Tag Archives: Kanab

Utah

Best Friends; Maqui Cave; Little Hollywood (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

2015/10/18 davidhobden@mac.com

We did a lot of running around again today (Saturday), so brace yourself for lots of pictures. Remember – this blog serves the dual purpose of being our personal ‘photo album’ to look back on in our later years. Plus – You know what the say; “A picture is worth a …”

We left little dog “Coach” in the Coach and headed over to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (←link here) a few miles north of Kanab. We heard it was best to not bring a pet along on the sanctuary tours.

Sign on the side of the highway for the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.

A couple of Quick Facts from their website: best friends.org

In 1984, the founders of Best Friends Animal Society break ground on their no-kill animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. It becomes the nation’s largest no-kill sanctuary and Best Friends becomes the flagship for the no-kill movement.

Nearly 30,000 people visit every year to meet the animals and tour what has become the nation’s largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals.

The sanctuary is on 3,700 acres (15 km2) with an additional 33,000 acres (130 km2) leased from the United States Bureau of Land Management near Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon’s North Rim, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Lake Powell.

There was only one problem when we arrived – the sanctuary only has four “General” tours daily and they were already full 🙁

They also have a number of “Special” tours, i.e., Parrot Garden; Wild Friends; Horse Haven & Piggy Paradise; Bunny House; Behind-the-Scenes; etc., but these tours also require prior coordination and are mostly early-morning tours.

So we signed up as “standbys” for the last “General” tour of the day at 2:30 PM and left to go check out some other local attractions.

We went north on 89 for a mile or so and came upon the Moqui Cave.

The Moqui Cave was once used by Anasazi people as a shelter or food store, according to archaeological digs in the area. It was rediscovered by white settlers in the 19th century, and served as a speakeasy in the 1920s during Prohibition. In 1951, the cave was purchased by Laura and Garth Chamberlain, who opened a tavern and dance hall the following year, and it became a tourist attraction and museum. It currently contains a substantial rock collection, including many ultraviolet-fluorescent minerals, fossils, pottery, spear points, American Indian artifacts and art, dinosaur tracks (estimated to be over 140 million years old), and displays about the Anasazi. There is also display about the Ancestral Puebloan and a gift shop. (ref: Wikipedia®)

The Moqui Cave was pretty cool and the entrance fee was a reasonable $5 per person. And – we got a $1 military discount off that. Worth the stop if you’re in the area. Stilla wasn’t even claustrophobic which is usually a concern at places like this.

We headed on up 89 (north) to the town of Orderville…

where we passed by the cool looking “Rock Stop”…

and then we found the German Bakery that a couple people told us about:

We enjoyed a quick lunch and Stilla stocked up on bread and a couple sweet treats. The lunch was good and I stole one of the kirsch tortes from the “to-go” bag before we left. No dessert for me later. 🙂

We decided to head back south so we wouldn’t be late for our 2:30 tour at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. But first, I wanted to check out Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park (←link).

View heading south on 89 going towards Kanab.

The sand dunes are about 15 miles off 89 west of Kanab. We figured we had enough time to check it out for future reference before our sanctuary tour. You never know – we might want to bring the ATV back here sometime in the future.

We found a large parking area just before the entrance to the state park with lots of rigs, ATV’s, and other off-road vehicles. We could see the beginning of the dunes in the distance. Since we were short on time and didn’t want to hassle with an entrance fee to just check out the park, I just snapped a couple pics:

We’ll definitely have to come back here with the ATV. The website says that 90% of the dunes are available for riding. Day use fees are only $8 and the main campground is $20.

We got back to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary just in time for the 2:30 tour and found out that our “standby” status was upgraded to “full-tour members” 🙂

We had to wait for some wild turkeys to cross the road on the way to the Welcome Center.

The Best Friends Welcome Center.

We watched a documentary in the theatre with the other members of our tour group.

And then our group was split up into two shuttles.

This place is huge… our tour-guide/driver took us around the sanctuary and pointed out the many buildings. We stopped at one of the areas where they keep the cats:

In one of the mesh-enclosed outer rooms, the cats even had ramps so they could hang out in the rafters.

These cats are currently up for adoption.

The only other place we got to stop at was one of the nice octagon-shaped buildings to visit the older dogs:

We got to visit with a few of the dogs after a tour of the kennels.

There are lots of volunteer opportunities here. The sanctuary is home to around 1,700 animals. They even have guest cottages and an RV park for guests/volunteers. We toured the RV park on our way back out but only saw two sites along a dirt loop.

