Colorado Road Trip

Are you ready for some road trip photos?!? The internet-age version of a vacation slide show!

What can I say about this amazing trip? The first week we got back, some friends asked how it went.  The exhaustion was still with me, so all I could say was: it was hard. It's hard to do that much travel with little kids. It's stressful to constantly be considering their needs, following them so they don't run away from the campsite or off a cliff. But we knew going into it that it would be hard work, and everything went quite smoothly. So many things could have gone wrong, but nothing went wrong. The van was great, we always found a camp site when we needed one, our hosts were amazing, the scenery was fantastic, the sights were fun and educational, and no one got hurt!

The best of it: we love road trips. I took it as proof that Brian and I were a great match when we took our 15,000 mile U.S. road trip in 2003 and enjoyed each other's company throughout and beyond. The summer of 2017 we introduced our kids to road trips. They may not have gotten as much out of it as older kids would have, but we had to start somewhere. We were worried that there would be constant breakdowns, but they did great. Hopefully they'll develop a love of this type of adventure that means so much to us.

I'm starting things off in the most exciting way! Eating breakfast in a McDonald's in Bakersfield! I'm including these because we did eat in quite a few Mickey-Dees, but this might be the only photographic evidence. I never considered how welcome a McDonalds with an indoor play structure would be in the middle of the desert (not in Bakersfield, but later in the trip).

Our first tourist/educational stop: The Borax Visitor Center in Boron, CA. This place was actually quite impressive! They're funded by this global Borax company, so it's not quite the shabby volunteer operation I envisioned. There was a movie reminiscent of those old educational reels. The wonders of Borax! Do you know how many things are made with Borax!?! A lot!

Borax activity books at the world's oldest Del Taco! And a giant fire helmet, both in Barstow (to clarify, it was not the first Del Taco, that one's no longer in operation. This is just the oldest Del Taco still in business, ya know, an important historical monument). We also stopped at the world's tallest thermometer in Baker. It was 113 degrees!! The road from Baker to Las Vegas was a slight up hill climb with signs along the way suggesting to turn ACs off to avoid breaking down. It was a bit stressful. Breaking down on that stretch would be horrible! So, so HOT! Any stress was unjustified, though, our Toyota Sienna is great!

Vegas bay-bees!! Fascinating solar power plant with HUGE mirrors (Everett knows they kill birds), Ugo Rondinone's Seven Magic Mountains art installation, and dinner at Olive Garden. I used to think Olive Garden was a fancy place. Now I think of it as a great restaurant for kids! They really have their kid service figured out.

Then we went to The Strip--on a Saturday night in July! It was packed. I had a huge list of child-friendly sights to see, but with traffic and crowds, we didn't make it past the Bellagio (we parked at the Bellagio!). Everett liked the fountain. Lydia liked the escalators. I liked that they got to walk through the gambling and get a glimpse of what built that city.

When we were stuck in traffic waiting to park, Lydia spotted someone dressed like Minnie Mouse and all she wanted to do was get out and give her a hug. Imagine a dirty costume that only had the faintest Minnie resemblance. No, Lydia, there will be no hugs for Minnie!

The next day we checked out a bit of Old Downtown Las Vegas. The world's largest golden nugget at the Golden Nugget. Lydia LOVED the shark aquarium there and talked for hours afterward about the water slide that goes through the tank! Even if we'd had the time to play in that pool, I don't think she would have been big enough to go down the slide. I'd read about this huge fire hydrant that was supposed to shoot out water when you pull a lever. Lydia was so disappointed that there was no water. But she quickly cheered up!

We made it to Zion! Instead of hanging around the hotel room, we decided to go into the park and check out the visitor center, start to make a plan for the next day. Everett loves maps. The girls got acquainted with the Civilian Conservation Corps statue. We had dinner at this place called Stage Coach Grille (pics taken from the internet because I forgot to be a photographer after Lydia spilled ranch dressing all over my purse and while Roz was creatively eating her pasta). It was nice. I felt like it was the first "real" food I'd had on our trip. I had a walnut crusted halibut, I think. Pesto mashed potatoes and roast veggies. Yummmmm.

It was quite hot and humid in Hurricane, UT. We were happy to have a pool to cool off in.

The sweetest sibs cuddling while watching someone else's Netflix account that was loaded onto the hotel TV. Brian took a picture of Hurricane's own Lil' Sebastian (pony from Parks and Rec) for Katie. Brian said she responded to that text faster than she ever had before. There was a cart and tiny horse crossing the street because it was Utah's Pioneer Day holiday.

