Dinosaur National Monument

After we left Capitol Reef we set off to take a 4 hour drive north to Vernal, Utah, near Dinosaur National Monument. Within the first 30 minutes I made a mistake with the GPS and missed a turn, which probably added 30-40 minutes to the trip. No biggie, we had all day to make the drive. We were just hoping to get to the hotel in Vernal with enough time to enjoy the pool and maybe go to a nice restaurant. About halfway there, we started to head up route 191 which goes north from Helper to Duchesne through the mountains. About 5 miles before the exit for 191 on Route 6, we saw a digital highway sign that maybe said route 191 was closed at mile 283, but every other letter was blacked out, so it was almost impossible to read. We took the climbing mountain road about 20 miles up only to see construction crews and wait 15 minutes in a line up of cars and then were told the road would be closed for at least another 5 hours! At this point we had no cell service to check alternate routes, and had to consult the (gasp!) paper atlas! The only thing I could see to do was go back down to route 6 and take that all the way up to Provo, and kind of go around the mountains instead of through them. There was one very faint grey line that looked like a National forest road that maybe would have taken us through the mountains, but I was worried about getting turned around again, especially if there was a fire (it turns out there was).

So we ended up taking a very long route to Vernal, and our 4 hour drive became 8! But this is what happens in the West, especially around mountains. There just aren’t a lot of roads to choose from. We were pretty exhausted from driving when we got to Vernal and were thrilled to check into our Springhill Suites, which I got with 15,000 Marriott points for two nights! The suite was large and very comfortable. We headed into town and had a delicious Mexican dinner with two large margaritas for the grown-ups. The kids were excited to take a dip in the pool and I was very excited that there was a laundry room at the hotel!!! After 4 days of camping including still rain soaked (and now very stinky) clothes from our incident at Zion, I was thrilled to be able to do some laundry (when do you ever have that sentiment at home??).

The next morning we ate our complimentary hot breakfast at the hotel and drove a few blocks down to a car service station (we were having an issue with the oil that needed to be a addressed) which was only a few blocks away from where we were to get on the bus for our white water rafting adventure. It was nice to have something so convenient (dropping the car off to be serviced and walking to our next destination) after all the inconvenience of the day before! It was about a 45 minute bus ride to the put-in, and along the way the guides stopped at a site with some pretty amazing petroglyphs for us to look at.

We were all a little nervous and excited about the trip. The kids had never gone whitewater rafting before, and my husband and I hadn’t been for about 12 years. Also the last time we went my husband fell in, which was a bit traumatic for him. All of our fears fell away as we got onto the raft and started to head into the canyon on the beautiful river. The water level was low and slow so there were mostly class II rapids, with a couple class IIIs. We ended up having an amazing time. The guides were great, and the river was awesome. We did a full day trip with lunch and we got to go swimming and my oldest got to jump off a rock! The kids were so happy they got to do this and can’t wait to go again, except they want bigger rapids of course.

After we got back to town we picked up the Audi and the issue was all fixed, yay! We headed across the street to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum, which had some impressive little exhibits on the archeology and fossils from the area. We then headed across the street to a local brew pub (FYI I’ve never gotten carded so much as in Utah. They are very strict about alcohol!) and then a quick run to TJ Maxx for a couple things and back to bed.

The next morning we packed up and headed over to Dinosaur National Monument and took the shuttle up to the dinosaur bone quarry. This was super cool as they left a lot of bones exposed but still stuck in the rock and they built a building around it. You could actually touch some of the bones!!! Then you could do a short hike back to the visitor center and stop at a couple rock formations that still have dinosaur bones and other fossils in them! We saw part of a dinosaur femur and a spine in the rocks!

Arches National Park

Next we headed to Moab, Utah and had a pleasant drive, even making an unplanned stop in Highline State Park, CO for a picnic lunch and a dip in a really nice lake. Moab was way more built up than I remember. Our hotel, Expedition Lodge, was cool. It was once a 50’s style roadside motel that they updated but they kept the theming sort of vintage 50’s style. They also had a pool and a water slide that the kids loved, as well as complimentary breakfast and a game room with ping pong and free arcade games. We spend that afternoon and evening hanging out in Moab, getting a bite to eat and some awesome cryogenic ice cream!

Arches National Park is super close to Moab (like a 5 minutes drive). In order to beat the heat and the crowds we got up at 6am, ate breakfast, and were in the park by 7. We were able to hike Park Avenue, a mile long hike through a wash that has impressive rock structures (no arches yet) in either side. Then we went to the far end of the park to hike to Landscape Arch and were able to see a couple more on the hike back. We were able to see Sand Dune arch and balancing rock on the drive back to town. Arches is also like visiting another planet. I kept feeling like Luke Skywalker was going to cruise by on his hovercraft any minute.

