Airstream Renovation and Full Time Family on the Road Travel Blog

Camp Verde & Sedona, Arizona 2020 - Week 2

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 05:00:00 +0000

Mountain Biking with Brom - Snake, Girdner, Chuckwagon, Mezcal, Deadman's Pass, Aerie, Cockscomb, Dawa (woo!)

Brom and I started off the Week 2 with a mountain bike ride on the trail we hiked as a family the day before, adding on a few extra miles and sections to make things more interesting. It was a blast!

Shredding Sedona

Decisions, decisions

Black diamond section

Copper Canyon

When looking for a quick hike close to our campground, we were lucky enough locate Copper Canyon, which was about 5 minutes from our campground just outside of Camp Verde. While the views weren't quite as amazing as Sedona area hikes (but still were fantastic in their own right), it made for an excellent end of day / last minute option when we wanted to sneak something quick in. I ran the 4 mile loop a few times, and we hiked the area a few times as well.

Copper Canyon, Camp Verde AZ

Woods Canyon Trailhead

End of the Week Family Hike - Woods Canyon

We ended our second week in Sedona with a big hike picked by Brom - Woods Canyon, located just outside of Oak Creek Village. Macala and I last hiked this trail about 9 years ago, when Brom was just a baby. The ending then was so fantastic - a roaring creek running through a slickrock canyon. This year was also fantastic, but in a different way - this time all of the water was dried up, and the very same area this time was 100% accessible. We picnicked this time where last time there was a roaring flow of water!

Hikin' with my buddy

Our picnic spot!

Activity Summary

Camp Verde & Sedona, Arizona 2020 - Week 1

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 05:00:00 +0000

After the wedding in Kansas City, the weather quickly began to turn cold. We made plans and hit the road, heading South towards Sedona, Arizona, a place we have visited many times before (most recently in 2018). On our way we stopped in Liberal, Kansas at an RV park we had stayed in previously as well. We tried to recreate a picture from that time, but I can't believe how quickly time has passed!

Liberal, KS - 2018

Liberal, KS - 2020

As we have done throughout this year's adventure, we took a slow pace, chipping away 3-4 hours at a time between each stop. After about a week, we completed our journey and arrived at our new home for the next month - the almost brand new Verde Ranch RV Resort, located just off the interstate near Camp Verde, Arizona.

After setting up, I immediately loaded up the bike and drove the 25 minutes to Oak Creek (near Sedona) to get a quick ride in before sunset. While I rode, the rest of the family explored the Verde River and trails connected to the RV park.

Perfect weather, perfect trail conditions!

Fall is here!

Verde River

The resort also had a pool, two hot tubs, and enormous clubhouse that had games, a pool table, workout room, shuffleboard, and massive lounging area. Unfortunately, they ended up having to close the clubhouse and reduce hours at the pool area during the last portion of our stay, but we thoroughly enjoyed it while it was available.

Family Hike - Broken Arrow to Chicken Point (and beyond)

The next day after arriving, we loaded up and drove about 35 minutes into Sedona for our first hike - Broken Arrow to Chicken Point. We ended up extending the hike after reaching Chicken Point by heading into the National Forest area that connected directly from the trail we were on.

Helpful rock "barrels" to guide our way

Awesome slick rock and views from Chicken Point!

Not Chicken Point, but still a great view!

Family Hike - Girdner, Remnant, Roundabout

After work on Monday we packed up again and drove North through Cottonwood to get to the West side of Sedona, this time choosing to hike starting at the Girdner trailhead. This was a quick 2.5ish mile hike that we knocked out fairly quickly, but was still a good one!

Girdner/Centennial Trailhead

Family hikes are the best

Biking with friends is always better

Silver Linings

2020 has for sure been a strange year, to say the least. But one of the many awesome silver linings has come in the form of seeing so many other families out and about on the road, spending time together and outside. Several times we ended up seeing the same families at different locations! This stay was no exception, and Brom and Isla got to enjoy hanging out with one of the friends they made during our trip from KC to Arizona.

