Leaving RVSue and Utah too!

I have been working on this blog for several days, BlogSpot is not co-operating! It is not letting me resize my photographs like it usually does. Grrrr!

Therefore, if you want to see the photos full size, PLEASE try clicking on it and the photograph should come up. I apologize and IF I can figure this glitch out, I will come back and resize all the images for you!

Geri

 

Leaving RVSue and Crew and Utah!

 

We had a great time.... checking out all the restaurants!  LOL! Sue loved our favorite from the Twin Bluff Cafe, Navajo Pizza - A normal Italian style pizza placed on top of Indian fry bread! Yummy!

 

Chuck loves this! Can you tell?

 

We spent 3 days at Sand Island with Sue and then moved up to Cadillac Ranch in Bluff Utah. Two of our good friends, Tim and Diana manage this campground. It's small, a bit close together, but we have never been sorry we stopped here. Cost is $25.00 per night with FHU (full hook ups) a nice shower and laundry onsite and the views are wonderful!

This year we had a special treat at Cadillac Ranch, near sunset, a flock of white face black Ibis flew into the pond at the park! Unfortunately I did not have the 300mm zoom lens on.... but you get the idea!

 

 Chuck and Sue visited the Bluff Fort while I dogsat for Bridgette and Spike!

Both Bridgette and Spike were overjoyed when Sue came home! Separation anxiety? Not much!

 

Sue isn't much for posing, but then neither am I, so we both snuck a quick snap sneaky photo of each other!

 

 

 

CAMO LIZARD!

Can you spot the lizard on this tree?

 

If you look close below, I have outlined him in red!
He/She/It was 10 to 12 inches long!

We overnighted in Chinle again, in the Cottonwood Campground at Canyon de Chelly National Monument.  The road from Bluff, Utah to Chinle is just jaw dropping beautiful! It looks totally different

depending on whether you are headed nort or south on Highway 191.  On this day, we hit the scenic roadway right after a rainstorm had passed over. Wet rocks are much more colorful than dry rocks and it was amazing!



This above shot was the beginning of a steep downhill curve and I was yelling at Chuck to slow down and still managed to snap this image through the window! The one below is just layers of colors dressing the earthmother! Shot this one out the passenger window.

 

 Below is the storm that had just passed over, giving the rocks their colorful beauty!

 

 

Always remember when driving on any Native American Reservation, it is open range... horses, cattle, sheep, goats ALL have the right of way. Please drive accordingly!

Datil Well Recreation Area Campground

We discovered this nice campground just off of Highway 60 in western NM. Just a mile or so out of
the town of Datil and down a short dirt road you will see the Visitor Center and campground on your left!

 

 A whole lot of history happened around here!

 

 

There area scenic mountains all around the campground area,

 

The sites are well spaced with a lot of foliage spaced in between. There will be $300,000 worth of improvements taking place here this year. The only problem we had was finding a level area for the MotherShip but we were assured that leveling the sites was high on the list of repairs as are showers. The pit toilets were nice though.

 

There are well marked hiking paths throughout.

 

We liked it so well, nice and cool temps, we stayed 3 nights and with our geezer pass it was $2.50 a night!
$5.00 for those of you too young for a geezer pass.

 

However, Radar was missing RVSue and the crew and so were we! It was a fun week.

 

We will be heading to Arizona to visit some good friends in the next few weeks. I promise a good blog!
Meanwhile that is it from the MotherShip Crew: Chuck, Geri, Radar and DoogieBowser! Thanks for stopping by!

Sand Island, Utah - Petroglyphs and Camping

Just a few miles south of Bluff Utah, you will find a sign on your left announcing Sand Island. It doesn't tell you what it is, just turn left there! You will find a rock art panel easily as big as the one we found on Potash Road in Moab!

From a distance, it is hard to tell how large this panel really is. It extends from the far left behind that big rock to the far right, beyond the frame of this picture.

Remember you can click on the photos to enlarge them to full size, making seeing the rock art easier!

Of course, graffitti is always a problem!

The one thing I have never seen, even in the petroglyph books, is that pair of "oars" top center! Maybe that is modern graffitti, I haven't a clue!

