Our Washington Adventure

It very quickly became custom for us to take a photo of the boys at every park sign we came across. Here they are altogether but Capitol Reef is a bit of a cheat because we only really went across the top of that!

After the hiking and swimming of the previous day we had a little sleep in until just before 8am. With most of the morning and early afternoon likely to be spent in the car, we got up and went for a nice cooked breakfast in the main lodge. With stomachs full we went back to our lodge, packed our bags and loaded up the cars.

With the Lego movie playing in the back we back the four hour trip back to Salt Lake City. It was a reasonably uneventful drive up – no scary roads on this route which Tracy was happy about. We arrived at the Hotel Monaco just after 2pm and checked in. As this was a Kimpton Hotel we get to have a goldfish pet for the duration of our stay. The boys were also given a small cuddly bear each, which as you can imagine more than made Toby’s day!

Once we’d unpacked we got back in the car and drove 30 minutes up into the hills behind Salt Lake to the mountain ski resort of Park City. This was the main area for the Winter Olympics which were held in Utah in 2002. We went to the historic center and had a late lunch/early dinner because the boys were absolutely starving!

After lunch we went for a stroll up and down Main Street – it looked like a town that had a lot of money sloshing about in it. Next stop, despite lots of Toby protests was a chair lift ride up one of the mountains. Tracy and Harry went on the first chairlift and Toby and I followed in the next. The ride gave me the heebee-jeebees to begin with but as we were never too far off the ground my fears passed!

It was an interesting ride up, mainly spotting all the things that had been thrown from the chair lifts like bras, knickers, necklaces that were all hanging from the tree tops! The ride was worth it though because the view on the way back down was quite something. Once we had our feet back on terra ferma it was time for one last trip in the car for the day as we went back to Salt Lake City and our hotel.

On the way back Toby decided to showcase his song writing and singing skills by repeatedly singing the following beautiful little ditty…

“When I was a baby,
I was so cute,
Then Harry came and trod on me,
And now I’m so ugly”

After singing this about ten times he started work on the second verse, which went a little something like this …
“When I was a baby
I was so perfect…”

At this point he was told to shut up and after a little bit of back and forth he did!
Before long we were back in our hotel where Stanley the goldfish was waiting for us. He went a bit bonkers to begin with, swimming round like a crazy fish but he soon settled and enjoyed the attention from the boys.

A relaxing evening followed until at about 10:30pm it was lights out and time for our last sleep in Utah. So sad, time clearly flies when you’re having fun!

After arriving at the Lodge the day before we had spent the afternoon by, and in the pool and enjoying a meal at the restaurant. The next morning, well fed and refreshed we woke and left to hit Arches National Park just after 9am.

On arrival at the park we took the customary picture of two naughty boys posing at the side of the sign and then drove on to the visitor center. We bought our Arches National Park sticker, checked the maps and then set off on a short drive up to Balancing Rock. There were no shuttle options at this Park so it was a bit busier with cars and around car parks. Having taken a few pictures of the Balancing Rock we decided to drive up to the far end of the Park to Devils Garden. This is where we intended to take our short hike of the day and we thought it best to get to the end of the Park before everyone else made it up there and so we did our hike before it got too hot – although it was already pretty warm.

We decided on the shorter hike that took us to Landscape Arch, Tunnel Arch and Pine Arch. The route to all three was pretty well paved, with just a few inclines and declines to navigate. Landscape Arch was pretty impressive. You used to be able to walk up to and under it however a few years ago a big chunk of it fell down as people were up there and they decided to close that part of the trail. No-one was hurt when it collapsed but they did have a picture taken by a hiker who was there at the time and it was pretty impressive. The bit that fell is the rubble to the right hand side of the arch:

After Landscape, we doubled back on ourselves and went to Tunnel and Pine Arches. It was starting to get pretty hot now so frequent drink breaks in whatever shade we could find were taken. Just down the road from Devils Garden was Skyline Arch which we stopped at for another short walk – not too much complaining from Toby either! This was another arch that had fairly recently had a large boulder fall out of it! It’s clearly a bit dodgy round here!

