Another Summer, Another Epic road trip in the books.
As I continued to work with through posting this vacation I can't believe that it's almost over. We had the same feeling I'm pretty much this day of the vacation. We knew we had two more days of fun activities followed by mostly two full days of driving like mad Men across the country. Well we tried to have a fun last day it was still not going to be anything like this. While we always look forward to getting home to sleep now in bed, have more space to spread out, and eat the food that we normally eat it's always sad the end of vacation.
- Pre Drive Friday Night to Altoona IA
- Day 1 Drive to Denver Co - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
- Day 2 Part 1 Drive to MOAB, Hike Corona Arch!!
- Day 2 Continued - Jet Boat Tour and Sunset at Dead Horse State Park
- Day 3 - Sunrise at Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Part 1
- Day 4 - Star Gazing at Arches National Park then an afternoon at Capital Reef National Park
- Day 5 - Day 4 Sunset and Day 5 Sunrise at Bryce Canyon National Park
- Day 5 - Evening Drive to Zion National Park - The Road of Tunnels
- Day 6 - Zion N'tl Park The Narrows and Scouts Overlookd
- Day 7 - Emerald Pools, Pa'rus Trail, Cathedral Overlook, Drive to St George
Another Day in Zion
This was one of our rare days where I didn't drive and change hotels overnight. Was quite relaxing to stay at the lodge again, even though the food was not great the views were spectacular. Waking up in the morning we didn't waste any time and got on the first tram to go hit up all the stuff so we hadn't hit up yet. They're just going to spend the day hiking or rehiking any of the trails that the kids wanted to before heading out to hit up the hotel in the pool to relax.
Canyon/Cathedral Overlook
The canyon or cathedral overlook is very beautiful stop. There are not really any trails off of this overlook, unless you count the trail that everyone seems to take down to walk along the river. I believe you are allowed to walk along the river along the path, but we only did for a little ways before turning around and coming back up.
The real highlight is a possibility to see the California condors that like to soar on The thermals of the canyon faces. Unfortunately for us there weren't any active when we stop by and talk to the park ranger. Honestly I don't think it mattered cuz the views are pretty spectacular and we got a one-on-one experience at the park ranger who was very knowledgeable since we're the only ones we got to go into just a wide variety of topics, the number of people that has started to show up to Zion, and how Zion is just not built to handle the amount of people that are currently flowing through the park each year. Infrastructure and layout just aren't there and really can't sustain the current load. Especially when you consider how much trash is generated all the hikers, even with most of it taking off the trails and throwing away. I honestly think the national parks might need to significantly increase the cost of a park pass to try to regulate the demand of people wanting to go there.
Phone Stylized
It's amazing how much better this photo looks, and these were just a recommended automated edits done by my pixel 5. It makes you realize that the photos you see online are most likely not real and heavily edited I need the colors really pop.
the real
Checked out of the room - loaded up the truck but kept hiking
You did have to check out of the hotel room file 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. so after checking out most of the stops and just sort of exploring some of the smaller stuff we went back to the room and packed up the truck again. Will packing up we knew it was going to be another 100° day, and with the amount of dirty sweaty clothes we had in the back of the truck it was going to cause some issues for our clothing. Not to mention the food we're going to get absolutely
Back to Emerald Pools Hike
Emerald pool hike again since I like it's so much the first time. This time they wanted to come down in the second half that we missed the first time around and see the additional pools take back the extra loop.
Rock Falls -
This was one of the informational boards along the hike. It has a pretty cool story about how a hiker randomly caught a massive Rock fall with his camera while out and about. The guy must have been pretty observant to catch it because I'm pretty sure I just would have stood there slack job watching The rocks ball and not realize to start my camera roll or a video.
More Pools
Pa'rus Trail
This is one of the final trails we can do, where we could just go in a nice walk. While there was not much of anything in terms of elevation, and this was actually a path where we saw a lot of bikers, it was shocking to me how hot it was. It really started to feel like the desert walking out there. Not sure if it was just the amount of hiking done in a prior days, or the strenuous nature of it but it really hit me hard this walk. We walked all the way back to the initial visitor center and caught a bus back to the lodge.
Off to the Hotel
After getting back to the truck we all decided to load up and all the snacks we wanted and drive the hour back to the hotel at St George. We left at the perfect time to check in a little early if possible, grab some fast food dinner at culver's, and hit the pool. The kids were static to get a chance to swim in an unbearable heat relax. They also got a chance to watch some TV for the first time in quite a few days and enjoyed some r&r that night. Well we are certainly not going to sleep in the next day it was quite relaxing that night.
For the kids swimming in the pool and my wife lost in the pool lounger, I managed to get three or four loads of laundry to the hotel machines before anyone else showed up to do them. It's quite common to do laundry in a hotels since everyone's out hiking and being active and heat and you don't want your clothes to mold or stink. You can't keep dirty clothes in the back of a truck in 100° weather for 7 to 10 days and not completely ruin them. This will be the second time I've done laundry on a trip
Vacation Stats
No updates to the stats since the count of the drive in the last post, and I'm not counting and driving this post.
Pre Drive Friday Night
Day -1 -Drive to Altoona
- 271 Miles
- 4 Hrs
Day 1 - Drive to Red Rocks & Hike - Drive to Look out Mountain and Eldorado Springs
- 694 Miles Red Rocks
- 10 Hours to Red Rocks
- 65 Miles Round Trip
- 2 Hours Round Trip
Day 2 Drive to MOAB - Hike, Jet Boat Tour and Dead Horse State Park
- 342 Miles
- 5.5 Hours
- Corona Arch, Pinto and Bow Tie Arch
- Jet Boat Tour
- Dead Horse State Park
Day 3 Arches National Park
- Sunrise at Delicate Arch
- Sand Dune and Broken Arch Trail, Balanced Rock, Windows Trials, Double Arch
- Mesa Arch
- Sunset at Whale Rock
- Driving 80 Miles, 1H 50M
Day 4 Sunrise at Arches, Drive to Capital Reef and Bryce Canyon
- Drive to Capital Reef 156 Miles 2hrs 45m
- Hickman Land Bridge
- Petroglyphs Panels
- Dixie National Forest
- Drive to Bryce Canyon 107 Miles - 2 Hrs
- Sunset at Bryce Canyon
Day 5 Sunrise at Bryce Canyon and Drive the Tunnels to Zion
- Sunrise at Bryce
- 7 Mile Hike on most of the trails.
- Drive 85 Miles (2 Hrs) to Zion
- Hike Emerald Pools
Day 6 Full Day In Zion National Park
- The Narrows Canyon
- Scouts Over Look via West Rim Trail
- Canyon Overlook Trail
Day 7 HIking Zion and Driving to St George
- Emerald Pools
- Pa'rus Trail
- Cathedral Overlook
- Drive to St George 46 Miles
Vacation Running Stats
Are running stats or getting up there, with a drive time of at least 28 hours and at least is 1700 miles excluding all the day driving to trailheads and activities and back and forth to be a pretty massive trip so far. It's a good thing my Chevy Silverado is so good on gas at an average of 17.2 miles to the gallon.
Here is the overall view of the drive excluding many of the small excusions
Tracked Totals including excursions
Total Miles - 1846
Total Time Driving - 31 hrs
Total Drive