Returning from Palm Desert we once again picked up Rosita from storage (Sunset RV storage) and then spent two nights back in nearby Las Vegas Bay campground. We needed to make a plan to get back to Canada, Ontario in particular, by the beginning of May due to car insurance restrictions (insurance on the Suburban will stop if we spend more than 6 months outside of Ontario).
There is still snow falling to the north of us, so we don’t want to take a chance on any of the mountain passes. We decide to head east before angling north to Canada. We would like to explore some US states that we haven’t see before in the Midwest, like Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. We don’t have any specific destinations in mind, with one exception: Hensler, North Dakota. We want to find out how the town got its name.
The first stop along our eastern route is Homolovi State Park, Arizona. We chose this place to stop as it is a reasonable distance for us to travel in one day, and is not far from Petrified Forest National Park.
Homolovi State Park is located near Winslow AZ and was established to research the Hopi people who lived in the area in the 1200-1300 ce period. The state park is also home to a group of ruins originally built by the Hopi.
When we arrived at the park, a park ranger told us that they expect increasing winds over the next couple of days, and the day we were supposed to leave the park the winds were expected to be 30-50 mph with gusts up to 70 mpg. Not ideal for pulling a trailer, so we elected to stay another night.
About an hour drive from Homolovi is the Petrified Forest National Park (our National Park pass is getting quite the workout!).
The trees in the park are amazing, they look like wood, but when you touch them they are stone!
The trees are from a period of about 200 million years ago. Many trees in the forest fell over and became submerged in water and then covered in sediment. Over a period of thousands of years minerals replaced the organic matter, but retained the shape of the tree. Very neat!
Back in the park, the wind is increasing and it is time to hunker down. Many of the other RV’s in the area are preparing for high winds by pulling in their slide-outs. Rosita doesn’t have any slide-outs, so not much for us to do. We decide that if the winds become strong enough to blow Rosita away, we will move to the washrooms, which seem quite substantial (heavy steel structure). Also, the washrooms are nice, with individual shower rooms (sweet!). On a side note, we were glad to get out of the Las Vegas Bay campground as it seemed to becoming even more decrepit than before, I don’t think the washrooms had been cleaned since before we left for Palm Desert, eeew!
It’s April 3 (our original departure date) and the winds are howling. We tried to go to the Hopi ruins within the park, but as we were headed up to the ruins we saw a dust storm that was fast approaching the campground. We headed back to Rosita, and the dust was flying (it actually stings when it hits your exposed skin). Rosita was moving around quite a bit (wind gusts people, keep your minds out of the gutters) for the rest of the day and through the night.
The next morning the wind was still blowing, but nothing like yesterday, so we packed up and headed to our next stop, Santa Rosa Lake State Park, New Mexico.
Trip Summary:
Depart: Las Vegas Bay Campground, NV 9:45 am Apr 1; Odometer: 135391 miles
Arrive: Homolovi State Park, AZ 3:15 pm; Odometer: 135692 miles
Gas Summary:
Seligman, AZ (Apr 1): 17.6g @ $4.70/g ($82.54) – ODO 135550 miles
Windslow, AZ (Apr 2): 17.5g @ $3.60/g ($63.24) – ODO 135814 miles