So much for blogging each day of our travels! It turns out that finding time to write and upload photos was much harder on this loop. Graham, needing a chance to sleep in and recuperate, choose to stay home for this trip, so it was just Mer and me. Our days were packed with museums, sightseeing, and a little hiking. So, in the spirit of “Better Late than Never,” here’s a brief summary of our trip to New England and Philadelphia in the latter half of October.

We started out early and drove directly to Boston for a three-day visit. I hadn’t been to Boston in years, but was quickly reminded of what a cool city it is. Things were mostly open, although not crowded. Our focus this year is on American History, so there were endless things we hoped to do in Boston. We stayed next to Faneuil Hall and the site of the Boston Massacre. After all the reading and studying we’ve done, Mer loved feeling like we were stepping back into history ourselves. We followed the Freedom Trail and saw the many historical building and sites along it: Bunker Hill, the USS Constitution, Old South Meeting House, and the Paul Revere House. The downtown historic area is small enough that we were able to walk almost everywhere.

One of the highlights was our visit to the touristy but fun Boston Tea Party ship. She got to throw cartons of tea into Boston Harbor, and we enjoyed sampling different historic teas afterward. We also did a spooky evening graveyard tour that was a lot of fun. Sadly, however, all of the many university museums were closed to non-students so we had to miss out on several museums that I really wanted her to visit. Mer was also adamant that she didn’t want to do any college tours yet (“too early,” she claimed, “and it will stress me out”), so we skipped even driving through any campuses. We did not skip eating like Queens however; Boston food is amazing. Mer loves seafood of all kinds, so she was in heaven with the food choices everywhere. So much lobster!

On our way out of Boston, we stopped in Salem, hoping to learn more about the Salem witch trials. We had just finished reading The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible. Turns out that Salem is a popular place to visit right before Halloween! It was a Saturday, natch, so the lines to enter many of the museums required 2+ hour waits just to enter. Nope, not gonna happen. Instead, we visited the less crowded and wonderful Peabody Essex Museum and enjoyed just walking around town and people-watching.

We had planned to hike around the White Mountains in New Hampshire, so we scurried up there to try and beat the coming cold and rainy weather forecasted. We stayed in an adorable little Inn and had a great day hiking the Flume Gorge. It was a little cold and drizzly, but the views, forests, and waterfalls made it worth it. We did not get to go up Mt. Washington sadly; it was too cold and windy, and we weren’t in time to book the cog railway up. I have definitely added that to my to-do list for another trip. This is a stunningly beautiful area, and I look forward to coming back with Griff one day.

Our drive the next day took us near Meredith, NH, so of course, we detoured to check it out. We grabbed snacks at the ubiquitous Dunkin Donuts, and had a lovely stroll around Meredith Bay. Our next stop was Concord, MA. Since reading the transcendentalists in high school, I have always wanted to visit Walden Pond. It was even more beautiful and peaceful than I expected. We spent about an hour walking around the pond, looking in the tiny recreated cabin of Henry David Thoreau, and visiting the museum. We have Walden and Civil Disobedience on the reading list for later this year and, hopefully, this visit will help create connections for her during her reading.

Next up was Minuteman National Park. We learned so much at the Visitor Center and enjoyed a long chat with two of the park rangers. This was a small center, but it had great exhibits about the first battles of the American Revolution. Then we were on to Lexington Common, where we toured the visitor center museum and Buckman Tavern. We both enjoyed seeing Lexington and Concord, and learning more details about the events surrounding the start of the Revolutionary War.

We drove back east to the coast and stopped at Plymouth and its famous rock. The town was adorable and the rock was — well– a rock. The Plimoth Patuxet Museum was very cool, however. It is a recreated pilgrim village with costumed reenactors and farm animals. There were numerous buildings and an Indian village. Mer enjoyed speaking with the reenactors throughout the site.

We next headed south to Cape Cod where we spent two days exploring. We walked around the Canal and learned about its construction. We had sandwiches in Sandwich and toured the Glass Museum there. We visited the JFK Hyannis Museum and learned about the history of the Kennedy family. We enjoyed walking around the Cape Cod National Seashore parks collecting shells, visiting the Salt Pond Visitor Center, and looking at lighthouses and the site of the Marconi Wireless Station along the shore. We spent some time walking the trails along the salt marshes as well. We also discovered that Cape Cod has a serious coyote problem, and wild turkeys are everywhere. Who knew?!?

The Whydah Pirate Museum contained great exhibits about the history of piracy and marine archaeology. Next door, we enjoyed The World’s Best New England Clam Chowder. We both agreed they had definitely earned the title. This bread bowl soup may have been one of the best meals of my life. I don’t know what the secret ingredient is, but it was amazing!

