Monthly Archives: August 2015

My New Favorite State is Colorado

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Heather Gebbia

After leaving Bryce Canyon, we had planned to stay at Lake Powell for a week. Lake Powell is in both Utah and Arizona. We stayed on the Arizona side at the Wahweap Campground. Lake Powell is so beautiful and the water is so incredibly blue! Unfortunately it was over 100 degrees when we were there so we only stayed for 3 days. I hear all the time about how the heat in Arizona is a “dry heat”. I don’t care what they call it, when the temps get over 100, it is pretty darn hot. And in an RV it seems worse because during the heat of the day, even running two A/C’s, we just can’t keep it cool. There are many interesting places to visit at Lake Powell including Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and the dam and hanging gardens at Glen Canyon. We are planning to come back out west next year and definitely want to return to Lake Powell to see all those places we missed this time because it was just too hot.

After Chris & I were finished working each day this is what we were doing. That lake water felt heavenly after melting in the heat of the RV all day.

Since we decided to cut this trip short, we moved on to Colorado. I absolutely love Colorado! It is incredibly beautiful and the weather is fabulous! Of course I may not think so in the winter, but it was wonderful in the summer. On our way there we made a stop at Four Corners Monument. This is the spot where the four states of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet. It was pretty cool to be able to be in all 4 states at one time.

In Colorado we visited the super cute town of Telluride. We took some advice from Trip Advisor and parked at the parking garage in Mountain Village. The parking garage was plenty big enough for our dually truck and only costs $7 for the day. From the parking garage you can ride the free gondola into Mountain Village where there are lots of shops, restaurants and lodging. Mountain Village is at the bottom of a mountain biking trail (it’s a ski area in the winter time). People were riding their bikes down the mountain and then they hook their bikes to the gondola to ride back up the mountain. I definitely want to come back with bikes and do that someday. That looked like so much fun!

When the bikers get off the gondola at the top of the mountain, you can get off and take some pictures and walk some trails. Then you can get back on the gondola and continue down into Telluride. I wanted to do a 5 mile hike to Bear Creek Falls so we didn’t do any extra hikes near the bike trails. The hike to the falls was a strenuous 2.5 mile hike up the mountain, then an easy 2.5 miles back down. When we were almost to the falls we heard thunder and it started drizzling, but we were determined to get there after having already walked most of the way. At one point Jake got really tired and said he needed to stop and rest. Just before we stopped to rest we finally saw the falls which gave us that extra energy we needed to make it the rest of the way. It was cold and drizzling a little, but still worth the hike to see it.

View from the gondola ride.

View from the top of the mountain where the mountain bikers start.

View from the gondola on the way down to Telluride.

The cute little town of Telluride.

At the start of our hike we had no idea how hard it would be. I mean it’s only 5 miles round trip, right? How hard can that be?

Views from our hike up to Bear Creek Falls. It’s still a nice sunny day.

It’s getting cloudy and we’re starting to hear thunder, but we’re not stopping now!

Time for a rest.

We made it, the beautiful falls!

View looking back down.

Resting on the way back down.

I loved Telluride and definitely would like to go back there again for mountain biking in the summer and snow skiing in the winter.

The next day we visited Mesa Verde National Park. This park has lots of cliff dwellings where Native Americans lived a few hundred years ago. It was really cool to see their homes, walk through the rooms and imagine what it must have been like living there.

Junior Rangers with a Big Ranger.

Hiking down to another cliff dwelling.

Mesa Verde has many vista points where you can see the other 3 states of the Four Corners.

Earning another Junior Ranger badge. We just love the Junior Ranger program. Jake and Jesse are learning so much of our nation’s history doing these programs. This is Roadschooling at it’s best!

We stayed at Mesa Verde RV Park right across the street from the national park. The views from our campsite were amazing and the weather was perfect!

