9 October 2025
Day 1 – 15 September 2025 – Bellingham to Yakima, WA – 224.8 miles
– It was a gorgeous and sunny day once we headed into the mountains, and
Snoqualmie Pass was just incredible!
Rugged rocky mountain peaks against a cobalt blue sky, with emerald evergreens
below 
the snow line. Such a wonderful
section of road! Dinner with my brother
and his wife, a quick catch up, and we’ll continue on tomorrow.
Day 2 – 16 September 2025 – Yakima, WA to La Grande, OR – 181.0
miles – We drove through part of the area of Washington and Oregon called the
Palouse. The name likely comes from a
French word meaning lawn, as a way of describing the rolling green hills. Well, at the end of summer and almost early
fall, they were more like rolling golden hills – they really were gold, and
were I to paint them, I’d use yellow ochre with a touch of lemon yellow added
in, and occasional bits of burnt sienna.
They weren’t the normal beige 
or even wheat color that cropped grasses
turn after a hot summer, these hills were a rich golden yellow! With occasional vineyards surrounded by
towering green cypresses as windbreaks, sections looked somewhat like
Tuscany!!
This corner of the country really is so beautiful this time of
year! And then the 
rains of November
settle in, and we’d both be miserable.
So southward we continue.
Day 3 – 17 September 2025 – La Grande, OR to Ontario, OR – 117.4
miles – La Grande is in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, so it’s hilly and
surrounded by evergreen trees. It’s a 
long and winding road up into the mountains – and an equally long and winding
road back out of the mountains and back to the high desert of eastern
Oregon. A bit hotter, and a lot
flatter.
Our rest area stop overlooked a potato farm, with more mountains
in the distance. I watched as one vehicle
drove along 
and dug up potatoes, rolled them up a conveyer belt to drop them
into a truck driving in tandem with the potato digging machine, and then it
shot the plant material back into the field.
A third vehicle came along after the digger and loaded truck moved on,
and that third one mixed the chopped plants into the 
soil. Fascinating!
Day 4 – 18 September 2025 – Ontario, OR to Twin Falls, ID – 178.5
miles – We stayed in Twin Falls on our northern trip in May, and it’s a nice
town. We did drive through two smaller
towns prior to arriving in Twin Falls, but some of these smaller 
towns seemed
to have hotels that were either undergoing renovations, or were closed
altogether. So, we drove on and found a
comfortable hotel, settled in to catch up on email.
Added on the morning of 19 Sept. – at breakfast, I discovered they
have a yogurt machine! It’s like a 
frozen ice cream machine, but with sweetened yogurt! Very bizarre, though I guess it does cut down
on plastics.
Day 5 – 19 September 2025 – Twin Falls, ID to Tremonton, UT – 147.2
miles – We’re way ahead of schedule, so we’re having some shorter days 
instead
of pushing ourselves. Tremonton seemed
like a good place to stop. It’s a very
small town in a valley or hollow between lines of towering hills or
mountains. Quiet, and a good spot to
stop for the night.
Day 6 – 20 September 2025 – Tremonton to 
Nephi, UT – 156 miles – This
is a somewhat unusual stop. We stayed in
Nephi on our migration north last May, and stumbled on a wonderful restaurant
called Lisa’s Country Kitchen. (Not to
be confused with the Country Kitchen chain.)
Anyway, Richard has been talking about the place, and we figured sure,
we’ll 
make this our destination for the Garmin (since she works best with a
distant destination). So, we stopped at
Lisa’s, and had a lovely breakfast for lunch.
We also found a comfortable hotel for the night, and will stay here. We need to plan our route south, since the
issue is always whether to go east or west around the Grand 
Canyon. Yes, it’s so huge, there’s no way across,
only miles around to the east, or miles around to the west.
Days 7 & 8 – 21-22 September 2025 – Nephi to Washington, UT – 211
miles – We made a last minute decision to take the western route around Grand
Canyon, so we’re heading to Las Vegas, and will spend a day or so there. Then a diagonal drive into Arizona, meet up
with an east-west 
interstate, and around Flagstaff head south toward Phoenix
and Tucson. We’re not sure which route
is shorter, or more picturesque, but we haven’t used this route in a while so
we’ll see how it goes and what interesting things we can see and do.
Our hotel was so comfortable, reasonably priced, and well-situated
that we decided to spend a second night here and sort of regroup. So I spent much of my day editing photos from
our Alaska trip. Plus walking in our
neighborhood, and enjoying the red rocky hills against the towering blue-grey
mountains. Really pretty part of the
country, 
but dry and arid. I think
coasts are my happier places.
Day 9 – 23 September 2025 – Washington, UT to Henderson, NV – 140
miles – We had a quick visit to Las Vegas.
Richard just wanted a little city time, so we drove around a bit and got
lost. 
Finally found a casino parking
lot, and figured sure, we’ll park for a bit.
We went into the casino, hoping it was the one with the Carnegie Deli #2
inside. It wasn’t, but they had a small
shop with Israeli food, so we each had a sandwich. Chatted with a young Israeli couple, and
wished each other Happy Rosh Hashana.