We had lunch at some awesome food trucks in town and the kids did more swimming in the pool while I went to the store to stock up on supplies. Then we went over to the town park to listen to a free bluegrass concert! Afterwards we headed back the park for some sunset hikes in the Windows section. The light was incredible and I got some great shots as the sun went down.

Canyonlands National Park

The next day we packed up the car again and drove 30 miles into Canyonlands National Park to try to score a campsite at the first come, first serve place. We got there around 9:30 am and picked a sweet spot. The campground was right by a gorgeous overview of the canyons. Since they don’t have water (you have to bring your own), this campground is not super popular which makes it nice and quiet.

After we set up camp and relaxed a bit, we decided to pack a picnic lunch and hike some more. We picked White Rim trail, which was a great choice. At this section of Canyonlands, called (Island in the Sky), you are on top of a Mesa so you can drive or hike out to all of these lookout points to see the canyons below. After hiking about a mile along the rim, we came to the peninsular edge, where we could see 270 degree views. It was one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen. It was also getting hot, but we found this awesome cave formation that provided shade and looked out at the view, so we had lunch there. Did I mention we only saw 4 other hikers on the trail and had this whole amazing viewpoint section to ourselves??? Canyonlands is the largest and least visited of Utah’s national parks, and that allows for some great privacy.

After this we went to the visitors center and it was starting to become the hottest part of the day so we decided to go for a drive into town to get gas and more cryo-ice cream. We then headed back into the park and did the hike out to Mesa Arch (a little busier as this is a short and popular hike). We then made dinner at camp and we’re going to do a sunset hike at another viewpoint but as soon as we got there the rain and wind started! After what happened at Zion we didn’t want to get stuck in a bad thunderstorm on the trail so we went back to camp. Good thing we did because one of the tents had almost blown away! (It was staked!) The only thing that stopped it from blowing over into the canyon was the other tent! We went into our tents while it stormed, and fortunately it was nowhere near as bad as Zion and only lasted about an hour. My husband and I tried to stay up to see the stars but it was so cloudy we didn’t see much. Luckily, at around 3:30am I woke up to pee and the clouds had cleared. I saw one of the clearest night skies I’ve ever seen. I could see the Milky Way, Mars, and thousands of stars. I woke up my husband and we star gazed for a little bit before going back to bed.

The next morning after breakfast we packed up our camp and went for a hike to Upheaval Dome, a part of the park where a meteor hit 200 million years ago and left a cool hole and rock formation. We also got some views of the other side of the canyon. We said goodbye to Canyonlands and started our drive to Telluride, Colorado!

Canyonlands is definitely worth the trip, especially if you are already in Moab at Arches. The views of the Canyons from Island in the Sky are so breathtaking, and as I said it is the least visited of the “Big Five” parks so you are more likely to have some solitude. Just bring plenty of water! There are no services there and the only water is at the visitor center.

Telluride

We arrived in Telluride, CO around 4pm and got into our Airbnb condo. It was right in town and the balcony faced the mountain and San Rafael river, which has a walking path that was very popular for people and dogs. After taking some much needed showers we walked around downtown and ate dinner at an awesome brew pub. The short ribs I ordered were divine. Following this we walked over to the free gondola, which takes you from Telluride up to Mountain Village (the ski resort area). We had fun just riding that through a few stops and picked up a few groceries in Mtn Village.

The next day my youngest and I took a little walk on the river path and we decided to have breakfast in town. As you can imagine, the restaurants in Telluride are awesome but expensive. After that we walked through town the the popular Bear Creek trail, and started our upwards descent. It’s about 2 miles of a steady incline up to an incredible waterfall, with views of the mountains as you go up. It’s a really popular trail since the trailhead is right downtown, so there were lots of people. We got back to the condo about 1pm, ate lunch and relaxed. Later that afternoon we hung out in the pool and hot tub at the condo, and then walked around downtown again and took another gondola ride up the mountain.

There was a Thai restaurant right by our condo that we had wanted to try for dinner. Even though it was a Monday the wait was over an hour! At least we could go back to the condo and my husband and I could have some wine while we waited. We finally were seated around 8:30 and unfortunately the food didn’t come until 9:30 because they were slammed. But it was super delicious.

The next morning I had my last coffee on the balcony watching the gondolas go up the mountain, and we packed up and left.

I loved Telluride! It was so nice to get out of the desert and into the crisp mountain air. The town itself is gorgeous; they have done an incredible job re-habbing the old houses to retain their original character (of course at price tags starting in the millions). The food was excellent and the people were really nice, if a little yuppie-mountain-hipster. And everyone has dogs everywhere!!! You can even bring your dogs on the gondola. I could have easily spent a week or two there. We met some people just spending the whole summer there, getting away from hotter places. Lucky!