BOBBLE HEAD TRAVELERS

How is everyone doing during this hot, stormy, wildfires Summer of wildfires??? Along with covid-19/Delta not going away, life is a very big challenge for us all. Jodi and I are doing our best to stay safe during all the above.We left Federation Forest the 31^st of July and started heading south towards Arizona for our Winter stay. We plan on taking 6 months off from hosting/volunteering.On our trip down to Arizona, we had to visit some states and made sure to see some bucket list places along our way down South. We went through the rest of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and into Arizona. We added two more states to our travel map and have seen 29 states so far.

Oregon and Utah..

When we got to Utah, we felt like our vacation had started. Our first adventurous stop was in Promontory, Utah. The Golden Spike National Park, Promontory Point was the site of the dramatic completion, on 10 May 1869, of the first Transcontinental Railroad, which linked the Union Pacific on the East and the Central Pacific on the West. The show Hell on Wheels is what got us hooked on the Transcontinental railroad development of the early 1800s. Great TV show to watch..

Please Click on a photo to be able to see descriptions on each photo.

Names of the two trains from the West and from the East.

Jupiter train number #60 facing East the Central Pacific train that came from Sacramento, California and the United Pacific’s Number #119 facing West the Union pacific train from Omaha, Nebraska.

This was the Golden Spike that was the last spike driven when both the Jupiter train #60 the Central Pacific and Union Pacific’s train #119 the Union Pacific met on May 9th, 1869. Finishing the Transcontinental Railroad from the West, Sacramento, CA and from the East, Omaha, Nebraska. 6 years in the making. Period of 1863 to 1869.

We then stopped in Ogden, UT for the Ogden Union Train Station Museum. This was a continuation of the Transcontinental Railroad. Ogden was supposed to be the junction point, but it ended in Promontory. Promontory wasn’t equipped enough to be the main train station, so Ogden was made the main transfer train station for the Transcontinental Railroad.

Just inside the Union Station, there were some beautiful murals at each end of the station inside, they show all the hard work and laborers working the railroads.

We visited the Museum of Ancient Life. Located in Thanksgiving Point, Lehi, UT. The Museum of Ancient Life is one of the world’s largest dinosaur museums. We have never been to a dinosaur museum…

As we were driving to our RV park to get to Zion and Bryce, we happen to pass Butch Cassidy’s childhood home right off of Highway 89. Didn’t know he lived here right near Bryce Canyon National Park, Circleville, UT.

Jodi and I had a chance to visit Zion National Park, and Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. Both are very beautiful in different ways. We both took lots a great pictures…

Zion National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

We wanted to see the Utah Arches but was too far out of our way. We will hit that another time.

Once we finished Utah, we headed to The GREAT GRAND CANYON OF ARIZONA…. We stayed at the Trailer Village Campground at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s a very nice campground with lots of elk walking in and around the camp sites bugling to each other. We even saw a very old large elk, and he was using his big antlers to bring branches down so he could eat the leaves.

Both of us took many stunning pictures of the Grand Canyon. At the visitor center you can take a shuttle bus to most of all the viewpoints along the canyon. We did that our second day, and took plenty of pictures, the third day Jodi and I hiked the Grand Canyon Rim trail. We hiked about 5 miles. Such an amazing view and sites to see on the Rim trail. BREATH-TAKING VIEWS

I got up one morning early, 5Am to get a great shot of the Sunrise over the Grand Canyon. It wasn’t as good as I was expecting, but it come out pretty nice. A lot of folks were out to catch it coming up over the Grand Canyon.

The evening came and Jodi and I went to the far eastern side of the Grand Canyon, Lipan Point to catch the sunset. Also not as good as I was expecting. It was a bad hazy, smoky evening. This is what we got….

We have a few more weeks to go before we get to Benson, AZ our Winter destination to rest up for 6 months. We have seen what we wanted during our trip south. The rest of the stops we will be taking will be just a few days each to get us to Butterfield RV Resort. Just 3 more stops. Our six months starts the 1^st of October, so we must stop at a few more RV parks before getting to Benson, AZ. We plan on checking out Kartchner Caverns state Park, Tombstone the O.K. Corral, Bisbee mines, and a few other places around Benson, AZ during our stay.

Glad we had a chance to give you all an update with lots of pictures of our travels through 4 states heading to Arizona. Till we post again, take care and please be safe.

The Bobblehead Travelers, Jodi and Mark

Picture taken by Jodi in Enumclaw, WA.

