RV Trip November 22 through 26, 2011
I would say that I had some really good road trips in 2011, would say one of the unforgettable years in terms of vacations.
First road trip through Colorado and then a RV vacation, can't ask for more.
Planning for our trip started a month before the trip. We were all sitting at "Salang Pass" restaurant in Fremont and we were thinking that we have to plan something for Thanksgiving vacation and it has to be something different, no more Tahoe and Yosemite ( even though I can visit Yosemite a million times). So, after discussing all the options RV trip sounded to be the most exciting and something that none of us had done before.
So, we started off with planning of RV trip. Couple of things that needed to be accomplished, making reservation for RV, selecting the route and then making reservations for RV campgrounds.
We had 5 days, so we wanted to plan accordingly. We came up with following options for our route:
-- CA 1 starting from San Francisco through Santa Barbara
-- Trip through Arizona [Sedona, Grand Canyon etc]
-- Death Valley, Lake Powell and Vegas
3rd option clicked for everyone as none of us had visited Death Valley and Lake Powell before, even though it was a very long drive.So, after some research we made reservations for RV, we rented out 30ft RV from Cruise America. It was a cab over RV, which means there is a cabin above drivers seating section. It had one master bedroom, one cab over room, sofa come bed and dinning table come bed [ this was the hangout place and my cozy bed], fully furnished kitchen, restroom and shower.
We made reservations for our RV campgrounds, we made sure that we got all the campsites with full hookups [ electricity, water and sewerage]. Done with preplanning, as we came closer to starting our trip, the excitement grew by every movement.
Day 1 ( November 22, 2011)
We started our journey around 6:30 pm from Satin's place in Oakland. We had lot of stuff to stuff into RV. There was lot of home cooked food courtesy Param/Satin,Yogi/Reena and Kullu (I was the only one who did not cook anything).Satin decided to take charge first and started driving the RV. It is not so different to drive an RV except the fact that it is a really big vehicle and you have to be careful while making turns and you had to make sure that have good control as it swayed quite a bit in the wind.
Our first day was mostly driving with couple of pit stops. I took over the control from Satinder half way around and drove till the day 1 destination that was KOA campgrounds @ Lake Isabella around 60 miles from Bakersfield. We reached around 1:45 am in the morning [ its been our tradition to arrive late on day 1 and we stayed upto it]. After reaching campground, we did the hookups and then we brought our kitchen into service and had a late night/early morning meal .. chicken and rice ... yum !!!
After that we called it a night and I slept on the dinning table [The dinning table got converted into the bed].
Day 2 ( November 23, 2011)
Everyone was relaxed now after a good night's sleep, we got up and had hot water showers. I won't consider KOA campsites as campground as they are always right on a freeway or a major connecting road, with amenities like heated showers,swimming pool, and the list goes on, stay in one to experience it.
After getting ready we were treated to hot Chai made exclusively in RV Kitchen and Avacado vegetable sandwiches.After a healthy breakfast, we had a lengthy photo session, not sure what instigated it. Here is one from the photo session.
After that we headed to Death Valley, it was close to 100 miles from Lake Isabella. Death valley is the lowest,driest and hottest place in western hemisphere with best time to visit from November through April, as summer temperatures can rise upto 150F. November seemed to be a perfect time for Death valley with temperatures in low 70's.
I was in awe after entering into Death Valley, huge spans of cactus, serpentine roads, a perfect Hollywood/Bollywood movie location. We camped at Stovepipe wells campaground, one of the two RV hookup campgrounds in Death Valley. After setting our site, we headed to hike "Mosaic canyon". It was beautiful 1.5 mile hike through the colourful canyon, it was amazingly beautiful. Here is a picture from Mosaic canyon.
We completed our hike by sunset,went back to our campsite,relaxed a bit and then went around to see the resort. I saw the cleanest swimming pool right here in the desert where water is gold.After that we watched a football game, had some snacks and then went back to our RV for dinner. After a mouth watering dinner, we went out for a walk and gaze out the clear sky, believe me or not I haven't seen so many stars ever. Here is a shot of sky full of stars [ courtsey Satin].
