Page to Rio Verde RV Park in Cottonwood, AZ….a hard day.

 

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Today’s 207 mile journey.

We left the PageLakePowell Campground around 9:30am with about a four hour journey ahead of us.  We wound our way through the dumb roundabout to get onto 89 South and were soon on our way. 

Looks like we’ll be going up soon.

Antelope Pass came on in a hurry and it was high, narrow and steep.

Going up fast and looking down.

Big cut in the rock up ahead.

The turns were tight and 50mph was too fast.

Down we went at a steep grade. 

A huge drop off to the right and the huge rim of rock in the distance.

Still going down.  I admit I was holding on through this pass as it made me quite uneasy.

We’re down. 

A long straight very humpy, bumpy ribbon of pavement.  The road was horrible from just south of the Antelope Pass to just north of the town of Gray Mountain.  All of this highway is in the Navajo nation and would likely be under federal jurisdiction and is not even slightly flat.  I was afraid that the dishes would be all over inside the cupboards it was so rough.   Very Mexican type road which we didn’t expect in Arizona.  It is just exhausting to travel on road that is so rough.

Within this stretch of highway just north of Gray Mountain is Cameron.  This is the town at the beginning of Highway 64 which goes into the Grand Canyon.  A multitude of street lights and good highway for about a mile.

Small towns dot the highway as we travel south.  The highway south of the Navajo Nation was better but not great.

Going down before we head up into Flagstaff.

You can see the pavement isn’t flat here either.  Maybe it’s fine in a car but it’s sure not in a truck pulling a large 5th wheel.

Up high again and there are pine trees.

We are leaving Flagstaff and heading south on I17.  We won’t take 89A to Sedona as it is mountainous and there are areas with huge switchbacks.  The sign farther on said no vehicles over 50ft and pulling the rig we are close to that.

No thanks.  I’d tried to book us into an RV park in Sedona which was very expensive (artsy, fartsy, Zen town!) but they had no room until after American Thanksgiving.   

Heading down out of Flagstaff and the hill goes on for……

18 miles!

The rim off to the right.

Oh goody….only 14 miles more to go.  The diesel engine on our truck does a good job of holding the trailer back as we go down these steep hills.  Very seldom have to use the brakes. 

We took the exit off I17 to Highway 30 which heads west to Cottonwood and the Rio Verde RV park.  I was apprehensive about the park as the reviews weren’t great, but….it was all I could find.

When we pulled into the park it was as bad as some of the reviews said.  The young woman on the desk was nice and we went out to view the site where we would be parked.  The park is old, full of fulltimers and quite shabby.  We walked up the gravel road along the small Rio Verde River to the dead end where we would have to turn around and come back to park.  There was a Hydro Power Line company working where we were to turn around and they had two line trucks and three pick-ups in the way.  They said they’d move and we went back to check-in.  We weren’t happy with the spot we were given so we changed to a slightly wider one.  After a lot of wiggling around at the end of the road we drove a back down and parked.  The 5th wheel is hugely canted to the passenger side and it’s like being on a boat. 

What else …..well they say there is internet but of course there isn’t.   The washrooms could use a good scrub and the laundry facilities are adequate but grossly overpriced.  We’ll just have to make do as there are so many people these parks can charge what they want and not deliver the services they say they have.  We complained about the internet and were told that no one else had complained….well that doesn’t mean that it’s working.  Insulting!  If it doesn’t work, say so and don’t lie about it.

Looking over the bank behind our site.

Parked in a row coming down the hill.  Pictures make things look a lot better than they really are.

Looking up and….

and looking down the road.  We are quite far from the main road but we can still hear the traffic roaring although the sound of the water rushing by and the cicadas drowns some of it out. 

Looks level but it’s not.

Behind the rig.

Den of a varmint.  I saw him but didn’t get a picture.  Looked like a large ground squirrel. 

We had showers, beer, dinner and watched the BlueJays and felt a little better about the day. 

It’s all better when you are in your own space with your own things.