Out and about near where we are parked

Some random pictures and a hike...

On Thursday, a group of solo RVers (WINs - https://rvsingles.org/) came into the area below where we are parked -- they do a number of "circuits", like caravans, that members can join when they want and leave when they want, and for a few days, they are parked here. This is a picture near sunset (so the sun is at a bad angle) of their rigs parked in the "gravel pit" down below.

Friday evening, we made a Caprese salad to have with some potato soup that I had made a couple of days ago... both were yummy!

Also on Friday evening, we walked down through the area where the WINs are parked, thinking that we might see someone outside and chat... when we hiked back up our hill, we couldn't resist a picture of the mountains as the sun was setting.

Saturday morning, Carl made bacon and pancakes on the griddle on top of the Coleman propane stove. He was contending with quite a bit of wind which made it difficult to keep the flame at an even and high-enough heat.

 

He flew the drone to get a picture of Gracie from above (Carl is in the picture in one of the chairs in the shadow on the side of Gracie).

On Saturday we drove to a trailhead near the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary to go to Sand Caves. The route to the caves was not far from the parking area, but we had to hike up some slickrock/sandstone to get up to the level of the caves.

Climbing up

This is pretty!

Then we had to hike across a ways -- there was a lady that was sitting on the rocks - her friends had gone on to the caves, but she decided she had had enough hiking on the slick rock so she sat and waited for them. When I was starting across, trying to decide which route to take, she cautioned me that most folks took a different route than the one I had selected. I told her that she was the first verbal warning sign I had experienced on a hike -- and I took her advice...

I took a little lower route...

Carl was ambitious and took the higher, steeper route!

There are the caves over there...

The hike got easier as we got closer to the caves.

More of a flat section

Our objective is in sight.

With a bit of a rock to climb over at one point

Getting close to the mouths of the caves

"Come on in and I'll show you around!"

"This could be a small bedroom."

"This is the great room / living area -- lots of natural light."

"Sunroom..."

Carl thought the sunroom was a little dangerous -- no railing to prevent pitching over the side!

You can see that the highway is just below.

Heading back to the Jeep.

The route back -- the Jeep is parked across the road in the area to the left center.

When we got to the part where we had to initially climb up, I decided to go down backwards...

Carl said it looked really weird, but I felt safer.

And I made it safely to the bottom.

Carl decided to crab-walk down. He had new shorts on and he didn't want to get them ripped!

He made it down safely too.

A look back up to the caves from the path in from the parking area.

Then we drove to a commercial venture that is housed in another cave, this one at "ground" level.

We didn't go into the cave (there was a fee)...

From what I've read, it is a great place to go on hot summer days as the inside of the cave is always nice and cool.

We did stop at the food trailer located there.

They have a nice shady eating area.

We had seen a sign at the road that they had smoothies and acai bowls...

... so we got one of each to share. They were delicious!

We were looking for the trailhead of another trail we are considering hiking...

We came across another gorgeous view.

Obligatory selfie

When we got back to the rig, we worked on a project that has been on the to-do list -- the cabinets which are on the slides are, in many cases, not well insulated from the outside and can get quite warm when the sun is on the side of the coach.

Carl had some reflectix in his shed at Mesa that we brought with us with the plan to insulate the backs of the cabinets, particularly those in which we store food.

Insulation in place.

Shelf back in place.

All the "stuff" back in place. We keep a lot of things that in the cabinets inside storage trays so we can easily take the front things out and get to the items in the back. The items in the back are also in trays so it is easy to reach the things that are way back on the top shelf of cabinets... for some of the cabinets, that is a *long* way back.