One thing I really wanted to do while we were in Colorado is ride an alpine slide. My parents took my sister and me to some alpine slides in New England when we were kids. It was so much fun and I would love to take our kids to one. Durango Mountain Village has an alpine slide, so Chris took an afternoon off work so we could go. Unfortunately we got there and found out they changed their summertime hours and are now only open on weekends. We were so disappointed! Thanks to another Fulltime Family blog though I found out there is an alpine slide in Gatlinburg, TN and we are planning to go there later this year, so hopefully we’ll get another chance at the alpine slide thing. 🙂

We only just scratched the surface of visiting Colorado, visiting just the southwestern portion of the state. And if we were not on our way to the Fulltime Families “Not Back to School Roadschool” rally in Missouri, we would have stayed longer. There is so much more to see and Lord willing, we will be back for a much longer stay someday.

Categories: Colorado, National Parks | Tags: Arizona, Colorado, cortez, durango, four corners monument, lake powell, mancos, mesa verde national park, mesa verde rv park, New Mexico, roadschooling, telluride, Utah, wahweap campground | 3 Comments

Bryce Canyon National Park

Posted on August 29, 2015 by Heather Gebbia

Bryce Canyon is by far my favorite place we have been so far. It is the most unique and beautiful place I have ever seen. And Utah is a gorgeous state! We did so many fun and interesting things here so I apologize in advance for the long blog post.

Our favorite activity was the trail rides!

Our guide, Shawn was awesome! He stayed very close to Jesse since he was the smallest in the group and probably looked the most nervous. The guide stopped and pointed out interesting places to us and told us a lot of history about Bryce. He also told a lot of jokes. At one point he stopped and got off his horse and lined us all up for a family picture. He was the best guide we could have asked for!

Jake did great! His mule tried to go her own way a few times and he was able to get her back on track. One time she rode him so close to the cliff and then turned around to start going back down into the canyon. I was so nervous watching that, but I was so proud of Jake. He didn’t panic or anything, he just patiently guided her back in the right direction.

They had a photographer waiting for us to get to this point so we could each get in a picture which was nice since I’m usually taking the pictures.

One of our friends said Chris looks like someone from the movie City Slickers in the picture below. 🙂

Just before the trail ride we saw our first rattlesnake in the wild. We wouldn’t have even seen it if someone else hadn’t pointed it out to us. The scary thing is we just walked right by that spot and didn’t even see it. It’s amazing how easily they can blend into the background.

We completed the “I Hiked the Hoodoos” challenge for the boys’ Junior Ranger books by finding the benchmarks below on our hikes. At each benchmark the boys could get a pencil rubbing of the benchmark to prove we went there. My favorite hike was to Queens Garden.

We found the queen, see her?

The next hike was the Navajo Loop. After finding Queens Garden you can continue onto this trail.

Another activity the boys had to do to earn their badge was to pick up trash on our hikes. They’re such good little Junior Rangers!

That was enough hiking for one day. The next day we went back and did the hike to the Tower Bridge.

A little window in the wall.

View from the other side. I spy a Jesse.

We found the Tower Bridge!

One evening we drove out to Rainbow Point to see some other scenic viewpoints. The Natural Bridge was really amazing.

And another day we drove to Fairyland Point. This park has so many beautiful vistas!

The next weekend we did some more hiking at Red Canyon which is just 10 minutes from Bryce Canyon.

This tunnel is at Red Canyon on the way to Bryce Canyon. We had to drive our RV under it on the way to Bryce and we got nervous about our height. We pulled over and measured to make sure we could fit under it.

And then we went to Mossy Cave back at Bryce where we were so excited to find a beautiful waterfall. Being out west it has been so dry and it’s unusual to see running water.

We attended an evening ranger program on astronomy. The night skies are really dark since there are no big cities nearby so you can see so many stars. After the astronomy program they had big telescopes set up outside and we were able to see Saturn with its rings. We also saw some shooting stars in the sky that night because there was a meteor shower that week.

After attending the ranger program, completing their trash pickup and hiking the hoodoos, the boys were able to get their Junior Ranger badges.

We stayed at Ruby’s Inn RV Park just outside of the national park. There is a free shuttle bus that will take you from the campground into Bryce. Ruby’s Inn seems to have a monopoly in that town, I think they must own everything in the area. The campground is not cheap, but it was the closest and easiest way to spend so much time at Bryce. The campground is very nice and the campsites are the largest we have ever seen. They have a pool that was very crowded most of the time so the kids only used it once. There is also an indoor pool at the Inn that you can use if you’re staying at the campground. There is a grocery store, a couple of restaurants and some other shops there also. Of course everything is overpriced so if you plan on staying there, make sure you stock up on groceries before you get there. Ruby’s Inn is very cute though and they have some cute picture-taking opportunities in front of the shops.

