Driving trip to Yuma

We enjoyed sharing our behind-the-wheel duties, during a fairly long driving trip in Jennefer's newish CR-V hybrid, to visit her sister in Somerton, Arizona, just a little southwest of Yuma. Our route took us west and south to Kayenta, AZ, where we stayed the first night, then to Somerton for several days, then up through Las Vegas to Zion National Park for two nights, over to Moab for a night, and then home. 

I checked the weather a few times before we left, and while it looked like it would be snowing in the mountains before we left, it was supposed to be beautiful weather while we were driving, and that worked out exactly as forecast. I don't think our tires ever touched snow or ice, but we saw it all around us, in many places. Here's our beautiful view of the snow-frosted rock walls in Glenwood Canyon, while crossing over the Colorado River.

We passed near Monument Valley, and were fascinated by the strikingly beautiful geographic features that we could see from the road, in that part of the country. 

We continued the drive to Yuma on the second day, passing through snow-covered Flagstaff and "the 303 loop" around Phoenix. We stopped for lunch at Jacky's, a little food service truck with delicious Mexican food, in Buckeye. 

We spent several days visiting with Janine and Jerry, while staying at the Cocopah Resort in Somerton, which was far nicer than the Howard Johnson's where we stayed, the last time we visited. Jerry was kind enough to drive us around, so that Jennefer and Janine could make progress on their Pokemon GO tasks while we were there. We saw some cool looking Ringneck ducks at the Wetlands park, while we ate our picnic lunch.

He even took us down to the city of San Luis on the southern border, so we could look for a special Pokemon that was only spawning in Mexico. Jennefer did see one, when we got very close to the border, but it disappeared before she could catch it, and Jerry didn't want to appear to be loitering in that area, as that's apparently the kind of behavior that can get you adverse attention from the border patrol. 

We helped Janine harvest cabbage and cauliflower one morning, with her gardening group at the Yuma Agricultural Center. I learned a new skill of using the special stalk cutting knife, and got quite a bit of exercise bending down to cut away the heads, and carrying the full baskets to the large boxes. It looks like they will have donated around 25 thousand pounds of produce, when they finish the last few rows this week. 

We enjoyed hanging out with them at their house, with their two dogs and the one cat, all of whom were very shy the last time we visited, but came out of their shells this time. Jennefer was very happy that they seemed to recognize us, and had decided we were okay people after all. The cat, who was the most shy last time, even jumped up and spent some time purring in Jennefer's lap.

We drove through some pretty desolate country heading north from Yuma. It was quite a change, when we ran into some major stop-and-go traffic through Las Vegas.

We found our way through St George, and down along the Virgin River, to the lodge in the canyon at Zion National Park. 

It was raining and snowing at Zion most of the time we were there, so we didn't get to do much hiking. But we did enjoy walking around a little. I was struck by how almost everything in this view of the lodge went so well together, as we were walking back one evening. 

We enjoyed some gorgeous views of Mount Zion and Jacob Peak from our room. They were especially pretty, with their snow frosting.

The Red Rock Grill at the Lodge served us some delicious meals, and we also enjoyed the views of the peaks around us, while sitting there. 

We liked the way that the dining room had some beautiful photos arranged around the small view windows, and then when we focused on the windows, that view was even prettier than the photos, with the snow falling gently outside.

We stopped on our way out of Zion, and hiked out to the end of the Overlook trail. There were quite a few people on the trail, but the view at the top was amazing. 

Our last overnight stop was in Moab, where we went for a walk from one end of town to the other, then enjoyed a delicious barbecue dinner at the Blue Pig near our hotel. We were hoping to get some up-close views of the local area. Unfortunately, we didn't realize we needed to book a reservation to enter Arches Park, even during what we thought of as the off season, so the closest we got, was the long wait at the gate, only to be turned away. We shrugged our shoulders, and headed home a little early. 

We stopped for lunch in Glenwood Springs, at a tasty taco restaurant named Slope & Hatch, and due to limited parking, enjoyed a fun walk through town as well. We passed by the Glenwood Springs train station as we were walking back to the car. 

 

Here's one last look at the Colorado River, with a few kayakers enjoying their day on the water, before we got stuck in a long line of traffic trying to get over the Rockies, on the last leg of our way home.