ROAD TRIP TRAILER and (Part I) short movie further down.
(Part II & Part III on next post.)
We left Toronto late on Friday. It was already 9pm, but we wanted to hit the road already. We were leaving one day late because we still needed to get a portable propane heater (Mr Buddy) and also the heavy snow storm was on the news, as a weather alert, on Thursday night.
We drove overnight crossing all the heavily snowed I-80 full of collisions all the way, thankfully for us, the huge trucks, crossed on the road, blocking the highway, were always on the opposite side.
We were getting tired and decided to stop at a rest area near Waterloo.
It was Saturday morning, 6.30am. We needed some sleep. The kids had slept overnight in the car, but they understood that we were driving and needed some rest. They played quietly at the roof top and soon after, we all fell asleep.
We all woke up around 10am.
The rest area was fully covered of snow. Our van too, but we were nice and warm in our sleeping bags. Thankfully we had the Mr Buddy (heater), which heated the van quickly when we got up.
We re-organized the van and continued our way on the sunny and white I-74 West to Starved Rock State Park. That's where we stopped for a short hike to stretch our legs.
Then we drove to Golden and stayed in our van in a campground where we could shower etc.
We were checking the levels of oil, windshield washer etc. and the antifreeze seemed to be always half empty. So we bought some more and kept adding as needed. We didn't see any leaks, but it was indeed very cold (overnight -30)
We continued driving and stopped to cook lunch at a rest area by a frozen lake, in Eagle County. (Picture). That's when we realized that there was a major leak at the rear part of the car, just below the rear air. We were loosing antifreeze! We stopped the leak temporarily, with some duct tape and we decided to stop at a garage in the next town: Gypsum. Luckily we could have it fixed that same afternoon. While the van was being fixed, we met some Colorado Police State officers, who gave the kids some stickers. (Picture)
We drove overnight crossing all the heavily snowed I-80 full of collisions all the way, thankfully for us, the huge trucks, crossed on the road, blocking the highway, were always on the opposite side.
We were getting tired and decided to stop at a rest area near Waterloo.
It was Saturday morning, 6.30am. We needed some sleep. The kids had slept overnight in the car, but they understood that we were driving and needed some rest. They played quietly at the roof top and soon after, we all fell asleep.
We all woke up around 10am.
The rest area was fully covered of snow. Our van too, but we were nice and warm in our sleeping bags. Thankfully we had the Mr Buddy (heater), which heated the van quickly when we got up.
We re-organized the van and continued our way on the sunny and white I-74 West to Starved Rock State Park. That's where we stopped for a short hike to stretch our legs.
Then we drove to Golden and stayed in our van in a campground where we could shower etc.
We were checking the levels of oil, windshield washer etc. and the antifreeze seemed to be always half empty. So we bought some more and kept adding as needed. We didn't see any leaks, but it was indeed very cold (overnight -30)
We continued driving and stopped to cook lunch at a rest area by a frozen lake, in Eagle County. (Picture). That's when we realized that there was a major leak at the rear part of the car, just below the rear air. We were loosing antifreeze! We stopped the leak temporarily, with some duct tape and we decided to stop at a garage in the next town: Gypsum. Luckily we could have it fixed that same afternoon. While the van was being fixed, we met some Colorado Police State officers, who gave the kids some stickers. (Picture)
We continued our trip and stopped to sleep at a rest area in Fruita, near Grand Junction. It was getting warmer: -8.
The next day we continued towards Cisco, and drove the "Scenic Drive", which is a loop around "La Sal", a beautiful white covered mountain. On the way we saw a coyote! The kids were amazed, thankfully we were in the van. A couple of turns after there was a group of elks. It was a nice drive, amazing views.
We continued to Moab area. The temperatures were increasing, we could see the naturally red rock cliffs coming up and the never ending canyons by the Colorado River.
We entered "The Arches National Park" and found a site in the Campground. Then we visited the amazing natural sandstone arches and desert Landscapes of the park.
The next day we did a couple more hikes and made our way to "Canyonlands National Park" stayed at the Needles Campground visiting the southern portion of the beautiful Canyonlands in Utah. It started to snow at night and in the morning everything was white. The rangers came to warn us that it would keep snowing and they highly recommended that we stayed another night, as the area where we were camping is usually the last one to be cleaned of snow. Since we were not in a rush, we dressed up properly and went explore one of the 5-hour hiking loops. To our surprise, it slowly stopped snowing. The hike was beautiful, a little icy, but great views!
We left that same evening to Moab (1.5hour drive) to find a different campground with showers and running water. We ended up staying at the "RV Spanish Trail". There, we met another French family with kids who used to live in Catalunya! and were traveling around with an RV. The kids had a blast playing in the snow with their girls.
It was already Friday and we were heading to Capitol Reef! We overnight at a Campground inside the Park that was full of turkeys and deer, by the river.
Then, we made our way to Bryce Canyon National Park, but it was snowing a lot and we could not even see the road, even less the mountains! When we reached the park, we were told that the campground was open, but we could not really enter it as nobody had cleaned the meter snow at the entrance. We decided to leave and head to Zion National Park, where the weather is usually milder. The weather was better, but still more snow, cold, wet... It was indeed beautiful, but it would be nice to see it in better weather conditions.
We spent Christmas eve at the Watchman RV Park inside Zion Park
On Christmas Day, we stopped in Las Vegas. We were meeting our friend Corinna at the airport later that night, to continue the trip together! We arrived in the afternoon and decided to go for a walk in the famous Strip area. The Strip, is indeed the area where you can visit several hotels, casinos, shops and see many attractions and street shows that the city offers. We even saw the Bellagio Water Show, but it was a long walk in the city and we returned to the hotel to cook dinner and relax before our next adventure.
The next day we drove to Arizona and decided to stop at Sedona and visit the Red Rock State Park near Flagstaff. The kids did the whole Ranger Program and became junior rangers of the park.
We ended up camping in a Campground next to a famous Steakhouse Restaurant Saloon: Blackbarts, where we celebrated our New Year's eve. The food was amazingly good. The decoration and the Musical Revue was worth it. A live pianist and the wait-staff performed and sang many western and Broadway songs fantastically.
After that treat, we set off to Colorado. We arrived at Gran Canyon National Park in the evening and went to find a site at the campground. To our surprise, there were only a few spots left!
In the morning we went to get a Backcountry Permit to be able to go hiking into the Gran Canyon for a few days. We could only get the last permit available: From Descending from Hermit's Rest and hiking through the Hermit's Creek, then by the Hermit's Rapids and towards Boucher Trail, then ascending near the Dripping Springs and back to the entrance at Hermit's Rest.
THE ROAD TRIP: 9000 Km
We drove from Toronto, crossing Michigan (Chicago), Iowa (Des Moines), Nebraska (Omaha), Colorado (Denver), and from Grand Junction to Moab (Utah). We visited Arches National Park, (La Sal Scenic Way), Canyonlands National Park (Horseshoe), Capitol Reef National Park (Grand Wash, Boulder, Escalante, Cannonville...), Dixie National Park (Bryce Canyon and the Hoodoos), We did a quick stop in Las Vegas, and continued to Grand Canyon National Park. We also visited Sedona and in Kaibab National Park: Red Rock State Park in Arizona. We drove back with a few quick stops at Spanish Valley (Moab) and then at a rest area near Copper Mountain (Frisco), then at Gary (Chicago)
Super cool!
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