2017 Roadtrip part 7 (Zion and driving home)

Well, we have come to the last leg of our trip, Zion National Park. The original plan was to make the 2 hour drive to the park, explore and then get to our hotel in St. George with the plan that we would hit the Hoover Dam the following day on our drive home. However, the Brianshead fire caused a change in plans. We ended up driving all the way home from Bryce Canyon in one day- 11 hours of driving total. Luckily, we were already on the way to Zion when we made the decision to keep heading home so we did get to see it a little bit. 

There were several tunnels in Zion and they were pretty neat.

The smoke made it pretty hazy, so we only stopped a few times really quick to take pictures. 

Another tunnel...

Who sleeps like this?

I sure wish we could have explored more, but fingers crossed we will make our way back there again soon.

We drove through a very small part in Arizona and then...

Over to Nevada

It was a really long drive home, but the upside about getting home a day early was one more day to recover before heading back to work. When we rented our van, there was only 100 miles on it!

This trip was absolutely amazing. I kept my expectations in check because I know traveling with kids can be unpredictable, but really, they couldn't have done any better. I loved the memories we made that I will always carry with me. And now all I wonder is... where should we go next year???

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 6

2017 Roadtrip part 6 (Utah and Bryce Canyon)

From Idaho Falls, we went south down to Utah to see Bryce Canyon. The people in Utah are so nice! And we went the largest Costco in the world - literally an employee told me so - in Salt Lake to restock our snacks and drinks. There was a really neat theme park in Salt Lake City, but didn't get a chance to go with the kiddos.

Beautiful views on the way into Bryce Canyon National Park.

I honestly didn't really know what to expect here. But boy was it BEAUTIFUL! There are trails you can follow and the main road has several view points where you can park, get out, and enjoy the amazing views.

The kiddos loved the Natural Bridge the most. Bridges are kinda their thing :)

The Brianhead Fire in Utah was blazing, which we didn't until we got to Bryce, and smoke was heading our way. You can see the smoke taking over the beautiful blue sky.

Just outside of the park is a great tourist spot. There are several hotels together,a  few restaurants and a couple shops. It was nice to get back to hotel, relax a little bit and go enjoy the town with everything within walking distance. 

The Rock Shop was the coolest. I used to collect rocks as a kid, so I was beaming all the while telling the kids over and over not to touch. lol. You can see the smoke from the fire in this picture. We were lucky that it never came all that close and we couldn't hardly even smell it because of the breeze. 

That entire week, Bryce Canyon was having its Astronomy Week and it ended the night we were staying there. I was able to go see their keynote speaker, Dean Regas. Dean is an astronomer at the Cincinnati Observatory and it was really neat to hear his presentation. Afterwards, buses were provided to take the visitors out to a star gazing event. Luckily, the smoke did not interfere with our night gazing. This was the COOLEST thing ever. ( man, I certainly geeked out on this trip with geology, rocks, and astronomy ha!) I love star gazing. At the site, there were about 30 telescopes set up and ready to us to view several different phenomenon. I was able to see a double-star, ring nebula, globular cluster, Jupiter with its spot, Saturn and its rings, and two colliding galaxies. AMAZING.

Bryce Canyon had amazing views, they took my breath away. And I will certainly never forget my experience at Bryce Canyon's Astronomy week.

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3    Part 4    Part 5

2017 Roadtrip part 5 (Grand Teton and Idaho Falls)

As we exited Yellowstone to the south, we also drove through Grand Teton National Park. This park had great views of the mountains.

Still so much snow in June.

We drove through Jackson Hole, WY and this was literally the only picture of got of the proof. The town seemed really neat except that driving over the mountain pass to leave was the scariest thing ever. I never want to do that again, lol. 

That night we stayed in Driggs, ID. There wasn't much around but we found a nice park for the kids to play in the next day. Luke still says that this park was his favorite part of the whole trip :/

A nice memorial at the park

We continued on to Idaho Falls. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. These falls were so neat and a nice park was built around it to enjoy the view. I would love to head back to Idaho Falls in the future to do more exploring. 

I love this sign, it was right off of a freeway exit.

The Fam Bam

Luke had been learning a lot about volcanoes the last few days, so he was so excited to sit on a lava rock.

I wish we could have spent more time here. We literally only stopped here for about 20 minutes and kept on driving south. It seemed like the town had so much history, I hope I get the chance to head back there to do more exploring one day.

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3    Part 4