jfawp

No dilly-dallaying around today, our goal was to get to Zion, with speed limits being 75 and 80 that wasn't hard to do! We got to Kolob Canyon Road around 4:00 and spent the rest of the afternoon in the park from this entrance. We saw the Hurrican Cliffs and Finger Canyons. The aspen were in full fall splendor. It was just truly amazing. The sun setting on the red rock cliffs was just about more than I could stand. I stood amazed. After the sun had set we drove on into Hurrican and stayed at a Travelodge for $44.00 - wow! Hubby walked next door and got us a pizza - yummy! Next morning it was off to Zion for the day after a hearty breakfast (left over pizza for hubby, an orange and apple juice for me!) We did our devotions in the car so we would be surrounded by God's splendor. Having Him as our co-pilot, what more could we need or want! We did the shuttle in the park where you could get off and on. Another awesome day.

Next stop on our journey was Coral Pink Sand Dunes. I loved playing on them!! I'd never seen pink sand before. Checked into a Comfort Inn in Kanab, dinner at Houston's Trail End - great food. Spent 2 nights in Kalab and being only 80 miles from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I bet you know what we did! Yep, drove there, enjoyed hiking (stolling) along the rim, took a thousand (or seemed like) pics. Would like to stay there sometime, it was so beautiful with all them yellow leaves!!
After 2 nights in Kanab we headed for Byrce Canyon, via Johnson Canyon, saw the site where some of Gunsmoke was filmed, to bad the buildings are in a sad way, hope the owner fixes them up soon! Drove thru parts of Grand Staircase-Escalantie. The dirt road was horrid. Spent 2 days in Bryce, so far my favorite park. We had a little over a week to go and a lot of ground to cover - awesome trip so far!

emalloy

Keep reporting, glad you're having a great trip and enjoying this fantastic country.

peterboy

I'm enjoying your lively report but am a little
baffled by you reaction to SLC. I foun it to be
one of the cleanest, well mannered cities I've
visited and I'm not much of a city fan. What was
it that 'turned you off'?

jfawp

I know we weren't there long enough to explore it like it should be explored, but I had picked up some brochures on coming into the city (or before we got there, can't remember), but it was really full of ads vor bars and clubs, etc, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Around Morman Square and the capitol were beautiful and other areas just didn't appeal to me. I guess going to San Francisco and New York City several times just spoiled me to, or maybe I was just into things of nature this trip I just felt like we were wasting our time there! I was hoping the MTC would be practicing while we were there, but they weren't, would love to experience that.

jfawp

OK, I know you all are probably tried of reading this 'book', so I'll try to finish up. We visited the other four parks in Utah, spent a day to a day and half in each of them. Did some small hikes and just tried to soak in the beauty of each of them. Took way to many pics, but just couldn't stop. Thank goodness for digital now!

Our next main goal was to see Mesa Verde which we did, after a short visit to 4 corners and the Great Sand Dunes. Saw lots of wildlife going into the sand dunes.

Absoultely loved Mesa Verde. Took the ranger guided trip to Cliff Palace dwellings. Me being 60+, plumb and a desk sitter ALL DAY, wasn't sure I could master that trip, but hubby convienced me I could. It was GREAT. So glad I did it. We worked our way back to Denver, ran into more snow, saw a little more wildlife. Durango was a nice town, enjoyed it. Our next to lasta day we did the Royal Gorge thing, it was fun for a change. It was really cold down in the gorge!

I really wasn't ready to be back in civilization yet, back to the hustle and bustle of lots of cars, and traffic and work, but all good things must come to an end, so our vacation was over.

All in all, we drove 4,000 miles, loved every minute of it. I know this is not a vacation for everyone, but it was just perfect for the two of us. Did we miss a lot, absoultely. Did we see a lot, absolutely. Would we do it again? Over and over, given the chance!! Each vacation has to be suited to the individual planning/going on the trip. By going when we did, we missed the busiest season, got cheaper rates at hotels, missed a lot in the parks because of closures, but we got snow along with our vacation. We had a GREAT TIME. Sorry this report was soooooooo long. I'll try to get a few pics on line later. Maybe our next trip will just be a week at the beach or NYC so the report won't be so long! Signing off now - Jean!

peterboy

Thanks for the report Jean...no need to apologize for the length...remember we can read it much faster than you can write it. Now that you've been, you can plan a trip to focus on the areas that appealed to you most.

emalloy

Now is time to plan your next adventure and give us a report on it, this was great. So where will you wander next????

