Day 7 - Monument Valley

Wednesday - Since it’s Wednesday, I started the day by sending a Winlink Wednesday email using HF radio as the transport. Much better performance here than back in Hondo. After breakfast, we headed for Monument Valley. On the way was Forest Gump Point. The location from the movie. Quite a few people were stopped to take their selfies. We stopped but no selfie.

We then continued on to Monument Valley. The entrance fee for the scenic drive was $45 ($15 for the car plus $10 for each person). Kind of pricey. The view from the visitors center was pretty phenomenal.

There were numerous turnouts for the named formations. It was a pretty rough road and there was a stop from a Corolla buried to the frame. The sign did say no cars allowed but, obviously, it was not enforced. An overlander type pulled them out of the sand backwards to a viewpoint. They had the road blocked for about 30 minutes. 

After stopping a couple more times, we had lunch in Mexican Hat. I had a Navajo Taco. Not the best one but tasty enough. 

We then headed to Gooseneck State Park. There were several of these formations and the river was a bit over 1000’ below the viewpoint. 

Days 5 & 6 - Bluff, UT

Monday - We stayed an extra day in Farmington as we didn’t get some planned tasks done yesterday since we rode the train. After some Internet research, I discovered that the Onan 4000 generator has a manual altitude knob. It was set for sea level. I adjusted it for 5000’ and it started right up. I ran it under load for 15’ without any issue. 

Tomorrow, we head out for several days of dry camping and we really needed a functional generator. 

Tuesday - A short travel day to Sand Island Recreation Area near Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley, two things on Bridget’s bucket list. We are in a BLM campground, so no hookups of any kind. I filled up the water tank and dumped the tanks at the RV park before we left. 

We are only here for two nights so we should be good. It is warm with forecasted highs in the low 90s. I switched the refrigerator to propane and we are running the A/C right now. The Victron battery monitor says that we have ~5 hours of battery. I suspect that we’ll start up the generator around 3:30-4:00 and it’ll need to run for several hours to recharge the batteries. The solar is producing around 25amps so around half of the claimed capacity. 

Later - After setting up, we headed to Natural Bridges National Monument. The famous road, Moki Dugway, was on the route. It is a gravel road that switchbacks its way up a cliff. 

Natural Bridges was about another 30 miles north and has a few that could be seen with only a short walk. It was considerably cooler here than at the recreation area where we are camped. 

When we arrived back at the RV, it was 95°F so the generator was started to both recharge the batteries and run the microwave. The generator started easily, and the batteries were down to 68% after running the A/C for over 2 hours. We’ll see how long it takes to charge them back up. 

Durango-Silverton Railroad

Sunday - Today’s adventure required us to drive an hour into Colorado. We rode the Durango-Silverton train with a steam locomotive. It is a 3½ hour trip each way from Durango, CO, to Silverton, CO. 

Very scenic train ride. Billed as the most spectacular train trip. It’s a narrow gauge track with a top speed of 15mph. 

We were in one of the mid-level, enclosed cars and took the round trip. 

They allowed us two hours to have lunch and explore Silverton. It really reminded me of Dawson City in the Yukon Territory. The elevation is over 9300’, and it was a very nice 55°F. It’s a small town of mostly restaurants and gift shops catering to the train tourists. 

During the two hour break, they turned the train around so we will see what we missed on the ride up. I really like the mechanical sounds of the steam engine so I’m glad that Bridget was able to schedule steam. 

This is one of the best parts of the trip. 

I was obsessed with trying to get a picture of the engine from our car. 

Day 3 - Farmington, NM

Saturday - Another 270 mile travel day on some really beat up roads. New Mexico doesn’t seem to spend much on highway maintenance. Very scenic. The picture is north of Albuquerque on a secondary highway. It was in much better shape than the interstate. 

We crossed the Continental Divide at 7,380’. This is much higher than on I-10, my preferred route with the class A. Lots of hills on this route. 

At our lunch stop, I started the generator but it wouldn’t stay running. The inverter just isn’t enough to run the microwave. But, I hadn’t turned some of the other stuff off. 

Later - We arrived at the RV park at around 3:15 and all set up around 3:30. This class C is so easy to setup. The site was almost level and the quick connects on all of the water hoses makes it quick. 

We are at 5340’ elevation so it’ll be cool tonight though we may leave the A/C running all night. It got warm inside the RV last night.