Bryce Canyon is definitely a place I would love to come back to see again someday.

Categories: National Parks, Utah | Tags: Bryce Canyon, bryce canyon national park, canyon trail rides, i hiked the hoodoos, mossy cave, navajo loop, queen's garden, red canyon, ruby's inn, ruby's inn rv park and campground, Utah | 8 Comments

Grand Canyon National Park

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Heather Gebbia

In my last post about Route 66 I mentioned that we spent a day at the Grand Canyon. I had heard that when you go to the Grand Canyon, you look at it for a while, take some pictures and you’re done. I wrongly assumed we wouldn’t want to spend more than a day there. There is so much to see and do at the South Rim, you really could spend a lot more time if you want to. I haven’t been to the North Rim yet so I can’t speak about that.

We started the day at the Visitor Center so we could pick up Junior Ranger booklets for the kids to work on, then we walked a lot of the rim trail.

They have shuttle bus transportation to take you to many of the points at the park. The Orange bus route will take you to the east side of the park which is the least crowded. You can also see beautiful sunsets from there. The Blue bus route takes you around the Grand Canyon Village which includes 2 campgrounds, a hotel, a few lodges and several places to eat and shop. They even have a grocery store and a U. S. Post Office! The Red bus route will take you to the Hermit’s Rest on the far west side of the park with many scenic viewpoints along the way. We went on all the bus routes that day and tried to see as much as we could since we had only planned one day there.

This squirrel was so cute and not the least bit afraid of people. He tried to steal Chris’s banana right out of his hand!

You can see the Colorado River winding through the canyon in the picture below.

I loved this sign outside of one of the gift shops. It was so appropriate to go along with the magnificent scenery of God’s Creation.

I saw many people standing out on narrow ledges getting their pictures — this was as close as I got.

This is how the boys entertained themselves while waiting at one of the shuttle bus stops. I love how they so easily entertain themselves!

We thought sitting on the ledge would make a nice picture.

Or maybe hanging off the ledge instead?

We enjoyed this day at Grand Canyon so much and already were making plans to come back next year. Well, it turns out we were able to return sooner than we thought. We went to Cottonwood, AZ to stay at a Thousand Trails and had planned to visit some national monuments in that area. It turned out to be a bad time to visit that area as it was over 100 degrees. We immediately started searching for some place else to go that was cooler. Previously I had wanted to stay at the full hookup campground in the Grand Canyon called Trailer Village. It is very hard to get into that campground without making reservations way in advance. While we were in Cottonwood I kept checking their website and eventually found 3 consecutive nights available that week! We hitched up and left the sweltering heat of Cottonwood and headed to the cooler temps in the Grand Canyon. It’s really nice to have a house on wheels so we can move whenever we feel like it.

Trailer Village was awesome and I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to stay at an RV Park in the Grand Canyon. It’s so convenient to have the bus transportation and all the other amenities available right there like stores and restaurants. We enjoyed this campground so much and were able to extend our stay 2 more nights while we were there which gave us plenty of time to more fully explore the area.

When we were there the previous week for one day, the boys were not able to earn their Junior Ranger badge because we didn’t have enough time to do one of the required activities which was to attend a Ranger program. We were able to get that completed on this second trip and they were happy to earn the badge for this famous park.

We saw so many elk wandering through the park, even right by our campsite.

With more time we were able to go on a couple of hikes into the canyon. We did not go all the way to the bottom. It is recommended that if you plan to go to the bottom, all the way to the Colorado River, that you don’t plan to do it in one day. You need to plan to spend the night in a tent in the canyon. They have ranger programs down there and plenty of people do camp overnight, so our kids have made up their minds that they want to do that next year. I don’t know if I’m up for spending the night in the canyon with the scorpions so stay tuned to see if that really happens.