Family Hike - Cyprus, Girdner, Snake

After work on Tuesday we drove back towards western Sedona and drove a bit further into the National Forest, this time sneaking in a quick 3 mile sunset hike starting at the Cyprus trailhead. This trailhead is also part of a shooting range area in the National Forest, which meant it was completely empty. This was a welcome relief compared to the seemingly hundreds of cars packed up the road at the Devil's Bridge trailhead.

Girdner/Centennial Trailhead

Family Hike - Bear Mountain

On Wednesday after work we hit the road towards Sedona and this time opted for a longer hike at Bear Mountain. This trek was no slouch - 5+ grueling miles totaling 1800+ feet of climbing. But the view at the top was completely worth it - simply amazing. We quickly realized after the first mile that during our first visit here 10 years ago, we only hiked to a false summit and completely missed the second (and third) more difficult parts of the hike!

Bear Mountain Trailhead

Up, and up, and up

Pano near the top of Bear Mountain

Heading back down Bear Mountain

Family Hike - Mezcal

Hiking in Sedona is addicting - the more you go, the more you want to go! On Friday after work, I opted to do a mega 20 mile ride of Sedona trails from the West side of town, and it was a blast! On Saturday, we did a 6 mile family hike on the Mezcal trail. While we were hiking we saw several mountain bikers, and the following day Brom and I came back and road a longer version of it to give it a go ourselves. We had an amazing time!

Sedona Blues

Mescal Trailhead

Mezcal Trail Views

Activity Summary

Dual Victron Multiplus 3000 3-Phase 50amp Power Issues

Sun, 01 Nov 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Trouble in Paradise

The problem: you have a dual Victron Multiplus 3000 setup and from time to time when hooked up to certain 50 amp services, your setup only pulls in power from one of the legs.

This article will detail our experience with the above issue as well as our solution in solving it.

DISCLAIMER - While I am certainly handy, I am not a professional electrician, and all info below is based on my own research and discussions with actual electrical professionals. It is highly likely I may be incorrectly describing certain aspects of the below, so please consult with your own expert(s) before adjusting your own system.

Oh no, where is the power from L2?

We are extremely fortunate to have such a robust boondocking setup on our RV. As mentioned in a previous post, we are equipped with 6 100ah Battle Born Lithium batteries running through a dual Victron Multiplus 3000 inverter setup, all supported by 1600 watts of solar panels on the roof. While this setup is super robust and allows us to run literally anything in our rig while boondocking, albeit not indefinitely, it does have one rather unexpected foil - the dreaded 3-Phase (or 120deg) 50 amp service.

In most RV parks, when hooking up to a 50 amp receptacle you will be pulling a full 120/240V connection, which is two hot legs coming through at 180deg phase from one another. This 180deg phase is what makes the connection both 120V and 240V capable, the latter of which is essential in some larger RVs for certain appliances such as clothes dryers. However, in some RV parks (usually the older ones) a different wiring method is used so as the 50 amp service is in fact pushing out a 120/208V connection, which is fine for most RVs but will cause trouble for others because of the appliance requirements - or for those who have a fancy dual inverter setup like we do.

Victron Configuration Settings to the Rescue! Almost...

Victron's Multiplus inverters are pretty amazing, and have a lot of configuration options. I was sure there would be an option to fix the fact that we were only getting power from one of our legs, and sure enough - there was! The below setting seemed to be exactly what I was after - the ability for the inverter's L2 output to be more forgiving and allow for a variable phase:

Could this really be it?

Problem Solved?

Initially, the problem seemed to be fixed! Our L2 output was showing watts passing through and the world seemed right again. I was extremely proud of myself and congratulations were handed around amongst myself liberally.

