Day 11 - Capitol Reef National Park and lots of driving

Date: Monday, June 20, 2016
Posted from: Virgin, UT - Zion River Resort RV Park

Miles driven: 286

Total trip miles: 2,222

Total national parks visited: 6

Matt and I looked at the map and agreed to skip Capitol Reef National Park. It was quite a bit of extra driving, and there didn't seem to be any compelling reason to go. My book described it as looking a lot like its southern Utah national park neighbors, but less busy. Uh okay. 

So this morning we started out on a day that promised to be mostly interstate travel. I70 to I15. We made it a whole 24 miles on I70 before Matt said, let's get off the interstate. I have to admit that I agreed. It was really boring and we seemed to be missing beautiful things we could see off in the distance. So we got off on highway 24 and headed south...to Capitol Reef NP. The kids cheered. They did not want to miss it. Matt had a smile on his face. We made the right choice. Interstates are just not our thing (unless we are trying to get through Nebraska...sorry Nebraska).

Besides, we would not have enjoyed paying $2.70 for diesel at this gas station built into the side of a rock. 

As you walk back to the bathroom it gets colder as you are deeper in the rock. And we are not talking fake Disney rock. You gotta love the back roads! 

The road to the park was a bit rough...and by a bit I mean it was the roughest road we had been on yet. We felt like we were off roading with a 30ft trailer. You know you are on a good road when your seat belt locks up and won't really unlock. 

But the scenery was worth it. (This picture was a survivor. Most were blurry due to bumps.) It was much better than this most of the drive. 

We finally made it the the park. (Notice Matt's pained expression. No actually it was just the sun. He laughed through all of the bumps, steep grades, and mountain passes.)

I have to say that we were all really glad we did not bypass this park. It was actually very different from some of the other parks we had been to so far. At the center of the park is an old Mormon settlement. the barns, school, blacksmith shop and other building are still standing and they have kept some in working order. Not to mention the cliffs and other beautiful rock formations.

The color doesn't show up very well in my phone pictures, but the rock was a beautiful bright orange.

You can see the layers of the canyon.

This park had the best picnic spot. It was peaceful and full of wildlife. It was cool with a nice breeze.

The settlement town is called Fruita. The settlers planted over 2000 fruit trees and if any of the fruit is in season while you are there you can pick it and eat it for free.  The only thing in season while we were there was mulberry bushes. But the kids were excited because we were going to miss mulberry season on the farm this year, so it worked out great.

We found the spooky old tree from the Bernstein Bear book. It was actually a cottonwood that has significantly outlived its expected lifespan, but it was really impressive.

This little house is magical. Within this little house is homemade pie and homemade ice cream. Again, this is one of the unique things about this park. They freeze the fruit and make pies with it throughout the year to sell to visitors.

The barn is off in the distance.

Our hands after picking mulberries.

We left Capitol Reef and drove the rest of the way to our Zion campground. We went up and around to take the interstate because our camper and truck is too big to pull through the tunnel in Zion. Our height and width are fine, but we are too long. You must be under 50 ft total. We are closer to 54...darn crew cab.

We finally arrived at our campground. It was only 107 degrees outside, so we made dinner and finally it was time  to eat pie and ice cream.

It must have been good.

Day 10 - Amazing Arches!

Sunday, June 19, 2016 - Fathers Day

Posted from: Moab, CO

Miles driven: 161

Total trip miles: 1936

Total national parks visited: 5

The secret to Arches National Park is early arrival. Three reasons: 1) avoid crowds, 2) lighting is georgeous, 3) avoid heat. The high was 104 today. We drove through the gates at 6:00 am. We were alone. Completely. There was no one else at Balanced Rock. We were the second people in the Windows arches parking lot. And the sunlight...I cannot describe it and the pictures don't do it justice. Let me just say that any amazing picture you have seen of Arches was not Photoshopped. And the temperature was in the 60's. 