Our next, and final stop was at Delicate Arch. After a brief assessment of the pit toilets – they didn’t pass the Tracy test – we walked along to the lower viewpoint. The best views are up the other side of the Arch from where the viewpoint is looking back to it however it was now very hot and the hike up had absolutely no shade and was across smooth rocks so we decided against it. Also slightly off putting was the fact that once you got there, there would be lots of people all around! Bloody people, didn’t they know they were ruining my photos?

 

So we went back to the car and via a few photo stops, including the petrified sand dunes, plus our first experience of a wild fire (although it was just a little one so hopefully it was contained nice and easily) before making our way to Moab for a spot of lunch. We managed to work out our list of favourite National Parks and the final list looked like this:

Zion National Park (Tracy’s favourite)
Bryce National Park (Harry’s and my favourite)
Goblin Valley State Park (Toby’s favourite)
Arches National Park (no-ones favourite)

The order of the list seemed to suggest that our holiday got progressively worse but that’s not actually the case. Arches was the one that everyone thought would be the best but maybe we’d built it up to be too much. It was still quite something to see but it is probably more of a park for hikers whereas the others could be witnessed with short hikes and had more awesomeness to them!

With lunch taken care of we did a spot of shopping and I bought the pair of shoes that I had been needing all holiday – just about better late than never because they would at least make for a comfy couple of days (my previous sandals had already ruined my heels!).

Next and final stop was back to the lodge and into the pool for another afternoon of playing and relaxing and watching the US lose to Belgium via refreshing a twitter feed every 30 seconds!

The evening was spent drinking a couple of bottles of wine made locally at the Lodge. It was a beautiful last evening sat on the deck, listening to the river, watching the stars and seeing my first two shooting stars. I’d never realised just how fast shooting stars shoot! Apparently you’re meant to make a wish when you see them but I’d forgotten that and missed out on two glorious opportunities!

All Arches pictures are here.

 

It was short and sweet in Torrey, so the car was packed and off we went to Red Cliffs Lodge via a stop off in Goblin Valley. It was another couple of hours in the car but once again the boys sat glued to their TV screens and behaved very well – we are lucky on that front.

It was another scenic drive through, yet again, a completely different landscape. Everyday has been different but each one mightily impressive. We soon arrived at Goblin Valley State Park, which had been recommended to us by one of Harry’s soccer team. First things first, we needed to do the rest room trip but as we were in the middle of nowhere it was one of those toilets that Tracy doesn’t like – a pit toilet! I’ve known Tracy hold onto a wee for a 45 mile drive while 4 months pregnant to avoid using one of these horrible smelly things! This one however, despite the heat was not quite as awful as Yosemites and we all managed to do the deed!

With that taken care of, sun cream applied, hats on and cameras loaded it was time to explore goblin valley. And what a place it was to explore! There was a trail but not very well defined which means you just walk around all over the place. Everywhere you turned were goblins! Worn down over the years by wind and water there was every type of goblin you could imagine, plus a few more, including…

Boxing goblin
Monkey goblin
Dead goblins
Growing goblins
Turtle goblins
Skull goblins
Mount Rushmore goblins
Duck goblins
Arguing goblins
Grumpy goblins
Goblin walls
Angry goblins
Whale goblins
Dinosaur goblins
Goblin butts
Caterpillar goblin

And many more that I can’t remember!

With the goblin watching complete it was time to buckle up and hit the road again. Next stop Red Cliffs Lodge and a couple of nights by the Colorado River.

All the Goblins are here…

Another day, another early (ish) start. This time we were packing up the car and leaving the beautiful Zion Mountain Ranch behind and making our way to Bryce Canyon for a few hours in the park followed by an onwards journey to Torrey, near Capitol Reef National Park.

With the car packed, we said goodbye to Itchy and set off for Bryce just after 8am. After a couple of hours we arrived at the visitor center, checked out the hikes and viewpoints, grabbed a map and decided to take the car round the park rather than the shuttle.

