Road Trip 2024 Part 4 - NE and Wrap Up

Silly video of Road Trip 2024

The end of our road trip brought us back to Nana and Papa in Fremont.  It was so refreshing to be back in a place we know well with people who know and love us. We enjoyed having one of Nina's favorites, Runza, and playing games together. 

Our trip brought us over 3800 miles and through 10 states.  The car made it, but needed new tires by the end and an oil change in the middle.  The warped rotor really became apparent as we were going through the mountains of Colorado.  We read a combined 10 books and played a lot of Mario Party on the Switch and kept entertained with a lot of music and some Harry Potter book six on audio as well.  Our health held out pretty well until the end, but overall we feel extremely lucky with how we all fared.  

Road Trip 2024 Part 3 - AZ, NM & CO (again)

Our final stages of the road trip were supposed to help us wind down, but they seemed to fill up with other activities.

Upon leaving the Grand Canyon, we went to Lake Powell in Page and had a great stay.  We saw some cool spots along the drive in Marble Canyon and overlooking the Colorado river. The girls liked cliff jumping near the dam and Horseshoe Bend was another beautiful spot. We spotted a California Condor, North America's largest bird and one that is fairly rare. Shiprock was another crazy site on the drive out.

Then we made our way into New Mexico and all of their one-lane road construction.  Our lazy day turned into fun at a park on a lake, some shopping and ice cream.  Our favorite part of the stay was the Aztec Ruins National Monument.  It was interesting to learn about the Puebloan people who founded the site around a thousand years ago.  

Our last destination was the Sand Dunes National Park.  It was much different scenery as we went from the deserts of New Mexico to the forests and mountains of Colorado.  We took a hike to see the waterfall nearby, Zapata Falls, and then got to spend a day walking the sand dunes.  It had rained the night before, so much of the sand was cool and wet, but we still tried the local activity of sand-boarding and sand sledding.  We had a few falls, but overall enjoyed the experience. 

Road Trip 2024 Part 2 - UT & AZ

Holy cow, Utah was hot.  We were surprised that going south into Arizona provided a relief temperature-wise, but both places were beautiful and we saw some amazing sites.  We spent most of our Utah time in Moab where we hung out by the Colorado River and took a few trips into Arches National Park.  Because the temperatures were triple digits between 9am and 7pm we tried to explore the park early in the morning and later at night.  It was considerably different hiking in the shade compared to the sun.  We spent some of the middle of the days exploring the town, sitting in the air-conditioned library, and on a rafting trip.  We had a guide who did all the paddling, so that was a bit less adventurous than we wanted, but it was a good first experience for the girls to see the power of a river even if the rapids were quite small.  We still had fun being on the water and learning more about the area while swimming in the cold river

Photo taken by our guide Mike    -----     There are 2 bald eagles in this photo

Leaving Moab, we headed to Kanab where we made our way to the Arizona border and got to visit Coyote Buttes North, aka The Wave. In the spring we entered a lottery and were awarded the opportunity to hike it (about 64 people get to hike each day).  It was a tricky drive and a difficult hike - around 7 miles there and back with limited markers and plenty of heat.  We started with close to 6 gallons of water and ended with about one!  But reaching The Wave was amazing and it was wild to see how strange our planet can look.

After some rest, we were thrilled to go south to 70 degree temperatures at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  We knew it had its own ecosystem, but getting to see how that produced a forest supporting all kinds of wildlife (like bison) was very cool.  After a fair amount of canyons and geological sites, this one was definitely the largest, but felt less crazy than The Wave.  That also might be because we took much easier hikes here at the canyon.  We really loved seeing it from different angles, in different weather, and it marked the farthest point on the road trip as we were about 1600 miles from home.

saw lightning headed our way