All seemed well... until weird stuff started happening over the next day or so. The clothes took forever to dry. The convection oven wasn't heating up to temperature. The heaters weren't kicking out the usual amount of heat. I started the process of warranty replacement on our convection oven thinking we had an issue with the unit, and then I started adding up things in my mind and thought to test one of my wall outlets. Sure enough, the issue was found -- the outlet was only kicking out 104V instead of the 120V that it should have been! Arggggh!

So what next? Looks like a deeper dive into electrical components, along with a couple calls to my electrician friend Corey is in order.

120 deg vs 180 deg?

So what the heck does phasing even mean, and what is this 120 deg vs 180 deg business? Below are a couple graphics that show the basics of what each power method look like visually. With the the 120 deg graphic, you can see that the wave forms of each phase never full overlap one-another, which creates the "third phase". It also imposes the limit of 208V on the output.

With the 180 deg graphic, you can see that with each wave, each leg full mirrors one another, thus cancelling out the neutral and allowing for the full 240V of power to be pulled down.

Three Phase - 120 deg, 120V/208V

Single/Dual Phase - 120 deg, 120V/240V

For most RVers with a "normal" setup, with the exception of those with 240V appliances, an RV park using either of the above makes no difference as your rig will pull in power from both legs without any issue. However, for those of us with a dual Victron Multiplus 3000 inverter setup, or more specifically those of us with this setup in combination with a Victron Autotransformer, you will be experiencing issues when on the 3-phase setup.

So Really, What Exactly Is the Problem?

The problem isn't specifically with the inverters, but rather the fault lies with the Victron Autotransformer that sits between our inverters and house panel. Why do we even need the Autotransformer? Excellent question! The purpose of this auto transformer is simple. You have on your 50 amp house panel two "sides", each with loads drawn from the various appliances and outlets in your RV. In our RV, one half contains two of our air conditioners, the convection oven, our fireplace, and the other side contains the 3rd air conditioner, our washer/dryer, and the water heater. Both sides have certain outlets as well.

Each inverter has a max inverting (power source coming from batteries) output of 3000W, with a combined total of 6000W. These dual inverters are wired as such that your two-legged power load from the house panel is split between these inverters. However, your house panel might not be wired so kindly as to split this load equally, and in most cases (including ours), the house panel can draw 4000-5000 watts from one side of our panel and a couple thousand from the other - thus placing an undue burden on one of the inverters if you were trying to boondock and run multiple appliances at once, which would cause an overheating/shutdown issue on the inverter pretty quickly.

This is where the magical Autotransformer comes into action. The Autotransformer performs some voodoo magic and converts that unequal load to a perfectly balanced draw from each inverter - so in the scenario where one half of your electrical panel is asking for 4000 Watts and the other half is asking for 1000 Watts, this Autotransformer will convert this load to a perfectly equal 2500W / 2500 W draw from each inverter, thus auto-balancing and transforming the load so your inverters can work more efficiently and without overload concern.

Wonderful, amazing, fantastic - except when you are hooked up to a 50 amp service that is a three phase, 120 deg setup.

The problem with a 50 amp, three phase 120 deg setup is that this autotransformer has one unfortunate Achilles heel with its "let's split everything, hazzah!" approach - this is because it also splits the available power from a 208V source exactly in half. So your appliances expecting 120V? They are going to get half of 208 - which is 104V, which is way too low and can cause all sorts of issues - your heaters not pushing out much heat, your convection oven never reaching temperature, your dryer never drying your clothes, et cetera.

I'm Getting a Headache. Seriously how did you fix this?

At the end of the day, when we're in "passthrough" mode with our inverters (meaning we're hooked up at an RV park), there is no need for the Autotransformer. Its main job is to split the load of the inverting, and when we're not inverting, it's not truly serving much of a purpose. Therefore, bypassing the autotransformer is the solution in our situation. When hooked up to "bad power" situations, we will bypass the autotransformer, otherwise we will continue to pass power through it.

To test my theory, I unplugged from shore, shut off everything, and rewired our combiner box / autotransformer so that the autotransformer was completely bypassed. Below is a fun photo showing this in action.