Our next destination was the New Bedford Whaling Museum. This place was fantastic! We learned so much about whaling and its importance in American history. It is a huge museum, but it was mostly empty. We pretty much had a docent all to ourselves. He spent over an hour with us answering Mer’s many questions, pulling out additional artifacts, and pointing out details throughout the museum. I learned more about ambergris than I ever thought possible, and the scrimshaw exhibits alone were worth the stop. This was one of the most fascinating museums we have visited, and that’s saying a lot!

Day number whatever was spent in Newport, Rhode Island. We drove around Brenton Point State Park, enjoyed the Cliff Walk, and ogled the beautiful mansions. We toured the Breakers and compared it to our vision of houses from The Great Gatsby. We also stopped by the Audubon Society Nature Center and Aquarium in Bristol, RI, where there were lots of interesting exhibits and hands-on activities. We also enjoyed a lovely hike through their gorgeous wildlife preserve.

In Hartford, Connecticut, we toured the Mark Twain House and Museum and the Harriet Beacher Stowe Center. We learned so much about both of these authors and their connection. I hadn’t realized they were neighbors prior to this. We have read several things by Twain this year (Huck Finn and many short stories, including The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ). I am also halfway through with Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but I’m not sure if Mer will get to it this year or not. She has an ever-growing pile, and at some point I will have to whittle it down. The hardest part of homeschooling for me is making the final choices of an endless array of interesting options.

Outside of Hartford was the surprising Dinosaur State Park, with many exhibits about the geological history of Connecticut. It has a large geodome that covers over 500 dinosaur tracks. Mer literally shrieked with joy when we walked in. As usual these days, we had lots of time with the park rangers, saw all of the documentary movies they had, and were the sole attendees of an animal demonstration. We stayed until they kicked us out at closing time.

We then had a long but beautiful drive through backroads in Connecticut and New York to reach our stopping point along the Hudson River. The next day we visited the FDR Presidential Library and Museum. This was a fantastic museum and we both learned so much.

We avoided NYC on this trip and instead stopped at Washington Crossing State Park along the Delaware River. It was almost closing time so we were pretty rushed at this point. Turns out that we also went to the wrong park — we stopped at the NJ site, and I would have preferred the Pennsylvania site. I hope we can come back one Christmas Day to see the annual reenactment of the crossing. Other places we wanted to visit in NJ were either closed or I wanted Graham to visit too (Menlo Park and all things Thomas Edison), so we will have to add these to our next NYC trip.

Our final stop was in Philadelphia for a few days. We had previously visited Philly right before COVID hit, but then we focused on the many science museums in the area. This time we stayed in the historic district and visited all the history-related sites. We spent several hours visiting the amazing National Constitution Center. We also visited the usual tourist destinations: Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Carpenters Hall, and the Museum of the American Revolution. I had seen most of these before, but it was the first time for Mer and she was, of course, in history heaven. There’s nothing like seeing in person where all of these events took place. I’m not the least bit embarrassed to say that we both teared up when we saw the special presentation with Washington’s army tent. It was incredibly moving. The picture of her hugging the statue of Hamilton pretty much says it all about how happy she was.

Sadly, Philly was more shut-down than any of the other places we had visited on this loop. There was also a palpable feeling of tension in the air everywhere we went. I was surprised to witness what I thought were impolite and angry National Park Rangers at the Liberty Bell. They were literally yelling at the visitors if their masks slipped at all. You were not even allowed to hold your breath and take down your mask for a picture in front of the Liberty Bell. The irony of that was not lost on either of us. A different ranger rudely lectured an elderly visitor when she was having trouble hearing the ranger through her mask. You know I’m a serious NP Ranger fan, so this was disappointing, to say the least.

This was also the first time during our two weeks that people seemed “off.” It had the same depressed and tense feeling that we felt in Seattle. I didn’t know it at the time, but later I learned that the murder and crime rates in Philly are skyrocketing. That might explain some of what we felt. The security going in some of the sites was also intense. I wondered at the time if they had gotten some threat about the area; it truly felt that tense in some places. It’s interesting that Boston, on the other hand, didn’t have that feeling at all. Bostonians were out and about as usual. They wore masks inside, but no one seemed uptight about it. People were just going about their business. It’s been so interesting to see how different cities are faring these days. I will be curious to see the changes, if any, during future post-Covid visits to the same cities.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip. We definitely missed having Graham with us, but this wouldn’t have been much fun for him. At his age, most of what we did would have been very boring to him. Of course, there was so much more we wanted to do, things that were closed we wanted to see, hikes to take and mountains yet to climb. But, they’ll all still be there for a future visit.