Our game plan for Zion was to take the shuttle all the way to the end of the canyon, take in all the red rock beauty, then come back down for lunch and a little walk. It worked well for us.

Lunch at the lodge was a good plan. Hard to beat the backdrop! The "walk" turned into a bit more of a hike. We should have stopped at the overhanging waterfall. We kept going up to the middle emerald pool which entailed climbing some (quite a few) sandy rock steps to reach a smooth, slippery creek with a little waterfall that was irresistible to Roz. The kids kept slipping. I'm still surprised no one broke a bone (big thanks to the German moms who helped comfort the kids). By the way, I was by myself at this point because Brian decided to pop up to check out the upper emerald pool and got stuck behind some real slow hikers. I couldn't stop three kids from getting in this slippery pool they were drawn to! Then, as we were going down the mountain, it started to rain and thunder! We wanted to get off the mountain before the lightening got too close! Roz was in a real mom-clingy mood, so I got to carry her in the pack. I was so top heavy and blurry eyed because it was too dark for my sunglasses and I couldn't get to my regular glasses. We were walking down these sandy rock steps. I started feeling like "part of being at Zion means feeling like you are going to die!" Last time we visited Zion we hiked Angels Landing. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and it was terrifying. I was so relieved getting down past the waterfall. It was still raining, though. Lydia passed a prepared older woman with a poncho and said, "you look like Batman!" which gave us all a nice laugh at a bit of a rough time. I wasn't completely relieved until we made it over the river and back to the lodge. Phewf! There was a horrible flash flood in Arizona not long before this that killed a bunch of people, which added to my stress as we neared and crossed the river.

I'm recounting all this because I think it informs feelings and decisions I made on the rest of our trip. Why was I so nervous climbing around at Mesa Verde? Why did we stay on the rim of Grand Canyon? Because Mama almost had a panic attack at Zion!

We got the kids down the mountain partly by promising them ice cream! Roz did not want to share with Brian.

Our last stop in the park, the Human History Museum. Roz was excited because she found a clue!! (Blue's Clues). While her sibs attended a ranger show on mountain lions, Roz played around the exterior of the museum with Brian.

The mountain lion talk and the bats and moth game (seen above at the lodge) were the first steps on their Junior Ranger path.

Lydia's sock dyed her leg blue!! And we got to watch fireworks from our hotel room window! They were for the Pioneer Day holiday. That night we stayed in, ate Little Caesar's pizza and watched the Scooby Doo movie. 

We went quite a bit out of our way to see Pando! Possibly the world's largest, oldest (80,000 years old), and definitely heaviest living organism. Pando is a grove of quaking aspens. It's a huge root system that shoots out clone trees. There are about 40,000 trunks that cover over 100 acres. There was not a single sign pointing out these facts! (Brian is ranting as I type this) We ate cold pizza and drank beer there. Beautiful Fish Lake scenery.

We stayed in an AirBnB in Eagle Mountain, Utah. It was a nice one bedroom basement apartment. It was great to have a little kitchen and laundry!! Everett got to play video games on a consul for the first time. He was very excited! I believe our hosts were LDS as there were no wine glasses, no cork screw, and no way to make coffee! But we came prepared. Don't you worry.

We met our friend Nemiha and her kids for breakfast just minutes away from our AirBnB. We loved catching up and the kids became instant buddies.

After we left our visit, Everett confessed that he thought Nemiha and her kids lived upstairs at the AirBnB! Like, we stayed at their house all night and didn't see them at all until the next day at the restaurant! Funny guy.

Lydia made a whistle/kazoo out of a crayon box. I didn't even know that was possible! Creative genius that one! Just outside the Provo area these mountains with waterfalls pop up. The beauty comes at ya quick!

We arrived at Dinosaur National Monument! We camped at the Green River Campground. This was our first night camping on the trip! I almost posted the pictures of Roz putting lotion on my legs on social media with the caption "the things we do to distract a toddler while camping." My legs were so lotion-y! The kids liked doing dishes! We totally need to have them do dishes at home. Campfire. Lydia's favorite thing about this whole trip was probably roasting marshmallows by the campfire.

Our day at Dinosaur National Monument! The main draw is the incredible quarry wall. It's a rock face FULL of dinosaur bones. There are guides to help you identify all the fossils, and they even let you touch a couple! There are a few skeletons assembled and a little history section.

There's not really a whole lot to do at Dinosaur if you're not hiking, so after lunch (impressive sandwiches with a side of flies!) and a drive over to the Colorado visitor center (which has zero dinosaurs!), we went back to the Utah side to visit the quarry wall and the dinos again. We then drove to look at some of the petroglyphs. We thought Everett was laughing at the glyph with a penis, but he thought it was pooping!