Before we got to the park we had to get ready for the day. This is how Caleb gets read for his day. His shorts are kept in the upper cabinet because they don't fit in the lower drawers. Short people are resourceful. 

We took over holding up the Balanced Rock until the next group came along. 

We were all standing on this ledge. I looked down and thought this looked like a fun picture. 

North Window arch (notice the lack of people)

The kids celebrating at the top of North Window

Matt at North Window. You can really see the light change in the last 3 pictures.

With no crowds, we were able to take a few family shots using the camera timer.

Double arches was just awe inspiring the closer you got. It was quiet and peaceful. There are people I this picture which gives an idea of the size. 

The camera man passed out again. I really hope we aren't paying him much.

The result of his hard work:

Us again.

Cameron found the most comfy spot to enjoy the Double Arch. He is so good at that.

We found a nice shady picnic spot to finish our Junior Ranger books and have a snack. By the time we left people were showing up, but the shade was mostly gone. 

And finally, on our way out of the park, the kids stopped to be sworn in as Junior Rangers. Arches and Canyonlands have an agreement where they will both do both parks, so here they are earning their badges for both. This lady was really thorough and really nice to talk to. She really took her time with the kids. I like how all of the park rangers seem to take this seriously and really take their time and look through the books and ask/answer questions. This lady became a volunteer ranger during her retirement because it was a lifetime dream of hers to become a ranger at Arches. 

We left the park at 11:00 just as the temp reached 90. It was in the 70's most of the time we were walking around, but it heats up quick!

We were in the pool by 1:00. It felt so good. We chilled out, grocery shopped (the store was next door), and the kids watched a movie in the camper. 

Dad wanted to go to a brewery across the street. Since it was Fathers Day, we said okay. He is a pretty good dad after all. And a good captain for our trip!!

. 

Day 9 - 4 Corners & Canyonlands National Park

[There was a controlled burn in the mountain in the background.]

Saturday, June 18, 2016
Posted from: Moab, UT

Miles driven: 299

Total trip miles: 1,775

Total national parks visited: 4

Today was a long day. Maybe a bit too long. We travelled most of the day from Mesa Verde, CO to Moab, UT. 

Our first stop was Four Corners where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona come together. We were there pretty early so there wasn't much competition for pictures and they weren't enforcing the three picture limit. So after paying our $20 to get in, we took pictures of the kids laying in all four states. They thought it was really cool, so we were glad we did it.

Oh, and I forgot to add that as we were approaching the driveway to enter four corners, we drove right past it. The sign is actually after the entrance. So once again my poor navigation skills and Matt's epic driving skills come into play. He backed the camper up over one eighth of a mile to the entrance. (Remember that we were early and no one was really around.) 

Then when we went to leave a bunch of motorcycles had blocked us in. Matt says he figures they aren't too rough and tumble if they are at a tourist trap like this...so he sent me to talk to them. Hey, wait a minute... Anyway, they were really nice. They laughed and asked if my husband had sent me. Ha! They said they were about to go so all was well. 

We saw this odd little thing on our way to four corners. 

We stopped for fuel and a little road side stand was set up selling Navaho burgers. At home we would refer to the "bun" as a Clipper taco shell. Then it had two hamburger patties sitting next to each other with all of the usual cheeseburger toppings. We bought 3 and shared them. We all really liked them, but they were far from health food. We all joined hands and said a little prayer that we don't regret our lunch. 

Cameron thought this looked like BB-8 from Starwars. He thinks this rock inspired the character. 

We arrived at the campground a little past 1:00 pm, set up the camper, and headed out to Canyonlands NP. It was 102 degrees. We were well hydrated and didn't attempt any hikes, but nonetheless the kids ended up with upset tummies and general not feeling well. Thankfully, we were on our way out of Canyonlands when tummies started hurting, so we were able to see the park. 

The temp after parking the truck for 5 minutes. Much of that is engine heat, but still. Today really shocked us out of our 72 degree average temperature days. 

