This is the post that could have many titles… but I will use them as subtitles to tell our story and then figure out what to call it.
Glampers, not campers
As mentioned, the North Rim campground is primitive, something we haven’t done yet on this trip. Our previous primitive camping in the National Parks has been really wonderful, offering spectacular views and quiet surroundings. You’re also right in the middle of the trails, so that hiking is a breeze. North Rim was no exception to this pattern. However, nothing was working in our favor last night.
First and most importantly, the house battery just wasn’t behaving the way he thought that it should. We maintained a charge, but not sufficient according to standards. This planted a seed of worry (which grew).
Second, the generator just completely misbehaved. It wasn’t 100% necessary since it was cool out and we didn’t really “need” the Starlink, although it would have been nice. It ran for a couple of minutes and completely gave out, more than once. It had run just fine about a week ago when we needed it for the air compressor… so we didn’t understand it. In the primitive campgrounds, your generator can only run in set hours, which is generally 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. And due to our earlier roadway damage, we really can’t open the generator area to check it out. We just gave up on that idea since we didn’t really need it, but again, it planted another seed of worry (which grew).
And a minor thing… the site was SUPER unlevel so it was nearly a monumental task to get in and out of the RV. This was especially challenging when we went to walk the needy bichon because I had to carry her in and out.
On a side note, this is what dark skies feel like. We are so excited for a future stop on this trip that is supposed to be great for dark skies. While it was incredible, we were also in the middle of a forest, so we will need to wait for the wide open skies to really embrace this. Plus, we just had a full moon, so not bad that our prime experience is still coming up.
We were not loving the whole thing, especially the battery causing worries. Because we really needed to run the heat overnight (temps in the low 40’s), Rick was worried about battery levels every time the furnace kicked on.
Both the battery and generator may be misbehaving because of the altitude, but that is part of the next chapter. They also may need some work. We will have to figure that out.
All in all, we were totally missing the full hookups that we normally have. We are glampers, not campers.
Getting high is not our thing
The altitude was significant, and is always a big adjustment. Especially for Rick, which usually ends up in him not sleeping well the first night.
(if you haven’t heard our other story about “getting high”, ask us sometime)
Sleepless in Arizona
While we were prepared to keep the thermostat on low (mid-50s) in order to preserve the house battery and layered up, one of us was just incredibly worried ALL NIGHT LONG. Rick did not sleep. Not one minute. He finished one book, started another, did research on the battery, did research on the generator. He even got out of bed and sat with the dog! Lets face it, in our house on wheels, there aren’t many places to go and the dog most definitely does not sleep with us on our short queen bed.
I slept. Not well, but I slept.
We had talked about getting out to see the early sun on the canyon, so we did.
We got out early after “calming” the dog, enjoying the same trail that we did yesterday. The lighting was super cool and the hike was invigorating, even for the one who didn’t sleep.
We made the trek back to the lodge, since the Roughrider Saloon is a coffee bar with breakfast burritos in the am! Unfortunately, they were having mechanical issues on their opening weekend. Therefore, we did have coffee and breakfast burritos near the lodge, but it didn’t live up to the wonderful experience that we had yesterday. Kind of like when you go to a soft opening for a new place, we needed to lower our expectations… a lot. And for the sleepless one, that wasn’t so great.
We went back to the campground via the bridle path, which gave us some new views and another good hike. We stopped along the way at the campground office to tell them that we were leaving. In short, we had had enough.
We might have made this decision even without the sleepless night and mechanical concerns. We had already hiked those that were accessible hikes to us. Unfortunately, with our RV at 25+ feet, we couldn’t access the scenic drive or the other trailheads/scenic viewpoints. So we had seen everything that we could see. While we could just sit outside and enjoy the day/view, we also knew that we could do that anywhere…. so we gave up our reservation for tonight and decided to move on.
Switching it up & retracing our steps
As mentioned earlier, our intended next stop had been Las Vegas, followed by Death Valley National Park. As much as we were excited about it, the heat made that a no-go for both of us.
Therefore, we had already planned to come back north to cooler weather. We had made a reservation at a cute little spot we had driven past a week ago, just outside of Cedar City.
We are so glad that we were able to add on another night tonight. I made the drive (Rick was not allowed to drive on zero sleep), we stopped at Walmart and liquor store to stock up, and are happy to be settled at our new space.
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