 

Our campsite had this lovely river running by it.

We headed out of the Utah desert and into the mountains of Colorado. We stopped in Steamboat Springs for lunch, has some "real" beer (In Utah the beer is 4%). We thought the fancy hamburger place we went to was busy, but then we went downtown. People were biking everywhere, people tubing down the river, many group events at the park, downtown restaurants were packed! That town was bumpin'! Brian called it "a place that is distinctly Colorado."

And we finally made it to Bill and Marissa's house in Louisville, CO! I didn't get a great photo, but it was really fun watching Roz and Marissa play together. Brian, Bill, and the kids played many rounds of hide-and-seek. They have several playgrounds within walking distance of their house. This housing development is lovely and so well planned.

Here we are!! The main event! The reason for the season! Bill and Marissa's wedding reception! They wanted it to be a relaxed occasion with comfortable conversation and good food, and they nailed it!

Brian said, "best wedding reception ever! Next to a playground with a water feature!"

We didn't know beforehand that there would be a splash pad, but we came prepared! Roz loves Ethiopian food! The kids had a blast on the playground, and we enjoyed catching up with our Franz fam!!

Hey! There's George and Kathie! My parents took advantage of San Luis Obispo Airport now offering flights directly to Denver and flew! They stayed with Aunt Sue, Wendy, and Ash (Ash was away on an epic bike journey during part of their stay--luckily we got to see him on Sunday).

Going back to the above picture of Lydia with a new friend. That's Marie, Marissa's aunt. Marie thought Lydia was a delight, of course. Lydia made SO many new friends on our trip. She often asked if we'd meet new people at our next stop and kept a count of the new friends she'd made. As an antisocial hermit, her interest baffles me, but I find it delightful.

After the reception, we went back to Bill and Marissa's house with enough Ethiopian leftovers to feed the love birds for a year! We rested, watched TV, played Boggle. And Bill taught me how to make cold brew coffee!

We went out to eat with Bill, Marissa, and a few other people who had traveled to attend the reception. The kids were clingy. Either all on Brian or all on me.

Aunt Sue gave us a bunch of glow sticks, so that night we had a glow party!!

The next day we went to the Butterfly Pavilion in Boulder. They have so many things beyond butterflies: spiders, bees, starfish, meal worms. How is it that Lydia is happy to hold meal worms but she runs away from spiders?!

We went to a restaurant that had pizza dough to play with instead of playdoh. And the waiter who was younger than me kept calling all the women in our party "dear." We grumbled amongst ourselves. I enjoyed that.

Checking out the river. That obelisk has markers pointing out how high different floods have gone. Everett insisted on balancing the whole way under. Lydia did sections.

Sunday evening we had delicious BBQ (that mac and cheese was ridiculous!!) at Wendy, Ash, and Sue's house. Before dinner Wendy, Brian, Everett, Lydia, and I walked to a park. Brian popped over to their community's disc golf course and threw 18 holes. And after dinner more folks got in on the 'bee throwing! Roz impressed everyone with her physical skills.

Picture above in the house: see Everett on Brian's lap? After dinner, Everett was playing outside and smashed his finger under a lawn ornament. He later lost his nail. He was fine. But it's a memory of the trip.

 
Leaving Louisville. Bill and Marissa were such amazing hosts. They thought of everything we could possibly need. They totally made us at home. It was a really nice stay.

Before we left we stopped at King Soopers for a HUGE shopping trip. We had to stock up for five days straight of camping! Penny horse rides!

We stopped in Keystone, CO to stretch our legs. Super kid-friendly place. 

Pretty views before Grand Junction, which is very flat and junction-y. We were pleasantly surprised when we started climbing again and got to our campsite in Colorado National Monument.

This was a site Brian reserved and I either didn't know or didn't remember we were staying at a national monument with views and rangers and stuff. What a treat! We also had our only puke on the trip on this road. Lydia didn't like the winding and vibrating and the smell of Brother's beef jerky.

Beautiful mountain/mining/hot springs town Ouray, CO. We made quite a few good yelp-aided food choices on this trip. Ouray was one of them. A little sandwich place that was on a side street so it had a view of both cliff sides, and it wasn't as busy as the restaurants on the main drag. We couldn't stop long enough to visit their hot springs pool and water slide, but we took advantage of their nice playground.