Proof that we were here...and it was hot. Grace even started to wear a bandana today (wet to cool her off...mine is to control my crazy hair).

This rock is called Whale Rock. The tree is kind of blocking it, but it really did look like a whale with an eye and everything. Caleb wanted to climb up and "ride" the whale, but it was a half mile straight up hike, so Mom said no. 

On our way out we pulled off to let the kids breathe a bit (sick was imminent). A nice ranger pulled up behind us to help and offered a couple plastic bags. Nice guy. 

We headed back to the campground, grilled some chicken, ate some veggies, and mostly just drowned ourselves in as much water as we could drink. 

And we just keep getting hotter...if we do say so ourselves. 

Since were already hot, we figured what would it hurt to stop and take one more picture. The background cannot be beat.

Day 8 - Mesa Verde cliff dwellings

Friday, June 17, 2016

Posted from: Mancos, CO

Miles Driven: 72

Total Trip Miles: 1,476

Total National Parks visited: 3

Mesa Verde National Park is just cool. It is different because the most interesting parts are man made. But made my an ancient people. I was surprised at how little they know about these people and why they did what the did. By the time scientists got involved, much of the sites had had things removed and changed by settlers which took away some of the clues. 

We stopped last night at the visitor center to buy tickets for ranger led walks to two of the most popular cliff dwellings, Cliff Palace and Balcony House. You can only get close to the dwellings on these tours, and they advise getting the tickets as soon as possible because they sell out. At peak times they limit you to one tour. We missed peak times by one week. Whew!

We drove an hour into the park to get to the cliff dwellings. Along the way we went through the tunnel. I told Matt not to honk so he didn't startle other drivers. So he rolled down the window and screamed "honk!" At the top of his lungs. Gosh thanks, Honey. That was perfect and exactly what I had in mind.  It is moments like this that I realize that I married someone a little too much like my dad. I clearly recall my dad doing something really similar...like just a couple months ago. The picture is a little blurry because he startled me with his yelling (not to mention the kids cheering him on). 

The kids were amazed at this sight. We all were. The size and fact that they were built in a cliff is amazing. This is Cliff Palace.

The walk down was steep.

The ranger told us yesterday that Mesa Verde had something no other national park can boast...LOTS of butt shots! 

It was great to see the dwellings so close.

I asked them to turn around on the way up to spare us all another butt shot.

Then we went a couple miles to the Balcony House tour. This tour was very different. It was a lot of stairs, ladders and really tight spaces. This is Caleb walking through one of the small spots. Some were so small you had to crawl. Grace did a belly crawl because she had the Canon camera bag on her back. 

This one also has a very tall ladder that really freaked some people out. The park ranger became a counselor and therapist as much as a tour guide for these folks. She was truly an awesome guide. We all did fine with the ladders.

This is Grace making a face at Matt because she usually led our group and was tired of the butt shots. 

The old campground was turned into a picnic area. It was the perfect place to eat and work on our junior ranger booklets. I would almost advise people traveling without kids to pick up a junior ranger booklet anyway. It really makes you slow down and learn about your surroundings. A ranger asked if anyone knew the name of a certain habitat. It was a long hard word that I had never heard of, but Grace shouted it out. The ranger looked startled. 

We found the same ranger who was so helpful to us last night and asked him to swear in the kids as Junior Rangers. He was more than happy to. He also told us something that he said was not widely known. The pine cone symbol on the ranger's hats were from the sequoia tree, as is the tree on the NP Service logo. 

This national park was definitely worth the stop. 

When we got back to the campground, the kids vacuumed out the truck. Let's just say the back seat had visible crumb accumulation.

Caleb loved this campground! He played in the gravel with his trucks as much as he could. I'm pretty sure the campground is going to charge us a road grading fee as this project got larger and larger.

Tomorrow is off to four corners, Arches NP, and Canyonlands NP.