Stoness | Stoness Travel Blog

Mountain Driving

Mountains provide great scenery, and camping, but it’s necessary to drive up and down them with our RVs. Mountains keep us on our toes. Some mountains are more of a challenge than others, but any hilly road deserves respect. Those who are accustomed to steep hills and

Decsending Grand Mesa, Colorado — Descending Grand Mesa, Colorado

crooked roads know that there is a different set of rules in force than the one you use on the flatlands.

It takes power to climb. When you are buying a travel trailer, make sure that you’ve selected a tow vehicle that is

matched to the load. Be aware that sometimes vehicle dealers do not always know all the answers, or perhaps they just want to move a vehicle that’s sat too long on the lot. If you’re preparing to buy, then do research, research, research. Ask questions, and don’t accept partial unsatisfactory answers. And this goes both for tow vehicles, and trailers, or motorhomes.

You don’t want to be the one hauling a massive 5th wheel on the highway when your truck’s manual says that the load is too big. Yes, it may pull it, but the heavy RV is more than the frame, springing, tires, and brakes were designed to handle.

Make sure that you have a transmission cooler. A car or truck’s oil can get very hot under a constant heavy load such as a long climb. Not too long ago, I climbed to over 10,000 feet in 2^nd gear. It was a 16 mile grind, yet there was no overheating.

It’s always a shocker when you start to loose speed. Sometimes the road does not appear to be climbing very steeply, and you start to wonder if there is some problem. Be prepared to shift to a lower gear, then just climb the mountain and enjoy it. Look at the beauty of the place and learn to love the mountains. There may be sometimes 10-20 mile per hour curves, and if you are going up be

prepared for what follows, and that may be a steep climb. Just be prepared for the fact that you are not going to win any speed records. Be courteous to faster cars and on straight stretches move over to the right a little so the one behind can see past you. Most will pass. It will be easy for them, unless you are the type that speeds up and won’t let them past. And of course we know that no RVer would do that. It’s a black mark against our whole RVing family.

Many people are frightened of descending. When it’s time to come down, gear back. Drive down hills as if you have something to save other than time. You have, you know, your life, and that of your family’s. On some grades, even low gear will not hold you back. You are going to have to use your brakes. Avoid using them steadily. Let the speed build up a bit, and then slow it down with your brakes. This way you can get some cooling of the brakes in between applications.

If you a driving a motorhome with a car in tow, use a system like the Brake Buddy to apply the brakes in the car. A four thousand pound car can push you pretty good, not only on steep hills, but also when traffic conditions force you to stop quickly, and will certainly help your motorhome brakes heat up, and also wear more rapidly. Inspect your trailer brakes before beginning your vacation, and make sure they are pulling evenly. Now, go out and enjoy the trip.

Happy RVing!

For more than four decades James Stoness has travelled the roads of North America, photographing and writing about what he has seen. His travel articles and beautiful pictures have been published in several magazines and newspapers. He is also the author of five western novels. Visit him at StonessRvTravel.com

Immersed in the Magnificent Desert

More and more of the snowbirds who have been frequenting the coasts of Florida and Texas are spending their winters farther west. They have discovered the beauty of the desert. Low humidity, sunny skies, and long picturesque views have won them over. Of course, winter is the best time to visit the deserts. Temperatures range from cool to comfortably warm. Most crawly creatures are sleeping away their ‘winter’ and the weather is great for visitors to get out and walk among the strange desert vegetation.

One of the very scenic drives is found in eastern California passing from Death Valley NP south through the Mojave Preserve to Joshua Tree NP. It’s a drive filled with a variety of desert scenery.

The bajada is a feature not observed where there is a lot of vegetation. It is a broad apron of debris accumulated around the cliffs and the resulting view is that of a sea of small mountains surrounded by sloping oceans of sand.