OMG

The thick black wire running from the lower left through the front of the right box is the connection to our RV's house panel, which previously was wired to the left side (output) of the autotransformer shown on the left. After testing, I confirmed that this in fact solved my issue - as although my loads were now unequally getting split between each leg, the voltage from my outlets was 120V as it should be.

Making it Permanent - Transfer Switch Install

The next step was ordering in the necessary parts to create a transfer switch that lets me bypass the autotransformer more easily than rewiring the entire thing every time. So I ordered a three-position manual transfer switch from MQTEK Industrial. I ordered the necessary additional wiring and accessories from Amazon. Within a week, all of the supplies arrived and I was able to install the transfer switch to make everything permanent.

My fancy schematic showing the new wiring configuration

Mounting the transfer switch enclosure after drilling holes & adding cable guides

These are professional labels.

All buttoned up and back together

Even though the above was slightly stressful, I am so thankful that it was something we were able to figure out all while being on the road, with barely any inconvenience (and if I'm being honest, a rather enjoyable side project to work on). If anyone out there runs into anything similar to the above and needs an assist, feel free to send me a note! And if you're looking for a professional electrician and solar installer, my friend Corey over at Foltz Solar is top notch (he helped me install everything in our rig last Spring).

Back to KC for a Wedding

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 04:00:00 +0000

After Cheyenne, we started our journey back to the midwest for my nephew's wedding in Kansas. Before getting to Kansas, we made plans to stop in Elkhorn to see my father and stepmother, and after that Griswold to see Mac's dad and extended family.

North Platte, Nebraska

Pro Tip: Make sure you pull forward far enough so you can open your front door (we didn't, and this tree blocked our stairs)

Our first stop was North Platte, Nebraska. We pulled into the park in the late afternoon. The area was shady and pleasant, and fairly empty. We arrived with just enough time for us to set up our site, for me to load up the mountain bike and head 45 minutes down the road to what seemed to be the only mountain biking in the entire state, a place called Potter's Pasture.

The drive to Potter's Pasture was very scenic and beautiful, with the full colors of Fall just starting to come through the trees that lined both sides of the highway. As I drove along, I kept an eye out for any obvious signs of a trailhead, certain I would likely drive right by it at least once before locating it. However, the makers of this trail system made sure that would not happen, as the entrance was very clearly marked by a large sign and hanging bicycle.

What an entrance!

Beautiful Western Nebraska Views

After unloading my bike I found to my unpleasant surprise that I had neglected to reattach my derailleur battery, which meant I would be riding single speed for the entire ride. Thankfully, I had last shifted in a manageable gear and set off into the woods without much issue, although some of the climbs were a bit rough. My reward at the top of each climb was a beautiful view of the sprawling Western Nebraska countryside, just ever so slightly tinged with a hint of the smoke from the western wildfires.

Whoever made this network of trails did so as a labor of love - that much was extremely clear. The dual-purpose mountain biking and cattle trail expertly meandered through a combination of pine-needle forests and open grass meadows, winding up and down steep hills with wide switchbacks meant for mountain bikers. At many points there were detailed signage posted with route details and current location, although they were long faded and showing their age. I could only imagine how much fun the original trail builders had creating this area!

A few other clues were offered as to the age of the trails. The photos I had previously found online of substantial and impressive wooden downhill features were found to be long-ago abandoned, rotted out thoroughly, and blocked off with a tattered police tape ribbon discouraging anyone from riding. If only I had found this place 10 years ago, I could have experienced it as the original builders had intended.

Potter's Pasture Trail Map

Electrical Issues?

When I finished up the ride, as usual I phoned home to report my departure, and was told about some "electrical issues" that were occuring in the the trail... portending an extensive rabbit-trail of technical issues that will be discussed in the next article.