Jodi and I are here at Federation Forest State Park in Washington State. Been here now for a little over a month, just 30 miles away from Mt. Rainier. The Mountain that they say is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest. Hope it stays quiet while we are staying so close to it.. The Elevation is 14,411 and last eruption was 1894….

This giant tree is probably 800 to 1,000 years old, stands about 250 feet tall and about 8 feet in diameter. One of many large Douglas Firs in our park. Just incredible.

We are enjoying our stay here at the park and working to get the park cleaned up from a few things that has happen in the past year; Covid-19, bad winter windstorms. A few months ago, the park had a bad windstorm that has knocked down a lot of trees and some big trees that are hundreds of years old. Most of the park was cleaned up, but we are now cleaning up some of what was left at the picnic areas and shelters that were cluttered with tree limbs and leaves. Its nice and quiet and remote here at this State Park. We are about 19 miles from everything and Enumclaw the small town just outside of the park. It is a nice little town for our shopping, local pubs and restaurants which we now can enjoy since we’re fully vaccinated! Woo Hoo.

Some real easy not so long trails with many trees and lots of moss hanging all over the forest.

We are here not to just keep up with the few mile hiking trails but to also keep the Catherine Montgomery Interpretive Center open. This Interpretive Center (IC) has a lot of information about how the State Park was started. The park was acquired, built and organized in mid-1920’s through the work of Catherine Montgomery and her affiliation with the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of Washington State. It was interesting to see that a few women did such a great thing to start a huge old growth forest and make it into one of Washington’s State Parks. Some of the trees in this park are 600 to 1,000 years old… There is even a trail called, “Land of the Giants”. The Park was dedicated and opened in 1949. Catherine Montgomery also donated her estate to have the IC built in 1964. Such a nice Interpretive Center with so much information on this State Park.

Women of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs Washington State break ground on the Catherine Montgomery Interpretive Center in the early 1960s. Photo courtesy of Washington State Parks Collections.

The Interpretative Center was built in 1964 by Catherine Montgomery’s Estate, hence the name Catherine Montgomery Interpretative Center pictured below, Photo courtesy of Washington State Parks Collections

These pictures are of some animals and stuff inside of the Interpretative Center, the house posts of a Muckleshoot Native American man and woman was carved by two Muckleshoot Native American members out of a 300 year old tree that was from this State Park, and was carved with real Native American carving tools used back in that time era and painted using plant based dyes.

A great place to picnic right on the White River and hike some easy short trails, right near Mt. Rainier, just down the road from the park.

We are so happy that we can do some enjoyable hosting jobs throughout the states and get to work and play seeing all the beautiful sites of the great USA… Such a life of touring the USA. Having lots of fun!!!….

The numbers are the States we will see in order when we leave Washington State. 1 through 18 are the only states we need to see to complete our 48 states. We can not see Hawaii and most likely we won’t see Alaska. So 48 is pretty good. (Order subject to change)

We are going to be hosting here till the end of July. On our way down to Arizona for our Winter, we will stop at Utah to see a few places that is on many people’s bucket list…. Ogden, UT., where the Transcontinental Railway met up with the Pacific Railway, and Promontory, UT. Also Bryce Canyon and possibly Zion NP. We will then finally visit the great Grand Canyon that we had to cancel two other times in the past. Now we will see it for sure in August. We then head down south Arizona for our Winter, and we are going to take a 6-month break from hosting. It will be in a small town called Benson, AZ. Only a few miles from Tombstone, AZ.

I have been watching the 1957 to 1961 TV series of the Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp for the past year, and I am so overly excited about visiting Tombstone… From Arizona we head back to Spooner Lake State Park, NV for our 3^rd summer of hosting in that State Park. That Park is now getting a new face lift. They are adding a Visitor Center and Gift shop to that park.

Well, as soon as it stops raining so much here in Washington State, Jodi and I will go visit the Mt. Rainier National Park and take some real nice pictures. We knew that it does rain a lot here in Washington, but boy, we didn’t know it rained this much. We have been told after the 4^th of July it stops raining for a few months. Our last month here, great!! So we get one month of nice sunny weather….

Hope all is well with everyone. We do see that the weather in the East and even Mid-West is hot with lots of rain, flooding and tornadoes. The weather is bad just about everywhere. So we do hope everyone is being safe. Also trying to enjoy the lessened Covid restrictions and still being cautious. We hope we are on the down side of all of this Covid stuff. Stay in touch and say high by commenting on our blog. Take care and be careful out there.