Some ponies.

They even have a couple nice pet cemeteries here for the animals that passed (due to sickness, accident, or other natural causes). They don’t put any animals to sleep here at the sanctuary unless it’s for humane reasons.

The canyons and area inside the sanctuary grounds have been used as the backdrop for some “B” western movies. “Headin’ ’em off at the pass!” was filmed at Ambush Pass on the dirt road through the sanctuary. The iconic scene, “Hi Ho Silver Away!” from “The Lone Ranger” was filmed here along with scenes from “One Little Indian” (The old barn still in use here is actually a movie set) and scenes from “The Outlaw Josey Wales.” (ref: TripAdvisor)

After our free ~90 minute tour of the animal sanctuary was concluded we headed back into the town of Kanab to check out the Little Hollywood Museum (←link).

We walked through the gift shop to take the free tour of the Western movie sets behind the building.

We watched some of the video presentation inside one of the buildings.

And then we walked through the movie sets as it started to drizzle again.

The “Outlaw Josey Wales” homestead set:

Barn used in the movie “Outlaw Josey Wales”:

Tack & Feed building from “Black Bart”:

And what tour is complete without a visit to the gift shop !?!:

The Little Hollywood restaurant (←link).

We decided to call it a day and drove back through town to our site at the Hitch-N-Post RV Park.

Today (Sunday) we’ll head on over to Saint George, UT which brings us a little bit closer to Las Vegas, NV where we will meet our son William on the 22nd.

William just got in from Germany last night. Stilla’s excited! He arrived in Colorado Springs with his girlfriend Jasmine to stay at our daughter Joleen’s house for a few days. Then they’ll rent a car and drive out to Las Vegas to meet up with us later next week.

Also, my brother Steve, his girlfriend Cheryl, my Mom, and Stepdad Jim will come up from Casa Grande, AZ in week or so to meet us as well!

We’ve been to the Elks Lodge in Saint George before and are looking forward to a few days there. Stay tuned… don’t let all the pictures scare you away 🙂

Arizona, Utah

Grand Canyon North Rim (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

2015/10/17 davidhobden@mac.com

On Friday the weather outlook called for rain later today, and the forecast doesn’t look good for the next three days 🙁

So much to see and do in and around Kanab, check out this website (←click here) that highlights three pages of attractions.

Here’s a brochure we got from the campground office:

We decided to start off by driving the Silverado over to the Grand Staircase-Escalante Visitors Center which is within eyesight of our campground. This is the place that holds the lottery for a 6-mile hike to see “The Wave“.(← click here).

This is a picture of “The Wave” below: (photo courtesy of NationalParkTourz.com)

In order to hike “The Wave,’ you must have a permit. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) limits access to the North Coyote Buttes WIlderness Area to just twenty permits per day. Ten of the permits are available in advance by an on-line lottery that is conducted four months before the month for which the permit is sought. The remaining ten permits are made available by lottery the day before ones intended hike. Year round the lottery is held at the ranger station on the east end of Kanab. The lottery for the walk-in permits takes place at 9:00 in the morning. (ref: NationalParkTourz.com)

The lottery is held behind these doors (below), we were too late to try our luck. I don’t think my hip replacement would like a 6-mile hike anyway 😐

Here’s a few more photos inside the visitors center:

We decided, that since rain is imminent for the next few days, that we would try our luck at visiting the Grand Canyon North Rim while the sun was still shining (off and on). The other attractions that are nearer – or even in Kanab can wait until tomorrow or ?

So we put our little dog “Coach” into the Silverado and headed south to the North Rim (~80-90 miles one-way) to try and beat the rain.

Road sign (below) as we got closer to the North Rim.

We stopped at the North Rim Country Store to get some snacks because we heard the concessions at the North Rim were closed for the season and also, we forgot to pack lunch.

And finally we arrived at the park entrance. It was 80° when we left Kanab and is now in the mid-to-low 40’s.

I was able to use my disabled veteran access pass to get free entry.

Some of the leaves haven’t fallen off the trees yet.

One of the nice campground host(s) back at the Hitch-N-Post in Kanab told us that most people only go straight to the lodge and miss out on a lot of scenery. She recommended that once inside the park, we should take the road south to Cape Royal to see Angels Window. So we followed the tip and drove ~15 miles to the viewpoints.

