Vegas to Mesa Verde Dispersed Camping

Thursday September 30 - We left the Airbnb thinking we would go to Joshua Tree National Park, since we had enjoyed it so much when we visited CA last year, but as we were driving we saw a sign for Vegas and decided Kev needed a night of poker.  He found a parking lot for oversized vehicles behind the Flamingo that we decided we'd spend the night at.  

view out the window in vegas

Friday October 1 - We woke up at 6:00AM and decided to drive the 3 hours to Zion.  What a zoo!  You can't drive into Zion, you need to take a bus, so we masked up and got on the bus and headed for the last stop, to see what the hype was around the Narrows hike.  This is the hike where you walk down the river to a slot canyon, but we decided we had seen enough from the dry riverbank.  Next we did a 2 mile hike to the Emerald pools (we did the hike to the lower pool).

as far as we went on the Narrows hike

the masses of people either getting ready for the Narrows hike or coming back from the Narrows hike

nice easy hike along the river

Emerald pools hike

waterfall, falling into the emerald pool

we ran into Dale and Mary, Ian's aunt and uncle that had been at the wedding!

Nice campsite a few miles from Carmel, just outside the east gate of Zion

Kev flew the drone over our campsite outside of Zion

someone was sleepy

Saturday October 2 - We got up early, enjoyed our view with breakfast and headed off for a 5 hour drive to Mesa Verde.  We weren't in a big hurry, thinking we'd get there sometime in the afternoon and then go into the park on Sunday.  It was a fun drive, as we kept getting sidetracked by things along the way that we didn't know were there.  We went an hour out of the way to see Monument Valley, which we absolutely loved, and hadn't remembered had been in the movie Forrest Gump.  Then we saw a sign for 4 corners and decided to hit that too while we were so close.  We then headed to a dispersed camping site across from Mesa Verde that had 12 designated spots, we were lucky enough to find a free one, and we enjoyed the view all evening

breakfast with a view

Monument Valley

Stopped for lunch

lunch with a view

the spot where Forrest Gump ended his cross country run

four corners (CO, NM, AZ, UT)

pictures don't do it justice, but we sure loved the meandering drive to Mesa Verde!

more views out the car window 

Free camping on BLM land across from Mesa Verde (Hwy 160 towards Mesa Verde from Cortez, left onto MC RD34, first gravel road to the right).  We were on the second to the last site up the hill- site 11)

we took many many pictures, shocker

who doesn't love a rainbow?

then I had to take lots of rainbow pics

Kev took some good drone footage of our Mesa Verde campsite.

What do we do now? (Day after the wedding!)

 Sunday September 26 - Here are a few more wedding photos!

The bagpiper that played at the wedding, a friend that both Ian and his Dad play in a band with.

All set for the ceremony.  The flowers were done by a family friend of Ian's

Kevin did such a great job on his toast, love this pic with Elaine, Meg and Ian all laughing.

Meg put together a video montage of the weekend!

After cleaning up a bit at the vineyard, we decided to go camping at Morro Strand State Beach again.  Was nice to be back in the van after 3 days at the Carleton!

The signs from around the vineyard

Monday September 27 - Bob and Janet were sticking around after the wedding so we spent the day with them in Morro Bay.

The clam Bob fed to a seagull, watched him drop to break it open to eat, Bob picked it back up and Janet photographed it for posterity

a bike ride to the rock

picnic with a view

Tuesday September 28 - Next we headed to Sanger, CA (outside of Kings Canyon) for a few days of relaxing with the Baumgardners/Pardis.  Emily booked a great Airbnb that they had planned to spend the week at before heading back to Ohio.  They were hoping to go to Sequoia/Kings Canyon, but both were closed due to the fire.   They decided to go to Yosemite instead, but Kev and I decided we needed a zero day and stayed back at the house for some R & R with Gram.  We played lots of games while we were there and really enjoyed the beautiful view from the deck.

nice view!

great game table!!

last day was a little smokey, but still beautiful