Thanks so much!!!

jfawp

LCBoniti, forgot to tell you, we were in the worst snow (or best, ever how you look at it) from Oct. 7 to 9th.

easytraveler

This is a great report! Wish you had not shortened it after the Coral Pink Sand Dunes! We armchair travellers are a bit sad!

thanks so much for sharing!

5alive

Jean, this was a wonderful report. Greatly enjoyed your descriptions. Thanks for sharing!

You may be experiencing the time crunch of getting back home, but if you ever have the time come back and flesh out the last few stops, I would also love to read them.

jfawp

O.K., O.K., just thought by now everyone would be tired of me! Coral Pink Sand Dunes, so we had read, is the only place in the world that has this type (color) of sand. I was again amazed at the beauty of it. Our sand dunes on the North Carolina coast are just 'regular' sand, and here were these beautiful coral sand dunes and nowhere near the ocean. How utterly amazing. I hadn't taken a baggie with me on our hike so I couldn't scoop up any. My grandkids will just have to believe the pictures!

We checked into a Comfort Inn in Kanab and spent two nights here. Had dinner at Houston's Trail End.

I was so worried about seeing the Aspen when we first arrived, but we saw so many beautiful Aspen in this area. I just wanted to lay down under the trees and soak up the leaves and the sun, it was just marvelous. We have beautiful fall foliage in N.C., but this was so different, it was so YELLOW! I loved it.

We enjoyed the little town of Kanab, had a lot of history with western movies. Stumbled upon a 'dinner theater' that was using the people eating as the 'stars'. They were having a lot of fun, watched it for a while, just enjoyed town for a while, strolling, looking, did a little shopping. to be cont.

jfawp

As we headed out of Kanab, as I said earlier, we went thru Johnson Canyon and into the Grand Staircase-Escalantie. The dirt road was horrid, long, bumpy, not very scenic and hubby was getting pretty weirded out by the time we got to civilization again. (We had had a pretty bad experience in L.A. a couple of years ago with such a drive, but that's a whole other story!)

All I can saw about Bryce is "WOW". I thought we had seen beauty already on our trip. It was absoultely breath-taking - the hoodoos (don't ask me, I didn't name them!!) were everywhere, in every size and shape. The sun setting and/or rising put different glows on the rocks. It was just simply awe-inspiring.

We spend the night in Tropic and stayed in this sweet little motel called "Byee's Stepping Stone Motel". It only had 9 rooms, but was so comfy and clean. Spent our second day in Bryce, sent on some of the trails and of course took many, many pics.

We left Bryce via Hwy 12, which as we learned is classified as "an all American Highway". It was amazing to see how the teraine changed from mile to mile. At one point we were at 9,100 feet elevation. The drive to Torrey was simply beautiful, passed a lot of Aspen groves, saw deer and wild turkey along the way. Another great day of viewing God's magnificant earth, couldn't wait for Capitol Reef.

jfawp

I think after Bryce, I thought I might be disappointed in anything else we might see. WRONG! Capitol Reef was just as lovely. Again many, many rock formations. Each one distinctly different from the one before, and yet so close together. We visited the Gilford farm house, heard about some of the history of this family, saw some cliff writings and drawings, that really amazed us, as these were the first we had seen, etched into the red stone. We only spent one FULL day at Capitol Reef, could have stayed much longer in all of the parks, but we were on a mission!! Next in line - Arches National Park.

mikes_girl01

I love your trip report! Reading your description of driving Highway 26 is EXACTLY how I felt driving Highway 550 from Durango to Ouray two Christmases ago. Hubby and I were on the winding mountain road at night with snow blowing up the side of the mountain and over our truck. SCARY!!! We never actually made it into Ouray - the road had been closed due to an avalanche TWO WEEKS before - so our final stop on that route was Silverton. Never have I been so glad to see a town's lights! But I agree with you - the joy is in the adventure. As trecherous a drive as we made, I can look back on it fondly.

jfawp

Your right, mikes girl - adventurous trips make for many fond memories! Arches National Park was equally beautiful with over 2,000 natural arches, I guess one could spend a week here and not see them all. We saw many and walked to several of them and of course pictures, pictures and more pictures. We also saw some mines here. Walked to them,but they had bars across the front so you couldn't go in.

