Off Like a Herd of Turtles: Family Travel Blog

  Because of competing priorities, we only had one day allotted for Canyonlands National Park. This obviously wasn't enough to do substantial exploring but was actually very reasonable for a superficial taste of the Island in the Sky district. Canyonlands National Park is divided into multiple districts with Island of the Sky being the most accessible and visited. The Needles and the Maze are a couple other districts that we didn't even attempt to visit given their distance from our Dead Horse State Park home base and our desire to stick to shorter "get a taste of the place" hikes on this particular trip.  Grand View Point We played the whole day by ear partially based around when O (3) took his nap. While he was happily napping we listed to Gypsy Guides (once again highly recommend this GPS based app) and stopped at scenic points and while he was up we did short hikes. First we went to Grand View Point Overlook and Zooey and I explored while Ollie slept (we then swap...

Our trip to Goblin Valley State Park started at Capitol Reef National Park. For most, Goblin Valley is a quick stop over or missed entirely but I had gotten a hot tip from a fellow RV doctor mom about this fantastic state park so we had planned to spend 2 nights there. We hadn't, however, planned to spend 4 nights there..... We arrived in Capital Reef a bit tired from a big day of hiking in Arches and then the roughly 2 hour scenic drive to Capitol Reef. We arrived at Capitol Reef around dinner time. It was a bit chilly but sunny. The kids were really itching for some free play time so after a quick stop at the Visitors' Center, we let them play at will for the evening. Had we known how short our visit would be so short we would have explored more aggressively!  The next morning we awoke to this: Now we winter camp so the snow itself wasn't alarming, however it was significantly more accumulation than predicted and it was not stopping like it was "supposed to". So...

The arrival at Arches after 3.5 driving days was simply spectacular. The scenery was so unique- very different from anything any of us had seen before. We drove into Arches, quickly stopped at the visitor's center, and then were on our way. We couldn't contain ourselves for long and pulled into an overlook parking spot to get out of our car and explore. I hope I always remember those 15 minutes of pure joy. We arrived! 5 days of traveling, 3.5 solid long driving days, and it was all worth it already. All 4 of us were giddy with excitement. Ollie, Zooey and I ran off to check out some rocks to climb and we just explored with absolutely no agenda. It was magnificent. Then we meandered back to the trailer and car, turned on our Gypsy Guide app (highly recommend this paid app that gives historical and geologic/biologic info based on your GPS location-cell service not required), and excitedly drove to Devil's Garden Campground. Our campsite was top notch. The best campsite I...