When I arrived back, I found that our dual inverter Victron Multiplus 3000 setup was returning overheating errors, caused by an extremely high load for multiple hours (convection oven, three ACs, the washer and clothes dryer) which quickly made me realize we must not be running off of shore power. I found that the batteries were still above 50 percentage, which was impressive in its own right given how much they were powering in the rig. I also discovered that although we were pulling from shore, our system was only recognizing one of the legs of the 50amp service - so the other half was getting supplemented by our battery bank and inverter system.

I first thought the issue was with the pedestal at the campground, but after having a maintenance person test the outlet with a multimeter, we confirmed that both legs seemed to be pushing out 120V. I then thought maybe it was an issue with our cord or inverter, and by the kindness of the next door neighbor we tested that theory using his extension cord and pedestal, only to find that the issue persisted. At this point I was baffled and started an extensive online search to see what the issue might be. One clue I found was that someone had anecdotally reported that in some RV parks, the wiring may be out-of-code and a dual inverter system might not properly recognize it. Given that we were only staying one night, I made the decision to hope for the best and see what happened when we got to our next destination.

More on the electrical issues and the fix here.

Gretna KOA, Camp Chris, Camp Kenny

After North Platte we stopped over at the Gretna KOA, on the western edge of Omaha, Nebraska. Honestly, I don't know why we came back to this campground, as our first experience here was less than pleasant, and this time proved to be more of the same. The curt site-guide took us to our extremely tiny site, and by some miracle we barely were able to fit. Because of the extremely narrow sites, hooking up our utilities meant walking literally through our neighbor's family gathering. All that being said, the kids had a great time here as the park was hosting a large number of Halloween activities including hay rides, trick-or-treating, and a glow stick parade. On the plus side, the electrical issues we experienced at North Platte were no longer occurring, so for the moment I put it out of my mind (which as fate would have it, this would prove to be only a temporary reprieve).

At least we got some pumpkins.

Chalco Hills State Recreation Area

While at Gretna we still managed to get in a hike at Chalco Hills State Recreation Area which was about 15 minutes from where we were staying. The weather was hot, but a strong breeze kept the humidity down and the view at our turnaround point was nicer than would be expected at a lake in the middle of a city.

After Gretna, we continued over to "Camp Chris", which was dry camping at my dad's house near Elkhorn, Nebraska, and after that dry camping at "Camp Kenny" near Griswold, Iowa.

Our lovely "site" at Camp Chris

Our Equally Lovely "Site" at Camp Kenny

While at Camp Kenny, we took part in helping out with the best part of farming - harvest! This meant the kids got to ride along (and help drive) the combine and farm machinery. I also helped out by driving the grain wagon and tractor behind the combine on one of the days we were in the area.

View from the Grain Wagon Tractor

Isla working hard with her uncle

Peculiar, MO and Clinton Lake State Park, KS

As the days until my nephew's wedding grew increasingly near, we left Camp Kenny and continued towards Kansas. There aren't a lot of options for campgrounds near Kansas City, so we opted to stay at a place in Peculiar, Missouri. The weather preceding and after the day of the wedding was extremely cold and windy, but just like our own October wedding so many years ago, the day of this wedding was also perfect and pleasant, with the sun streaming down through entirety of the outdoor ceremony.

After the wedding, we moved out to Clinton Lake State Park, a place we have stayed a number of times before, including most recently as our launching point before heading out on this year's adventure.

I love how spread apart the sites are here!

There was one unexpected hitch with our stay at Clinton. Although we were fully aware of the "no sewer hookups" constraint, one thing were not made aware of until our arrival was the fact that the water would be shut off almost immediately after our arrival for the season... which meant we would be dry-camping for almost two full weeks! This proved to be not the end of the world, but an inconvenience to the say the least - with a family of five, there is a lot of water usage, even with mindful conservation. We ended up having to re-hookup and drain/refill our water 3 times during our stay. It was a good experience as it showed us that our comfort level for such conditions is about a week.

I love how spread apart the sites are here!

