National Parks Travelogue

I haven’t written a blog entry in almost a year, but I thought I’d finally break the streak and get back in the game.  Sarah and I took a vacation this Fall to explore American's National Parks out West. 

The idea for this trip actually came from the 10 year UVA reunion we went to this Spring.   On a whim, we hit up the UVA Travel seminar just to see what they had to offer.   I wasn’t really planning on booking a trip because I knew we could save a lot of money if we did all the legwork ourselves, and the $63,000 around the world trip by private jet is still out of our league. However, I thought we could get some ideas for a cool trip that we could do on our own terms.   They had an America the Beautiful tour of the Grand Canyon and other National Parks out West.    We had always talked about going to see the Grand Canyon someday and going back to Colorado to do some of the summer time activities, so we made our own itinerary to see four National Parks:  Grand Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, and Rocky Mountain National Park.   Our plan was to start in Phoenix and visit some of Sarah’s family nearby in Mesa, drive to the Grand Canyon, then head to Moab, Utah to visit Arches and Canyonlands nearby, and then head to Colorado to see Rocky Mountain National Park and see some old friends in Denver before flying back to DC.   Before I move on, I have to give a shout out to Fox Rent a Car for literally being $500 cheaper than any other rental car company for a one-way rental from Phoenix to Denver.  They got piss poor reviews, but I read that the Phoenix location was okay and really all I need from a rental car company is to get me a car that can get from Point A to Point B.  Needless to say we survived, and really the Chevy Malibu we got was starting to grow on us.

To say Phoenix is hot is a fairly big understatement.  It was 105 when we landed that afternoon and the sun was intense.  Despite the heat we decided to take a go at the outdoor Botanical Gardens Museum  because we had some time to kill after our plane landed.   It was pretty cool to see all the different varieties of cacti, but at some point you just need air conditioning.    After visiting with Sarah’s family, we headed on the road north to cooler weather.    I think the cliché’s are correct; it’s hard to capture the sheer size and vastness of the Grand Canyon.  Even when you’re seeing it first hand, some of the scenery looks more like a painting as the layers and canyons keep repeating themselves.    

Grand Canyon from South Rim

We enjoyed hiking the south rim trail and watched the sun go down.  The next morning I even got up early to catch the sunrise.  Our final Grand Canyon excursion was to actually hike down a bit into the canyon to get a different perspective.  Although it was a heck of a climb back up, the views down at Cedar Ridge where spectacular.  

Next we headed North again for the 6 hour drive to Moab.   To get there we drove through some of the most remote areas I’ve ever been to; small towns were as much as 90 miles apart.   We were lucky enough to pass through some beautiful landscapes right as the sun was setting right near the Arizona/Utah border.     

Sunset at the Utah Border

Trail Up the Rock Face

 We spent the bulk of our trip in and around the Moab area, and we still didn’t get a chance to see everything on our list.   After some much needed rest, we spent our first day hiking through Arches National Park.  The park gets its namesake from the many unique red rock formations that adorn the park.    The hike to the “Double O” arch was probably our favorite of the day:  some cool rock scrambling up and around the rock “fins” with a spectacular viewpoint at the end.    

 

To break up all the hiking and give our legs a rest, the next day we did something completely different and rented a kayak on the Colorado river.   For the trip we booked, we got an inflatable kayak (basically a narrow mini-raft) and we followed alongside two guided rafts.  We got to enjoy the beautiful scenery and go through some small (Class I and IIs) but fun rapids.  The best way to describe the difficulty is that our guide gave us helmets but didn't make us wear them, except during the rapids when they took our pictures so that she wouldn't get in trouble with her boss. 

We spent the late afternoon at Canyonlands National Park.  It’s like a massive version of Arches National Park, but we could only spend a small fraction of time there.  We did yet another hike to watch the sunset to the aptly named Grand View Point Overlook.

For our last day in Moab, we went to see the most famous Arch in the area: the Delicate Arch.   It certainly lived up to its billing and probably better pictured than described:

The Famous Delicate Arch

For the final portion of our trip, we headed out on our second big road trip to Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park.   After seeing a plethora of canyons and red rocks, it was a welcome change to see yellow Aspen trees and blue lakes.   During the time we lived in Colorado, we did not manage to go to the RMNP in the fall.  The trail to Cub Lake the first day was our favorite, it had the perfect combination of snow capped mountains, fall colors, and a lily-pad covered lake.  

Cub Lake

 Although we saw no bears at Cub Lake, there were plenty Elk around the park. It was easy to tell whenever wildlife was spotted: if an otherwise unexplainable mini-traffic jam occurred, you could bet there was some wildlife nearby. We hiked a few more trails to several other picturesque lakes to complete our journey around the park.

Our final destination was a short trip down memory lane around Denver.   We met up with some friends for reminiscing, drinks, and dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.    Before our flight out the last day, we had a fun time enjoying a beautiful day at Washington Park.   In typical Denver fashion, there was a volleyball tournament going on and not just any volleyball tournament, everyone was dressed up!

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