June 2 – 16, 2018 – Two Weeks and Seven National Parks of Utah (and Colorado)

June 2 – 16, 2018 – Two Weeks and Seven National Parks of Utah (and Colorado)  

The National Parks in Utah are laid out in a convenient loop and so we started in the south eastern corner and made a counter-clockwise loop around to visit seven starting in Durango, Colorado. They can be hot in the summer, so we started right after school ended in early June. 

Also not wanting to spend our first few and last few days driving there and back, we flew in and out of Durango, Colorado. We did a loop of National Parks starting and ending in Durango. This was a great way to go because it kept our driving to an average of four hour days, which is a definite plus with kids.

 

When our kids were small, we rented an RV and tried to visit many western National Parks in three weeks (see blog posts from 2013), sometimes driving for eight and ten hour days. It was great when we were in parks and unbearable when we were on the road. Now, we visit National Parks each summer and I try to keep our driving days to four to six hours at a maximum to keep everyone happier. Another lesson learned in the last few years of road trips is that our boys are happier listening to books on CD. We don’t watch movies while driving so that they can look at the scenery, but on this trip, we listened to the sixth book of Harry Potter that we checked out in advance at our library.

Onto the parks!

In Durango, we stayed at the historic Strater Hotel. A definite must-do in Durango.

We loved the original Western feel of the place. The staff will even show your kids the old-time secret hiding places in the lobby for money if there were robbers in town.

From Durango, we drove to Canyonlands, the southern Needles entrance. Just before the entrance is the famouse Newspaper Rock. It is one of the best examples of early petroglyphs we saw on our travels.

We didn’t see any other people in Canyonlands, Needles until late in our first day there. The southern and northern entrances are not linked and so you have to split your visits over two days or plan to drive a couple of hours between the two.

We loved the hiking and interesting rock formations in Needles and we had the place to ourselves.

From Needles, we drove to the La Salle mountains to our cabin at an animal sanctuary. On our way, we stopped at our favorite arch, the Williams Arch, which is right along the main road.

Our boys loved being able to help feed the animals in the morning. There were rescue cats, dogs and horses on the property.

On our second day in the area, we drove north to the Dead Horse State Park with its great views of the Green and Colorado Rivers which carved the rocks of the area.

and then the Islands in the Sky entrance of Canyonlands.

For our next two  nights, we stayed at the smallest cabin I have ever tried to sleep in in Moab!

We visited Arches, which was one of the most crowded of the parks and my least favorite. The arches were interesting and very large, but just jutted out from an otherwise barren earth.

My favorite hike and arch was the Landscape Arch, which was this long graceful arch. 

We also went river rafting on a very tame Colorado River out of Moab. Photos to come (from my phone). 

From Moab, we drove north and west to Capitol Reef and the Gorge area. I loved the park's combination of Mormon fruit orchard and Indian petroglyphs in this park, which represents the two groups which lived together in this area. The gorge was incredible to drive and hike into.

We drove the most beautiful highway south to Escalante

and the Grand Staircase area, which geologically is the connection of all of these amazing rock formations.

From Escalante, we made our way to Bryce. Our park cabin was right near the rim and all the trails. I loved the Navajo Loop Trail.

We did get up at sunrise to walk the Sunrise trail and see the light touch the red rock. It was beautiful and worth being up in my sleeper to see.

From Bryce, we made our way to Zion to stay at the Park Lodge.

Our favorite was getting up early, getting one of the first shuttled and hiking the Narrows through the water to see the sun touch the rocks. There were not many people and it was majestic.

From Zion we drove south and then east through Page, AZ, which was barren and to me not as interesting. Here is the view of Lake Powell.

In the morning, we left to make our way to Monument Valley. We stopped first at Horseshoe Bend. The Horseshoe Bend lookout heading out of Page was terrifying as insane tourists stepped out on fragile rock (1000 feet above the river) to get photos. Two people had fallen and died in the previous two months. Crazy.

We drove to Monument Valley which is so unique and interesting and the site of many film sets. The road around the monuments is a not as nicely maintained as we were used to coming from National Parks, but it was good to see.  I love the scale of the monuments to the van in this photo. 

We stayed at the historic Gouldings Trading Post. The Gouldings were some of the first non-natives to live in this region. 

From there, we went to Four Corners (where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah meet) for a photo

and Mesa Verde National Park. A two year old bear greeted us as we arrived at the park.

I was prepared to love the carved caverns and rooms, but didn’t like to see how much of the park has been burned out. About 80% of the park trees are burned out from forest fires and they take decades to grow back. It was not beautiful, but interesting to see the cliff dwellings.

The Pueblo Indians of Mesa Verde were incredible mountain climbers.

From Mesa Verde, we drove north to Ourey, but could not drive directly to Durango due to fires. It was nice to see green meadows again after all the red rock of Utah.

Ourey is like a small Swiss town tucked in the mountains of Colorado with fun shops and restaurants.

We were in Durango for our final night. Our railroad ride to Silverton had been cancelled, so we will have to do that on another trip. It was fantastic to see the Utah National Parks with their red rocks, dry heat and unique desert conditions.