Off Like a Herd of Turtles: Family Travel Blog

Dead Horse Point "Cooking" at the campsite Based on tips from a fellow RV doctor mom, we chose to stay at Dead Horse State Park as a home base to explore Canylonds National Park. Canyonlands does have a campground in the park but it is first come first served only and until we are comfortable with dispersed camping if we find a desired campsite full, we feel most comfortable with reserved sites. We stayed at the Kayenta Campground at Dead Horse and it was lovely. The kids greatly enjoyed the picnic area and the cabinets which allowed them to take their pretend kitchen game to the next level.  Dead Horse Point Dead Horse Point is incredible. Absolutely incredible. No pictures do it justice. I went by myself at sunset the first night and wow. It was way more impressive to me than the Grand Canyon. I ran around enjoying it from every angle, in some ways made all the more sweet by the fact that I knew I had to soak it all in quickly to get back to help with bedtime. We breakfaste...

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...