Cape Royal is the southernmost viewpoint on the North Rim, and it has the widest panorama of any Grand Canyon overlook – the great gorge occupies about 270° of the horizon, from Marble Canyon in the north, south over Palisades of the Desert, and westwards for many miles towards the main South Rim visitor area around Garden Creek. (ref: AmericanSouthwest.net)

Our first view of the Grand Canyon from the North Rim:

We finally reached the parking lot and took the path(s) to the Cape Royal Pt. and Angels WIndow viewpoints:

Angels Window. Notice the people on top – we’ll be up there soon.

Stilla in front of Angels Window at the Grand Canyon North Rim.

We chose the path on the right first to see Cape Royal Pt. The sun was just starting to go behind some clouds…

Here you can see the clouds rolling in (below).

We walked back up the path after taking a lot of pictures and then went out on top of Angels Window for some more awesome views.

Stilla on top of Angels Window at the Grand Canyon North Rim.

Rare photograph of myself – on top of Angels Window at the Grand Canyon North Rim.

We drove back to the main road and went down to the main North Rim Visitor Center where the lodge is located. It started raining on us 🙁

We toured the visitors center quickly… it was 15 minutes before closing time at 5 PM (Arizona time).

Whiteboard on the wall (below) at the Visitors Center with the weather outlook.

A shot of some of the cabins situated around the visitors center.

We didn’t go down to the lodge or any of the viewpoints here because it started raining heavily by now. Here’s an information board in front of the visitors center regarding the lodge.

We plugged our campground into the GPS that I remembered to take out of the RV for our trip today and headed back to Kanab through the rain. We ended up putting about 200 miles on the Silverado by the time we returned.

And that was our Friday… it’s still raining off and on this morning (Saturday) but the sun is trying to peek out. Maybe we’ll try to visit the Animal Sanctuary and Little Hollywood today… stay tuned 🙂

Arizona, Utah

Pack-Up & Travel Day (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

2015/10/16 davidhobden@mac.com

We took our time on Thursday leaving Wahweap RV Park & Campground. We loaded the Harley and bicycles, dumped and flushed the tanks, and raised the jacks to hit the road sometime between noon and 1 PM. We drove an uneventful 70 miles on US-89 to Kanab, Utah.

A few pictures along the route:

We pulled into the Hitch-N-Post RV Park because our online campground searches indicated it was the most affordable of the several campgrounds in or near the town of Kanab.

The nice campground owner showed us a few spots that were still available for the next two nights. We chose one with the least amount of tree coverage so we might be able to get a satellite signal for the TV. We weren’t successful 🙁 Oh well, we have enough recorded shows on the DVR to keep us entertained anyway. We paid ~$65 for two nights with full hookups and 50 Amp power.

We drove the Silverado around town to familiarize ourselves with the area and saw another Alpine Coach towing a pickup in a grocery store parking lot. I pulled into the lot and introduced myself and Stilla. We met Van L. Dossey from Placerville, CA. He and his wife (who was inside shopping) have been touring the area. I told Van about our recent Lake Powell Rally and also about the upcoming Quartzsite and Lake Havasu rallies next year. He mentioned that they had recently met Mike & Michelle Collins who were just at the Alpine SoCal Rally. We exchanged cards. Hopefully they’ll be able to join us in the future.

We found a chinese restaurant nearby for dinner and then walked around the campground and adjoining streets before turning in for the night.

This campground happens to be home to Utah’s rare white bees:

Cute, eh? 🙂

The town of Kanab is situated in the “Grand Circle” area, centrally located among Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Grand Canyon (North Rim), Zion National Park, and Lake Powell. Other nearby attractions include Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, the privately owned Moqui Cave, and the largest animal sanctuary in the United States, Best Friends Animal Society. (Ref. Wikipedia®)

Locals refer to Kanab as “Little Hollywood” due to its history as a filming location for mostly western movies and television series such as Stagecoach, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Daniel Boone, El Dorado, Planet of the Apes, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Sergeants 3 and WindRunner: A Spirited Journey.

Hopefully, we can check out some of these attractions while we’re in the area… stay tuned to find out.

Urban Escape Vehicle .com

Tag Archives: Kanab

Best Friends; Maqui Cave; Little Hollywood (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

Grand Canyon North Rim (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

Pack-Up & Travel Day (Hitch-N-Post RV Park – Kanab, UT)

Follow along on our adventures…

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Share the Urban Escape Vehicle adventure:

Follow along on our adventures…