We went on a family adventure for the last half of July. It was a massive mega 2.5 week/ 17 day road trip around the wild west. We drove through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. Those are some large scenic states with a variety of mountains, plains, valleys, rocks, canyons, and rivers. We learned (yet again) that not all hotel beds are created equally. I took over 800 pictures while we were out and about, and organizing them into individual blog posts is a daunting task. Writing down a timeline dividing our trip into segments helped me get started.
The segments:
- Leg #1: from Sunnyside to Jackson, Wyoming (11 hours). We stayed in Jackson for two nights and visited Grand Teton National Park.
- Leg #2: from Jackson, Wyoming to Denver, Colorado (8.5 hours). We stayed at my parents' house with all of my siblings and their kids for a week.
- Leg #3: Colorado date trip! (16.5 hours, in stages). Jeff and I left our kids with my parents for two nights and went on an epic road trip across western Colorado to visit two of Colorado's four national parks:
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison (stayed one night in Montrose, CO)
- Great Sand Dunes (stayed one night in Alamosa, CO)
- Leg #4: Denver to Holbrook, Arizona via Santa Fe (10 hours). We meant to drive all the way to the Grand Canyon, but it got late and we got tired, so we pulled over at a motel in random tiny Holbrook, Arizona for the night.
- Leg #5: Holbrook, Arizona to the Grand Canyon to Beaver, Utah (11 hours, in stages). We spent two hours at the Grand Canyon, which included more driving.
- Leg #6: Beaver, Utah to Sunnyside, Washington (13 hours).
In my tired post-travel state, the temptation is great for me to count this post as IT for this long tiring awesome trip, but I am determined to resist and write down more memories to go with the pictures in separate posts little by little.
TOTAL DRIVE TIME:
- as a family: 53.5 hours
- for Jeff and Shaina: 70 hours
It was a hefty amount of sitting, so we balanced out the car-time with plenty of hiking, biking, and running. Even with all of that driving and traveling and taking 800+ pictures, we barely scratched the surface of seeing the wide wild west of the USA. It's a BIG place. I am constantly overwhelmed by the size, beauty, and variety of this wonderful world.
A handful of highlights:
Pulling out of our driveway shortly after sunrise on July 13th, fully loaded.
Hiking in the Tetons.
Cooling off in Taggart Lake mid-hike in the Tetons.
Biking on the paved pathway in Grand Teton National Park.
Glowy family pictures by my professional sister Em.
The dozen cousins.
High altitude trail run-hike up Legault Mountain with my hard core sister-in-law Dani.
Traditional sisters' (and Mom) shopping trip to Athleta!
The kids swam and swam.
View from central Colorado, which Jeff and I drove through on our overnight date.
The Dillon Pinnacles, from the window of our van, during our date trip.
Running the North Vista Trail at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
The Gunnison Canyon!
We biked the South Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
Biking the edge of the world.
One more view of the Gunnison Canyon.
Driving in southern Colorado.
Crossing the Rio Grande in Alamosa, Colorado.
Great Sand Dunes National Park!
Atop High Dune--it doesn't look that high but I scrambled nearly 700 feet straight up a sand dune to get there!
Running down the dunes was a blast.
My best friend and I finally got our daughters together for the first time in 8 years: Emma and Rose are 2 months apart in age, and Zoe and Amber are 4 months apart.
17 years of friendship, still going strong.
We found a delicious food cart in Santa Fe for some New Mexican tacos and another divine food cart for fresh hot gourmet donuts.
Walking through Santa Fe.
First view of the Grand Canyon!
More Grand Canyon vistas!
Beating an ominous dark thundercloud out of the Grand Canyon.
Southwestern scenery on our drive north from the Grand Canyon:
A late night Denny's dinner in Beaver, Utah.
More details to come. Yay for road trips! Yay for coming home to my very own bed!
1 comment:
This was an excellent summary of your travels. How did you manage to find just the right photos out of your 800??? I especially like your family biking in the Tetons photo -- what a great view!
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