7/17 - Tuesday - Travel Home

On Tuesday, we spent the day driving the remainder of the way home.

7/16 - Monday - Bent's Old Fort

We spent the morning touring Bent’s Old Fort.

http://www.nps.gov/beol/index.htm

The fort was actually an 1840’s adobe fur trading post. The fort is a living history museum, where living historians recreate the sights, sounds and smells of life at the fort. We arrived first thing in the morning for a tour. A Navaho Native American woman led us. She explained life in the fort from the woman’s perspective, which was very different from a Man’s. The wife of the fort owner was a Native American, and on our tour she told of her life and the family’s life at the fort. The fort itself was reconstructed as it was in 1840, built entirely from adobe construction methods. The fort and tour were very well done. I’d definitely suggest to anyone to stop in for a visit. About a half a day is all that you need to tour it.

We left around noon. We were planning on driving all the way home on Tuesday, so we needed to get in a good amount of driving this day. We drove well into the evening, stopping at Lincoln Nebraska for the night.

7/15 - Sunday - Great Sand Dunes National Park

On Sunday, we left for Great Sand Dunes National Park. This park is located in south central Colorado, pretty much directly south of Denver. We arrived at the park about mid afternoon. This park is a very interesting place. The size of the dunes cannot be underestimated; they are huge. The park covers a large area, but most of it is not developed and difficult to visit unless you hike for long distances. The riverbed that flows along the dunes was dry when we were there. It usually dries up around mid June. I’d definitely suggest getting there while it’s still flowing; everything is sand so it’s like a day at the beach for the kids. There is some type of tidal effect that we saw in the park movie that looked very interesting. The dunes are still a sight to see even if the river is dry. We had a lot of fun running up and down them. Some people will bring their skis or snowboard and slide down them. We had neither. It will also scrape the heck out of your skis or board so it’s something you’d want to do with an old pair.

We spent a few hours at the park and then headed to our next destination, Bent’s Old Fort in La Junta Colorado. We stayed at the KOA on the edge of town.

7/14 - Saturday - Mesa Verde National Park

On Saturday, we visited the other portion of the park on Chapin Mesa. We toured Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace. This side of the park has more sites and definitely more people. If you only had one day in the park, you’d want to go to this side. The museum is also on this side. We had no problem filling the day visiting these sites. Driving time between the two mesas and entrance to the park is very long. Plan accordingly. Both of the sites we toured had lots of good climbing opportunities for the kids. Some of the sites have these long ladders that are used to climb in and out of the dwellings. The girls loved it. I think one is close to 30 feet high, so if you are afraid of heights, it might not be the best choice.

7/13 - Friday - Mesa Verde National Park

On Friday we left Moab and headed back into Colorado for Mesa Verde National Park. This is located in the southwestern portion of the state, very near the four corners area.

http://www.nps.gov/meve/index.htm

We were camping again, staying at the Morefield campground within the park. I think this was a good idea. The park is very large, with a lot of ridges, hills and valleys. Mesa Verde means “green table”, or the high, flat portion of the land. Many canyons spider up into the park, making for some long drives getting around to the sites. We set up camp and drove down to the Wetherill mesa to visit the Step House and Long House area. Tour tickets are required for three of the major sites, Long House, Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace. Again, these are very worthwhile, we went on the Long House Tour this day and Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace Saturday. I think this park was the favorite on the trip for Doris and the girls. It was very interesting to see all native dwellings and learn about these ancient cultures. The dwellings, both those on the mesa and under the cliffs were used from about 600 to 1200 AD. There is much debate among the rangers, Native American tribes and archeologists about the people who lived here. Why they came, why they build the dwellings under the cliffs and why they eventually left.

7/12 - Thursday - Arches National Park

On Wednesday we took the Fiery furnace hike. This was fantastic. It may have been the highlight of the entire trip. The hike is through a maze of rock formations, spires, walls, and crevices that spider in and out. The ranger had a number of stories about how hikers get lost very quickly in this relatively small area. There were also lots of arches contained within it. It was great.

