The Savage Traveler: Out West Adventure: Part 2--Pipe Spring and Valley of Fire

Mon. May 20: Monday was a very productive day for us. This is what we managed to do:

We both took showers
Made oatmeal for breakfast
Did one more load of laundry
Took down the camper
Dumped the gray water to be ready for some dry camping
Dropped from 8800ft elevation down off the Kaibab Plateau into Fredonia at around 3800ft, getting over 40mpg in the process
Stopped by for a quick visit at Pipe Spring National Monument. Here we learned that the Kaibab Indians had used the spring for several thousand years and held it sacred. The Mormons came in with their ranches and pioneers and took it over, eventually building a fort OVER the spring, thus securing it from the Kaibabs. Now it is on the Kaibab Reservation Land and is jointly administered, with at least one Kaibab Park Ranger. We took a half hour tour of the fort, which really served more as a residence and business venture by the Mormons.
Returned eventually to I15 towards Las Vegas
Arrived around 5:00 at Valley of Fire State Park, which we had visited in the winter and thought would be a great place to camp. Coming in from the north, we found a wonderful site at Atlatl Rock campground. This will go down as one of our Top Five camping places, EVER. There aren't many sites to begin with and we found one literally tucked down between the rocks with no campers in sight anywhere around us. The towering red rocks gave us some shade and later, when the sun had set, radiated heat for a surprising length of time. It turned out that the campground had flush toilets and showers, which we didn't expect, and a whole loop of full hook-ups, where all the other RVs went. We spent a lot of time, even after dark, just sitting and marveling at the powerful setting. Before dinner we rode our bikes for about 20 minutes up the scenic drive past Atlatl Rock, with its petroglyphs, and Arch Rock, with its campground, enjoying the almost complete lack of traffic at nearly sunset. Marv grilled chicken breasts for dinner, with enough left over for another meal. We hoped to see fantastic stars in the dark skies but the surprisingly bright half moon made it too light. Nonetheless, we sat outside, reading from our tablets or just enjoying the perfect temperature and slight breeze.