Over 1,000 miles of stunning scenery, a must see……….
Petrified Forest, Canyon De Chelly, Monument Valley, Canyonlands & Arches National Park
Camping she says, in the desert she says, at State campsites she says, that have no facilities she says, let’s do 5 National Parks in 5/7 days she says. Of course, I ran with it, even knowing the 1200 mile trip would be exhausting but fulfilling her dreams of seeing this piece of the USA that had eluded her for so long. “How hot is it going to be?” I ask, up to 90 degrees was the answer. Happy Wife, Happy Life, right? Right, but every bit of this half of the trip I myself would not have missed for the world and was glad I wanted to make Krist happy and went ahead with the plans.
Now being from Europe I was naive here and my brain clicks into the idea of camping in the parks being on fresh lovely grass, next to a river, the kids running around outside the tent as I toddle off to get my hot shower…wrong. It took a time to strike me that we were, of course, going through mostly desert at the end of the summer season, no rain for a while, NEVER any green grass, so dusty was on the menu. As for the shower, I was delusional here. As soon as I was used to what to expect I was into the idea, why not? For 15 bucks a night it was going to be fun on the cheap side of life.
Thanks to Mike, Kristi’s brother for providing the use of a tent, stoves, sleeping bags etc. We had a blast. Kristi settled us in gently on the first day with one room, $45 a night accommodation in a Motel 6. Not even a Motel 8 I asked with a smile but it was wonderful. The inner courtyard of the Motel had a pool, eating area that was lit with twinkle lights at night and gave us the opportunity to put the boys down in the pods and sit right outside the door while they slept. Lara brought cards and I was duly thrashed by both of them at Crazy 8’s.
Petrified Forest
Are they trees or are they rocks, well I suppose technically both. Compared to the petrified forest in the Catlins New Zealand this one in the middle of the Arizona desert was a lot easier to see the petrification of the trees. This was because we think the sea was not there constantly pounding their existence and making them more and more like any other rocks on the beach, not taking away the spectacular sight the Catlins give their visitors. It is an absolute wonder that one day the o
We enjoyed an hour or two here looking and taking in a couple of sights,
Canyon De Chelly
Now, this beauty was not on the menu but after Pam, Kristi’s mom said that we would be going straight past the home of the Navajo Indians, we had to see it. Here over thousands of years see history written such as battles including manslaughter by the Spanish and the US.
This is a free park and a definite
Check out the gallery to see more great images……………….
Monument Valley
Next on our whirlwind tour was Monument Valley. This was one I was semi-familiar with. We have all seen John Wayne and maybe Clint Eastwood riding off into the sunset with the stunning monuments in the background, this is what I wanted to relive.
Now this park is made for tourists and there were hundreds but it still felt like you had acres of space, because you did. There is a large hotel right inside the park entrance and 4×4 tour guides await your wallet to take you on the 13 miles or so track around the beauties that make this park so famous.
Given the choice I would leave this one the next time, I was happy to pay the entrance fee walk to the viewpoint, snap the photos and go camping. Why? The 13-mile track that we took our own car on was dreadful, it was full of rocks and potholes and made the maximum speed a little over 3 miles an hour, full of dust and very hot. You really have to do the track to see the park so give in to the 4×4 tours at something like $70 each including kids and take these, they are built for it.
We took off from here to beat the sunset and put up our tent for the very first time, we just did it in time. Stress was the name of the game here. Our site was surrounded by others attempting to erect their accommodation before us and I have to say as we were amateurs, the others succeeded. We took an 8.30pm dip in the pool and were all tucked in by 9.30pm. Poor Lara ended up having a leak in her air mattress and kissed the rocky ground through the tent base all night. Poor kid.
Moab
Our first night in the tent at a private campsite went OK, breakfast was easy, rolling up the tent and putting it into a 2 ft x 6inch bag was not at all. Two hours later we were on our way for the shorter drive to Moab to find our campsite for the next few nights.
This time Kristi picked State campsites that have a long drop toilet facility and………….. nothing else. The first choice proved to be too far away and we ended up by lunchtime at Horsethief campsite. It is a first come first served basis for site allocations. The tent went up quicker but soon came down in the howling wind and we left it to go and explore the City of Moab.
Camping on the two sites was actually a blast and again we made memories.
Lara saw her first shooting stars, we had more UK/USA debates about what things are really called, is it “The Plough or The Big Dipper” we were seeing?
The boys enjoyed their first roasted marshmallows on the “Boo Boo Hot”
A local had told us that there was an excellent swimming hole where the track started in the middle of the city. After taking the wrong track through the stream a few times we eventually found a magical spot, Lara loved it and the boys were in heaven.
The depth was a steady zero to about 6 feet and very safe. This ended up being Lara’s highlight of the trip.
Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah is known for its dramatic desert landscape carved by the Colorado River. Island in the Sky is a huge, flat-topped mesa with panoramic overlooks. Other notable areas include the towering rock pinnacles known as the Needles, the remote canyons of the Maze and the Native American rock paintings in Horseshoe Canyon. Whitewater rapids flow through Cataract Canyon.
We loved this park as we did the others. The hikes were short which we were grateful for in the heat.
The Canyon in the park is simply breathtaking.
Arches National Park
My favorite.
The park obviously gets its name from the monuments creating over 2,000 natural sandstone arches of which everyone is different, everyone has a different favorite.
The boys got a chance to play in the sand just as if they were at the beach, minus the sea water at the sand arch.
The best hike is about 2 miles to Devils Garden to see a spectacular arch. Charlie led the way.
All in all our first half of our national park trip was an awesome experience, more memories, photos, giggles, tears
Next up is Zion and The Grand Canyon