Author: Emma & Oliver

Today is a drive day to make it from Lawrence KS to St Louis MO, however we are going to visit 2 National sites. So I guess we are also doing some sightseeing.

Our first stop was in Topeka KS, to visit Brown Vs Board of Education Historical Site.

Separate but equal, it was the term we were learning about at this historic site. Even though the white and black schools had equal resources, the damage was still being done. Because the kids were separate the black kids were being taught that they were less desirable than white kids. Ranger Armstrong taught us that this court case was about proving that their was still psychological differences.

We had a great time exploring this old school. But then it was time to go.

Time to drive to St Louis, to the Gateway Arch National Park

We drove to the RV Park to drop of the camper and set up camp, but did it quickly as we were excited to explore Gateway Arch.

After a quick trip on the St. Louis metro it’s time to explore…

Our tram to the top of the arch arrived it looked like a spaceship!

We had 10 minutes to explore the top of the arch.

Before leaving, Jr Ranger Badge…

A very long, but fun day!

Today our drive takes us across I70, that is the only road we drove on. From Limon Colorado to Lawrence Kansas.

We did take a minor stop for mom as we stop to take a picture at Ft. Riley, where she was born.

It seemed like a long drive but it was not. We finally arrived at our campground in Clinton State Park KS. We set up camp and them left to go see our cousins for dinner in Lawrence KS.

We had homemade mac and cheese and walked into town for ice cream.

Sad to go and say bye to our cousins.

Time to head east, so we left the Moab Desert to head into Colorado.

However we don’t just drive, we continued to explore and found Colorado National Monument. So we drop off our trailer at a large gas station and climbed the switch backs and drove through the tunnels.

Finally made it to the visitor center. A short hike to view a great monolith.

Oh and couldn’t leave before finishing a Jr Ranger Badge.

Back in the car to continue our drive to Limon CO, to our KOA for the night, we are all tired.

Another HOT day as we explore Canyonlands.

We had to travel down the mesa our campground was on to climb back up the mesa Canyonlands was on. We went to explore Island in the Sky district in Canyonlands.

Our hike today was to the Mesa Arch, across the mesa and to to the edge.

We did some more driving to more view point on the mesa.

It was a short day, so we decided to go back and hang out at the campground, but not before getting another Jr Ranger Badge.

Got up early for an exciting day at Arches, we started by stopping at the visitor center for Ollie’s Jr Ranger Book. We decided to get going early as we want to take our daily hike on one of the most famous trails.

We entered the park up a winding road of switch backs.

We headed straight to Delicate Arch Trail. We were thinking that the trail would be very busy, but it wasn’t. So we put on our water bags and bargain our long trek up to Delicate Arch.

Not a lot of shade, but when we could find one we definitely took a break.

We turned the corner on the skinny trail and WOW!!!!

They way down was very easy, well maybe too easy as Emma fell and twisted her ankle and scrapped her knee. But Emma had a great helper, Oliver.

It took us a long time to recover from our hot hike, so we hung out in the car in the AC

Our next stop was at Devils Garden Trail, where we got to see the largest arch in the park, Landscape Arch.

We got back in the ac of the car to drive to some other viewpoints to see windows.

Our last stop was at Balancing Rock, so we did some balancing of our own.

Of course we can’t leave the park without finishing up back at the visitor center for Ollie to get his Jr Ranger Badge.

Fun day at Arches, now back to Dead Horse Point Campground for dinner and sunset.

Up early to drive to the Moab Desert to the next campground, Dead Horse State Park. We have to bring all our water with use as there is no available water once we get there. So we stocked up.

We headed south into the heat, but decided to take a detour to another National Park, Cedar Breaks.

And yes Oliver got another Jr Ranger Badge.

Back on the road, we arrived at Dead Horse for Sunset.

Another single day park day…

Today we drove to Zion just a short distance from Bryce to explore the National park. We had the camper with us, so had to wait a shirt time for a parking spot. But once we parked, we left the car a jumped on the free shuttle. Well everyone got on the shuttle as you are not allowed to drive through Zion.

Before starting we picked up a Jr Ranger book and listened in on a Ranger talk about Cactus.

First stop of the shuttle was at the Zion Lodge, where we found the trail head to the Emerald Pool.

We walked under the waterfalls, what is left of them. The pools were pretty empty.

After our hike got some ice cream at the lodge and sat under a large tree for shade.

Once we chilled out from our ice cream and relaxed from our hike we got back in the car with a great audio tour of Zion and saw some more sites.

Long day of seeing Zion!

But day is not over. We got back to the car and camper and drove…to a HOTEL!! Mom and dad could not get a campsite for tonight, so thanks to Poppi we had a place to sleep. We went out to eat and camp back and went swimming in the hotel pool, well mom and dad went in the hot tub.

Day 20…

Only one day to explore Bryce Canyon and there is so much to see.

Our first adventure is to hike through the HOODOOs. Wow, this was such an awesome hike. The Hoodoos are the rock formation that makes up much of Bryce Canyon.

Ok we are ready for our hike into the Hoodoos. We have a bunch of switchbacks to hike to get down into the Bryce Canyon Amphitheater.

It was amazing down in the Canyon, huge trees climbing between the hoodoos to reach the sunlight.

We explored at the bottom of the canyon, but it was time to climb back up.

Back to the campground for some lunch and lots of water. After our break we headed out for a drive to Sunset Point, the furthest we can go on the park drive. We were able to view into the amphitheater we just hiked into.

Driving back we stopped at many viewpoints.

Can’t forget…we completed the day with Oliver getting yet another Jr Ranger Badge.

Guess we weren’t tired as we got back to the campsite to play an intense game of National Park Monopoly!!

Today we are moving to another National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park.

Mom and Dad got us up at 6:30 to get moving, the drive to day is about 10 hours.

We left WY and entered ID…

but 5 minutes later we enter WY again.

One last stop in WY was Fossil Butte, and another Junior Ranger Badge.

Now into Utah…

And one more stop at Timpanogos Cave National Monument. Yes, another Jr Ranger Badge.

Now on to Sunset Campground in Bryce Canyon National Park.

This was our last day in the Grand Tetons and we spent it on the water. We rented a pontoon boat for the entire day.

We tried to go fishing but nothing was biting.

After a quick dip in the glacier waters of Jackson Lake, we all took our turn at driving.

Had a nice day on the water, back to the campsite to pack up and go to bed.