Next up is a roundtrip loop to Texas and back. We leave in a few days (as soon as today’s snowstorm clears up). We are starting by following the Freedom Rides route to Alabama, stopping first in Birmingham and Montgomery to learn about the Civil Rights Movement and desegregation. We will then head west through Mississippi and New Orleans to Austin, where we will turn around and head north on our way back. I spent the entire lockdown saying I was going to run away to Texas. Finally, it appears we are getting to do just that. Happy New Year to you! And if you actually made it this far, God bless you for that!

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We were down to the wire now trying to make it home in time to relax a day or two before the walkathon. Our next stop was Kansas City, Kansas AND Nebraska. (I still don’t get that.) Everything we wanted to do was on the Nebraska side. (I really don’t get that Kansas side.) We started out early with a walk around the deserted Shoal Creek Living History Museum. The primary draw for us was seeing the small bison herd that they are breeding there. We were able to see them close up in their fenced area. I can’t get enough of these things. They are so cool! The buildings were all closed but it was still fun to explore the area.

Next up was the National World War I Museum and Memorial. What a beautiful memorial and fantastic museum. It is, I believe, the only museum in the U.S. that is solely focused on WWI. Mer took a class last year on WWII, so it was nice for her to step back further in time and learn more about how these horrible conflicts got started. The field of poppies was heartwrenching — every single poppy represents 1,000 men killed in combat. This should be on everyone’s list to visit

The kids both worked on the scavenger hunt workbook. Graham especially loves doing these. It really helps younger kids to focus on just a few items and learn what they can rather than getting overwhelmed or bored because they don’t understand what they are seeing. He has loved doing these at the National Parks as well. If you’ve got a kiddo that isn’t into perusing museums, I highly recommend asking if they have a scavenger hunt of some type. They are great for adults as well! After all our intensive travel is over this year, I should write a post about how to tackle large museums for learning purposes. I’ve learned a lot via trial and error and have a technique that has developed over time, but I haven’t ever analyzed it. Another thing on the to-do list 😉 Spoiler alert: speak to the staff and volunteers, they are the best source of information and they are usually fantastically enthusiastic about the subject of their museum. They sincerely want to help, and they want to make you love their museum as much as they do.

We next walked down the hill to the Science City museum in Union Station. For some unknown reason, I wasn’t expecting much from this museum. Maybe I just thought I had seen so many in the last 5 weeks, what could be left? Turns out I was happily surprised by all the interesting things this museum had to offer; it was a great combination of quality science learning combined with many opportunities for hands-on play and physical activity. If I had realized it was a Smithsonian affiliate, I would have known it would be great. I highly recommend anything anywhere that is Smithsonian affiliated. No, I don’t work for them, but I am in continual awe of the work they do. Maybe I will get lucky and one of my kids will end up working for the Institute. It would definitely be a great gig!

We had a long chat with an ex-science teacher at the museum who, when he heard we were working on comparative anatomy this year, went and got different specimens so he could show us some unique anatomical details. Back to my prior point, the staff and volunteers love to share their knowledge. Just show some excitement about any topic and they will take it from there! Your kids – and you – don’t need to try to see every item, or even every room or floor of a museum. But you should leave with a new understanding and appreciation of something you experienced there, and most importantly, you should have some excitement and desire to learn more about it. That’s our goal with every visit, and I think we’ve hit the mark every time. Even in those rare instances we’ve visited a crappy museum, it made us realize that we had questions we wanted answered and we, therefore, needed to go somewhere else, read a book, or hop online in order to satisfy our curiosity.

We stayed until closing and then drove off into the sunset towards St. Louis.

I have long wanted to visit St. Louis. Something sounded cool about it: the history, the arch, the food, the location along the Mississippi. Although we didn’t get to stay as long as I would have liked, I know I will make a return trip someday. I liked it every bit as much as I thought I would. Our first stop of the day was the Gateway Arch National Park. The arch was even more beautiful than I expected, and the history museum underneath was a nice complement. Even though we have seen and learned so much about westward migration, there is always more to learn. I highly recommend springing for the film about the construction process too. What an undertaking! It looks so sleek and simple, but building it was anything but. It is truly an engineering marvel. Sadly, they were only running half of the usual trams to the top, so they were sold out right after opening that morning and we weren’t able to ride to the top. Instead, we hopped a ride on the Tom Sawyer paddleboat for an hour-long tour along the river and followed up with amazing bbq outside the Cardinals’ ballfield.

