Bryce canyon National Park

When we left the last post we were heading out of the Las Vegas, Nevada area where we spent some quality time with family, visited 7 Magic Mountain's in the desert, boondocked at Red Rocks Canyon and drove the 13 mile loop around the Red Rocks Conservation Authority. From there we moved the rig over to Nellis Air Force Base for a few days at the Desert Eagle FamCamp which is one of our favorite places to hangout when we visit Vegas. After seeing of the Vegas Strip sites and relaxing for a day we headed out on the road to Utah to our next destination Bryce Canyon. The drive to Bryce from Las Vegas is only 4 hrs but we took an extra day to visit Salt Lake City in route. We stayed at SLC KOA which was pretty nice, but a bit pricey, but what can you expect for a decent campground in the middle of large city. Once setup we headed out to get some food, then drove around and saw some sites of the city. I might post those in a separate post. The next day we got up drove the rest of the way to Bryce Canyon Pines Campground. We got to the campground late in the afternoon a few hours before sunset, so we set up the rig, changed cloths and headed out the park for sunset. We got there about an hour before sunset, the campground is only 12 minutes away. We headed into the part to Inspiration Point where we were told the sunsets were pretty awesome and it was. We also got to see some wild life on the way which was pretty cool. I got some pretty good low light shots. One of these days i will invest in some filters, but overall i think the pictures turned out pretty well as you can see. That pretty much completed our arrival day. All of the pictures in this post were taken at or near Inspiration Point. I hope you enjoy these pictures, there will be follow up post so stay tuned for that.

Heading to Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park

As we continue our journey to Yellowstone or Bust, we leave Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada we head north towards Utah and ultimately to Bryce Canyon.

Bryce Canyon has been on my places to see list as most National Parks are for a very long time. We chose to bypass Zion and head to Bryce because it is on our path to Wyoming and Yellowstone.

Anyway, we left Red Rocks Canyon campground, which was an awesome stay, and headed up Hwy 15 towards Utah. We traveled through some amazing scenic views once we hit Utah as you can see in a few of the pictures in this post. Once we crossed into Utah, we did a stop at the Utah visitor center which was really interesting. If you’re ever crossing into Utah from Nevada, make some time to check out the museum in the Visitor/Welcome Center you won’t be disappointed.

Once we left the Visitor Center, we headed to our overnight stop in Salt Lake City at the Journey KOA. I have to say I was very impressed with our first stay at a KOA after 4 yrs. of traveling. Even though it was a very short stay it gave us good feels and it’s a really good place to stop and visit the city. It’s a little pricy, but hey it’s a KOA so its expected. The short stay in SLC was pretty chill for the most part, we had dinner, drove around the city a little, made a stop at the State Capital building which was really cool before heading back to the KOA where we rested for the evening before we pushed our way up to Bryce Canyon. At some point I will post about the stop in Salt Lake City, we found a couple really interesting points of interest there.

We rolled out of Salt Lake City and headed to Bryce Canyon the next day. The drive to Bryce was pretty uneventful, but very scenic. We had our midpoint stop as usual at a truck rest area and then headed to Bryce Canyon Pines Campground which is approx. 15 min from the Entrance of Bryce Canyon. We checked in, parked the rig, unhitched and setup the rig. After we got all set up, we hoped back in the truck and headed into the park just before sunset to and saw a little of what we would explore over the next three days there. Bryce should definitely be put on your list of destinations to see for sure.

The following pictures are of the drive to Bryce. The next post will be us at Bryce Canyon NP. — with Tessie Faustino-Jones.

Red Rock Campground and Conservatory

RED ROCK CAMPGROUND AND CONSERVATORY

As we continue on our Yellowstone or Bust journey after we visited the Seven Magic Mountains just outside of Las Vegas we broke camp and moved from Desert Eagle FamCamp on Nellis Air Force Base to the beautiful Red Rock Campground just outside of Las Vegas. We visited this place a couple of years ago on our last trip to Las Vegas, but it was during the summer and it was packed. We tried to get a spot which at the time was first come first serve, but the Boy Scouts of America were having a campout so we couldn’t camp here. We were disappointed, but such is the traveling fulltime life.

On this trip I made a reservation for a couple of days so that we could enjoy being closer to Red Rock Conservatory which has a 13-mile scenic drive. The first thing we did though was to start out by going to the visitor center to see what this place had to over and found it very informative which most visitor centers are that we have found. We took a walking tour which was interactive in some points, and gave you a lot of information about the area and how it was formed, overall it was really informative and set you up with what you needed to know about the scenic drive that is highly recommended that we wanted to take to see the formations in the Conservatory, to say the formations were stunning would be an understatement they were wonderful and amazing. The varied terrain and scenery were awesome. There are also many hiking areas along the route as well as pullouts with vista points and all trail heads and walks had restrooms available. The drive was very beautiful with the varied terrain, the rock formations and hikes you could easily spend an entire day and more here. If your ever in the area make sure you visit Red Rock Canyon Conservatory you won’t be disappointed.