As Bryce Canyon was all on our right hand side as we drove down the Park, we went to our furthest point down that we wanted to go to and then worked our way back up the Park via a series of stops. First stop was Bryce Point and our first glimpse of what is a pretty bloody amazing sight! The colors, scale and amazing rock formations (know locally as hoodoos) really do have to be seen to be believed. It also managed to give Tracy the willies with a few steep drops by the side of the path.

Second stop was just a little further round the canyon rim at Inspiration Point. Again, it looked amazing but at this stop there were hundreds of little midges that kept landing all over us – apart from Tracy – so after a few photos were snapped it was back in the car and round to Sunset Point.

There was obviously an emergency of some sort kicking off here as there were medical people and all sorts buzzing around the car park. Unperturbed we set off on a hike on Navajo Loop which took us down to the canyon floor and back up again. Toby was not happy about this hike! It was too hot, too steep and too far. He was tired two minutes after we left and didn’t want to go! Despite all these protests we set off down the winding path through the stunning canyon trails.

We stopped at Thors Hammer – the most photographed feature in Bryce Canyon and carried on down the steep climb. The sun was beating down and regular drink breaks were required. After a while we reached the bottom and, as beautiful as it was, what it really needed was a nice burbling river running through the bottom of the canyon. There wasn’t one though – it is a waterless canyon.

 

 

With liquids consumed the tough ascent began! Toby instantly started falling behind until I told him that rattle snakes prey on little boys who fall behind! That did the trick and he managed to fasten his pace. The path up was pretty tough however we’d taken the clockwise route round the loop so at least there was more shade than going down. After a final few drinks breaks we made it back up and had the pleasure of washing our dirty, sandy feet under a nice cold tap! It felt lovely!

No rest for the wicked though and we were soon aback in the car heading towards a viewpoint at Fairyland Canyon. We took in the sights, took some more pictures, got buzzed by some bugs and then realised we were proper hungry so set off to Subway via a brief photo stop at the park sign.

After devouring a sandwich we loaded up the TV screens and hit the road to Torrey. The drive was pretty much two hours along Highway 12, an American Scenic Byway. It was a pretty quiet road (barely any cars on the road for 40 odd miles) but pretty darn impressive nonetheless. Although there were lots of great views the one that beat them all was the view of Million Dollar Road. The Utah red-necks that pulled up at the same time of us thought it was just “more dirt” but I think it was slightly more impressive than that!

We then drove along Million Dollar Road and wound our way up a very steep climb on the other side. At one point the road was winding its way across the top of a ridge that was literally just wide enough to fit a two lane highway on top with sheer drops drop on either side. Rest assured that Tracy was clinging to door handle for dear life and mumbling “oh my god” over and over again! To be fair, even I thought it was probably best to look at the road and not the view at this point! The road is now known as the Road of Doom, to accompany the Gap of Doom from our travels in Sydney.

Having survived the road of doom we continued to climb higher and eventually reached the summit at about 9,600ft before beginning the winding descent down to Torrey. Our hotel was just outside Torrey near Capitol Reef National Park. After checking in and unpacking there was only one thing to do and that was go to the pool. Two days in the sunshine without a pool made going into this one even nicer. It was in the high 90’s and the cool of the pool was most welcoming.

After the pool (and the hot tub for the boys) it was time for a shower and a visit to the Rim Restaurant across the road from the hotel. Food, beer, wine and puddings were demolished and then it was back to the hotel to watch the sunset and then hit the bed.

Tomorrow is a trip to Goblin Valley and then on to Moab and our final destination in the parks of Utah.

All Bryce pictures are here…

I woke up early as the sun began to shine through the crack at the side of the curtains. It was about 6:15am and I got up to snap a couple of sunrise pictures despite the fact I was nursing a slight holiday hangover. As I was awake I thought it might be a good idea if everyone was awake and so I fidgeted about in bed until Tracy woke up and made a lovely cup of coffee!!

