The girls have been bugging me to start this year’s trip journal. Mostly, I think they need something to do in the car . . . so here we go. Our 2010 summer road trip was fantastic. We knew we wanted to do another, but where did we want to go? There were a lot […]
There are several long hikes in Arches NP that take you out to some spectacular places. The most popular of the longer hikes is the walk to Delicate Arch. This is “THE” arch everyone is familiar with. It is the arch on all the Utah license plates and was used in promotional materials back when […]
This morning we dropped Buster off at Karen’s Canine Campground for an overnight visit. This gave us all day Monday and part of the day Tuesday to see Arches National Park. We knew it was going to be hot, so we loaded the backpack with extra water, filled our water bottles, and brought along an […]
This morning we left Mesa Verde and drove to Moab, Utah, a town within 30 miles of Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Dead Horse Point State Park. We only have one scheduled hike for this stop, so we’re not sure yet what we will do. Canyonlands is just a huge area that is […]
Someone asked the other day why Buster was in some of our pictures but missing from other stops. Easy answer: in national parks, dogs are allowed in your campsite, but that’s about it. No dogs on trails, in buildings, etc. This makes sense because dogs do dumb things and generally don’t get along with bears, […]
The girls were really excited about today because they both did reports on Mesa Verde this year in school. They started out with more background about the history of the area and its people than Mike or I did. I can definitely say we learned a lot during the two tours we took today. Mesa […]
Today we had problems. Not big, important life problems – just disappointing, frustrating problems. It started out pretty well. We left Monument Valley and stopped at mile marker 13 (some websites say marker 16 to get one of the most famous shots of the valley. Right around Mile Marker 13 as you leave Monument Valley […]
Arizona was slowing us down. Our destination, Monument Valley, was four hours away. We wanted to break camp, drive, set up again, and still have time to visit Monument Valley before dark. We always forget, though, that Arizona feels like it has its own time zone because they don’t recognize Daylight Savings Time. So by […]
High Points: Swimming pool in the campground, giant meteor crater, brownies for dessert! Low Point: Just one more reason to not like the Grand Canyon operation . . . Our update should say “Grand Canyon Day 2,” but that didn’t happen. When we first plugged in to our campsite in Trailer Village (#46), all the […]
High Point: Finding a good bike trail Low Point: Why is everybody YELLING???!!!!! Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda . . . It was bound to happen. Eventually, we had to end up somewhere we should have skipped. That place is the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We could have gone to the North Rim. We would […]
High Point: Looking down into the Grand Canyon Low Point: The long drive from Zion to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim This morning we packed up and left Zion National Park. On the way out of town (Springdale), we stopped for lunch at Casa de Amigos, a restaurant from which we’d picked up chips and […]
When we announced we would be in Zion National Park this summer, my former bro-in-law told us a trail named Angels Landing was “mandatory hiking.” As we rode the shuttle busses the last two days, the pre-recorded announcements kept repeating that the trail was an “exciting adventure.” We determined there were actually two connecting trails: […]
Today we hiked part of The Narrows. Wow. Just wow. Lots of pictures in this post. Click on any to make them larger. The trail begins at the Temple of Sinawava, a massive cliff formation at the end of the Zion Canyon. A paved path runs for a mile along the river before the trail […]
We are in Utah’s first national park. It is a huge area to explore. Two of the most amazing day hikes in the world are here. I woke up relatively early and made breakfast so we could plan our day and hit the trails. So what did we do? I caught up on emails, the […]
High Point: Walking down into Bryce Canyon Low Point: Walking back up the 320 ft elevation change to the canyon rim People com to Bryce to see the unique rocks and hoodoo spires, so we spent the day doing just that. After packing up camp and leaving the trailer at a drop-off lot (no campers […]
High Points: Devil’s Garden & the whole drive down Hole in the Wall Road Low Points: No trail markers or trail maps for anything inside the Grand Staircase area; Dust . . . everywhere Buster was not loving our hotel stop last night. He couldn’t figure out what was going on. He wanted to […]
High Point: The drive along National Scenic Byway 12 Low Point: Dinner at the Boulder Mesa Restaurant Today was another 5 hour drive. At this point in the trip, it’s about all everyone can handle before we start hearing, “Hey! You’re taking all the room!” or, “That was my water bottle!” or, “I drove last […]
High Points: Finally finding a campsite! Clean laundry! Low Point: Not being anywhere near the city we’d planned on stopping Today there isn’t much to say. We woke up, sorted laundry, packed up the truck, and started driving south. We have two days to reach Boulder, Utah – about a 10 hour drive. There is […]
High Point: Breakfast Cruise Low Point: Chilly weather today (we changed our minds about a swimming trip to String Lake) No sleeping in today ‘cause Mike and the girls were scheduled to take a breakfast cruise on Jackson Lake at 7:30 am. We somehow got up and ready by 6:20 and drove off to the […]
High Point: Hiking the Tetons Low Point: The crowds near Hidden Falls Today we wanted to do some hiking before picking up the dog, so we headed over to the Jenny Lake area where a 3 mile hike takes you around the lake and up into the mountains to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. We […]