Do I Regret Jumping into Full-time RV Life?

One of the most often asked questions concerning full-time RV life is, Do you have any regret’s? Before i answer this question a fellow RV sent out an email question asking this very thing. Below is their answer, and below their answer is mine.

Jessica Meinhofer from “Explore the Local Life” said,

“As you know, I've been RV living with my family since October 2015. It's been quite a ride.
We have gone through jobs, engines, tires, fuel, honey wagons, driveshafts, awnings, camp chairs, etc.
We have gained friends, jobs, experiences, time together, and personal growth.
So, after all is said and done, do I regret this RV life that we have created?
Well, there isn't really an easy answer.
I am not one to really regret my choices, but there are definitely some days where I wonder what we are doing. 
There are other days when I can't imagine living a traditional life. 
One thing is for sure, it is not at all what I thought it would be.
It's not easier
It's not cheap
But we weren't really going for cheaper...we were trying to simplify our lives. In one way we did, we made it easy to be together, but in so many other ways we made it harder. 
I think the hardest thing right now is Robert's commute. It's a very long way for him to get to us each week. It's tiring and we all miss him. 
I'm ready for winter to leave Colorado, or at least for it to be closer to April. lol Then we can head back and be together again.
So...while I don't regret it, I certainly have hard days. Here's the thing though, I had hard days in a house too. It's life. Some days are harder than others, but they are mine and I am grateful for all of them.
How about you? Do you have hard days? Regrets?”

My response back was: This question really made me sit an think about where i am now opposed to where i was then. Simply for me, are there hard days? of course! Think about it, we live on four wheels, in boxes that technically were not meant to house humans full-time, so based on those two things alone we have to expect some hard days just in the living situation alone. As for life while living in an RV for me it really is not much different than living in a S&B home. We still have the same stress factors, we still have bills to pay just in different forms and we still have a life to live which really is the same. We just get to live it in different places and locals if we choose. So do i have true regrets about the lifestyle absolutely not. I love the freedom to roam if i choose, and i love the community which is still growing around us the more we travel. The one thing i have to keep in mind is that i chose this life, it didn't choose me, so with that knowledge and understanding when i wake up each day wherever i am it is because i put myself in that place or that situation. It would have really been easy to stay in a S&B and live that grind day in and day out, but that grind is what made this awakening to the unknown possible. I had to just embrace it and go with it and so far so good. I really can't see myself doing anything else and having this much fun. I hope that answers your question

So what do you think?

Living fulltime in less than 400 square feet.

One of the most asked questions after people pick up their proverbially jaw off the floor after they find out that we indeed do live in our RV full-time besides why is how do you live in that little bit of space. Well actually its no different than when we were living in our 1050 square foot Condo. Okay maybe not exactly but really the only difference is one is stationary and the other is on wheels and can be moved at will. In reality though there are quite a few differences.

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For one in a an RV when you go to the bathroom its just a matter of pushing a lever and away goes everything you just deposited in the toilet never to be seen again hopefully. In an RV well not only will you see it again, but you will smell it and in some cases you have to watch it go from the RV holding tank to whatever septic system your RV is connected to so there is that.

The next thing, and its kind of a big one is how you get electricity and then how that electricity is used in the RV. In your sticks and bricks home you just flip a light switch or plug in whatever device your using and go about your business. Well in an RV you have to have a clear understand of your electrical system so you don’t pop to many breakers as you try to power things. If your in a standard campground you have to hook up a long extension cable that goes from your RV to a pedestal that is next to the RV. From that pedestal you get two options the first is 30 amp service, the second is usually 50 amp service and usually there is a 15-20 amp service depending on the campground. No matter how your hooked up while in the campground you don’t have to worry about using that electricity in your system. Now if your boon-docking (i.e. not hooked into a pedestal) then all bets are off and you hope you either have a good battery system, with a good generator or if you lucky you have a great solar backup.

Now lets look at water. Water in your sticks and bricks is always present. You never have to think about it unless forget to pay your bill. In an RV water works in a very similar way. Instead of pipes you have a hose that connects to the outside water faucet. From there the hose is connected to your RV at what is called a city connection. Through that connection water flows under pressure throughout the RV for your needs almost exactly like a regular home. The only difference is when there is no water source present and your using the water that has been put in your water tank. To get that water out of the tank you use a water pump which is installed in the RV system, that pump works the same way as a pressured system from the city water connections, so there really is no difference except to ensure that you put water in the tank.

Other than those few items mentioned above i think everything else is pretty much the same. We cook, and eat the same. Food is stored in a residential refrigerator the same. Our bed is exactly the same as the one in the Condo, because it is the one from the Condo. So basically that’s about it.

The biggest difference though is that we can move our home anytime we feel like it and its a great feeling.