We’d been warned the day before that we needed to be at the visitor center in Zion Canyon before 10am if we wanted to get a place to park before the crowds descended. As we were going on a hike up to the Emerald Pools we thought an early start would also be best so we weren’t slow cooked in the midday sun.

As we drove to the visitor center Harry and Toby announced that they’d been silly about not sleeping in their own lodge the night before and that tonight they would try again tonight and power through their anxiousness! After making our way through the darkest tunnels in the history of tunnels we were back at the canyon floor and parking the car just after 9am. After checking out the hiking trail guides we boarded the Zion Park shuttle. You have to take the shuttle here as the main part of the canyon is restricted access only. Our stop was the third or fourth one and before we knew it our hike up to the Lower, Middle and Upper pools was underway.

Our first sighting was a group of wild turkeys down by the river but beyond that this wasn’t really an animal related hike bar some tadpoles later on. The path up to the lower pool was quite straightforward and included a nice little walk under a small waterfall. We appreciated the waterfall a lot more on the way down though. With the lower pool taken care of it was onwards and upwards to the middle pool. It wasn’t too much further but the incline got a little steeper and the path a little more rocky. Harry and Toby tackled it like a pair of mountain goats and surprisingly there were very few complaints as they climbed!

The middle pool was reached and the sun burned brighter – it was definitely time to get a sweat on! The view was fantastic and the shade a welcome relief. Although it was only a small pool it was well stocked with some big fat tadpoles. Let’s hope the water doesn’t dry out before they turned into some big porky toads.

We hadn’t planned on going up to the Upper pool as the guides had said they were a bit tougher to reach however Harry said it was only another 0.4 miles and Toby was still in good spirits so off we went. The trail was definitely getting trickier and busier. The sweat was pouring but we made it. After relaxing in the shade for a few minutes we set off back down the trail. It was clearly much busier now so we did the right thing getting up a bit earlier. As we made it down to the lower pool we took a brief shower in the misty waterfalls before finishing off the hike and getting our feet back on the valley floor.

After a quick drink we caught the shuttle again to head back to the visitor center. On the way back we decided to stop at the Court of the Patriarchs as it was only a 100 yard round trip to the view point. Despite the fact that Toby had enjoyed his earlier hike this 100 yards was clearly too much and he descended into a mood and announced that he didn’t care about anything and everything!

A few minutes later the hike/short walk was complete and we were back on the shuttle. We continued on into Springdale to grab some lunch. A well deserved burger was devoured and then it was back on the bus to the car, which was showing a temperature of 103 degrees. Next stop was our ranch and some drinking and relaxing on the verandah in our rocking chairs. The hummingbird came back but still it avoided having its picture taken.

As the sun started to think about setting we went for a walk along to the buffaloes where Toby made friends with Itchy the buffalo. In just a few short minutes they developed a strong friendship and both were visibly upset when it was time for us to leave. After that it was back to the ranch and a well deserved collapsing into bed. Despite all the brave talk that morning, Harry and Toby decided to retire to their room upstairs rather than the lodge next door – much to Tracy’s relief!

Here are all the Zion National Park photos.

According to Apple maps it was going to take 5 hours to drive to Zion Mountain Ranch. Even though we had TV screens for the boys to watch, Harry was not happy! This was likely to be one of the worst days ever judging by how much he was talking about it.

Anyway, when faced with a long drive the best thing to do is get up and get on with it. At least it was going to be freeway most of the way which is better than getting stuck behind caravans on the A38 into Devon or the A whatever to Norfolk – although they probably don’t even have A roads there!

We left our hotel and got onto the freeway at which point the sat nav said we had to stay on this road for about the next 240 miles! It took us about 50 miles to get past what seemed like the urban sprawl of Salt Lake City – the downtown maybe be small but the ‘burbs are not! As the movies ticked by in the back of the car, so did the miles. After a brief pitstop mid morning we pulled off the freeway about 220 miles later in Cedar City. This town had been a possibility for staying in a hotel, fortunately we had found something else because there wasn’t a lot going on here. There was a Walmart however so we stocked up on beer, wine, croissants and crisps before setting off on the final leg of the journey to Zion National Park.

