Day 53 Monday June 20, 2022 We departed at 7:15AM and headed to Dark Sky RV Campground in Kanab, Utah. After we passed Flagstaff Arizona we saw the area that was burned in the Pipeline fire just North of Flagstaff on both sides of highway 89. We saw two trees that were still smoking and saw two camps where the firemen were still staged. The fire was started by a man that admitted that he was burning toilet paper. Not sure why anyone would be burning toilet paper. Kind of careless as dry as it is in this area.
The terrain changed several times today as we traveled down highway 89. One area looked like it might look like on the moon. There were some amazing views and our photos just don't do them justice.
We stopped in Page Arizona for a snack break. Then just outside of town we crossed over the bridge beside the Glen Canyon Dam.
We arrived at the campground about 2PM and set up in site 19. This is a very different campground from any we have been in. It was built in 2020 and only has 18 sites with hookups and 3-4 with no hookups. They have 40 acres here and could have put in many more sites but chose to give plenty of room to each site which is rather rare for a commercial campground. Each site has a cabana to provide some shade from the afternoon sun, a picnic table and small table and a gas firepit.. Just in front of our site they have an open air covered large Terrace with several chairs, tables, two gas fire pits and a small honor system store with snacks and drinks, etc.
We have views out about 40-50 miles on one side and then large red rock hills on the other side.
Day 54 Tuesday June 21, 2022 We drove into Kanab this morning and stopped at the visitor's center but didn't find the type of information we were looking for. Then we visited Little Hollywood which is a store with some movie props out back that were used in some of the western movies. Several movies have been filmed in this area. Outside of town we visited an animal sanctuary and then we visited the Kanab Heritage House Museum. We stopped for a snack at a local coffee shop but like most coffee shops we have tried it was pitiful. The price of regular gasoline in town is $5.38 a gallon about a $1.00 more than at home. We had a high of 90 today so a little cooler than the last few days.
Day 55 Wednesday June 22, 2022 Zion National Park East Gate is only 40 miles from here so we drove there this morning. So far it had some of the pretties views of any place we have seen on this trip. We used our National Park pass again and saved the $35.00 entrance fee. We had planned a short hike on a trail just before the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel but all the parking places were taken so we couldn't stop. The tunnel only has a clearance in the center of 13' 1” and 11' 4” along the side so a large motorhome like ours would not be able to go through the tunnel. But after driving through the park I would not drive our motorhome through the park anyway. Too many hairpin curves and narrow lanes.
We stopped at the Visitor Center at the South gate and was going to ride the park shuttle bus up the Zion Park Scenic Road but there were not a single open parking spot and it was only 9:15AM. The shuttle buses are the only vehicles allow on the scenic drive. So we left the park and took another route back to Kanab which took us back into Arizona and then back into Utah.
Day 56 Thursday June 23, 2022 Today we drove a few miles back down 89 and turned off onto Johnson Canyon Road to locate the Johnson Canyon Western Movie Set. Some of the old western movies and some of the scenes of Gunsmoke were filmed here. The buildings or at least what is remaining of them are on private property so we weren't able to get very close to them. They have basically crumbled to the ground now. Not much left standing. We continued on down the road. There were some more amazing scenery along this 20 mile paved road and lot of ranches with cattle, horses and hay fields and a few scattered houses. We drove to the end of the pavement and turned around.
Then we drove back through Kanab and just across the Utah/Arizona border to The Red Pueblo Museum and Heritage Park in Fredonia AZ. One of the two guides told us that Fredonia means Free Woman. It seems that before Arizona became a state some of the Mormons that lived in Utah would take some of their wives here when the authorities in Utah would harass them because they had multiple wives. She said she was a descendant of one those wives.
The museum was full of artifacts of the different bands of Indians that lived in this area. One whole wall was covered in framed arrowheads, the most I have ever seen in one place. A local man and his wife collected all of them and donated them to the museum. There were lots of authentic pieces of Indian pottery from many hundreds of years ago.
Outside the building was an example of a Dugout that was used by many settlers that came to this area to homestead. Dugout were primitive but provide a cool home in the Summer and a warm home in the Winter but were not very spacious inside. There was also a log cabin that once was located at the Grand Canyon but had been moved here in one piece.
On the way back to the campground we stopped at Escobar's Mexican Restaurant in Kanab for lunch. We probably won't get good Mexican food once we leave this area tomorrow.
Shortly after we got back to the campground a small rain cloud blew through and rained just enough to create spots in the dust. Yesterday evening some rain fell also, just about 35 drops. Then a couple of hours later we had a good shower of rain but it didn't last but a few minutes but the wind was really strong for several minutes. A couple of the campers had extendable flag poles that got damaged from the winds.
The owners of the campground live in Rvs in the campground. They have a social every Thursday under the Pavilion at 6:30PM and they furnish all the goodies. Today they had 6 large pizzas from Pizza Hut, a large bowl of salad, several flavors of ice cream, water, soft drinks, beer and wine. I think most of the campers in the park attended.
Rick, one of the owners asked us had we seen the bath house. We had not since we have our own in the motorhome and don't use the campground bath houses. He said you really need to go and at least look at them because they are different than the normal campground bath house. We did and he was right. They have two individual shower rooms. There is a sink, large mirror, heated floors, air conditioning, shower inside and outside. The outside shower is accessed from the shower room and it has a wall up high enough that no one can see you.
We got everything ready that we could for our departure tomorrow morning before we called it a day.
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