Pinkerton Hot Springs! What a weird, wonderful attraction right on the side of the road. Before we got there we went through gorgeous mountains. This used to be a very active mining area, so there are old, abandoned shacks and various mine-related buildings. If we had more time (and older kids who would be more interested), it would have been fun to stop and tour these old places. We also passed the Durango & Silverton train, which looks like a fantastic adventure.

 

Mesa Verde!! A highlight of the trip for sure. People built their homes in the cliffs?! Harder to get to back then than they are now?!

We had reservations at the campground, but when we got there a specific site wasn't reserved, so we had to drive around and find the right one. As we drove around we realized it might be impossible to fit our HUGE tent in any of these tiny spaces! But we found one that worked well. We were tucked inside the oaks.

So, back to the terrifying cliff climbing. They built these super tall ladders in the 1930s! Maybe even the 1920s!! What!? Build some new ladders Mesa Verde!! With super safe technology?!? The kids loved the ladders, but I've never felt fear like climbing behind my 4.5 year old clinging to the side of a cliff! And one has steps carved into the stone with chains! Kids younger than ours were out there! Phewf! I'm not made for this daredevil stuff!

There were a couple passages in our first tour where Brian couldn't fit through with Roz on his back, so he had to take the carrier off and pass her to me! I'm actually including a picture of one of the passages where you mostly see my butt! I'm a mom now, I have no shame. One hole was so small that he took her off (she was still in the carrier), laid her down, and passed her to me head first! Why did they even let us on this tour?!? No . . . no . . . it was fun! Incredible experience. *deep breaths*

The first tour we did was the Balcony House. The second tour we did was the Cliff Palace. It was actually much less panic-inducing, concrete steps down and some shorter, more enclosed ladders going up. The hand-holds from the original builders could be seen on the way out.

Mesa Verde dwellings are amazing. It's so hard to understand how for so long people could come in and loot the place. They picnicked there, played there, and some even used dynamite to mine for relics. How does it remain so breathtaking? And how much more breathtaking could it have been without vandals?

I won't say much about the history of Mesa Verde, but I will say I'm happy the information is evolving. They used to say the builders of the dwellings were Anasazi (ancient foreigners--different and detached from modern native peoples). They spoke as if the Anasazi simply vanished from Mesa Verde with no explanation. But now they are using Ancestral Puebloan. Many current day tribes trace their roots back to Mesa Verde. They didn't vanish, they left and established new communities, and it's nice to see the park is recognizing that. These rangers don't fear change.

Some camping fun. Dinner, chocolate milk, marshmallows, pics taken to say "hi" to Cousin Bill, and Mom squinting without her glasses.

Mexican Hat, UT; Monument Valley, AZ; and a Burger King with a museum display dedicated to the WWII Code Talkers. We talked to the kids a lot during our trip about the treatment and experiences of Native Americans. Of course, our knowledge isn't complete and their ability to grasp is limited, but we're starting a conversation about our nation's history, and it isn't always a pleasant story.

We made it to Grand Canyon! When we first entered the park we checked out a campground within the park (Desert View Campground on the far east side). It was ok. It would have been a long walk to the bathrooms (which is a frequent trip with two little kids--Roz isn't potty trained--thankfully!), and it was quite far from the main visitor center and everything. So we decided to move on to Ten-X, our original plan. Ten-X is outside the park, just a little bit to the south. It's maintained by the Forest Service. It has pit toilets but beyond that it was a great spot. We made the right call leaving the east side behind.

We started exploring our site, started to get comfortable. I took a picture to send to Gion of Everett and Roz at the picnic table. And then it started to rain. We put anything we had taken out back into the van. Brian went over to the bathroom. It started to pour. We piled into the van. Brian was stuck under the roof of the toilets. It started to HAIL!! It poured for a long time. Brian eventually braved the rain and joined us. We waited. Eventually we decided to leave and take a peek at the Grand Canyon! When we came back the rain had stopped and we were able to set up camp. Unfortunately, our neighbors' tents were soaked, wet pillows and sleeping bags. Oof. They took their stuff to a laundromat to dry. Apparently they were hiking in the canyon all day and there was no rain.

The next day was our Grand Canyon day! As I mentioned before, we stayed on the rim! Someone at Bill and Marissa's reception recommended the "Ooh Aah Point Trail." At the canyon I saw that it was a 1.8 mile "very steep" hike. With OUR kids?! Uh, nope! 

It's a decent walk around the rim. We picnicked there and checked out all the studios and museums (the cut-out Lydia is with is the Kolb Brothers, old-timey photographers at the park). We had ice cream and saw a big horn sheep in the canyon. 