After another 40 or so miles we reached the Park entrance. We paid our fees to get us into all National Parks for a year and drove through Zion Canyon towards our hotel, which was just outside the other Park entrance. The canyon was quite stunning. Beautiful red rocks, covered in amazing glacial carvings and patterns from the water and wind over thousands of years. It took quite a few photo stops to make our way through it and with some very dark tunnels and sheer drops by the side of the road – Tracy did get the willies a few times!

Once out the other side of the canyon we drove another few miles before arriving at our destination – almost 6 hours after we set off – a truly dreadful day for Harry! As we pulled into the entrance of our ranch we saw the buffalo herd along with horses, rabbits, chickens and ducks – it was quite a little farmyard.

We collected our keys and drove round to our lodge, complete with its own Granny/naughty boy annex. The lodge was beautiful and the boys were very excited about having their own lodge to stay in. With everything unpacked it was time to chill on the verandah looking out for miles across the wilderness of Utah.

As we sat in our rocking chairs Tracy was visited on a fairly regular basis by a hummingbird. It obviously liked her red top because it kept coming to see her and it flew incredibly close to her. Despite its numerous visits the best photo I could manage was this – which isn’t the best photo I’ve ever taken!

After a bath in the very big bath it was time to walk down to the Buffalo Grill and have dinner. It was a lovely setting to enjoy dinner of ginormous rib-eye steaks. The horses and rabbits kept running past our window and in the background the buffalo came running over for their dinner. With stomachs well and truly stuffed it was time to visit the shop and buy a cuddly horse and buffalo! Summer holiday spending money was well and truly being spent.

Then after a walk back to our lodge the boys retired to their lodge while Tracy and I sat outside watching the dark night skies come and the stars appear. With no artificial lights for as far as the eye could see it was a pretty good star watching night although they weren’t quite brith enough for Tracy’s liking.

And with that it was time for bed. Well almost. Tracy wasn’t happy about the boys being in a lodge by themselves so off I went out of our lodge over to theirs to see if they would come back to ours and sleep upstairs in the room with six beds! Toby wanted to stay in their lodge but Harry was more than happy to come back to ours – I think he had the heebee-jeebees! So eventually, at about 10:30pm we were all tucked up in bed and ready for a day in the Park tomorrow.

After 10 months, a visit to the hospital the day before and an aborted landing in Salt Lake City we finally arrived in Utah! It was only a short flight from Seattle and shortly after landing, we’d collected our car and were driving into Salt Lake City.

We checked into our lovely room at the Grand America and after a quick lie down, just to assess the quality of the bed, we set off for a mooch round downtown. It was only a couple of blocks from the hotel into the main downtown and we passed lots of old, interesting looking buildings and lots of nice looking bars and restaurants.

As we’d had such an energetic start to the day we decided to have lunch at an Italian bistro. Tracy had half a cow for her starter, the boys had pizza and we had some yummy bowls of pasta. Next stop was a quick walk round the mall to see if I could find some nice trainers to wear on my hikes round the national parks. Considering I have about fifteen pairs of trainers you would have thought I’d have packed some but I didn’t! Having failed to find any we left the lovely mall behind with its stream running through the middle of it and its Macy’s bridge and walked back to the hotel.

After another brief lie down it was down to the pool to enjoy some sunshine and have swim. The water was pretty cold but it didn’t stop us having a splash. Even though we were stuffed with food we had to order some chips and salsa just so Tracy could have a watermelon mojito and I could have a piña colada – they have some strange licensing laws in Utah!

When the pool closed at 6pm, we went upstairs and had a nice relax – it had been a tough day afterall. After watching some rubbish on the TV we went downstairs to the hotel toy shop (it was a posh hotel!) and then we had a drink in the bar. We had to order more food (this time a bowl of chips) so we could have a drink but the boys managed to dispose of them with out too many problems.

Next stop bed, so we were all ready for our drive down to Southern Utah tomorrow.