America, The Beautiful

As we planned our summer trip to Park City this year, we decided to drive to Utah instead of fly.  We wanted to have our car in town, tow the bikes/golf clubs/everything else, and mostly, see the amazing countryside that we so regularly fly right over.

It was one of our best decisions of the year.  The kids are old enough to handle the long distance (directly, the route would be 20 hours each way, but we stretched it to 25ish hours with all of our stops.)  

We really enjoyed mapping out our routes with strategic stopping points along the way.  Our routes to Utah and back to Dallas were wildly different as we focused on different points of interest.

And, of course, I thoroughly enjoyed taking photos along the way.

On the way to Park City, we drove thru Colorado and planned to hit up a resort mountain town with a little camping along the way.  I did a lot of camping growing up and haven't enjoyed it as much as an adult.  But, I put on my game face and joined the family in a tent.  (My takeaway: I don't mind sleeping in a tent outside with the family.  It's actually kinda sweet.  However, I have no interest in hanging out in a dusty/dirty area where kids drop toothbrushes on the ground and I want nothing to do with trying to cook outside.  Also, I don't love the idea of a campfire if we don't have showers readily available.  But, I digress...)

See our car right there next to our campsite?

We enjoyed a little frigid river rafting and learned about the big-horned sheep who like the rocky and mountainous region.  Palmer also took a dip in the cold water after our trip was over, that crazy kid.

Grace was thrilled to "drive" the raft for a bit with our guide.

We stopped for lunch in beautiful Crested Butte, Colorado (side note: we'll be back for a longer visit!) and continued our journey north. At lunch, Rick proposed a route that was directly thru the Gunnison National Forest.  It would likely take us an hour longer and we might have to pass thru on dirt roads at time.  We decided we were game for the scenic route and the views did not disappoint.  From time to time, we saw some remote campers or hikers, but for the most part, it was just us and these views and soooo many thick Aspen forests...

 

Okay, so worth it.  A little further north, we drove out of the forest and into the desert.  And then, the ground dropped below us and we saw this at Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction, Colorado.

 Where's Waldo Rick?

Traffic jam...

We also hit up Arches National Park where we briefly tried to hit up the hot spots before we did a little fly-over of the park and surround canyons outside of Canyonlands National Park.  However, we discovered that national parks can be crazy busy in the summer and we got stuck in bumper to bumper cars.  We tried to see a few landmarks before heading to the airport to see the rest by air.

Rick and I flew over the Grand Canyon 10 years ago via helicopter and it's a memory we won't ever forget.  So, when we saw the little airport with a billboard that said tours by air were available, we had to share that sort of experience with the kids (and ourselves again).

 Oops.  Flying during nap time wasn't ideal...

After a "little" more driving, PARK CITY, we made it!!

Now, skip ahead with me...I'm going to blog about our two weeks in Park City in a separate post.  But, I'm going to jump to our drive back to Texas next...

We were considering a few different stops centering around Zion National Park on the way home.  When I saw a postcard of Bryce Canyon National Park in an ice cream shop in Park City, I knew this is a site we needed to see.  The views were worth the detour...

 

From Bryce Canyon, we drove to Zion National Park and were absolutely floored.  Pictures cannot even begin to tell the full story of this incredible and other-worldly place.  We drove into a Martian-like topography like nothing I've ever seen.  Again, we were met with some bighorn sheep.

 

We drove thru a 1.2 mile tunnel built in 1930 and came out on the other side to a completely different landscape.  Soaring canyons and majestic red rocks filled our view.  Pictures do not even begin to do the park justice.

We slept overnight in the adorable town of Springdale, Utah.  I could not be more impressed with the park and the town-- great food and very nice places to stay.

We woke the next morning and tried to get ahead of the masses by boarding the shuttle to the hiking hot spots at 6am.  The early wake up call was so worth it because the shuttle lines were longer than some Disney World lines when we came back to the visitors center around mid-morning.

 

"Mom, look! I'm on a boulder!" 

Can you see Rick and the kids on the bottom right of this photo?  The canyons are so tall.  You can't even imagine.

Happy hikers (most of the time):

Our early morning hikes included an amazing journey called the "Narrows" where we hiked between two soaring canyons IN the river.  We only walked about an hour out with the kiddos, but Rick and I would love to continue walking much further down the river-- the hike can take half a day if you do the full journey.

The rocks were slippery and the water came up to our knees at times, so moving down the river was slow-going, but so much fun.

Off to one more morning hike just as the sun rose over the canyons...Emerald Pools.

 

We really fell in love with this gorgeous place and definitely want to spend more time here on another visit.

Almost done... I'd seen pictures of Horseshoe Bend online and couldn't believe our luck when we happened within 5 miles of the site on our trek home.  Grace was asleep in the car, so I grabbed Palmer and we ran uphill .9 miles in the heat of the Arizona day.  In our haste to not wake Grace, I forgot to grab water and we huffed it up the hill as fast as possible so that Rick and Grace didn't wait too long back in the car.

SOOOO worth it for this view- the overlook is 1000 feet over the Colorado River in Glen Canyon (near the Grand Canyon).

Palmer was an amazing sport for my antics and shenanigans.  We jogged pretty fast up to the top and we needed shade and water.  He was an awesome buddy for this pit stop.

Speaking of good sports, both kids were so amazing in the car.  We had a rotation of reading, audio books, movies, and iPad games going and everyone survived (and dare I say "enjoyed") the driving time.

I'd be willing to do another road trip with this crew.  And I think we all have the bug to hit up some more national park hot spots...

-Bethany