Happy Birthday Hank!! DECADE

Moab Urban Assault Vehicle

Moab UT

Arrived in Moab yesterday,  the slickrock desert of Utah.  We checked into a dinky, little prefab adobe that was much smaller than we expected and had a beautiful view of an industrial park/car junk yard.  Great reviews on Trip Advisor, though...first time that has led us astray.  Oh well, we would live like backpackers for a few days...it would be good for the boys, right?  Okay...I haven't backpacked in 20 years and certainly didn't backpack with three young kids.  Anyway, we unloaded the car and headed in to check out the town.  Our attitudes quickly changed as we remembered what we came here for...Moab is an adventure wonderland.  Our choices included repelling into canyons, mountain climbing, sky diving, mountain biking, four wheeling, etc. - all while surrounded by beautiful views and amazing National Parks.  We decided to rent bikes and headed out to ride twelve of the hundreds of miles of trail systems. These trails are built and maintained by the town and are very remote, scarcely populated and crazy technical for our family, but we worked it out!  We broke it into two rides with a great half-time show at the super cool town pool.  We finished up on what is called a "slick rock" trail and after several cuts, bumps, bruises (and a few tears), our twilight ride ended as the sun set behind the mountain.  Gotta tell ya, I was a little nervous about our timing and choice of trails for our kids; but I also gotta tell ya, I felt like my ten year-old self, riding with my cousin Doug,  powering my sweet Mongoose BMX bike (with yellow mag wheels) over the rocks and through the sand.

Julie

-Julie

Bryce Canyon National Park

 the bottom of the canyon

 this tree is over 1,000 years old

 switchback up the canyon

As we arrived at Bryce Canyon, we were all wondering what the park was going to look like. We had been told by people in Zion that Bryce was even better - which was big because we all loved Zion. As we entered the gate, we decided that we should watch a short film at the Visitor Center to get a better understanding of the park and what we were about to see. After the video, we drove to all of the canyon lookouts which were really cool and different views. The Canyon is made up of rocks, called Hoodoos, which are strange shapes caused by the erosion from the crazy weather at Bryce.  We decided to take the 4 mile hike to the bottom of the canyon and back up.  It was a combination of two trails, Queens Garden and The Navajo. This trail was a little bumpy, but very cool, and from the beginning to the trail down to the bottom of the trail looked totally different. The rock formations toward the top of the canyon were totally unreal and there were a lot more pine trees at the bottom. I  felt like I was in a dream where I lived thousands of years ago with dinosaurs and Wooly Mammoths. The last part of the hike was really steep, with a bunch of switchbacks to get us to the top. A few of us ran and walked the switchbacks, it felt like The Amazing Race. It was definitely the coolest hike I have ever taken.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Made a quick stop at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park ( near Zion)...very cool and very hot! Wish we would have had dune buggies.  It is amazing how different the landscape is in just a short distance.

Zion National Park

We woke up bright and early in the Grand Canyon to start our trip to Zion National Park and after a four hour drive we arrived mid-day.  The open farm land a few miles before the park had us had us wondering what to expect from Zion. But as we entered the park, we were towered by sandstone mountains that shadowed the car while we drove on an unbelievable maroon-tinted, asphalt road. We toured the park, one beautiful road in and back, returning to our cabin to unpack. We had dinner at the ranch and then headed across the street with the making of s'mores to the ranch's bonfire.  A good night's rest led us to day two at Zion and the second was a packed with great hiking - first to an amazing emerald pool with astonishing waterfalls falling from 150 feet high. Hiking down, we headed off onto a different trail where unfortunately,  my Dad took a digger and rolled his ankle...it  puffed up like a baseball. With his "slight" injury we went continued on to a shorter river walk that led us to a white water rushing a river beach.  Zion is a really dramatic canyon with diverse terrain - one I'll remember.  Off to Bryce Canyon National Park.
-Grant

Day in the life....

Quick glimpse into our life with time lapse photography.

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon expectations were low, we envisioned Chevy Chase and the family pulling up to the rim, taking a picture and driving on.  However as we approached the first outlook, I noticed all five of us were running to get the first look. It was one of those moments that pictures can't do justice, we stared out at the canyon in awe of simply how vast and rugged the terrain was. We didn't arrive until the afternoon, so we planned our hike down for the second day. Thankfully we hit the National Parks circuit before the huge crowds arrive in the summer, but we still had to meander between visitors that loved to pose for what seemed like hours between pictures. The weather was remarkable but the food was not....we packed cliff bars and filled up the camelbacks as we headed into the canyon opting for the less travelled South Kabaib trail. The trail was marked well but one misstep and your dropping 2000 feet. Unlike a typical hike back home, descending first gives one a false sense of workload as the hike back up was fairly strenuous. The views were absolutely stunning, we needed stop often just to take in the raw beauty. Late in the afternoon we caught a glimpse of the endangered California Condor, sporting an impressive 9 1/2 wingspan. We dragged the kids to a ranger talk about the bird earlier in the day, so it was cool to actually seei one soar over us. The Grand Canyon is perfect for a day or two visit, on to Zion!

Jay

New Mexico Chronicles

Juanita, pet pitbull, Cam, Taos, Outback Pizza, 20" snowstorm, no power, El Monte Sagrado, salt water pool, Old Navy Albuquerque, New Mexico State, Tune-Up Cafe, Site, Warehouse 21, My Name is Earl, Yoberri, basketball at the park, Captain Chris, 10,000 waves, farmers market, flea market, margs at Maria's, The Shed, Burrito Company, The Good Stuff, Canyon Rd., The Tea House, Nat'l Lampoon's Vacation, a visit to the Santa Fe ER, The Antolinis visit, swimming at Hotel Santa Fe, Santa Fe cooking school, Pasqual's, mountain biking, Hank's digger

Mesa Verde

Our two week, National Park canyon-tour began with a visit to Mesa Verde, which is home to the oldest cliff dwellings in the country - built over 800 years ago. After a quick drive through southern Colorado, (and almost hanging a right and heading back to Telluride) we entered the long and winding road to see the impressive ruins. We joined a park ranger tour and climbed up and down narrow slot canyons to get to the Cliff Palace, where we learned about the settling of the Pueblo Indians and how they made their home on the Mesa. The hike was both beautiful and really interesting AND the boys were good sports (minus the fact that Hank almost pushed Grant into a twenty foot deep Kiva for taking "cuts" and Jack getting a $500 warning for picking the pine needles off of a National Park tree). However, onward we continued...to a cowboy town called Bluff, UT, where we stayed at the renowned Recapture Lodge...a total throw-back. Although the town had a population of only 250, we had a fantastic dinner and loved the fact that we felt like we were staying in a youth hostel surrounded by a bunch of friendly Europeans. But mostly, the Recapture Lodge was the beginning of the incredibly scenic drive through Monument Valley - quite possibly the most spectacular on earth! Next stop...Grand Canyon