Rough Start
Unfortunately, the trip to Paris got cancelled all together while the trip to Italy got postponed for two years, finally able to achieve this in April 2022.
So now how does this road trip all tie into 2020? Good question! One of the first things in the US to open back up was the National Park system. Because everything was outdoors and crowds could be monitored, this was the perfect vacation in this Covid ridden year! As soon as I heard about their opening, I went on the government website for the national parks which is nps.gov and I ordered the yearly interagency park pass for $80. It was the best deal of this entire trip! It allowed us to get into Zion Np, Bryce NP, Yellowstone and Grand Teton park. And I’ve made sure I get one every year!
Sometime during the night, lost in the night driving with multiple cat naps, I started driving down a steep mountain pass and was able to see the glow from the fires that had caused all the disruption in our trip. It wasn’t the best picture that I’ve ever taken. When I stepped out of the car to take this, the wind whipping through the hills here, were mighty cold. I wasn’t prepared for how cold those winds actually were and started shivering almost immediately!
As with everyone else in the world, 2020 threw me some wild punches. I have to be thankful, though, because while we got sick with Covid, it wasn’t nearly as bad as with some people. But Covid definitely shifted our lives in several major ways! I’m sticking to the subject of traveling relevant to this blog: Lol! And so it’s not the biggest adjustment that we had to make that year but originally, I had scored some awesome prices on airline tickets to Rome and Paris. Prices that made it very hard to refuse! But as everyone knows, the entire world shut down and these trips, that had been planned for April and July respectively, had to be changed! In fact these trips were changed multiple times over the course of 2 years.
Planning this trip was alot of fun with so much to see but it’s also the trip that taught me to plan for contingencies! The plan was to fly into Denver, Co and then road trip out to Zion and start our trip, taking Rt 70 for most of the way. What I didn’t know was that Rt 70, the major interstate that runs through Colorado was also a canyon. So when the cops shut down Rt 70 because there was a major forest fire that crossed the highway, I found this out the hard way! I had to backtrack for well over an hour and then take a drive up and around the afflicted area. This is what lead to this trip’s unplanned adventure that took a bit more time than I planned. While I was driving, two cars ahead of me, this poor truck blew a tire, flipped and rolled a couple times. all of the surrounding cars got out to see if the family was ok and thankfully, they were! Then because the gas was dripping onto the road, we had to be careful but we did succeed at rolling the truck back onto its remaining tires and out of the middle of the road so that everyone could pass by. I then drove the family down to the nearest ranch to make calls and we went on our way.
The original plan was to get to Zion late at night so that we could hike and get sunrise pictures right in the park. As you can assume, this goal couldn’t be achieved after everything that had happened but I tried my best! LOL
I continued driving throughout the night, taking 20 minute cat naps when I started to nod off. I would pullover to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere where all I would hear was coyotes howling in the pitch black darkness. In someways this howling was scary but I also figured, they wouldn’t bother a parked car so I fell asleep to the sound.
After coming to terms with the fact that we wouldn’t make it to see the sunrise at the park that morning, we made a small pitstop at a little house I spotted on the side of the road. I had no idea that it was Butch Cassidy’s childhood home! I have always loved being able to see and touch history. It bring the people and stories come alive!
The next morning, I was still driving to Zion as the sun started peeking over the hills. I pulled over only long enough to take this picture.
Zion NP
Until we came here to Zion, I had only visited 1 National park: Great Smoky National Park (The New River Gorge in WV hadn’t become a National Park yet) so I was unprepared for how vast and majestic Zion would be. I love the Great Smokies but it has a different kind of beauty than Zion.
One thing that amazed me about this park: the deer are not afraid of people at all here! People were sitting down on the lawn of the Zion Park Lodge, just relaxing and eating lunch. The deer were all over the yard, eating grass within just a few feet from the people, relaxing too.
Nothing can prepare you for the beauty of this park. It is definitely up there as one of my favorite parks! I made one big mistake when I planned this trip though. I didn’t plan enough time to see each park. I could easily take an entire week, hiking to all trails and still want to see more. In fact, I’ve made a list of trails I want to hike on the next trip. The problem: I haven’t planned it yet beyond the trails! LOL
The mountain goats are incredible! They climb everywhere. I swear in some ways they are the original Houdinis! This one decided to just trot along the road as I was driving that morning!
Bryce National park
We hiked the Navajo Loop Trail to the Queens Garden Trail. This gave us some incredible views over the mountains, several color changes and also some great memories. To this day, when I smell a certain hot pine/ dirt smell, it reminds me of Bryce NP. It makes me want to go back and visit again.
The next morning, we left Zion and started driving to Bryce National Park, Bryce National Park has some amazing vistas to look at but it’s so much more too. Inside the canyons, the rock formations are incredible. And the tenacity of life, insisting on growing and thriving in the most incredible spots, made me take a look at my own life and how tenacious I was during that crazy year!
That evening, we stayed long enough to watch the sunset but we had to turn in early that night for 2 reasons: 1st, We were exhausted from the hikes in Zion and here in Bryce. That first day we had walked well over 30K steps and we arrived after 9Am. My hips wanted to disown me after that! 2nd, because I wanted to wake up very early to see the sunrise over Bryce the next morning.