And then we left. Really,
that was it. Didn’t play a single
game. We’re planning to stop at our
favorite Arizona hotel and 
casino on our way, so that will be our more
manageable casino visit. I think today’s
huge and crowded casino was a bit overwhelming.
Well, so was some of the scenery – huge looming rock cliffs towering
over the road, and looking absolutely intimidating! I just kept hoping there wouldn’t be 
any
falling rocks!!!
Day 10 – 24 September 2025 – Henderson, NV to Kingman, AZ – 104
miles – Somehow, we got a late start leaving Henderson. Once we finally got onto the road to Kingman,
we realized this wasn’t a major interstate, it was a minor and not
well-maintained interstate. No 
rest
areas along the way, so our bathroom break was a very long four mile drive on
half gravel roads down to Lake Mead. And
we had to show our national park pass to get through the gate! It was just that kind of day. Scenic, but slow.
So we decided by 3 PM it was time to stop and regroup. Cool off, look at our upcoming plan, and
we’ll start off earlier tomorrow.
Fortunately, our route is predominantly on a major interstate, so we
should be able to make good time.
Day 11 & 12 – 25-26 
September 2025 – Kingman to Williams, AZ –
109 miles – We’re thinking about taking a quick trip up to the Grand Canyon, but
the weather forecast for today was rain and thunderstorms. We thought we could get to Williams and in a
hotel before the rain began. We managed
to drive most of the way there in sunshine, 
but stopped for a terrific lunch in
the town of Seligman. That took longer
than anticipated, so our last hour or so was quite rainy, with dramatic
lightning streaking across the sky. We
arrived in the midst of a major thunderstorm, but fortunately the hotel had a
covered entry so we could unload our luggage and 
stay dry. We’ll see how the weather looks tomorrow and
make an executive decision then.
Well, here it is Friday, 26 Sept, and there’s a 95% chance of rain at Grand Canyon. Flooding in Globe, which is east of Phoenix and north of Tucson. We already had thunder and lightning this morning, along with heavy rain. This is monsoon season in Arizona, and we know monsoon season from SE Asia – not something to mess with, nor something we want to drive around and challenge the weather.
So we’ll stay a second night here in Williams. Better to be safe, staying warm and dry. We don’t mind thunderstorms, we both enjoy the drama of wild weather. But we’re hoping there isn’t any hail, which could hurt our little car Tiki. We’re also hoping there aren’t any tornadoes, which seem to be a possibility with this system moving through.
Day 12 – 27 September 2025 – Williams to Grand Canyon back to Williams – 160 miles – I waited until the thunderstorm in Williams finished this morning, then headed up to the Grand Canyon. Had a wonderful day driving along the South Rim and stopping at nearly every lookout or scenic viewpoint. Well, I skipped the Desert View lookout, the one with the tower – it’s always crowded and full of tour buses, and I was enjoying the views more with fewer people around.
The dark clouds rolled in, thunder boomed, lightning flashed – but none of the rain was overhead, it was always in the distance. The Grand Canyon is usually fairly sunny, so it was a special event to see it in the rain. I headed east (as did the storm) – and by the time I headed west again, the storm had rained itself out.
I also saw three young female elk either along the side of the road or in a clearing, nibbling leaves and grasses. One was right by the entrance, the other two were on my way heading out of the park.
And on top of all the wonderfulness of the day, it turned out to be a free day – National Public Lands Day, or something along that line!!!
Days 13 & 14 – 28 - 29 September 2025 – Williams to Camp Verde, AZ – 84.3 miles – We didn’t travel very far today, but that’s good because it became a very rainy day! As in tropical deluge rain, which is not good when driving on an interstate with semis and people who don’t drop their speed despite torrential rain. We took it a bit slow, stopped for a nosh at a cute little coffee shop along the way, and sat for a bit to see if the weather improved. It didn’t, but oh well.
So we’re snug in our room at the Cliff Castle Hotel (and casino) in Camp Verde. We stumbled on this place on our first trip to Tucson in 2018, and it has become one of our stops along the route. It’s near cliff dwellings for me, has comfortable rooms for both of us, and lots of places to eat for Richard. We all have our priorities!
They had a special price for non-weekend days, so we’ll stay here for two days and then head on south.
I visited the cliff dwellings again, it’s such a beautiful and peaceful place. Most people talk about communing with nature, but I think I also commune with ancient buildings. No idea if that’s possible, but there’s a certain kind of peace as well as wonder in ancient edifices somehow. Sort of a sense of the timelessness of human ingenuity and creativity. I’m constantly awed by human achievements, especially structures built before machinery, or created solely from natural materials.
My visit to these cliff dwellings, mistakenly named “Montezuma’s Castle” by settlers moving west in the 1800s, always includes time just sitting and enjoying the beauty of these buildings nestled in a pocket on the cliff face. And imagining what life was like for the people living here some 700 or 800 years ago.
Day 15 – 30 September 2025 – Camp Verde to Phoenix, AZ – 88.7 miles – We’re spending a quick day and night with our niece and her husband in Phoenix. Because family does that, right?
Day 16 – 1 October 2025 – Phoenix to Tucson, AZ – 137 miles – Arrived at our little house in Tucson, unpacked, and began to settle in before a quick trip to the east coast!
A map of our route - not a straight line, but it's more fun that way:
