McCashland Family Vacation, Day 13 - Flagstaff to Navajo Lake

Today we start the official journey home.  We saw everything we wanted to see, went everywhere we wanted to go, and hung out with good friends along the way.  The problem with it all was figuring out which way to get home.    Here’s what we decided.

Along the way, we stayed at KOA’s in Brigham City, Rawlins, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff.  We stayed at a really nice campground with electricity and water in Denver, and a parking lot with both hook ups in Pueblo.  We were both kind of wanting to get off the grid for a night and do some actual ‘camping’, so we pulled open the computer and started looking for something in our 300 mile window.  We settled on a place called Navajo Lake, about 15 miles southwest of Cedar City, UT.  I looked up the elevation profile of the drive and thought ‘why not’.  We were sitting around 7000 feet in Flagstaff.  The route would take us down to 3800 feet in Page, AZ, and then up to 9100 feet at Navajo Lake.  It would be 14,000 feet of climbing over the course of a 6 hour drive.  Eish…  Oh well.  What else did we have to do today?

The drive from Flagstaff to Page, AZ is a gorgeous drive.  It is lined with red rock cliffs on both sides for most of the drive\, and with today being a cloudless sky, they were fully lit up in their majesty.  Carrie probably got tired of hearing me say how beautiful the drive was, but I didn’t care.  It was just that gorgeous.  We stopped in Page to have lunch, and then enjoyed driving past Lake Powell.  Chase and Jordan, our friends that recommended Torchy’s Tacos in Denver, said they were planning on visiting Lake Powell a couple days after we were passing through, so we will probably pass them on the freeway home on Saturday.

We finally made it to Navajo Lake and found the last non-reserved campsite.  It only took driving 25mph uphill a couple times and slowing down all the traffic behind us to do it, but I’m ok with it.  One of our alternative routes would take us through Las Vegas, but with a scorching hot high of 100+ degrees, we opted for the mountains instead.  And what a great decision it was.  The temperatures up here were only in the mid-70’s with a nice breeze.  Carrie put on a hoodie shortly after getting here.  We cooked up some burgers on the mini-grill and headed down to the lake to throw rocks in, because why not.  The kids were a little bummed we wouldn’t let them change into their swimsuits, but a high mountain lake and a stiff breeze meant it was too cold.  They still enjoyed it.  Parker found a recently dead fish that had washed ashore and I found a four cylinder engine sitting in the water.  No idea how that got there. 

 

We started a fire and roasted some marshmallows before putting the kids down to bed.  Carrie and were talking about how enjoyable this is getting into the mountains and unplugging for a night.  I would really enjoy doing this for an anniversary trip of some kind, where we ‘camp’ every other night and pull into a KOA to recharge the batteries and refill with water.  We enjoy being adventurous and spending time outdoors.  I didn’t know when we got married that she enjoyed the outdoors as much as she does, and I don’t think she knew it either.  Spending four summers at scout camp really opened up a new side of my wonderful wife that I really love.  I knew she was always up for an adventure, but to see her find a new love in camping is really fun for me to experience.

 

The most perfectly roasted mallow in all the land

Tomorrow we keep heading home.  The goal is to make it to the Brigham City KOA that we stayed at our first night, and then make the final push back home on Saturday.  I kind of want to stop in West Jordan at IKEA tomorrow, because when you’re that close to an IKEA, it’s almost a sin not to stop.  Until tomorrow, thanks for reading!!!