My 10 year old son, Cody, has had a fascination with motor-homes. I have no idea where it started, but driving down the road he’ll comment on motor-homes when he sees them in traffic, “look dad, it’s a class “A” or “that’s a “C” class” motor-home“.
Kristi and I figured it would be a great surprise if we actually took a motor-
The start of the adventure! Yea, I looked scared!
home trip. We decided to take a tour of National Parks in Utah. I had done those destinations alone in previous summers on a motorcycle I keep at a friends in Montana. Kristi got on the Internet and located a 2001 35 foot class A motor-home for rent in Salt Lake. I was tasked with planning the route and scheduling the motor-home parks. It’s important to note, we’ve never done a trip like this and I had previously never even driven this sort of motor-home, much less run the generators and handle the water and septic issues.
We flew to Salt Lake last week with our son Cody and one of his friends. We also brought along our older son, Ryan who is finishing up his college in Portland Oregon, but was out for summer break.
Picnic-style dinner in Bryce Canyon
We didn’t let much grass grow under our feet. As soon as we arrive, we picked up the motor-home and after a fast orientation, set the GPS for southto Bryce Canyon! We arrived at late in the day and found the camp ground where I had made reservations. We learned that evening that much of motor-home life comes naturally. With a couple of tries we had leveled the motor-home on our camping pad, hooked up the electric, water and sewer and let the livingroom slide out, expanding the living area by twice the size.
The next morning we hopped a shuttle and headed to Bryce Canyon. We had read the National Park guide which recommended a rim hike. After loading up on bottled water, we decided that would be a good use of time, and run some pent up energy out of our three boys. The rim walk was spectacular! We hadn’t been to Bryce before, but looking back over our trip, we determined Bryce was one of our most enjoyable stops!
The next day we headed to the north rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. Our camp ground was more basic than the park we left the day before, but adequate. There is a shortage of camping spots on the North Rim, and our spot was 40 miles from the Grand Canyon. We were able to build an outside wood fire, not often the case we were to learn, and we were able to roast hot-dogs, marshmallows and make home-made smores from gram crackers, Hershey bars and marshmallows! Our fire got so large from burning the huge pine-cones we collected, one of Smokey the bears representatives paid us a personal visit to ask us to “tone it down some“, which we did.
The third day we headed north to Page Arizona, home to Lake Powell, the huge, and beautiful man-made lake made when the Colorado River was dammed up to collect water for irrigation and for hydroelectric uses. We took a nice long hike and even got in an early morning run before the sun got too hot. It was 100 degrees by noon!
Off Road Jeep Trip!
The fourth day we drive up to the town of Moab Utah. Moab is world famous for it’s mountain bike trails and off road jeep trails. After locating our camp ground, we ditched the motor-home and rented a 2010 Rubicon jeep! We were enjoying our camping trip, but it sure felt nice to run errands, like restocking food and water, from the jeep and not driving the “big bus”!
After our morning run the next morning we headed to Arches National Park, home to dozens of natural red-rock arches and amazing natural rock formations in the Utah desert. We parked and took a 7 miles hike, appropriately named “Primitive Trail”. We all learned something about taking such a long hike in 100 degree desert sun. Seven miles proved a lot longer than we originally thought and after running out of water, we started hallucinating about what was for dinner and regretting any water we’d wasted in previous days! The scenery was fantastic and we’ll remember our hike and experiences for the rest of our lives!
A hike in the desert - Arches National Park
The next day was the 4th of July. We loaded up the boys in the jeep and headed for a remote area where you can “off-road” with the jeep. We found some very rugged trails we could really put our rented jeep through it’s paces. We had spots we had do drop below 4 wheel drive and into 4 wheel Low and gear way down to get through the rough terrain. The boys were energized and loved the bouncing around in the desert. My wife, Kristi, constantly was telling me to slow down and be cautious. I let her drive and all the caution flew out the window. We all got a bouncing from her much greater than I as able to do with her in the back seat! :)
That evening, thanks to the city of Moab, we enjoyed a nice fireworks display to end our 4th of July celabration correctly.
The following day we made our way back north to Salt Lake,where we flew home the following morning. The Wolf family had a great 2010 summer break that we will remember fondly for years to come!
