Ahhhh! I’m finally getting back into a routine and posting to the blog. I have good reason though. Earlier this year we embarked on one of our biggest adventures and decided it was time to sell our home in Northern Virginia. We needed something bigger and with more space to store camping equipment. Ha! At the same time we were getting ready to take our big vacation of the year. So I apologize for not writing many new posts. On the plus side, our epic Southwest U.S. vacation was so jam packed that I have a ton of info to share.
Our Southwest U.S. National Parks trip had been in the works for some time. I knew snagging rooms in the some of the lodges would require advance planning so I started making reservations last February. We also had a pretty good idea of what our “must sees” were. We knew we wanted to visit Zion National Park, Arches National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. Oddly enough, only one of those three ended up being one of our favorite stops. More to come on that.
We took advantage of the girls getting a little longer spring break at school. Since our summer is going to be busy with moving, this seemed perfect for us. We did need to take them out of school for a few extra days, but it was 1000% worth it in my opinion. Family time is crucial, and this was by far one of the most educational trips we’ve taken.
Our trip began on Friday, March 23rd when we flew to Denver and picked up our rental car. My friends thought we were crazy, but we did this for a reason. Yes, Zion National Park was set to be our first stop. However, we saved a lot of money by flying in and out of Denver and thoroughly enjoyed the drive. This was the only time on our trip that we saw a big horn sheep. In fact, we saw about four climbing some rocks near the highway in Glenwood Canyon.
Our stops included: Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Monument Valley, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Grand Canyon National Park.
Now that things have sort of settled down I have some time to start writing again. Hopefully I’ll be able to give you some tips for your next big road trip!