While at Clinton we experienced very cold temperatures, but thankfully it didn't stop us from getting out to hike and mountain bike. Near the end of our stay we even got a dusting of snow which was beautiful and fun to play in!

Washing dishes and being classy.

Hiking near Clinton Lake

Mountain biking with Brom at Clinton Lake

It was wonderful spending time with family and friends while in town, and although we were eager to hit the road to get back to our adventure, family always comes first and we would not have missed the wedding for anything. Our nomadic lifestyle makes such trips a mere detour on route to other destinations, another fact for which I am very grateful.

Flat Tire on the Ford F350!

Another eventful experience was Mac getting a flat tire on our truck while getting groceries, on the side of busy Interstate 435 in the near-heart of Overland Park, KS. My brother and I arrived and started the process of changing out the tire, only to find after removing the lug nuts that it was completely stuck! After a quick internet search and a call to Mac's brother, who has the same truck, we found that this is a common issue on larger trucks and that the process for removal involves either whacking the rim back and forth with a mallet, kicking it from the rear site (not recommended while on a tiny jack on the side of the interstate), or putting the lug nuts back on partially and driving the vehicle forward and backwards until the wheel releases. We ended up doing a combination of the mallet (by way of a helpful roadside state helper vehicle person) and rocking methods which eventually got the job done, and in short order we were back underway with our spare tire. My brother gave us a lead on his "tire guy" and we even got the tire plugged and picked up before heading back to Clinton!

Unfortunately, the plugged tire was not inflated to the proper level, which was only discovered after putting it back on the next morning at the campground. All was not lost, as I got in my workout in by filling the tire from 40 PSI to 80 PSI with my bike pump! It only took about 10 minutes and a couple thousand pumps, but it got the job done. Also afterwards, completely unrelated to this experience, I ordered a VIAIR pump on Amazon.

Heading South for Winter!

Next up - heading to Arizona (and more on the above-alluded-to electrical issues...).

Activity Summary

Laramie and Cheyenne, WY

Sat, 26 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000

After our second stay in Grand Junction, we headed East on I-70 towards Rifle. Our first stop was a quick lunch break at a fuel station off the interstate - but I have to admit, it was pretty (unexpectedly) great!

Hot ham and cheese for the win!

At Rifle, we took Highway 13 north to Craig, where we made a one night stop. This KOA was super nice, and the owner was extremely friendly as well! The best part was the weather - we had been experiencing nothing but heat and smoke for the previous 3 weeks and it was so great to finally get some milder temperatures that we could sit outside and enjoy.

So nice to be outside!

Perfect weather after the first night!

After Craig we continued North and East until we reached out next destination - Laramie, Wyoming. We stayed at the KOA on the west side of town. The temperatures were dropping significantly as we arrived, and right after I finished setting everything up on our rig, it started snowing! Luckily it was not enough to accumulate, and the temperatures were much better after that first night.

In fact, it was so nice we spent the majority of our time outdoors - at least when we could. As luck would have it... we escaped the Colorado / California wildfire smoke only to arrive just in time for the Mullen Fire, which was shaping up to be one of the biggest wildfires in state history. We were fortunate that, although mornings started off extremely smoky, it completely cleared out each day by around noon.

While we were in Laramie, we spent a lot of time in the nearby national forest, as well as Curt Gowdy State Park.

Curt Gowdy State Park

Curt Gowdy State Park Hiking

Curt Gowdy State Park Waterfall Hike

One of my favorite hikes we did as a family was in Curt Gowdy State Park, ending at a "waterfall". I think in the spring time, there is likely to be a lot more waterflow, as this time of year it was little more than a puddle - but a cold one at that! Macala decided to give it a test run (literally) to see if she could find a waterfall further in.

I'm pretty sure the higher you swing your arms, the warmer you'll get.

As mentioned above, we also spent a good amount of time hiking and biking in the nearby national forest, which made for excellent evenings.

Isla brought her bear with us too, can't let him miss out!