As you see from the picture above, We did wake up in time to make it to watch the sunrise. We weren’t the only ones with that idea, in fact it was a very popular thing to do! Everyone grabs a parking spot and then a bench to sit on with a good vantage point for the view. One thing to note though: It was really cold! I bundled Justin and I up in our winter coats, double layers and then cocooned us in a blanket to stay warm! It will be a memory for the years
Grand Teton NP
That night I had planned and booked to stay in my first Airbnb. Paid for it and all. This is where I ran into me second issue of this trip: AirBnB has you receive your entry info via email the day before your arrival. This doesn’t work too well when you are making a National Park trip where internet isn’t available. So when I went to get the entry information, I couldn’t get the address nor what do to to get in. We ended up camping in the car, on the side of the road next to a river on the way to Grand Teton NP. It was great waking up in the morning next to that river. The day dawned beautiful and chilly, perfect for waking up, without coffee! Then we were off to Grand Teton National Park.
The following morning, after our day in Bryce, we started the 6 hour drive up north to that part of our trip. Our first stop was slated to be at Lava Hot Springs Swimming Complex in Idaho. It’s a great place and if you get in the area, stop on in for a swim. There are multiple pools, with diving boards and different depths. I, of course, planned this stop for Justin, my son who was born a human fish! LOL
Even for 2020, since we were told that you couldn’t get Covid through a swimming pool, this place was packed!
One of the must do hikes in Grand Teton NP is Jenny Lake Trail. This trail circles Jenny Lake inside GTNP. It’s Incredibly calm, clear and peaceful. We didn’t take the entire circle because Justin was hiked out after the first two Parks. But we did take the boat ride across the lake to the part of the trail that leads up to Inspiration point and Hidden Falls. The hike wasn’t hard, and it’s a very popular spot to go, eat lunch, take pictures and just enjoy nature. I wish I could have stayed longer but as I said, Justin was hiked out and we didn’t have time to camp, so we left after a few hours and headed straight to Yellowstone which is straight up Rt 191 from Grand Teton National Park.
Yellowstone NP
There are 5 ways to get into Yellowstone and the roads through the park form a gigantic figure 8. The lower left hand side of this figure 8 holds Old Faithful and the Grand Prismatic Spring. These are definite must sees but they aren’t the only things to see here. There are many geysers here that go off at different intervals plus many different hot springs that have a multitude of colors. These colors are derived from the different thermophiles that have the ability to stand certain temperature ranges.
When you get to Old Faithful, you will notice that it is in fact so much more than just one geyser. It is actually a collection of geysers and hot springs all over that area with safe walking paths to view them. You can spend hours here just walking around and learning about these different geysers, their make up, and how often they erupt. Each are different. Each has its own age, height and personality. It is quite a sight here, just looking down the field and seeing a bunch of these geysers erupting at multiple periods. Grand Geyser is taller than most at almost 200′ erupting geyser here but the intervals between eruptions are much longer than most others. And Steamboat Geyser has the largest at more than 300′ but these are very unpredictable.
The northern side has Mammoth Hot springs which is something to see! It’s beautiful though very stinky! Actually all the hot springs are stinky because of the gases coming up. This is also where we got to see the bison herds.
Another little story for the books: to the left is a picture of a very dangerous situation! It doesn’t look like it, I know! It didn’t look like it to me either when I parked my car and walked Justin and I onto the bridge to take a picture of the river. I thought I had placed us far enough away from the bison but it proved not to be the case! This is one of the very few times I have ever run for my life and was actually scared! You see that truck behind it, coming down the road, scared the bison. And the bison saw Justin and I standing on the bridge by ourselves. So because it was scared, from the truck, it charged at us. If it wasn’t for a very brave park ranger who drove up at that moment and stopped his truck right in front at the same time that I steered Justin around and told him to run to the car, we would have been in serious danger! I will be forever indepted to this ranger who I’ve never meet! I don’t normally make stupid traveling mistakes but here, in this one, I did!
The upper right hand side of the figure 8 of Yellowstone is where you find Yellowstone Falls. Theres an upper and lower falls. Both are beautiful in their own ways. The most highly pictured is the upper falls. And yes, I did the same because it is magnificent! You can’t hear the sound of the falls from this location but the raw, wild beauty is amazing! They have named this the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone River and it really is beautiful. No it doesn’t have the same colors but they are still striking against the background of high skies and evergreens.
This was the serene valley where Justin and I enjoyed a picnic lunch did a bit of exploring. It was quite beautiful in a quiet sort of way, still waters, no wind in the grasses and a beautiful view! I never wanted to leave this place! I could have explored forever! Unforetunately, we had to start driving toward Colorado because our plane would take us back home very soon!
Wyoming
This picture to the right shows the last sunset of that trip. Taken from the hill above the Airbnb that we had, it was a fiery sunset, just like my mood! Kind of fitting, I thought for our last night out west!
After leaving Yellowstone, we started driving toward Denver. We didn’t have to be there for another day so we took the time to stop off at two places: First one was Old Trail Town off rt 14 in Wyoming and then he second place was the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis. Knowing how much my son loves to dig in the ground, I thought he would be really fascinated with these. He enjoyed the dinosaur stop but I was more interested in the trail town than him. That’s probably because I recognized the names they were talking about where as he loves digging into the dirt to this day!