That afternoon, we hiked the Devil’s Garden area. The longest arch in the park, landscape arch, is located in this area. After we ate dinner that evening, we went back into the park to hike to delicate arch for the sunset. This arch is the most famous in the park and a Utah icon. It’s a beautiful, rainbow like shape, unlike most anything else in the park. The arch has a nice flat viewing area in front of it; similar to an amphitheater or church like setting. With the setting sun, the colors and shapes in the rocks really come alive. A large number of people hike to this spot for sunset. It’s a tricky hike with a fairly long uphill and some spots that are narrow with steep drop offs. Be careful and take lots of water if you are there in the heat. Martha and I viewed it from the lower viewing area.

7/11 - Wednesday - Arches National Park

On Wednesday we left for Arches National Park in Utah. This was a short drive for us, about 2 hours. We were also out of the mountains at this point so the drive went rather fast.

http://www.nps.gov/arch/

Arches is a beautiful park. We were able to spend the second half of the day in the park. We did the drive through the park, stopping at the various rock formations. We did some smaller hikes from the various stopping points along the road. A nice family hike is the Park Avenue hike. Take the trail one-way and send someone back for the car (sounds like Dad’s job). We also visited the windows section this day; the hikes there were shorter. It was very hot, at least 100 degrees all day. There are many arches that are very accessible with very short hikes and I think we were able to hit about everything. Even with the heat, the short hikes make it easy to see a lot in a short time.

When we first arrived that day, we signed up for a hike in the Fiery Furnace.

http://www.nps.gov/arch/photosmultimedia/fieryfurnacegallery.htm

You need to sign up ahead of time for this hike and there is a small fee. We were able to get a spot in the next morning’s hike. The ranger led hike is also the only way to see this area of the park, but very much worth it. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Moab, just a short drive from the park entrance. This was a nice break from the heat and it had an indoor pool for the kids. The camping in the park is small and primitive (no showers or flush toilets). The hotel was a good choice; I had checked out all daily high temps for July at all the places we were stopping at ahead of time. I thought this was the only one that we really could use a hotel for and I think I made the right call.

7/10 - Tuesday - Colorado National Monument

On Tuesday we visited Colorado National Monument.

http://www.nps.gov/colm

James M Robb State Park was about a mile or so from the entrance so this was an easy driving day. We toured the park, did some hiking on Otto’s trail; plus some others and went to the visitor center. The park is very nice and easy to access even if you are just driving through, as it’s just a few miles off the highway. It’s not very big so it’s easy to stop in for a quick visit, even if you have less than a day and are just passing through. Our plan was to tour the park until after lunch and then to spend some time in the afternoon at the Dinosaur Journey Museum.

http://www.dinosaurjourney.org/

The museum was located just within a block or so of our campground. This was a nice museum for the kids. It had lots of hands on exhibits and lots of most anything you could want in a dinosaur museum. There were lots of bones, fossils, and other various exhibits. There were even a group of paleontologists working on bones that had been dug from near by sites. We also got some directions to a dig site and hiking trail where you could see real dinosaur bones and fossils still in rocks. This was a short drive down the highway to “Rabbit Valley” and the “Trail through Time” dig spot and hiking area. It was a blistering hot afternoon for hiking, but finding the bones made the trip worthwhile.

http://www.dinosaurjourney.org/maps.htm

After our hike, we went back into the park for some more hiking and exploring. The park has ‘rim rock drive’, a 23-mile drive along the top of the canyon. The road is very popular for biking and I’d certainly want to take a ride on it. The sunset views of the canyons were wonderful. The colors really come alive at that time of the day.

7/9 - Monday - Travel Day

Monday was a transition day. We left Rocky Mountain National Park and headed out for the western slope of Colorado and the Grand Junction area. We stopped at Winter Park Colorado to check out the ski hill and a toboggan slide they have. We all rode down the slide, which was on the ski hill. It was a nice experience for the kids, who have not been downhill skiing yet.

We continued our driving and eventually arrived at the town of Fruita Colorado, just past Grand Junction. We stayed at James M Robb State Park, Fruita Section for the next two nights. This was a very nice, brand new state park. They had the nicest facilities I think I’ve ever seen in a state park. The park itself is on the edge of Grand Junction and Fruita. It’s also pretty close to the interstate and just on the edge of town.

http://parks.state.co.us/Parks/JamesMRobbColoradoRiver/Camping/FruitaSection/

On the western slope, the area is high desert country, so there are few trees. It gets pretty hot during the day in July, with highs in the mid to upper 90’s, but does cool down nicely at night. We had quite a contrast between the sleeping bags at night and raging hot sun during the day. It really worked out fine as any air conditioning from a hotel room was only really useful during the day, and we were out sightseeing at that time. Like they always say, “It’s a dry heat.”