This area used to be an old military base - fun fact brought to you by Brom :)

Relaxing ride with Isla

And not-so-relaxing ride with Brom

After a week in Laramie, we heading to Cheyenne for a week. Unfortunately, it was smoked out the entire time, so we spend most of our days hunkering down in the RV Park. Luckily for us, the owners at the Cheyenne KOA were amazing folks with kids the same ages as ours and we spent a good amount of our time with new friends :).

Activity Summary

Grand Junction, CO (Again!)

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Wow, as mentioned a couple posts back, Grand Junction is great. Just don't tell anyone, as I don't want the secret to get out. As much fun as we had in Moab, it was good to get out of the extreme heat, smoke, and crowdedness.

We opted this time to stay at the KOA on the edge of town. I think the kids were missing the green grass, maybe just a little bit.

This was taken exactly 30 seconds following arrival

Grand Junction KOA

We did some more hiking while we were here, this time in the Pollock Canyon area - which was fantastic! Beautiful weather and views throughout. Mac also took the kids to Lunch Loops for a morning hike.

Go Royals!

I got another ride in with Brett! He's awesome, such a great guy to spend time with, and an awesome rider to boot! I also ordered and received a new upgrade for my bike... an SRAM Eagle AXS XX1 Drivetrain! That's right, all electric, all rainbow. Other than me briefly forgetting how to remove the crankset and struggling in 95deg heat with a wrench (which the neighbors got a kick out of watching me do), the install went super smoothly.

Climbs are so much fun.

Hello my pretty.

Fancypants.

I was able to test out the new setup with Brom on a trail that was right out the rear exit of the campground, which was super convenient. Worked great!

Gosh it was hot though.

Have you taken it off of any sweet jumps? YES!

I also got to give it a test run at a nearby skills park - which was a blast!.

Activity Summary

Moab, UT

Sat, 12 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Next Up: Moab, Utah. This is somewhere we've been to many times before, including solo on a bike trips over the last couple years, but never gets old. Beautiful scenery and awesome trails go a long way toward making a happy camper!

One of the first activities we did as a family was a hike in Dead Horse State Park. We did a loop around the canyon in the early AM, but it sure did get toasty by mid morning so we shortened it by a mile or two off our original plan.

Dead Horse State Park, Moab UT

Another family hike we did was the Devil's Garden hike in Arches National Park. We opted to do the full loop, and were blessed with amazing weather and relatively uncrowded trails (at least until the very end).

Devil's Garden, Arches National Park, Moab UT

As usual I got a decent amount of mountain biking in, and racked up a few PRs on some old favorites (including my favorite Moab ride, Hymasa / Ahab). I was able to get a few rides in with the kids as well, including a "beat the sunset" type ride with Brom on the Rodeo loop (twice), the first ride requiring us to bail early for lack of time.

Hymasa-Jackson MTB Loop, Moab UT

EZ MTB Trail, Moab UT

Rodeo MTB Trail, Moab UT

I did a few new rides as well, including Hymasa-Jackson, which had a heroes-only finale, complete with crazy steep and technical riding along the edge of the canyon with fantastic views of the river. It was so great I had us come back to it as a family later in our stay and do it as a hike.

Hymasa-Jackson MTB Loop, Moab UT

Jackson Trail Hike, Moab UT

We had originally planned on staying for 3 weeks, but due to the extremely hot weather and ever-present forest fire smoke, we opted to leave early and head back to Grand Junction for a week.

Activity Summary

Grand Junction, CO

Sun, 06 Sep 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Next up: Grand Junction, Colorado. I had stopped here a couple times previously on my way out to Moab, but never for more than an overnight stay. This time, I opted for a full week to give the area more chance - and boy am I glad I did! What a hidden gem! Absolutely amazing hiking and mountain biking just minutes from town. I probably shouldn't even be blogging about it, I am not sure I want the "secret" to get out.

Pro Tip: watch out for poison ivy, it definitely grows here!