Everyone was getting tired, so we decided to take a drive to another part of the park. The girls slept in the car. Everett and Brian got to see the Tusayan Museum and ruin (with recreations of the ancient lifestyle), and then we took Everett to the main visitor center to get his Junior Ranger badge. He just needed to get signed off for completing a few activities in the book, but when they arrived they were told that if they watched a ranger presentation, he could do the full swearing in ceremony! I waited in the car with the girls (still asleep). Brian took a video and it was super sweet. We felt bad, of course, that Lydia missed out, but she was tired after a full day at the canyon. 

One of Lydia's favorite memories from the trip is seeing a rainbow! She says it was her first time seeing a rainbow. I may not agree, but a lot of classic experiences are new when you're 4.5. 

I included a couple pictures of us waiting out the rain in the tent. After the downpour the day before, we were super sensitive about any little sprinkle, we'd run under the back door of the van or into the tent. Brian commented that our neighbors (who were new) probably thought we were crazy. 

We packed up our soggy tent, said "smell ya' never!!" to the pit toilets, and headed to Bearizona, which is a drive through and walk through wild animal park. It mostly has North American animals, which was unexpectedly exciting to me because I'd never seen a beaver or a badger up close. They had a lot of bears!! BEARizona is right! Brian and the big kids got to watch the Birds of Prey show, which was super fun. Roz was not able to sit still long enough not be eaten by an eagle.

We took a bit of a detour to drive through Sedona. What a beautiful place! The drive on highway 89A from Flagstaff is gorgeous too. Along the route is Slide Rock State Park, which I think is exactly what it sounds like, a slide rock. But it's a popular place! People parked all along the side of this mountain pass, walking along the road in bathing suits with inter tubes.

I wanted to stop at this Sedona icon, Chapel of the Holy Cross. It was designed by Marguerite Brunswig Staude, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. It's also supposed to be a vortex! OooOo! I dragged Everett up with me. He was cranky because he'd just woken up from a nap. So we definitely did not have a spiritual experience. When we got up to the top, I realized that most people were there because it had a good view of all the surrounding mountains. Good selfie spot.

Sedona is the land of traffic circles! For anyone who thinks roundabouts are the bees knees.

After a fairly short drive, we arrived in Cottonwood, AZ to visit our recently transplanted friends! Brian and Becca used to work together in Paso. It was so nice to catch up, and our kids were fast friends. They had a blast running wild in their enclosed compound with chickens, ducks, and turtles! Roz made another black lab BFF. Brian pointed out that on our trip we stayed in hotels, AirBnB, we camped, and we stayed with family and with friends! The whole range of lodgings.

When we got to Phoenix, we started seeing In-N-Out everywhere! We were still quite far from home, but eating in this favorite place made us feel like we were almost back!

Our last stop was La Quinta! We got to visit Gretchen and Mark in their natural habitat (they often come up to visit us). We even invaded their house, which is not set up for kids, but I don't think we broke anything! They served us milk and cookies, Gretchen spun Lydia around in a chair, and they sent us home with a pet! Jake the Snake!

I thought it was funny that our last overnight was in such a nice place it was hard to leave (after being so desperate to leave our soggy campsite in Grand Canyon with the stinky pit toilets). It was a Hampton Suites so all the rooms were suites. Fancy! And there was a nice pool that we enjoyed that night. Not surprisingly, the kids became big fans of hotels during our trip: pools and cable TV = paradise!

The metal roadrunner in a traffic circle was from the Coachella Music Festival, a gift to the city of La Quinta.

And we finally got home!! Ahh . . . so nice to see the ocean! Brian was so excited to finally pick a tomato. They started to ripen when we were on the road and the good folks of San Pedro Avenue got to enjoy them. We've had plenty since we've returned. Much caprese salad.

Before we got home we found the spider made out of a VW bug. I think the kids were done with roadside attractions. And we stopped in San Dimas! Home of Waterloo! The fictional water park in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. But more importantly, my Grandma Ena and Grandpa Chuck used to live right near there in LaVerne. We only stopped at the Taco Bell in San Dimas but driving through brought back some memories.

Before I finish up: shout out to podcasts! I think we would have endured much more whining and complaining without them. Some of our favorites on the trip: The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel, The Past and the Curious, Wow in the World! Story Pirates, Brains On, Tumble, and But Why? We also enjoyed having Amazon Music. We could stream or download so much music! The kids got exposed to a few new (old) artists this trip!

And what a trip! 3,600 miles! We feel so grateful we were able to take it and everything went so smoothly. Where should we go next?! Maybe the Pacific Northwest!