We left straight from Jonathan's ball game. We drove until Wednesday evening. We found a great, free camping place at Rabbit Valley in Colorado. It was right off the highway. Thursday morning we continued to head west, driving all day until Jacob Lake, Arizona. We camped at a national forest campground for two nights (Thurs. and Fri.). On Thursday night we got to the campground late and it was cold and dark. We decided to make breakfast for dinner (eggs, sausage, and hash-browns). Then we had our dinner meal for breakfast; fish, rice and peas. It was so cold. One morning we recorded 24 degrees. We had the heater in the tent, which made it tolerable.
On Friday we drove all day but got to see some parts of the Grand Canyon and even got to hike in the park. It was pretty. We drove on these county roads, some of which were steep and narrow and not in good shape. It was definitely an adventure! We also saw lots of deer.
Before returning back to our campsite, we went to the entrance of the park and got our picture. the next day we headed southeast and saw the Vermillion Cliffs from the road. Some of the roads were closed that we wanted to go on. We also drove through the Grand Staircase Escalante. We spent most of the day driving and looking for a place to camp. Finally, after it was getting cold and dark, we decided to head back to St. George and get a hotel room. We stayed at a Marriot that accommodated our whole family. The kids absolutely loved this new experience. We decided to stay for two nights so that Sunday could be a day of rest, which we so needed after spending most of our trip driving so far.
Sunday we found a nice park that had lots for us to do. We roller bladed, played tennis, played in the sand and on the playground and also played washers. For lunch we had mac n cheese with hot-dogs and also had a time of worship and reading God's word. Then back to the hotel room to watch the Cardinals lose a baseball game in the playoffs. The kids enjoyed swimming and working out in the workout room at the hotel.Also, the TV and WiFi were something they enjoyed. James was able to spend some time doing work for his office.
Monday morning James and Josh went out in search of a place for us to camp. All the state parks were pretty full and we couldn't find a campsite suitable. James came back to the hotel to pick us up. We decided to head towards Zion National Park and look for a campground. One RV place was $92 a night for poor accommodations. We decided to keep driving and ended up finding an RV park on the other side of the park. There was hardly anyone there and we found a great spot. It was warm there during the day and cold at night. This place was nice, with free showers and a game room, with coin laundry. It also had a nice gift shop across the road.
Tuesday we had a great adventure. We planned a nice hike that never happened. That is because a 78 year old man saw us walking and decided to do his "good deed" for the day. I thought he was just giving Abby and I a ride across the creek. Then he said he'd take us all to the trail head. We figured it would be a short trip. We kept going up, up, up a big hill, through rough terrain. We had no idea where he was taking us and we were all cramped in the back of his small pickup truck. It turned out he took us right up to the cave. Red Cave. It was so cool to walk through, we had such a great time. There were other people there who were part of a large, Mormon family. We enjoyed getting to know them. We then traveled to a second cave that we even better. It was one we didn't even know about and was on private property (the brother of the 78 year old). Some of our boys got to do some serious climbing up into the cave, along with some of the others we had met. This day was definitely the highlight of our whole trip, and quite unexpected.
The next day we spent the day driving to other parts of Zion that we were able to see, up to a large reservoir. During the whole trip we were only able to hike two miles, which was hardly any for us. Unfortunately, most of our sightseeing was done from the van.
It rained all night on Wednesday night and in the morning it even snowed some. We decided to head home early. There was no hope that the park would open any time soon. The van got stuck in the mud at the campground. After some pushing, we got the van free and were able to hook up the trailer and make it out. On the way home it snowed quite a bit through the Rocky mountains, during the night. It was slow going, but we made it through without any trouble. Our traditional Cracker-barrel stop was Friday morning, about 3 hours from home in Missouri.
Overall it was not the best vacation, but it was nice to get away and spend some time together. Maybe someday we'll go back to those parks, but we will be sure to steer clear of October. It was too cold and we never want to take a chance of the government spoiling our vacation again.