Anyway, we at least wanted to hike to the Ooh Aah Point because as part of the FtF Book Club we are reading books about a family that visits many different national parks. We recently finished the book about the Grand Canyon and this was one of the points they mentioned in the book. So of course we had to find it! Here are some pictures from that hike.

We found it!

Ooh, Aah!

The next day we hiked down the Bright Angel trail to the upper and lower tunnels. The boys love wearing their Junior Ranger vests with all of the badges they have earned so far. Many other hikers on the trails stopped to compliment them on their badge earnings and to see all the places they have been. In fact, many people on the buses also asked them about their badges and travels. These vests generate a lot of attention!

The Lower Tunnel.

After that hike the boys and I went for a bike ride. Chris couldn’t join us unfortunately because his bike was stolen back in California, but I don’t think he was too disappointed. It was Sunday and after our 2 hikes that weekend he just wanted to chill out and watch whatever sports happened to be on tv.

The bike trails there were awesome and can be accessed right from the campground. The views are priceless!

We heard that you can see the best sunsets from the Desert View Watchtower which is way at the east end of the park, about 25 miles away. The shuttle buses don’t go that far so we drove. Unfortunately we didn’t know that they don’t let anyone up in the watchtower after 6:30 and we got there at 6:35. That was very disappointing because it was our last night there, but I was still able to get a couple of nice pictures.

The sunsets at the Grand Canyon are the most spectacular I have ever seen!

A couple of cute photo bombers.

And for all of you Fat Cat fans out there, you’ll be happy to know that she also enjoyed her time at the Grand Canyon. The pictures below were actually at a stop-over in Williams before we were able to get into Trailer Village. She was rolling around on the ground so happy to be out of the sweltering heat of the last campground. It’s really amazing how the temperature can be so different only an hour away.

The cooler weather gave her so much energy she decided to learn how to walk the fence.

And at the campsite at Trailer Village she liked practicing her tree-climbing skills.

And she’s learning to be a watch-cat.

I hope you enjoyed this post about the most visited national park in America. It definitely was crowded, but I’m so glad we were able to spend more than just one day there.

Categories: Arizona, National Parks | Tags: Arizona, grand canyon national park, the Grand Canyon, Trailer Village, williams | 4 Comments

Getting Our Kicks on Route 66

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Heather Gebbia

We stayed at two cute little towns in Arizona along Historic Route 66: Williams and Winslow.

Williams is a great place to stay if you are visiting the Grand Canyon. There is a train that goes from Williams to Grand Canyon each day that looks really fun but we didn’t do it. It’s quite pricey and you only get to stay at the canyon for about 3 hours before you have to board the train to return to Williams. We only had one day to spend at the Grand Canyon and we wanted more than 3 hours there, so we opted to drive. We ended up staying at the Grand Canyon for about 9 hours that day so I was really glad we decided not to splurge on the train. And even 9 hours was not long enough, there is so much to see in Grand Canyon, but that is for another post.

We stayed at the Railside RV Resort in Williams. The sites were really close together which I did not like very much, but the people who own or run the place are so nice and hospitable. They have free breakfast every morning and a shuttle that will take you down to the historic district to visit all the fun Route 66 stuff. We took advantage of the free shuttle and did some sightseeing.

The train station was really cool.

I love this sign! Freedom is definitely not free and I am so very grateful to our military and their families for their sacrifices. There is so much freedom in this traveling lifestyle that we are living, and I never want to take it for granted.

I thought this sign was funny. We didn’t eat there, but I liked the sign.

We did eat here, at Cruisers Route 66 Cafe.

The guy singing was right by our table and he asked the boys to come up and play some instruments while he sang “My Brown-Eyed Girl”. I love that song!

Jesse really enjoyed his ice cream.

After leaving Williams we went to stay at Homolovi State Park in Winslow. This campsite was amazing! We realized we really need to stay at state parks more often. We had so much space all to ourselves. It was so peaceful and beautiful.

The skies and sunsets in the evening were spectacular! All of this was right outside of our door! I think I could have stayed here for a month.

