Day Ten
Colorado - the state that doesn’t want us to leave. We hit so much road construction and detours
here that we didn’t expect to leave this state.
When we tried to stop to get to rest stops, we were treated to traffic
circles leading into traffic circles, which then led to labyrinthine like
corridors that tried to hide the location of restrooms.
With all the construction, the girls felt the
need to entertain themselves. They
created a tickle game with a complicated rule system. There was a lot of laughing for an hour! Finally, I think they had to give up because
they were just too ticklish.
The road construction and dealing with Colorado craziness was worth it in the end, though. Rocky Mountain National Park was stunning. The girls couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Both of the commented, “I feel like I am at the Museum of Natural History looking at a display or looking at the backdrop for a movie.”
Saw our first elk as it crossed the road in front of us. Drop off on one side, steep slope on the other side – Jamey’s comment, “Where you going girl?” A couple minutes later there was an entire family of elk that crossed the road (pictures were horrible) and the girls were psyched to see the baby calves.
Went on a breathtaking hike (literally, since at 12,000 feet the air is pretty thin) to the top of a beautiful alpine tundra (complete with sunflowers and a ton of cute flowers). Brianna and Eiley both said, “We don’t want to hike here anymore, I feel like I can’t breathe”. I am writing this many days later and we have all finally acclimated to living at 7,000 feet – much easier to hike now.
Oxygen deprivation got us feeling silly and the
girls were convinced they could fly – like Icarus, but at these temperatures
with snow all around they were probably not going to get anything to melt.
The drive to Utah was filled with stunning canyons, elevated
roadways, several tunnels through mountains, and fantastic views. However, since it is Colorado it also had a
TON of road construction. Ended up
staying in a cute hotel in Moab, since we got in really late and the four
campsites we went to were already full.
Eiley and Brianna both said, “AWWW, we want to go camping.” I guess we must be doing something right with
our set-up. I assured them we would be
doing plenty of camping, so no worries!
Day Eleven
The ride through Rocky Mountain National Park only took
about 600 pictures, but Arches took over a thousand. We even went through the battery pack on one
of our cameras (it was fully charged when we started in the morning). To say this is just a tiny glimpse, is an
understatement.
Important notes – we had two expert adventurers with
us! One was kind enough to hold all the
rocks up, so nothing fell on us. The
other was a water dowser, finding all the water to be found in this crazy dry
area.
Yes, those small people in the distance are Jamey, Brianna,
and Eiley. Just to give you an idea of
how large the arches are.
Decided not to hike the 3 miles in the middle of the day at
97 degrees. Instead did a short 1 mile
hike to get a great view. Jamey is
pointing it out, since it was pretty small from this distance. We have seen a ton of lizards on this trip,
but none as pretty as the little guy that ran across our trail on the way back
from Delicate Arch. Check out his bright
yellow head – must be in good health.
We were all bummed to leave Arches! The girls were watching a movie in the car
and apparently someone in the movie was remarking on how beautiful some place
is. The girls felt the need to stop the
video and tell me, “These people have obviously never been to Arches. That scenery is not that beautiful.” I feel like we are giving them expectations
that are too high for sightseeing.
Headed out to Mesa Verde on a nice leisurely drive through nothing (though still beautiful scenery). There just really isn’t that much in Utah, lots of exits with signs that say “No Service”. Got to Mesa Verde, fantastic campground with nice amenities that even the mule deer wanted to be part of. Apparently, the water spigots are really for everyone (including wildlife).
Day Twelve
Got to climb around the cliff dwellings, going
down a ladder into a kiva. Brianna kept
saying, “I can’t believe someone built this 800 years ago. It is so surreal to be able to walk around
their home.” 
The girls really liked the idea of going to Four Corners
Navajo Monument, so we headed through empty desert to a strange Navajo
outpost. You get there and there are a
ton of booths selling some tourist and artsy kitsch. Thank goodness for the booths, because the
line to stand on the monument is very long and at least there is some shade
along the booths. Jamey and I traded off
standing in the 104 degree weather, so neither of us shriveled into a
prune. Got a few good pictures, Bri is
in AZ, Eiley in NM (her favorite state so far – yeah, she has good taste),
Jamey is in UT, and I am in CO.
There were three of these extinct
volcano cinder
cones. So neat!
Day Thirteen and Fourteen
Landed in Grand Canyon and we’ve got several days to hang
and just enjoy! At this point we hadn’t
seen any petroglyphs, but the Watchtower created by Mary Colter was filled
with them. OK, so not so authentic, but really pretty. It was cool to see the Watchtower, since we
didn’t make it out to Hovenweep near Four Corners.
The Grand Canyon was really hazy during the day
– just like I remembered. So after we
hiked around a little; we went shopping and got stamps at multiple visitor
centers; Bri and Eiley tried to pet the Kaibab Squirrel (and probably would
have succeeded if I hadn’t stopped them); and we watched California Condors fly
through the canyon; we decided to take a siesta and hung out at the campground
until closer to sunset.
The canyon changed a lot as the sun started
going down. The lighting was way better
and then… the thunderstorm moved in.
Watching the lightning over the canyon even beat out the lightning we
saw in Utah. We even ended up with a
double rainbow in the canyon with lightning forking down. I videoed it in a hope to grab a screen shot
for a picture in the photo album. So
awesome!! We didn’t even get wet, though
on the way to the car (as the storm approached overhead) we felt the
electricity in the air as a simultaneous lightning and thunder combination scared the bajeezus out of all of us. Everyone ran from that overlook at that
point.
Day Fifteen
On the way to Vegas for a quick in and out visit (with an In
N Out burger stop included – since it is next to the hotel and everyone says
it is yummy). Never been to Vegas, but
then again never wanted to go. The Cirque de Soleil show better be worth it –
the only redeeming part of driving through Vegas. I’ll let you know.
Just got back and the Cirque de Soleil show really was
spectacular. The music was beautiful and
Jamey even got to see his Kodo drums (he couldn’t really see them when he went
to the Cherry Blossom festival in Brooklyn, so he was pretty psyched). We
even got to watch the Mirage volcano show on the way back to our hotel. Vegas is everything it appears to be in any
advertisement seen, so I didn’t feel the need to take any pictures. Loved Cirque, but can’t wait to get out of
here first thing in the morning. Good
night! Tomorrow we are off to Death
Valley bright and early in the morning,
P.S. Everyone who
recommended the In N Out Burger was absolutely correct – scrumptious!
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