7/8 - Sunday - Rocky Mountain National Park

We continued our exploration of the park this day. In the morning we attended a ranger hike and talk about the Native Americans that lived in the park. This talk was centered on the Ute and Arapaho tribes and their way of life. The ranger was very good as usual; we learned a lot and had fun. There are several visitor centers, nature centers and other sites to see in the park. After our ranger led hike, we proceeded to the Bear Lake area. This is a popular area that has short hikes that lead to a series of mountain stream fed lakes. There are also some other hiking trails in the area that have waterfalls in them.

The girls also completed the Junior Ranger program for the park. After our hikes, we went to the Moraine Park Museum to allow the girls to complete their books and hand them in to get their badges.

7/7 - Saturday - Rocky Mountain National Park

On our first day we spent touring Rocky Mountain National Park. Here is the link to the park.

http://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm

We wanted to limit our hiking for the first day, as this was our first stop with any altitude to speak of in the trip. We drove up Old Fall River Road (one way) to the top of the mountain range (over 12,000 ft). This road joins with Trail Ridge Road, which can be taken in either direction. We had numerous stops and vistas to take in. We spent some time at the top, hiking to the highest point from the lookout area. We also did another smaller hike along an old Ute Indian trail to some snow patches. We ate lunch at the top also. In the afternoon we drove down the west side of Trail Ridge Road to the town of Grand Lake. We ate dinner there. We then stopped at the Green Mountain Trail, which is part of the way back up the mountain, for another hike. The trail was an area that was popular for sighting moose. We ended up talking to some people on the trail that had spotted some earlier, but we did not. It also started raining, which forced us to head back to the car a bit early.

7/6 - Friday - Pioneer Village

We toured Pioneer Village until about noon. After noon we left Minden and continued on our trip. Just a short drive down I-80 was The Great Platte River Road Archway. We did not know about this before we left home, some folks at the campground recommended we stop there. Here is the link.

http://www.archway.org/

The arch is a lively, interactive, walk through multimedia museum about the westward migration of pioneers across the U.S. We liked it. It was easy for the kids to relate to and kept their attention. It takes about an hour or so to walk through it. It was a bit pricy for the amount of time that you spend in it but it was well done.

The remainder of the day we used driving to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We camped at Estes Park Campground, which is located just outside the park entrance in the town of Estes Park, for three nights.

http://www.estesparkcampground.com/

We really liked this campground. We decided to stay here because the national park campground did not have showers. The campgrounds in the park are very nice and do have flush toilets, but no showers. At Estes Park Campground, they cater to the tent and pop-up crowd. It is not an RV park. The sites are small and the area is wooded. The roads in the campground are narrow and mainly on a slope so it was not the easiest to get the trailer in and set up. The sites were closer than you’d find in a state park but much better than an RV type park. They have electric and water sites but no RV hook-ups. The bathrooms were clean and well maintained. Its location was very close to town and the park entrance. You could also hike directly into the park from the campground as it borders it and trails start right at the campground entrance.

7/5 - Thursday - Travel Day

We left about 7:30 am from Milwaukee. Our destination for the day was Minden Nebraska, where Pioneer Village Museum is located.

http://www.pioneervillage.org/

We drove all day and arrived at Pioneer Village in the early evening. We camped at their campground. Our impressions of the place were a bit mixed. I think the museum has seen it’s better days, but it does have a huge collection of artifacts. While they have a lot of exhibits, most all of them have not been updated in 30 years. You could spend a ½ day here as we did, or well over a day if you really try and look at everything. I’d definitely suggest not staying at the hotel. We took a look at it and it was not clean and quite outdated. The restaurant was also unimpressive; I’d try and eat somewhere else if you can. The town is just 13 miles off the highway and just to the east of Kearney; which is a town of several thousand, so there are better options there. The campground was OK as campgrounds go and worked out fine. Overall I was glad we stopped there as it provided a good break in the drive out.