This route roams across desolate flat lands and up and down numerous small mountains. There are always mountains in view and as you approach the tops of the ridges you never know when you will be entranced by a wonderful jumble of blue mountains and hidden valleys where you can see wave upon wave of purple ridges rolling to the horizon.

Normally, we would take this trip south from Furnace Creek, in Death Valley NP but the summer of 2004 arrived with deadly floods that have closed many of the roads in the south of the park. Instead I suggest going west from Las Vegas to Shoshone and heading south from there.

Many highways do not have installed culverts. Instead there is a dip in the road where the water crosses. Most have warning signs that tell you not to enter when water is flowing. You might wonder if water ever flows there but a careful look at the erosion at the end of the dip, or at the sand and stones strewn across the pavement might change your mind. Cars do get carried right off the highway from the force of the water in these flooded dips.

The Amargosa River drains a vast area to the east and eventually the highway crosses the several branches of the river. It’s strange to see so many culverts in a row under the highway with not a drop of water in sight. After the river rounds the southern end of a mountain range it then swings north to drain into Death Valley where it forms a lake for a while, and eventually evaporates leaving the white salt pans that are first to catch the eye of the visitor to the park.

In the Mojave Preserve, a long descent through cacti and creosote bushes takes you to Kelso Station, an old railway station of beautiful Spanish architecture that may become the new park headquarters for the vast Mojave Preserve. The nearby Kelso Sand Dunes rise to over 600 feet above the desert floor in a profusion of shapely curves that extend far down the valley. Although difficult to climb it might be worth the effort just to slide down one of the steeper faces, or to listen to the music of the sliding sand.

Eventually, you make another winding climb before rolling down another long slope to Amboy where the flow from an ancient volcanic cinder cone left a streak of black lava across the dry sands toward dry Bristol Lake. On the lake, sand dikes surround evaporation ponds used to collect salt.

For miles the vegetation changes from lowland desert plants to highland varieties and back again as the roller coaster ride continues, taking you to the top of the Granite Mountains where erosion is creating strangely sculptured pillars and scattered piles of massive boulders.

In the town of Twentynine Palms artists have painted beautiful murals with western themes onto the sides of buildings. In nearby Yucca Valley, Hollywood has captured the beauty of the surrounding area on film in ‘It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World’.

For more desert scenery head south into Joshua Tree NP which has a fantastic variety of eroded mountains, huge boulders, and a couple of cactus patches.

For more than five decades James Stoness has travelled the roads of North America, photographing and writing about what he has seen. His travel articles and beautiful pictures have been published in several magazines and newspapers. He is also the author of five western novels. Visit his website at: www.stonesstravelguides.com

Happy RV’ing

The Ever Striking Blue Ridge Parkway

If you enjoy mountain driving you will be in your element driving the Blue Ridge Parkway from Virginia through North Carolina. The parkway is essentially a mountain crest highway joining peak to peak through the long Appalachian chain of mountains. This means there will be a lot of climbing up the side of one mountain, and descending the other side for over 469 miles.

However, if the weather is good, it will be 469 miles of forests during the climbs, and tremendous panoramic views from the mountain tops. Mostly it will be necessary to use the lay-bys to see the valley sights. Years ago the forests had been cut and it was easy to see across the countryside below as you drove. Now the trees are maturing and are too high to see over.

The road is generally in good shape, but some sections are grown in to the point where you have to keep away from the edges or suffer scratches from limbs. It is necessary to watch for branches above as well or endanger your air conditioner if you have a high RV. There is a section of road at the southern end that has three tunnels too low for many RV’s.
There are several excellent campgrounds without hookups so it’s a good opportunity to try out your RV’s self containment features. One drawback is the use of noisy generators. Although there are new quiet generators on the market, many people insist of using the cheaper, noisy variety, thus ruining the camping experience for those around them.
In the spring miles and miles of beautiful rhododendrons line the route and these along with the other spring flowers make it a terrific drive. In the fall the leaves and mountain ash berries provide another colourful time to make the trip.