This was one of our BIG drives. 7,221 km in 2 weeks. Starting and ending in Saskatoon, and looping down through the American southwest.
The Highlights
- Devil’s Tower
- Moab Arches
- Mountain biking Moab slickrock
- Moab Arches thunderstorm
- Bryce Canyon
- Glen Canyon Dam
- Grand Canyon in fog and rain
- Walnut Canyon
- Meteor Crater
- Petrified Forest
- Mesa Verde
- Durango steam engine
- Durango horse ride to cave
- Telluride and Last Dollar Road
- Glenwood Springs thunderstorm
- Trail Ridge Road: highest paved road
- Estes Park Coffee and ROCKS
- Jewel Cave lantern tour
Day 1: Sunday 2010-08-01
A full day of driving to get to Devil’s Tower. As we neared the place, I had Sandy and Keiran watch “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” to get in the mood.
Click HERE for the photo album.
Day 2: Monday 2010-08-02
We spent the morning wandering around Devil’s Tower, then headed off towards Moab. Since the Seminoe Dam was enroute, we detoured along some gravel roads (not a shortcut!) and took a look. Worth doing. Late in the day, in the dark, we finally pulled into a cabin in the Moab KOA. KOA cabins were new to us. Doesn’t cost much more than a tent site, and SO much easier.
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Day 3: Tuesday 2010-08-03
We woke up and finally saw the landscape we were in. Dramatic cliffs and scrubby desert. Arches National Park was close by, and even more magnificent, and as cool as I had remembered.
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Day 4: Wednesday 2010-08-04
Today was to be mountain biking on “Slickrock”, something Moab is famous for. The baking heat meant that even Sandy was willing to get an early start to try and avoid it. We started very early, and still finished up VERY hot. At the end we biked back into Moab, about 5 miles along an easy downhill wide open road.
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In the late afternoon, the thunderstorms and flooding happened. We drove back out to Arches to see it in the rain, and see if we could see a flash flood in action. Dramatic lightning and downpour. Then flooded Moab streets.
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Day 5: Thursday 2010-08-05
This was mostly a driving day, from Moab to Canyonville Koa, near Bryce Canyon. But we did stumble across some fun things. We stopped to play in a stream heavy with red soil and clay. We stopped at Behunin Cabin, Grand Wash and the Fremont Petroglyphs before descending in the Bryce Canyon Valley. We set up in a KOA cabin at the Canyonville KOA, then did a quick trip to look at Bryce Canyon in the rain. And then settled down to a pleasant campfire and sunset outside our cabin.
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Day 6: Friday 2010-06-06
Bryce Canyon itself was just around the corner, but we still stumbled onto Mossy Cave beforehand, and figured “Why not?”. Well worth doing.
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Next was Bryce Canyon. We picked a few trails and started exploring. Amazing.
Click HERE for the photo album.
Click HERE for the photo album.
Day 7: Saturday 2010-08-07
Our slot canyon trip, Antelope Canyon, was cancelled because of the flash flood danger. It was on and off again for awhile, but eventually fully cancelled. So we continued on to the Grand Canyon, in the driving rain.
When we got there, we discovered that the promised views were nowhere to be found: the canyon was full of cloud. We hung around for several hours, visited El Tovar, and then the rain eventually died down to a gentle drizzle. It was warm so we headed down into the fog and cloud.
Yet another wonderful experience, as the rain stopped, and the sun broke through. The warm mugginess changed into hot mugginess. And the views appeared. Jumping the puddles that filled many of the paths was fun.
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Day 8: Sunday 2010-08-08
Walnut Canyon was our next stop. These cliff dwellers were known as the Sinagua (Spanish for “without water”).
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Next stop was Meteor Crater. Earlier controversies about whether or not it was caused by a meteor or volcano are pretty much over.
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And then we drove through the Petrified Forest, stopping at every possible sight. Needless to say, you are not allowed to pick anything up, so we also purchased a few bits and pieces from the store.
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Day 9: Monday 2010-08-09
Mesa Verde and the scores of villages built into cliff sides were just another unbelievable sights of this trip. Keiran got quite sick (possibly from sucking on his fingers while learning how to whistle), so was not up for most of this day. We left him in the car a lot. And resolved to repeat Balcony House for him the next day.
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Day 10: Tuesday 2010-08-10
A ride up mountain canyons from Durango to Silverton. Sitting outside in the open carriages meant having to wear glasses to keep the soot out of your eyes. And a couple of water stops to top up the tank. Classic.
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Instead of taking the train back down the mountain, we went for a horse ride through the woods, explored a cave and returned.
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Day 11: Wednesday 2010-08-11
We returned to Mesa Verde. Keiran had to have the chance to see some of this stuff.
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We then went north from Mesa Verde, visited Telluride in the rain and fog, then continued along and over Last Dollar Road. Last Dollar Road dissolved into a small gravel road winding through the mountains, including water crossings. An adventure.
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We finally descended down into Glenwood where we met up with Rick. The selected hostel was a little less than what Sandy had hoped for. The highlight was Glenwood Springs in a thunderstorm.
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Day 12: Thursday 2010-08-12
We left Rick and spent a long day driving towards Hot Springs in South Dakota. Across the highest paved road in North America. As is typical for us, one of the highlights was a rock shop, in this case Coffee on the Rocks in Estes Park. Great location, great coffee and great rocks. We bought a bunch of both.
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Day 13: Friday 2010-08-13
The excellent lantern tour of Jewel Cave was followed by an unending drive straight north, through both Dakotas. I gave up late in the evening and Sandy took over, determined to get home. We had driven 7221 km, and spent 88 1/2 hours on the road. We squeezed in a lot in 13 days
Click HERE for the photo album.