We stayed in Moab at another Motel 6, hoping to find another one as nice as the one in Jackson, but no such luck. on checking in, 'unpacking' and resting for a bit, we found out the toilet was stopped up. Front desk offered hubby a plunger or another room!! He looked so funny coming up the hall with a plunger in his hand' We ate at Moab Diner that night for dinner. Wasn't anything to write home about, even though I had found in on line at Trip Advisor. By the time this day was over hubby said he had 'seen all the rocks' he wanted to see. Me, I had rock fever!!

A good night's rest cured him of his previous evenings statement and he was ready to go bright and early back into Arches. We were hoping to see some big horn sheep, but none were out and about'

Our next stop was Canyonland National Park. The road going into the park was as pretty as the park itself. We stopped at Newspaper Rock with lots of Indian drawings. That was very moving for me to see.

This was our first bad day of weather with lots of rain. We really couldn't do anything in the park it was raining so hard. We did sit a couple of times and I tried to get a picture of the lightening to no avail.

With Canyonlands we had visited all five National Parks in Utah - wow is all I can say. Utah is one more beautiful state, from the salt flats to the hoodoos to the arches, it just couldn't get much better, but it was time to leave and head back into Colorado. Mesa Verde - here we come!

althom1122

Wonderful report! Thanks so much for sharing.

emalloy

Hope you do get to go back and write another great report!!! Maybe you will get to do up Canyonlands a bit more since the rain stopped your adventure.

Thanks so much

easytraveler

Ah, wonderful! Thanks so much for coming back!

Some of us are avid travellers and if we can't be on the road ourselves, we just like to ride along with actual travellers like yourself.

Thanks again!

jfawp

Mesa Verde - wow what an adventure! The museum here was very informative and we enjoyed it quite a bit. We were both amazed at what the Indians did with what they had to work with. What an inspiration. Now to the fun part. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when we got to Mesa Verde. I hadn't researched it any because our original plans were to go north from Denver,but here we were. The dwellings were beautiful (from a distance) We decided to do one of the ranger tours. The only one still open was the Palace Dwellings, which is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. We signed up for the tour (me with a little hesitation), viewed some more of the park until it was time to meet the ranger. By the time we got to the platform where we were to meet the ranger, I'm thinking "I can't do this!" We were looking waaaaaaaay down at where the dwelling was. I snapping pics of course but all the time I'm thinking, 'self, your over 60 and over weight are you sure you want to do this?' Of course, having a love of adventure, I plunged on. I do not know how many steps we went down, how many cliffs we went around or how many ladders we climbed up and/or down, but we finally were in the dwelling. Absolutely astounishing. How did they do it? This dwelling had 150 rooms. Of course we didn't get to roam freely in them, but to be there. It may have been the high light of our trip. Well, I don't know, everywhere we went was a high light!

We exited a different way and of course it was all up. We climbed 3 or 4 wooden ladders made from poles, plus some steps. My knees were quite weak by the time we got out. Would I ever do that again? You bet'ya bottom dollar I would. It was great.

While it Cortez I discovered we were only 38 miles from Four Corners, so of course we had to go. It's one of those places you go just to say you've been. Other than the drive out being pretty there wasn't much to see. Of course I got my picture standing on the corners of four states. We didn't go on down into New Mexico, will have to save that for another trip!

Our next stop was Durango, wow a town again! It was a nice little town, did a little shopping. Was going to do the railroad trip, but we had missed it. I had read about 2 railroads, one which had 2 trips a day, but this one only had one and it had already left. We ate that night at Fiesta Mexicana. Hubby thought it was great, I never know what to order in a Mexican Restaurant, but it was ok. NExt stop - Great Sand Dunes

Hershey

I'm enjoying your report. Thanks for continuing with it.