Utah Rocks! Road Trip Part 4

            From Colorado we headed west to Utah on Wednesday, June 27.  The drive through western Colorado into Utah was amazing.  We passed the ski towns of Breckenridge, Vail, Aspen, etc. and got out of sitting on the highway during a traffic jam to explore the adorable town of Glenwood Springs.  The small, quaint downtown shops and old-fashioned Amtrak station caught our attention.

The heights of the mountains and the way the landscape transformed easily into colorful, rocky, desert cliffs were quite striking.  It was such a different beautiful than the lush Rockies we had just come from!  Late that evening we arrived in Moab, Utah.

Early the next morning, we set out for Arches Nationals Park, where we conquered a strenuous hike to Double O Arches.  The first mile started out easily enough, with a stroll along a path to Landscape Arch.  Beyond that, the trail got much more difficult and we began following cairns (small piles of rocks) to stay on track.  We came to a portion of the trail where the cairns directed us to climb up and over a narrow fin, a thin, steep portion of rock that dropped off to the sandy floor below.  Molly was only convinced to continue by a middle-aged man who was returning from his hike and reassured us that this was the worst part and the arches we would see along the way were worth the effort. 

We followed side trails to Partition Arch, which overlooked the backside of Landscape Arch that we had seen before, and Navajo Arch, which was located in a shady, secluded area, before pressing on to Double O Arch.  The trail got more technically difficult as we continued and involved climbing over another narrow fin.  We learned that these arches were once part of a mile-deep layer of sandstone on the bottom of the ocean, and that when the ocean dried up, erosion carried away some of the material of the sandstone bedrock, leaving behind first these tall, narrow fins, which later developed into arches as erosion carried away the sandstone underneath them. 

Upon finishing our hike, we drove around Arches to see more of the unique landforms before leaving Moab and heading for Bryce Canyon.  Once again, the drive itself was spectacular and made for a fun afternoon…especially since it meant we could be inside the air conditioned car and avoid the 100˚F afternoon!  We kept stopping at overlooks along the way, and Benno in particular was awestruck by Eagle Canyon overlook.   Though there was an abundance of vistas along the way, there certainly was NOT an abundance of civilizations!  In fact, with only a quarter tank left, we started to get worried about ever finding gas again!  We went through a few small towns, which either didn’t have gas or the stations were closed.  We passed a marina which sold gas for $9.99 and refused it, knowing our destination was close at that point.  At some point along the way, UT-22 became a road that was “no longer maintained by the state,” according to signage.  What a thought!

            We arrived at Ruby’s Inn in Bryce Canyon City on fumes and just in time to catch the sunset over Bryce Canyon.   This canyon was unique in that it had a multitude of red spires known as hoodoos pointing up from the base of the canyon.  We walked around the rim a bit and headed back to our hotel for dinner.

            Friday morning, June 29, we got up early to catch the sunrise over the canyon.  We met some tourists from Japan and Benno chatted them up, especially a man who had been working near Benno’s old stomping grounds in Fukushima Prefecture and in fact had fled the tsunami in March 2011.  We walked into the canyon a little, stopped by the visitors’ center when it opened at 8:00am to get our park passport stamped, and headed out for our 3^rd Utah destination of Zion National Park.

            Zion looked more familiar to us as it was a tree-covered row of mountainous cliffs.   It was hot and we were starting to drag some so we opted to take the shuttle around the park to catch the sites, getting off for a few small walks along the way.  We wanted to be fair to Zion though, so we eventually woke up enough to take a more difficult hike up to the Canyon Overlook Trail.  Of course, with a name like that, we knew it would have, and it did, some steep drop-offs but the great view again made it worth it!  

            We headed out of Zion for Las Vegas.  It began to look more and more like a serious desert—less of the colorful red sandstone and more dry and plain brown hills, punctuated only by scraggly bushes.  We arrived at the airport early (can you believe it?! Remember, this is Molly and Benno we’re talking about here!) to pick up Benno’s sister Chloe, who was flying in from San Francisco to explore a bit with us.  Upon getting her, we headed to our hotel, the Imperial Palace, on the strip, checked in, showered (we’d been hiking all morning and afternoon in the desert after all!), and went out to hit the town.  We enjoyed seeing the bright lights, the Bellagio water show and blown glass ceiling, and the fancy decorations of the other hotels.  Evidence of the legality of prostitution made Benno think that “anything goes” Nevada and conservative Utah made for strange neighbors!  