After that we came back and decided that we didn't had enough of Death valley, so we planned to get up early and see around before heading out of valley. There is so much to do in Death Valley ghost towns, sand dunes, endless hikes, off roading, biking , Badwater basin and list goes on ....
Day 3 (November 24, 2011)
We started our day early at 7am. Satin took the charge for driving and today we had a special guest on the driver seat .. will be disclosed later. We passed across quite a few scenic places like Mequite dunes, devils golf course, artists palette. We stopped at Badwater basin.. it is huge valley floor covered with salt as far as you can see.It is actually the lowest point on the western hemisphere at approximately 286 feet below sea level. We played frisby,football and took a lot of pictures. Here is a picture of the group at badwater basin.
It was a beautiful drive all the way out of Death valley. We had to cover lot of ground today, so we brought Kullu on the driver seat, our "guest of honour" . We drove pass Las Vegas and onto Lake Powell our destination, we passed four states today California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. We played Yatzee and Donkey all the way long, some of the benefits of RV, you can enjoy even while on the road.Finally we reached Lake Powell at around 10 pm. We camped at Lake Powell resorts RV campground in Page, Arizona. After setting up our campsite, we started preparing for barbeque and dinner. We started the bonfire, and I remember Yogi/Reena getting facinated with smell of started log.Yummy "spiced" corns, sauted chicken was the highlight of the evening. I caught cold as it was bit cold and windy, so I was not in the best of spirits but I remember few folks had a long night.
Day 4 ( November 25, 2011)
We woke up to most amazing views in the morning. We didn't realize during the night, but our campsite was right next to the Lake. There are no words to describe the beauty of Lake Powell but in short it is Grand Canyon half immeresed in water. Some stats about Lake Powell, it stretches across two states Arizona and Utah.It is the second biggest manmade reservoir in USA.It has a shoreline of approximately 2000 miles which is longer the west coast .... WOW !!!
It is clear blue lake, heaven for water sports and popular for its weekly/bi-weekly houseboat rentals, yes 14 days are not enough to explore the lake.
After getting ready, we enjoyed RV special scarmbled eggs breakfast ... camping special breakfast. After a nice breakfast we headed for guided boat tour of Antelope canyon. It was an amazing tour through the meandering Antelope canyon, the colored walls of canyon, clear lake left us completely spellbound.
After that we took a small 1 mile beautiful hike to horse shoe canyon. Horse shoe canyon is where Colorado river makes a 270 degree turn which loo like horse shoe when looked from top. Here is a picture of horse shoe canyon.
That was it for Lake Powell, we started our drive back to our last destination ..... Vegas Baby !! We had a new person on the driver seat, introducing Yogi !! The drive back was really beautiful, we got a chance to feel and see Utah red sand. I
want to come back to Utah in 2012. The journey back had some more episodes of "Donkey" game.
We reached Vegas at around 9 pm on Saturday evening, perfect time to be in Vegas. We camped at RV campsite right on the strip in Circus Circus. Did you ever knew that you could camp right on the strip ? That's KOA.
We had dinner in the RV, had awesome homemade paneer and chicken combo, can't get better food than that in Vegas. Now is the time, we got ready and headed to hunt in Vegas, we went around on the strip, but Vegas was pretty empty. We came back early but some folks stayed for casino games and came back at 7 in the morning.
Day 5(November 26, 2011)
We got up, had our breakfast and started with our journey back home as we had to cover around 500 miles. Couple of folks were still sleeping as they came late in the morning, another advantage of RV, sleep in the room while on the road [ I am pretty sure it is not legal ] . We had marathon sessions of "Donkey", we were now all pro in manipulating English words to our advantage. Last day was mostly driving, and everyboday drove for approximately 4 hours except our elitest elite "Kullu". We reached back at around 11 pm in Oakland after approximately 13 hours on road, tired!!
Special thanks to Satinder, Param, Yogi, Reena and Kullu for making this trip a memorable one.
Link to pictures from our trip.
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