Utah to Alabama

Thursday, June 11, 2026

We departed Capitol Reef National Park in Utah on Thursday, June 4th, knowing that a lot of our remaining time would be driving.  Of course, we did not get an early start with the cinnamon rolls, hiking and getting BB ready for some back-to-back travel days.  The night of June 4th was a Boondockers Welcome stop in Grand Junction, CO – about 200 miles for the day.  Not great mileage but we stopped to make phone calls and handle some business that took longer than expected along the way.  As usual, our hosts for the night were welcoming and we had a nice visit before turning in.

We were up early on Friday, June 5th driving I-70 easterly across Colorado and into Kansas.  We stopped for the night at Ellis Lakeside Campground, in Ellis, Kansas.  This small campground is a city owned campground that was a whopping $25/night with full hookups and lake front site.  It was a quiet, peaceful place to sleep after a long 568 mile day.  We don’t do those long days very often anymore but it was all interstate and we were trying to get away from some of the heat.

Saturday morning after a visit to the local bakery, we headed to Archie, MO. We stopped at the I-49 RV park to visit some friends, Connie and David.  Connie and David are in our Bible Study group and we see them most weeks online but it sure was more fun to spend time with them in person!  Thanks Connie and David for your gracious hospitality.

Monday morning, June 8th, we left our dear friends and started driving again.  Destination for Monday was Craighead Forest Park, Jonesboro , AR. – 345 miles.  On the way, when it was time for a 2 hour driver change and leg stretch, we saw a sign for Mammoth Spring State Park and pulled in.  Wow, what a find!  It was right off US 63, and sort of served like a welcome center just after we entered Arkansas.  We took advantage of their really nice walking trail and a nice display of the old generating plant on the spring river.  It just so happened that this is the same Spring River that we took the Explorers canoeing many, many years ago – probably 40 years ago.

Back on the road refreshed, we drove on to Jonesboro and another very nice public park on another lake that was only $15/night with hookups.  Another great place to hike and another quiet night.

On Tuesday, June 9th, we made our way back to Alabama and the River Ridge Retreat in Guntersville. This is the park where we had the Huddle back in April.  We have rested a few days here, and tomorrow will move on to Camp Sumatanga, our church on Sunday and then back to our starting point in South Carolina.  After getting BB cleaned out and Fred ready to hit the road to our next mission project, we will give you all the statistics on this trip.

Scenic Byway 12 to Capitol Reef National Park

Thursday, June 4, 2026

Wednesday, June 3 we left Bryce Canyon National Park en route to Capitol Reef National Park.  We were surprised and very pleased with the drive on Scenic Byway 12.  We drove 12 almost all the way to Capitol Reef.  We both agree that this is the best scenic highway we have experienced.  The scenery was amazing.  We can’t say enough good things about the drive.  Highly recommend!  We hope the pictures come close to what we actually experienced. We hope to return to spend several days driving and camping along Highway 12 between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks.

Arriving at Capitol Reef National Park we first stopped at the Visitor’s center with the next stop being the Bakery at the Gifford Homestead.  That’s where you purchase your pie or pies in our case.  Anything you read about Capitol Reef will surely make mention of the pies.  They sell out every day – usually before 3pm.  They also sell cinnamon rolls, but we had to wait until Thursday morning for those because they were already sold out.  They say you must be there before noon to get the cinnamon rolls so we were there by 10:00 on Thursday. Of course, Capitol Reef is much more than the bakery and we did some nice hiking and drove the scenic loop as well before departing for our next destination.

Our next few days are going to be heavy driving days hoping to avoid some of the heat.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

After leaving Kodachrome State Park, we had a very easy drive day of about 1 hour to our destination at Bryce Canyon National Park.  We visited this park a number of years ago but since we had a friend camp hosting there this year we decided to revisit the area and visit our friend John.  We got set up at our site, had some lunch and then visited with John.  Later in the afternoon we hiked from our camp site, to the Rim Trail, to Sunset campground, picked a site for Tuesday night and back to our campsite – 4 ½ miles.  Didn’t plan to hike that far when we started but…we just kept going.  There is a lot of beautiful scenery and many improvements since our last visit such as the new General Store.

Tuesday, we relaxed and worked on preparing for our Wednesday Bible Study.  About 10:00 we visited with John again and then drove the scenic drive through the park – so nice.  At the end of the road we stopped and hiked the Bristlecone Pine Loop – about 1-1/2 miles.  Bristlecone Pines are very interesting trees, looking a lot like a bottle brush and can live for as long as 5,000 years. The remainder of Tuesday we got set up at the new campsite, Sunset Campground, visited with our neighbors and finished our preparation for Bible Study.

Wednesday morning we packed up BB for another travel day but not before we decided to hike the Navajo Loop Trail.  We had done a portion of this trail on our last trip but today we did it all.  It is only 1.5 miles but has over 500 feet of elevation gain at the end.  It is a hard hike by our definition but the Park seems to think it is moderate.  It is a great hike – very pretty but…we may be sore tomorrow.

After saying goodbye to John, we began our travel to our next destination.

Kodachrome Basin State Park, Utah

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

We arrived at Kodachrome Basin State Park Saturday afternoon, May 30.  We were tired from the day’s drive and activities, so we settled in on our site, had some dinner, walked around the campground a little and got some great sleep.  It was a very quiet and peaceful night.

Sunday morning we watched Lester Memorial’s 8:30 am service – 7:30 am for us since we are now on Mountain Daylight Time.  After an excellent service, we had breakfast and then headed out for a hike on the Panorama Trail at about 10:30. The information on the hike advised that this was a 3 mile hike that winds its way across the western side of the park.  You can view several sedimentary pipes and explore interesting geological features such as Secret Passage, Ballerina Spire and Mammoth Spire Overlook.  Difficulty was rated as easy to moderate.  This was a great hike even though we started a little too late and it turned into a 4 mile hike for us because we started at the campground instead of the trail head. Gorgeous scenery!

After returning to the campground, we met a couple that has a Beyond RV that is the same year as BB with a slightly different floorplan.  They followed us into the park on Saturday afternoon but we didn’t meet until Sunday afternoon.  They have had their RV for less than a year and had lots of questions.  We enjoyed getting to make some new friends and being able to answer some of their questions. The rest of the day we recovered from the morning hike.

Monday morning we wanted to hike one more trail, Angel’s Palace Trail. This trail was tagged as an excellent trail for photographers, and it did not disappoint.  It was a little over 1.5 miles depending on how many of the side ventures you took.  We of course took them all.  The trail has magnificent views of Kodachrome Basin, Bryce Canyon and all the surrounding areas.

After the hike and another visit with our new Beyond friends we left the park around 11:30 for the short drive to our next destination.