Saturday, February 18, 2017

Dead Horse Point State Park


We started the camping season early this year with a chilly overnight at the Dead Horse Point Campground.  This is a really nice campground with updated bathrooms (complete with automatic light and fan sensors that come on when you open the door).  Some of the sites are tighter than others.  Pick your site carefully.  We stayed in site #6 which is a great pull-through site with a huge double tent site and covered picnic table for about 20 people!  They have some great hiking trails right from the campground.  We did the West Rim and East Rim trails as a five mile loop that was just gorgeous.  Lots of new mountain biking trails have been developed in the area as well.  Electric hookups, but no water hookup.  Temps ranged from 34-52 degrees on a chilly raining President's Day Weekend.

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Upper Uintas Meadow Dispersed

We  camped in the upper Uintas this weekend for some high elevation camping.  Since it is late in the camping season, we were able to find a spot in the coveted upper meadow area just below Bald Mountain Pass.  There were a few other hardy folks camping in the cold.  It definitely got below freezing overnight, but the days were pretty pleasant in the 60s.  We liked the camping area, but you could still hear the road noise in the distance and the road in is pretty rough.  The poor T@b got bounced around a bit (one of the shelves came off the wall).  

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Ridgway State Park

We  made another trip to Colorado for the Labor Day weekend.  We couldn't get into the Amphitheater Campground in Ouray, but we managed to find some availability at the Ridgway State Park (Dutch Charlie Area).  This is a beautiful campground with large sites.  We spent two nights in Site #174 (Elk Ridge Loop E) and one night in Site #92 (Elk Ridge Loop D).  Both sites were pull-through which was great.  Site #174 was adequate, but was an internal loop site.  Site #92 was awesome and was on the outer loop overlooking the reservoir.  This campground is really well laid out and designed.  If possible, try to get a site on the outside of either Loop E (overlooking the mountains) or Loop D (overlooking the reservoir).

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Lower Provo Dispersed

We  had such fun at the Lower Provo Dispersed last weekend, we came up again.  It was another very busy weekend.  The Uintas are definitely getting busier each year.  We had a great time hiking to Meadow Lake (well, mostly fun time) and exploring around Ruth Lake. 

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Lower Provo Dispersed

We  camped in the Uintas for the weekend to do some high country hiking.  We drove through five campgrounds before giving up and heading to the Lower Provo where we finally found a spot.  Turned out to be a stroke of good luck as we enjoyed the quiet of dispersed camping.  We had a great time hiking out to Notch Lake and Cuberant Lake. 

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Amphitheater Campground - Ouray, Colorado

We spent the long mormon holiday weekend exploring Ouray, Colorado.  We were lucky to get a campsite in the amazing Amphitheater Campground that sits high above Ouray.  Amphitheater is fantastic with a gorgeous view of the San Juan Mountains.  We had to switch campsites halfway through the weekend, but it was worth it to stay in this great campground.  We did lots of hiking, including the Blue Lakes Trail, Upper Cascades, West Lime Creek, and Ice Park Loop.  The drive to Silverton was spectacular.  Next time we may try to stay in Silverton for more hiking in the high country.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

New Shurflo Water Faucet - Model # 94-009-01

We had a number of problems with the T@b on our first camping trip for the season.  We couldn't get the heat pump to work, which was a bummer since it was a really cold weekend.  And when we hooked the water up to the campsite water source, water came spewing out of the faucet in places that water shouldn't be spewing out.  The damage to the faucet was probably caused by not properly winterizing the pipes.  Luckily, Volkswagen still puts the Shurflo faucet in the Vanagon, and I was able to find a replacement faucet on the internet.  It was kind of pricey at $60, but I was glad to be able to put in the exact same faucet.  I was able to install the faucet on my own - with a bit of trial and error.  In the first round, I didn't have the electrical connections hooked up right in the butt connectors.  Make sure your wires are pushed into the metal tip of the connector before twisting.  The next test round revealed some dripping around the flexible pipe connection to the faucet.  Make sure to push the flexi pipe up as far a possible onto the end of the faucet and get the metal clasp on as tight as possible.  Third time's a charm.  The final test revealed no leaks and we now have a great new faucet.   

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Millsite State Park


After exploring Huntington State Park we spent the next night at Millsite State Park which is only another 30 miles down the road.  Millsite was an unexpectedly cool place with beautiful towering cliffs surrounding the reservoir and campground.  We did a great single track hike around the northeast side of the reservoir.  Millsite is also close to the major access points for the San Rafael Swell area.  We zipped out to Rochester Rock Panel one evening to check out some really cool petroglyphs.  We would definitely come back to this campground just to explore more of the trail and as a jumping off point for the Swell.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Huntington State Park


For our first camping trip of the season we decided to explore Huntington State Park.  Huntington is located about 140 miles southeast of Salt Lake City off of Highway 10.  Huntington and Highway 10 are great jumping off points for the San Rafael Swell area.  Huntington also provides convenient access to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry.  We finally made it out to the museum and dinosaur quarry which was really cool.  We managed to hike all the trails out at the quarry despite a brisk wind and a blanket of new snow at the campsite.  You can also do a "nature walk" around the reservoir at the campground which is really just a three mile walk along a gravel road.  Despite the weather, it was great to be out camping and exploring again.