Even Fat Cat loved this place! She sat outside all the time watching for rabbits and squirrels and any other little critter she could find. Thankfully she didn’t find any snakes! One day there was a rabbit as big as her that she was stalking, but I think she realized it was too big for her to tangle with.

Chris and the boys enjoyed a water balloon fight one day. Look at Chris! He is a still a kid at heart.

Homolovi State Park is home to the ruins of the Hopi Indians that lived here a few hundred years ago. We toured the ruins and found lots of broken pottery that is preserved there.

Of course we had to be Standin’ on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona; it’s such a fine sight to see! I love the Eagles music and I was so excited to be able to get our picture right here. “It’s a girl my Lord in a flat-bed Ford slowin down to take a look at me.” Well, she wasn’t exactly looking at me, Chris maybe, but I digress.

A few more random pictures from Route 66 that we found on our way to Petrified Forest National Park.

If you read my post about Santa Monica, you’ll see that we found the end of Route 66 there. I would love to travel more of the “Mother Road” on our way back east but we haven’t quite decide yet which way we’re going. We are heading to a Fulltime Families rally in Branson, Missouri so it’s possible we’ll be heading down more of this famous road.

I would love to stay in one of these! They are so cute!

Next up, Grand Canyon! Since 9 hours at the canyon wasn’t long enough we ended up going back and got to actually stay in the only full hookup RV park within Grand Canyon for 5 days. That was awesome! Stay tuned for that post. First I have to sort through over 400 pictures I took.

Categories: Arizona | Tags: Arizona, az, grand canyon, historic route 66, homolovi state park, hopi indians, painted desert, standin on the corner, the train, williams, winslow | 4 Comments

Petrified Forest National Park

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Heather Gebbia

I have not had as much time lately to blog because Arizona kept us very busy. There is so much to see and do there! I have a lot of catching up to do on blog posts, and Jake keeps asking me when I’m going to do it. He and Jesse love to go back and read earlier posts to remember things we have done. That is one reason why I blog, so we will have a journal to read later about all of our adventures on the road.

One of the places we visited in Arizona was Petrified Forest National Park. We are loving our nation’s National Parks and this one did not disappoint. We started at the south entrance of the park and worked our way up. We spent about 5 or 6 hours hiking and exploring the park. It’s not a huge park so that was enough time to see everything we wanted to see. At the beginning we looked at the giant logs near the Rainbow Forest Museum and watched a movie about the history of the park. Then we looked at some more petrified wood in the Crystal Forest. The logs have been petrified over many years and look like beautiful, colorful crystals. The wood is so hard and heavy, it’s hard to believe it was really a tree trunk at one time.

Hiking through the Crystal Forest.

A petrified log bridge called Agate Bridge.

I thought that this park was going to be all about looking at petrified wood, and as beautiful as it is, I didn’t think it would be fun to look at several pieces of wood all day. But there is so much more to this park. It is part of the Painted Desert and that is a beautiful sight to see. It really does look like God painted the hills in this desert, He is the Master Artist.

My favorite part of the park was hiking through the Blue Mesa and Forest.

Jake holding a heavy piece of petrified wood.

Next we checked out Puerco Pueblo which highlights ancestral Puebloan ruins and petroglyphs. This is what they called Newspaper Rock displaying 2000 year old petroglyphs.

Next we stopped to see a 1932 Studebaker where historic Route 66 once cut through the park.

Then we hiked along the Painted Desert Rim Trail which had spectacular views of the desert.

And lastly the boys completed their Junior Ranger books so they could earn a badge from this park.

Petrified Forest National Park is right off I-40 and Historic Route 66. There are so many interesting things to see along Route 66 in Arizona that I will write about in another post. I hope you enjoyed this post about Petrified Forest.

Categories: Arizona, National Parks | Tags: Arizona, blue mesa, crystal forest, historic route 66, junior ranger, national parks, painted desert, Petrified Forest, petrified forest national park, petrified wood, the Crystal Forest | 1 Comment

Monthly Archives: August 2015

My New Favorite State is Colorado

Bryce Canyon National Park

Grand Canyon National Park

Getting Our Kicks on Route 66

Petrified Forest National Park

Why You Should NOT Buy a Heartland RV

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