Probably the most amazing thing about Sand Island Petroglyphs is that for many years they were hidden from sight by the pesky tamerisk trees. Non-native, these plants take over everywhere in the Southwest where there is water! Utah is trying an experiment with a worm that feeds on tamerisk (or salt cedar) and it seems to be working! The worms actually cleared out the tamerisk from in front of these petroglyphs, petroglyphs that many folk had forgotten about.

3 strange figures at the top. Human or Alien ???

From a distance, it was hard to tell this panel existed. The fence it below was the clue! There are still some tamerisk trees trying to make a come back here.

The second part of the panel...... this panel was well protected by the rock overhang.

 

Twin Rocks, landmark in Bluff Utah! Also one of the better restaurants sits under the Twin Rocks....  Twin Rocks Cafe and we heartily recommend their Navajo Pizza! Chuck and Sue loved the classic pizza ! Instead of the usual pizza crust, they use Navajo fry bread and YUM!


 

    Our Sand Island camp site!

Hope you enjoyed the petroglyphs from Sand Island. There is a vey nice campground here, right on the river. It is a BLM campground and the rates were very reasonable. $5.00 a night for Seniors and $10.00 a night for you youngsters!There were bathrooms provided throughout the campground. RV Sue had the best campsite, right on the San Juan River watching the float trips go by! We said our sad goodbyes to Sue yesterday... :-(   she is such a very special friend! We will see you on down the road Sue, we love you too!
Crew of the MotherShip signing off for the night!
Chuck, Geri, DoogieBowser and Radar!

 

Bluff Utah - One of our favorites!

BLUFF UTAH USA

There really isn't anything particularly beautiful about the town of Bluff, but we love it primarily because of it's location to all things amazing to the Southwestern USA! There are some really cute houses here worth driving around to see and of course Fort Bluff, well worth your time to visit!
 AND of course the GOOD restaurants! But let's start with the location!   To the South of here, you have Monument Valley, Goosenecks State Park and Valley of the Gods. North and West of here you have Natural Bridges, Highway 95 to Hanksville is one of the most beautiful highways in the Southwest taking you to Capitol Reef National Park and Escalante. To the North, there is Newspaper Rock, Moab with that wonderful rock petroglyph panel on Potash Road, Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park, to the East you have Hovenweep Ruins, Mesa Verde and Four Corners.  All are day trips from Bluff! We usually stay here a week or so and go exploring. This time we can only stay a few days because we are heading for our new job in New Mexico.

GOOD FOOD

In this tiny town of Bluff, there seem to be at least 5 up and running restaurants.  Our Favorite is Twin Rocks Cafe.

Named for the Twin Rock formation towering over
the restaurant

The restaurant has a mixture of traditional Navajo fare as well as lots of typical American restaurant foods to choose from.

Corri Benally serves us our favorite! Navajo Pizza! It's is just like a regular pizza (only better!) served on traditional Navajo Fry Bread.  YUM! They even cut it in half for Chuck and me and I can't even begin to tell you how good it is!

Chuck's grin ought to tell you how much he loves it!

This is where we stay when we come to Bluff. It's not fancy but it has everything you need including wonderful owners, Diana and Tim, who treat you like family! This is our 3rd year coming here.

 The campground is small, 14 RV sites with Full Hook-ups and 4 with water and electric.  There are 14 tent sites available on a small pond with fishing allowed or you can fish in the nearby San Juan River.

 Reservations are suggested!  It's a great little campground. We are sad because the current owners are ready to retire and have this jewel up for sale!
If you are looking for a great opportunity, here it is!
Cadillac Ranch Highway 191 East Bluff Utah
phone: 435-672-2262
email: cadranch@frontiernet.net
website: www.cadillacranch.com 

If Chuck and I were a bit younger...  we sure would consider this!

Campground Kitty

Geri and Diana looking at a turquoise and silver pendant made by Emmanuel Gray of Monument Valley.

If you decide to visit Bluff, this is the road from Capitol Reef and Hanksville down to Bluff, a beautiful drive!
http://phunnyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-tripping-from-hanksville-to-bluff.html

Yesterday, Chuck and I visited GooseNecks State Park and Valley of The Gods. But that will be another blog another day.  Today we leave here headed down to Canyon de Chelly. My 3rd visit and Chuck's first.

From there we head down to Mimbres NM to our new workamping job at Mountain Spirits RV.

Happy Trails from The MotherShip and Geri and Chuck and the HoundHerd Scotty, DoogieBowser and Radar!  Hope you enjoyed Bluff Utah!