Summer Vacation 2024!

What a great vacation we had!  Day one, Monday, was about getting to Ross and Lerlyn's in Aztec, NM, to spend the night.  We went via Page, Kayenta, with a nice little stop in Monument Valley to see some of the sights up close and eat our snack/lunch.  Then we went on through Bluff and Cortez, where we stopped for dinner and then on through Durango to Aztec.  It was nice to visit with Ross and Lerlyn for a bit that night and in the morning.  

Day two, Tuesday, we drove over to the Great Sand Dune NP in Colorado.  It was so amazing to see it as we were driving up to it.  It is HUGE! We made it early enough in the year to enjoy the creek running by it.  It's like a big beach party with people just sitting around on the beach chairs with umbrellas and playing in the sand and water.  We wished we had remembered the plastic we brought to slide down the dunes or had rented a  sandboard.  Since we didn't, we just ran down them.  We hiked up the dunes and walked in the creek and ended with a nice little hike.  Then we drove on to Salida, Colorado, where we stayed at the Loyal Duke Motel that seemed like it was very attuned to making people with dogs happy.  But it was good for us too. We had dinner at the local burrito place in an old building that used to be car repair garage. Then after a walk and seeing the awesome surfing set up they had on the river that ran through the town, we splurged and had a great root beer float in our room!  Can't be doing that every day, but once in a while it's a real treat! Oh, yah, we also saw an old narrow gage train that does a trip up the mountains on the way that day too!  Really cool and in such a beautiful place going through the high mountains.  

Day three, Wednesday, we drove on through amazing Colorado mountain scenery to Leadville where we went just out of town and did a beautiful hike of about 5 miles through snow up Mayflower Gulch.  At the stopping point there were old mining cabin ruins.  We met some nice people along the way and visited with them.  Then we drove a beautiful mountainous scenic route to find our next stop, Hot Sulphur Springs.  It's a pretty done little place with it's only claim to fame a hot springs and an old motel.  In its' heyday it was probably really something. But it was clean and had lots of little hot springs pools of different temps that you could soak in.  We  had to drive back to the last town, Gandy, to get something for dinner.  The location of the hot springs in the foothills and near a beautiful river canyon was nice and we enjoyed our time there.  

Day four, Thursday, we drove across Colorado, down from the high mountains, and into the more desert area where we went to Dinosaur National Monument.  First we stopped at the Canyon Section, which is in Colorado and watched the movie and then went on a scenic drive and did a little hike to Harper's Corner, where you look down on the confluence of the Green and the Yampa Rivers. It had an interpretive guide that made it really interesting. 

 

"The Green is greatly increased by the Yampa...and the waters waltz their way through the canyon, making their own rippling, rushing, roaring music."  John Wesley Powell, 1869

Then we drove on into Utah to the Quarry section.  It was pretty late, but we still saw the amazing Dinosaur Quarry which is indoors in a huge building.  It really a sight to see!  Paul taught a lady ranger there all about shims and wedges.  Later we drove to see the petroglyph sites scattered around the amazing geology of the park.  The rock formations are beautiful.  For dinner we drove down to an old  homestead in the park where a lady lived on her own for many years building her own cabins and doing everything she needed to raise livestock, gardens and do all it took to live.  It was beautiful and peaceful and crazy to think how she did it all by herself and lived to a ripe old age of near 90.  Then we went on to the cutest cabin in Rangely, Colorado for the night.  It was really so cute.  We got there pretty late and they had it all ready for us to just pick up the key from a box and go to bed.  One other thing that was going on for a lot of the drive was a huge cricket migration.  They were crawling everywhere and you had to just run over them all over the road as you went. 

Day five, Friday, we drove on to Vernal, Utah, to visit Sheryl (Doug wasn't there).  It was so nice to see her and also to see the amazing progress they have made on their beautiful gardens and greenhouse farm operation.  They are really great at what they do there and we got to eat some of their fresh strawberries right off the vine, divine, and pick kolrabi and eat it fresh from the garden.  We had never eaten it before and we now know what it is and how good it is.  It was nice to just see all they have done and just have a good visit with Sheryl.  The last time we were there they were still digging pig poop out of the barn and had just put up fence around one place for a garden. 

After we left her, we tried to drive to 9-mile-canyon via a road that ended up turning into a dirt nightmare, so we had to back track and go a different way to get to Moab, our next destination.  It took a lot longer than it needed to with backtracking and then with so many big trucks on the road that you could not get around very well to move along.  But we made it to Moab and kind of pigged out at a fancy BBQ dinner at The Blue Pig.  Our motel here was really strange, but affordable and we gave it a go because it had great reviews.  It was not pretty at all on the outside.  Strictly no frills, but the rooms were clean and big and it was convenient to what we needed.  I'd stay there again.  There was not front desk.  They just texted you your room code to get in.  We located the place we needed to be for our next days' river rafting trip, took a long walk along the Colorado River and then got a good nights sleep.

 

Day six, Saturday, we got to the Moab Adventure Center and got our life jackets and water bottles, left our car keys there, and got on buses to go to our starting point for a day of river rafting down the CO River.  It had a few rapids sections and our guide, Izzy, made sure to take us through the roughest parts.  There were 11 of us on the raft.  It was fun to hang out with people from all over and enjoy the day on the river.  I thought it would be beastly hot, but the water was very cool and the breezes along it kept it just right.  We stopped halfway along at a resort where we had really good hamburgers, etc. for lunch and then went on down the river to our take out point.  We started about 9 am and got out about 3:30 pm.  We  had time to clean up, take a nap, window shop, have dinner and then take a great walk along the creek that runs through town.  They've made it into a great trail for walking or biking.  It was fun.  We located the church so we'd know where to go the next morning.

Day seven, Sunday, we went to sacrament meeting at a very nice ward and heard such great talks by the sister missionaries.  Then we went back and got everything packed up for the drive home.  We did lots of Sunday School lesson stuff along the way home and went through Panguitch on the way for some scenic enjoyment.  We listened to The Lost World at the first of the trip - a Michael Creighton book about dinosaurs!  It was the perfect prep for that visit.  And then we just enjoyed scenery talking the rest of the trip.  We got home late afternoon and were glad to get there and enjoy our own beds again!  Loved our vacation!!!