Across the Great Divide: Road Trip Part 3

            Sorry, dear family and friends, to keep you waiting so anxiously without an update.  But we’ve been super busy on our adventures and with too limited Internet access to post this week.  What a week it’s been though!

            When Molly was growing up, her mom Jane spoke endlessly of the two long summer vacations she spent traveling out west, how Colorado was the best place on Earth, and how, someday, she was going to take us on a family trip to Colorado.  I really think this was mentioned every summer, though it never quite worked out.  So when we planned this trip, we decided we would fly Jane out to Colorado so she could join us during our 4-days in the Denver area.

            Last Sunday (6/24), we traveled to the Rocky Mountain National Park to do some hiking.   Our hosts, Tracey Bobo and her husband Tom Kane, drove us all around and led us on a great hike to Gem Lake, high up the mountains outside of Estes Park.  Fortunately, they were there with us to teach us how to deal with significant elevation change and dryness by drinking lots of water and using extra chapstick!  It was beautiful to clamber over rocks to reach the pretty views of the park.  We could tell the oxygen was lower at the top (about 10,000 feet) when we had to stop more frequently.  On the way out, we made sure to get our passports stamped, adding to our collection of national parks we’d been to!  We spent the night at their AMAZING home, buried deep in the forest, atop a huge mountain overlooking the city of Denver.  It was absolutely breathtaking, though we’re not sure we could tolerate using an ATV with a plow to get myself out in winter!

            On Monday, as Tracey and Tom headed back to work, we three headed back to the Rocky Mountain National Park for more.  This time we took the long, scenic Trail Road around the park, passing through the Continental Divide and back again and overlooking scenic vistas.  As we ascended above the tree line and into the tundra ecosystem, we saw lots of wildlife—mule deer, elk, marmot, pikas, etc.  One elk was so close to the road that we stopped as he passed within feet of our car and walked around us and across the street!  We stopped for a few smaller hikes, walking to a waterfall (which reminded us of Coors commercials with the rapid mountain streams cascading downward, as Coors is brewed out here) and through the tundra to a panoramic view.  We found a cute little hotel and spent the evening walking through the adorable shops of Estes Park’s downtown. 

            Tuesday morning we woke up early and did a longer hike up a mountain, passing 3 lakes (Nymph, Dream, and Emerald lakes) along the way.  On the trail, we could see out over moraines, to the tops of huge mountains, beautiful forests, and lots of gigantic boulders—it was easy to see why it was named Rocky MNP!

            For dinner, we met up with Molly’s friends in Denver.  We had four of the seven good friends who had done an environmental study on Vancouver Island in 2002.  Even though we’d met up a couple times since then, it had been years and was great to get together.  Jane even met up with an old friend from Alfalfa’s Restaurant (where she’s waitressed for 35+ years) who now lives in Boulder at the same time, in the same restaurant.  

            On Wednesday, we left our great Bobo/Kane lodging and headed for Dinosaur Ridge before taking Jane to the airport.  Dinosaur Ridge was a hill that was weathered and eroded to reveal dinosaur bones and footprints from millions of years ago! We walked around the hill, learning lots about the geologic history of Colorado…information Molly can use in her Earth Science classes!  We had lunch in a cute café in Morrison, CO, and took Jane to the airport for a bittersweet farewell.  As she flew back to Kentucky, we turned the key and headed towards Utah!

            More on Utah and Las Vegas soon…we’re off to bed so we’ll be ready for more tomorrow! 

From TN to CO: Road Trip Part 2

Hi fans,

Sorry for not writing yesterday:  it (Friday) was the longest of our three major driving days and we were too tired by the time of our midnight arrival at our hotel to post anything. 

            We had a great dinner with the Lauers Thursday night in Nashville and even visited their favorite gelato shop for dessert.  We’re excited to spend more time with the girls at the Lauer cousin reunion in late July!

            At Hillary’s house, she and Molly of course stayed up late catching up, while Benno at first joined in and later fell asleep on the couch.  Good thing too—he needed to manage the first shift driving on Friday!

            Friday morning we left Nashville, TN, early, heading through southwestern Kentucky, the extreme southern tip of Illinois, and Missouri on our way to Kansas.   We were captivated by our brief jaunt through Cairo, IL, where we walked down to the water’s edge at the spot where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River.  It was neat to see the huge rivers combine into an even more massive river!  Had we not gotten out of our car, we would’ve been in Illinois for only about 90 seconds, crossing one bridge over the Ohio River into Illinois from Kentucky, and then almost immediately crossing another bridge over the Mississippi into Missouri. 

