Our road trip began August 21 that will include Breckenridge & Palisades, Colorado and then through the National Parks in Utah: Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce and Zion. We rented a SUV so that we can finish the trip in Las Vegas and fly back to Colorado Springs.
Destination: Breckenridge, CO
Christmas, 2019 will be another Colorado Christmas for us with Melissa and Brent's families joining us in Breckenridge. We also did a CO Christmas in 2017 and we had a fabulous time. We rented a 4 bedroom 5 bath house near Breckenridge in October of 2018 to make sure we had a big enough house for everyone. Don and I wanted to check it out so we started out vacation there. We were allowed to rent it for two nights now and we LOVE it. We enjoyed Don's birthday relaxing at the house and checking out Breckenridge.
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| Our House (it will be great for our CO Christmas) |
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| Living room |
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| Kitchen, dining and the upstairs loft. |
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| Master bedroom complete with fireplace |
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| Lowest level family room |
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| Bunk room - the boys will love it. |
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| Wonderful dinner of trout at this restaurant our first evening. |
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| Backyard visitor! |
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| View of some of the ski trails through the trees. |
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| Don's birthday dinner at Legends. |
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| Steak, of course. |
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| Gelato and cannolis for dessert. |
Destination: Grand Junction/Palisade, CO
We included Palisade, CO to see our niece, Annie and her family. They have planted and are now harvesting peaches from their 3000 trees. Friday we checked into the SpringHill Suites in downtown Grand Junction. Before heading to Annie's house we enjoyed some Palisade activities: Maison la Belle Vie winery for wine tasting and lunch, Sage Creations Organic Farms to see the lavendar, and Colterris Overlook, another winery so we could walk to the gazebo and overlook. We spent Friday evening at the Gingerich house where we enjoyed peaches in all forms for supper, visited, and toured the peach orchard.
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| I-70 from Breckenridge to Grand Junction |
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| Rest stop |
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| Maison la Belle Vie Winery |
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| Wine tasting and lunch |
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| The vineyard against the mesa |
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| Sage Creations Organic Farm |
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| the lavendar was done blooming |
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| The view from the Colterris Overlook |
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| Annie and Luke in their peach orchard |
Destination: Colorado Nat'l Monument
Saturday we Grand Junction and headed to Moab, Utah with Annie's suggestion to drive through the Colorado National Monument, a National Park.
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| Big Horn Sheep |
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| From Coke Ovens Overlook. We hiked there! |
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| Coke Ovens |
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| Independence Monument |
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| Another tunnel |
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| Balanced Rock |
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| Late lunch at Hot Tomato Cafe in Fruits - salad and pizza. |
Back on I-70 we end up in Moab, Utah for the next adventures!
Destination: Moab, Utah
From Moab we will use a day in Canyonlands National Park and a day in Arches National Park.
Canyonlands National Park
Sunday we headed to Canyonlands National Park to the Island in the Sky area with the intent to do three hikes: Mesa Arch, Grandview Point trail, and the Upheaval Dome Overlook. Even in the 90+ temperatures we accomplished this!
Mesa Arch trailhead was an easy 1 mile roundtrip to the most photographed arch in this park.
Grand View Point
We took the scenic drive to Grand View Point, the end of the road. This trail was two miles and provided panoramic views from the cliff's edge to the broad mesa below.
After two hikes it was time for a late lunch.
Upheaval Dome
We took the Upheaval Dome Scenic Drive and the road ends at the Upheaval Dome. A mile roundtrip took us to the unusual sight. Scientists aren't sure what/how this was created.
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| It was a more challenging hike! |
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Upheaval Dome
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| Smores at the hotel tonight! |
Arches National Park
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| Park Avenue |
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| Three Gossips |
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| Courthouse Towers |
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| Balanced Rock |
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| North Window |
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| South Window |
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| North and South Windows |
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| Turret Arch |
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| Lunch time at Panorama Point |
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| Delicate Arch |
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| Skyline Arch |
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| On the way to the Landscape Arch |
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| Landscape Arch |
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| Back to the hotel for the pool and hot tub. |
Destination: Capitol Reef National Park
Tuesday we drove about three hours from Moab to Torrey, Utah. We went in the east side of the Capitol Reef Nat'l Park and through to the west side to get to our bed and breakfast. Our main hike was the Grand Wash, a flat trail passing through sheer 80-ft high canyon walls just 15 feet apart. We did a round trip of about 3 miles.
The School House B and B was our place for the night! It was so cute. It was completely restored in 2003-2004 to make into a B and B.
Destination: Bryce Canyon National Park
Wednesday we took the scenic drive of Hwy 12 to get to Bryce Canyon. After several hours we arrived at Bryce Canyon. Then a walk to a waterfall. Then on to Bryce Canyon City to check in to the Best Western Grand Hotel.
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| On Hwy 12 we drove through another Nat'l Park |
Thursday morning we headed out to explore Bryce Canyon. We started with a hike starting at Sunrise Point to do the Queen's Garden and Navajo Trail Combo loop. Beautiful.
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| Tunnel 1 |
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| Tunnel 2 |
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| The Queen |
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| Tunnel 3 |
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| Where we need to get up to!! |
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| And where we've come up from. Challenging! |
We drove to Rainbow Point, the end of the road after our long hike and picnic lunch.
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| The Natural Bridge (actually an arch) |
Friday morning we had one more hike to do before leaving Bryce Canyon. We did the Navajo Trail again but this time did the Wall Street section. It was a STEEP descent into Wall Street featuring 100 foot walls to walk through. Needles to say the ascent was challenging.
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| Ready, set go! |
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| That's where we were headed. |
Destination: Zion National Park
After that hike we were off to our last Nat'l Park - Zion. We drove through Red Canyon and then went through the East side of Zion before arriving at our Springhill hotel in Springdale.
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| Beautiful drive through Red Canyon |
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| East Zion entrance |
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| Checkerboard mesa |
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| Desert Bighorn Sheep |
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| The Zion-Mt Carmel Tunnel - 1.1 mile long constructed 1927-1930 |
