taken from the National park Recreation Area......we have our annual pass at the ready....

Luckily we did bring our packed lunch.......

A couple of miles outside of Page is Horseshoe Bend..... The 3/4 mile  trail down to the top of the rim of the canyon which can just be seen in this pic .... 

Wow what a sight, it's a take your breath away moment as no barriers just rock....

The Colorado River makes a 180 degree turn around a sandstone butte......well this is what it says in the information leaflet but Yorkieman says it's 270 !!

Sitting on the edge !!!

Although this is a tourist area it is so vast there is plenty of room for a quiet reflection....

Well we had been told that this a a beautiful area but we had not expected it to be quite so stunning......
Tomorrow we will visit Antelope Canyon a must visit but for now bye bye from the Very Happy Campers....

From Campe Verde to Page......28th Sept

Bradda Ed shaking his bootie as we drive north on the 89 from Flagstaff to Page......this is The Little Colorado River Gorge a tributary of The Colorado River....

This and next 4 pics were taken on the move, we were towing and not the best idea to stop for photo ops even though the road was quite quiet.....The 89N..... stunning scenery of The Painted Desert....

We had a good drive up but did have to do a detour.....there was a major landslip last February just south of Page, our destination,  which closed the road completely.....there was a long diversion up until a few weeks ago but a new  temporary road has just been opened for use in day light hours. This detour is still long but only added about 20 miles to the journey rather than 50/60 miles.....

Camp Harris...Page-Lake Powell Campground......Yorkieman did a good job again of reversing into the site we had booked a pull through but life on the road sometimes has bumps.......

Tonto Natural Bridge.....24th September

Tonto Natural Bridge State Park is 50 miles from our campsite in Campe Verde near the town of Payson....it was a very pretty drive up and through the mountains, the monsoon season has just finished making the area very lush and green with lots of wild flowers in bloom....by the time we get to The Mogollon Rim we shall be at 6,500ft elevation....
This is the waterfall entrance to the natural bridge accessed via one of the trails down steep steps to the river......

Another view of the entrance from one of the viewing platforms...

It is a 183ft high 400ft long tunnel and 150ft wide at it's widest point.....it is believed to be the worlds largest natural travertine bridge.....

View from inside the tunnel.....

The artistic "backside" of the waterfall........

Kimosabe enjoying the amazing structure.... 

This is part of the "trail" through the tunnel, I use the term trail lightly as it was a very strenuous hike/climb over  boulders and rocks.......we had been warned but as ever we are up for a challenge.....
Well worth the effort and a great way to spend a couple of hours and with approx 200 steps we got our legs back into shape and burnt a few calories !!

From Tonto on through Payson to The Mogollon Rim Visitors Centre only to find it only opens on Fridays and Saturdays......never mind we are as ever resourceful and asked a local about the road going across the rim as the map showed it was an all weather road and we do have a 4 x 4......glad we asked as although it is passable we are told it is very rough....all was not lost as the first mile or so is tarmac with view points......
Ok I shall photoshop the boys out of this one......these too lads from Texas and us were the only people here but we wanted to move on....one of the Texan lads was wearing a Union Jack T-shirt....seems he has been to London twice and loves England....

Fabulous views and so peaceful........the road below is the road we need to take home.....
It was a great day and good to be out and about seeing the sights....we have had a good first week back in the US we have had some good R & R, we are re-stocked with supplies, the weather is beautiful, tomorrow we shall go up to Flagstaff to buy Yorkieman some shoes and hopefully sort out the on going saga of the water filter, all part of the joys of this mobile living.....
Saturday we hitch up and move up to Page and Lake Powell....more tales from The Happy Campers soon....

Back at Distant Drums RV Resort, 20th to 27th Sept 2013........

Well folks here we are back across the pond to the USA and settled at the Distant Drums RV Resort at Campe Verde  near Sedona, Arizona: as you can see it's sunny and yes it's hot :)
We stayed here at the end of our last trip and really liked the park, it's one of the best we have stayed at so far on our travels. It is also very convenient for the storage facility in Phoenix as only 2 hours drive up the I-17, a good place to base ourselves while re-stock our store cupboards, have our truck serviced, oil change, tyre rotation  etc at the local Chevy dealer and have some much needed R & R time....

Long term followers will understand the significance of the water-tower !!!
This is just the initial blog post to get it up and running....more from The Happy Campers aka Yorkieman and Mrs Blogger soon....