            The southeastern portion of Missouri is apparently very, very flat, much flatter even than we later found Kansas to be. The minor route US-60 that we were on for almost 300 miles wound its way through many rural areas, the occasional small town, and eventually rolling hills. 

            We were pleasantly surprised to find Ozark National Scenic Riverways, one of the national parks listed in our national parks passport.   There, we got out to see Big Spring, a natural mineral spring in a scenic area of the Mark Twain National Forest.  Such a great little find—we’d highly recommend it to anyone passing through this area.

            We stopped in Springfield, MO, to have dinner with a lifelong friend of Molly’s, Sara Eberhardt, Aunt Red’s daughter.  Though she’d known Molly since she was born, she hadn’t yet met Benno, so it was fun for the pair to finally get to visit some and for Molly to see her old friend.

            After dinner, we pressed on for a few more hours until we reached our hotel in Topeka, Kansas, around midnight.  We didn’t stay for long, getting up for an early breakfast and then heading off on the last leg of our journey to our first major sight-seeing destination of Denver, Colorado. 

            Our direction at that point was to “Continue on I-70W for 544 miles to Denver.”  So today, we enjoyed a long and straight shot all the way across Kansas and well into Colorado.  Having been warned that it was flat and boring, we found it to be mostly flat and mostly boring.  A few mild hills, the proverbial “amber waves of grain,” some lonely cattle, and miles upon miles of wind turbines entertained our eyes on the journey.   After seeing no industry for miles, we made a panicked stop to get gas with an 1/8^th of a tank left, afraid we’d never find it again.  

            After having traveled hundreds of miles across Kansas, we finally found Oasis Travel Center, which truly was a modern day oasis with the first Starbucks we’d seen in the state thus far (as compared to every on every other corner in DC) and a Quiznos to boot! 

            As we write this at 5:00pm, we’re pulling into Denver, CO, almost to Conifer, CO, tonight’s destination, home of old friends.  Later tonight we’ll pick up Molly’s Mom, Jane, at the airport and she’ll join us for this leg of the trip.  We’re seeing these big, beautiful mountains rise up in front of us and are excited to explore them over the next few days!   

Coast-to-Coast Road Trip Begins!

            After months of disuse, we’re resurrecting this blog to share about the adventures we experience during our 2-week Summer 2012 Coast-to-Coast Road Trip.  Our plan is to dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean on June 20^th and then head west in a one-way rental car, traveling through Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California and then dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean before flying back on July 5^th…just in time to participate in our dear friends Joanna and Del’s wedding on July 7^th in Yardley, PA!     We hope you enjoy our tales from the road! 

            On Wednesday, June 20^th, Molly picked up Benno after work and we left DC at 7:00pm.  In order to make our “coast-to-coast” road trip officially coast-to-coast, we first drove to Annapolis, Maryland, and put our feet in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay (the closest we could reasonably get to the Atlantic Ocean, given our time frame).  We decided it counted because it smelled like salt and had small waves.

            From there we began our journey west, bound for our first night’s stop in Moneta, Virginia.   There, we met up with Molly’s family (Scott, Jenny, and Eric Metcalf and Becky, Isabelle, and Desmond Silvis) who were spending an extended weekend at a rented lake house.  Arriving at 2:00am didn’t allow us to visit much, except over a leisurely breakfast.  Even though we had to miss the family vacation, at least we got to crash it for a little while!

            This morning, we left Virginia and headed south with our sights set on reaching Nashville, Tennessee, by dinner.  We enjoyed beautiful weather driving through the mountains of Virginia, got to listen to our own music through the rental car’s auxiliary jack, and had a nice picnic lunch in Bristol, VA, just shy of the TN border.  Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrots, celery, green pepper, cucumbers, blueberries, pineapple, and trail mix made for the world’s healthiest road trip lunch ever! J 

            We stopped at the entrance to the Smokey Mountains to buy our National Park Pass from two very sweet, very talkative, and clearly very bored women, who were so excited to finally have someone in their shop. 

            With Benno’s guidance, Molly memorized the names and locations of all 46 countries in Europe, which, when added to the 55 African countries she learned this spring, comprises fully one-half of the countries of the world (101 of 202).  I’ll match Benno’s knowledge of all 202 within days at this rate! J 

            We’re looking forward to joining Jim, Ruth, Sophia, Olivia, and Stella Lauer for dinner and Hillary for an overnight stay in Nashville soon!  (written at 6:00pm, Thursday, 6/21)