I will let the pictures do the the majority of the work in this post, but suffice to say we spent most of our time hiking in the Colorado Monument or nearby. I was also able to get a couple rides in with Brett, a friend of a friend who I had met a couple years ago - awesome, awesome dude!

Echo Canyon, Colorado National Monument

Echo Canyon, Colorado National Monument - Wildfire Smoke (everywhere we go this year!)

Echo Canyon, Colorado National Monument

This hike was a lot of fun, even with the wildfire smoke. We definitely ran through a lot of poison ivy when we got to the end, but thankfully realized it, and when we got back to the truck quickly scrubbed down with hand sanitizer and water, which did the trick!

Echo Canyon, Colorado National Monument (most of that green is Poison Ivy!!!)

"Brett's Loop", Mountain Biking near Grand Junction, CO

Serpent's Trail, Colorado National Monument

"Brett's Loop", Mountain Biking near Grand Junction, CO

Liberty Cap Trail, Grand Junction CO

I love how excellent the design of Colorado's mask mandate posters are. I'm pretty sure I'm wearing it correctly based on their graphic, but you be the judge.

Clearly covering the eyes is the most important part...

Now I'm safe to drive, according to Colorado's poster

Activity Summary

Rock Springs WY, Green River WY, and Vernal UT

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 04:00:00 +0000

Rock Springs, WY / Green River, WY

Our next stop was at the KOA in Rock Springs, WY. The first couple nights we had to stay in an electric and water only site, but given that our rig can comfortably dry camp for a week, we weren't too worried. It was very windy when we arrived. There were trails connecting right out of the back of the RV park to BLM land, which made for great quick hikes, rides, and runs.

Down the interstate was the town of Green River, which had some excellent hiking and mountain bike trails. We spent several afternoons exploring them.

Hiking near Green River, WY

Mountain Biking near Green River, WY

Dinosaur National Monument, Vernal UT

After Rock Springs, we headed towards Vernal, Utah for a quick one night stop so we could visit the Dinosaur National Monument. The route we took to get from Rock Springs to Vernal was not the most ideal:

Thanks for the "Similar ETA" suggestion to drive off the cliff Google!

The next morning at Vernal we left early to get to the Dinosaur National Monument before it got too hot. This year, because of COVID, they were on a strict reservation/ticketing system, so we had to purchase them several days in advance. The up-side of this is that there ended up being plenty of room to park our monster rig. The kids had a lot of fun learning about dinosaurs, and the visit sparked a new interest in the topic for them.

Mountain Biking outside of Vernal, UT. Pro tip - bring more water when it's 95deg in the desert.

Junior Ranger Badges at Dinosaur National Monument

Activity Summary

Cody, Wyoming

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 04:00:00 +0000

After driving through Yellowstone and forest fire smoke, we arrived at Cody, WY. I had no idea what to expect with this stop, but was very pleasantly surprised - the surrounding terrain looked great for mountain biking, and we quickly found out about the town's famous rodeo (which we got tickets for and attended - what a blast!).

We stayed at the KOA on the far side of town. It was quiet and they had probably the nicest KOA pool area we've ever experienced, which also included a kiddie pool and hot tub!

A few weeks previous, we ordered a new bike for Brom. Because of COVID, it was near impossible to find one anywhere in the entire country, but as luck would have it, our old bike shop in Kansas City (Erik's) happened to have the exact size and model we were looking for! So we paid over the phone and had it shipped out to Wyoming. All that was left was some basic assembly :).

Patio site at the Cody, WY KOA

New bike for Brom!

While in town, we also made a stop over at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum. Inside the museum were multiple exhibits, including an enormous gun library and vault that took over an hour to get through by itself!

Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum - Gun Vault/Library

Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum

I was able to sneak in a few rides, and was very pleasantly surprised about how great the trail system is in Cody! What a blast. Brom and I also were able to get out for a ride at the state park near our campground for a fun downhill ride to break in his new bike.

View from my bike somewhere outside of Cody, WY

First ride on Brom's new bike!