Author: Wanda and John

After leaving Monument Valley we headed south into Arizona and stayed in Homolovi State Park. It’s the site of many archeological ruins, including buildings and pottery. It’s amazing that the public is allowed to wander through theses places and be so close to history. These are some pictures of the pottery shards that were just by the main trail.

This guy was hanging out near the road along with a bunch of other wild donkeys and horses.

The next stop was another Harvest Host spot on a golf course in New Mexico. We had the whole course to ourselves although we did have to share it with some wildlife 😉

We continued east and spent a night in Santa Rosa New Mexico. Nearby the campsite was the Route 66 Auto Museum so we stopped by for a tour.

Today we stopped at a little Route 66 gas station with a coffee shop and RV parking in the back. They call it the Pump and Grind – get it?? It’s in the town of Groom Texas and it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Tomorrow we’re on the road again continuing east through Texas.

We left Goosenecks this morning and came 30 minutes south back to Monument Valley to a full hookup KOA for one night. This was our view this morning:

And this is our view tonight:

We’re heading south into Arizona tomorrow morning but we’ll be sad to leave this beautiful and magical place.

We continued south through Idaho on Friday and spent a few days at a Twin Falls campsite.

These are the Shoshone Falls.

We then continued south again to Wendover Nevada which is right on eastern border of Nevada and Utah. Today we went to the Bonneville Salt Flats which John has been wanting to visit since our first trip out west.

We’ll be visiting our friends Dale and Karen who live in Utah and Dale was making fun of us for wanting to visit the Salt Flats! Very funny Dale 🙂

We did get some cool shots out there and John had the drone flying.

We’re here for another day and then we’re heading to Utah to spend some time with our friends.

We made our way south into Idaho on Sunday and drove along the Salmon River basin.

I always had the impression that Idaho was flat boring potato land but it’s not like that at all. There are may rivers and canyons and beautiful mountains. The site here in Challis is also right on a golf course so John has been playing every morning. Today we visited a real ghost town near here called Bayhorse. It’s an old mining town from the late 1800’s and at one time had as many as 300 people living there. We had to drive several miles off the main road down a dusty dirt road and by the time we arrived at the little town it felt very remote.

Not another person in sight, just me and John wandering around and trying to picture what life must have been like more than 100 years ago.

Tomorrow we set off south again heading for Utah.

We left Wyoming on Tuesday and spent a quick overnight at a site just off Highway 90 then arrived at Three Forks on Thursday. We have been here on a previous trip and came to stay here specifically because there’s an awesome bakery just up the street from our site. It’s called Wheat Montana Bakery and they make everything fresh onsite from the wheat fields in the area. It’s just as good as I remember. I’ve been going every day that we’ve been here.

We found a golf course nearby and played 9 holes. It was a nice course and a beautiful day to play. That didn’t help my game much though 😦 John did pretty good. He said the thinner air helps the ball go farther. ?

Today we took a drive about an hour south through the Gallatin Gateway Mountains to the city of Big Sky. We found a nice hike through the tall pine trees to the Ousel Falls.

We stopped on the way back and had a picnic by the river in the canyon. So grateful to be able to spend this time in one of the most beautiful states. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this really is God’s country. Tomorrow we start our journey south and will be headed to Idaho.

We left the Badlands on Monday but before we left we took a day trip through the Black Hills then down through the Needles Highway.

We spent last night in a Walmart parking lot (free, no hookups) and then checked into the Hidden Bridge Golf course this morning. It’s a beautiful day, sunny and low 70s so we went right out and did 9 holes. Such a beautiful course with the mountains in the background. John was sooooo happy 🙂

Tomorrow we head north west again and we’ll be in Montana in the next few days.

We left the Casino/Golf Course on Thursday and did a quick overnight at a site right of Highway 90 which is the main highway running east/west. Then yesterday we drove through the Badlands to an RV site just outside the west entrance of the park called Sobos.

The site is located right on the edge of a beautiful valley. This is our view.

We took a ride around today in the Jeep and even got off road for a little bit. We stopped at this ghost town just down the street from where we’re staying.

The following photos John shot from the interior of the Badlands.

And we’ve seen a lot of these guys around.

We’re enjoying this spot so much and the weather has been perfect. Sunny today with a high of 75. We’ve only driven in the rain once so far on this trip and John did a great job of handling the new rig. We’re leaving here on Monday and heading towards Wyoming.

That’s right. We found an RV site on a Casino and Golf course! Perfect right? A casino for me and a golf course for John. Except when we registered at the front desk on Monday they told us the golf course was closed for 3 days for aeration. Needless to say John was not happy about that. The course is right outside our RV site and he keeps threatening to go out at night and hit a few balls when no one is watching. Of course I’ve been to the casino a few times but haven’t hit anything yet. There’s still time 🙂

We did find a really cool place to visit just down the road from here. It’s called Porters Sculpture Park and it was created by a man named Wayne Porter. He creates huge metal sculptures (have a look Walter!) and places them on his land in the middle of a prairie field. He’s also a poet and very talented. It definitely inspired my creative side. This is Wayne. He lives in an RV on his property and greets all of his guests that visit his site. Here’s a link to his website if you’re interested in learning more about him. portersculputerpark.com

And these are his sculptures and some of his poetry.

Close up of the outside of the Bull.

From inside of the Bull.

This is exactly what I love most about being on the road and discovering new and interesting things. We never know what we’ll see next! We’re leaving tomorrow morning and getting closer to the badlands of South Dakota.