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Ready for Camping Season - 2016


I have been struggling to get the T@b back to her glory days after the vandalism and subsequent sloppy paint job on the trim.  The auto shop didn't tape off the entire trailer when they sprayed the trim so there was a line of overspray down the middle of the T@b.  I was mainly using a liquid chemical to take the spray off but the task was tedious.  I also tried the clay rub which worked on the windows but not the body.  I finally decided to go aggressive and used 2000 grit wet sandpaper.  The wet sandpaper really took the overspray off with minimal effort.  I then waxed the whole trailer to rub out the scratches and to get the shine back.  It looks pretty good.  In certain light you can still see the sandpaper scratches, but otherwise she looks pretty shiny and white.  I still need to work on the back logo, but we added a nice tag line with some rub-on vinyl lettering.   

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Jordanelle - Hailstone Campground

Holy Capuchin Monkeys, Batman!  We had a fun time celebrating Halloween early with the professional campers at Jordanelle.  This was our first and only trip with the gang since the T@b was out of commission most of the summer.  The best part was watching the Utah Utes beat Oregon on the make-shift outdoor theater!

Saturday, September 19, 2015

East Canyon - Big Rock Campground

For our first outing with the new T@b, we made a quick trip up and over Big Mountain to East Canyon.  We had a fun time getting back into camping mode and exploring some of our own backyard.  It has been a particularly mild fall and we are happy to take advantage of the delayed onset of winter.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

The New T@b

After many months of repair and painting, the T@b is back and ready to roll.  We had to go with a new paint color (to fix the graffiti black).  While nothing can beat the cute red color scheme, we like the new metallic turquoise look. I will say it is awfully nice to have the T@b back.  We looked at buying something else, but nothing really compares to the ease and style of the T@b (other than maybe an airstream).

Saturday, June 20, 2015

T@b Found!


Our T@b was found!  About 10 days after the T@b was stolen, we received a call from the Salt Lake City Police Department notifying us that they had found a trailer that looked like ours.  So, we rushed over to the address they gave us and there she was.  The thieves had painted all the trim in a flat spray paint black, as if that would hide the trailer from suspecting eyes.  They broke the front window and the door lock, but other than that, most of the T@b was in reasonable condition.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Our T@b was Stolen!

After 5 years and many great camping and travel memories, we are sad to report that our 2009 T@b was stolen from our driveway on June 11, 2015.  We are so sad to lose the T@b.  She was more like a friend having shared so many great adventures with us.  We are heartbroken and hope our T@b will be found.  If you ever see a white T@b with red trim feel free to call or text me with the sighting at (801) 631-9166.  Our T@b was the Q layout with a front window in the kitchen area (not so common on many I have seen).  The T@b is also missing the table and water tank (now sitting useless in our garage).




Saturday, May 9, 2015

Escalante

We explored Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument this weekend and it was fantastic.  We stayed in the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park and drove into the Monument.  Next time I would stay in the Calf Creek Campground if available.  The drive through this part of the Monument is just breathtaking.  We hiked to the upper and lower falls of Calf Creek.  This photo is Mary standing at the top of the upper falls.  

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Rockport State Park


We got out for another quick camping trip to Rockport State Park.  It takes less than an hour to get to Rockport from Salt Lake City on I-80.  We really liked the sites at Twin Coves Campground.  Nice sites overlooking the water and access to the beach just behind the sites.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

New Battery - Interstate Deep Cycle

We finally had to get a new battery for the Tab.  We were still using the battery that came with the Tab when we bought it back in 2010.  That is pretty good longevity for the battery.  We made sure to always keep the battery on the battery tender and to make sure that the charge was never depleted.  I think helped with the long battery life.  We bought the same battery made by Interstate Battery - the Deep Cell.

New Cushion Covers

We had some new cushion covers made this year for the Tab.  We got the fabric at Ikea.  I had hoped to make the bottom covers out of red, but we couldn't find a sufficient match so we went with the faces on the top and bottom cushions.  Sometimes the faces seem a little creepy, but most of the times they are cheerful and add a fun element to the Tab.  Definitely a unique addition.

Yuba Lake State Park

We bought a new kayak!  So, we set out for Yuba Lake for the maiden voyage.  It was another fun quick getaway.  The park is pretty exposed with very few trees and plenty of wind, but it was still fun to explore the trails and to try out the kayak on the choppy water.