Our final major stop on the way home was Louisville, Kentucky where we learned even more about Louis and Clark, horses, baseball, and bourbon in the Frazier Kentucky History Museum.

They don’t always get along, but man it’s cute when they do! The fact we are even still speaking to each other after six weeks together is amazing to me.

Finally, we spent a few hours in the Kentucky Science Center … because apparently, we have to visit Every. Single. Science. Museum. Ever. Built. As usual, the kids had a blast. We grabbed a quick lunch nearby, walked around downtown a bit, and then went back to the Science Center to finish up. Mer spent about 30 minutes talking to one of the staff members about life in general, and anime and comic cons in particular. Without outing anyone else’s medical conditions, let’s just say they had tons in common! This amazing young lady was able to give Mer many pointers about how to navigate the college experience and dorm life, and how to tackle your first comic con. Looks like those will be on our agenda starting next year. Eeek for me. Wow for her. The things that we parents subject ourselves to…

Finally back in the Commonwealth, where the local wildlife gathered in our neighborhood to welcome us back!

This has been a whirlwind tour, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. If I were writing an Amazon review, this would be it:

5 *****

Amazing trip, although things didn’t stay on schedule like the description said.

I learned tons, but also not what the box said I would, and don’t even get me started on the useless directions they provided. I really had to figure out the assembly myself. “Some Assemembly Required” is the understatement of the year.

I also don’t think our final product looks anything like the advertisements, but because I didn’t really expect it to, I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, our piecemeal method of assembly worked even better for us than the way it was designed, so it’s all cool.

I ended up spending more than I had hoped, but honestly it was worth every penny. We are looking forward to purchasing version 2.0, version 3.0, etc. We are now lifelong customers, even though their customer service is, regretably, 100% self-service.

If you are considering something like this — with kids, without kids, completely solo, whatever — I give it the full 5 ***** stars and think you would too.

It was the best experience of my life, and that is the honest truth. No hyperbole.

– Verified Customer (The Drive to Learn Mom)

If this post seems a little rushed at the end, that’s because it is. Mer and I leave at 6 a.m. tomorrow for a 2-ish week trip to southern New Hampshire, Boston, Philly, and many of the states in between. Graham is staying home for this part. He has things he doesn’t want to miss here, and this trip will be very heavy on history museums, with no zoos or science museums. There won’t be enough hands-on activity to keep an 11-year-old boy happily occupied. Mer and I have a lot we want to do, and we get up early every day eager to get out the door. Graham, not so much.

We aren’t repacked yet, don’t have a hotel in Boston (our first stop), and have no real itinerary. I am oddly at peace with this. As a prior (at least I hope it’s prior) over-planner, just winging it is so freeing. I figure if we survived out west where I had no experience, then the Northeast (what I’m used to) isn’t nearly as fear-inducing. No snakes, no tornadoes, no wildfires, no buffalo stampedes. No worries about running out of gas in the middle of nowhere (the NE doesn’t really have a middle of nowhere, I now realize). No worries about finding a good neurosurgeon and ER if Mer has a shunt failure. It’s all good.

My primary worries now are parking, the cost of hotels, how fast it turns cold, the traffic, and COVID restrictions or shutdowns. For example, we aren’t visiting NYC this time around. We’ve all been tons of times and I know I wouldn’t enjoy the current situation there. The few things I want to do with the kids in NYC that we haven’t done before (Ellis Island, the Tenement Museum) can wait until later. I am also worried a little that given how normal the mid-west and west seemed, this area of the country is going to be a shocking transition. I just don’t know. But I guess I’ll find out. Stay tuned!

p.s.: A few people have asked me about the specifics of traveling during COVID, what we did, how we approached things, our risk analysis, how things differed between the states and cities, how many things were closed, etc. Well if that isn’t a lot to bite off! I hope (fingers crossed) to start writing up my thoughts and experiences in the next few days. I really want to capture my feelings and impressions before we hit too many big New England and East Coast cities. More to come on this topic, lots of thoughts bouncing around in my head, just hoping to have time to start consolidating them into something rational and understandable.

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After such an amazing — but tiring — day yesterday, today was going to be lowkey with just a few quick stops while trying to get as many miles behind us as we could. We took a quick drive through Laramie, and then stopped in Cheyenne to visit the Wyoming State Museum. We try to visit every state museum we can, as I find it the best way to get an overall introduction to the main features of a state, and the Wyoming State Museum was well worth the time. They had (yes, I know it’s odd that I have an opinion on this) the best scat learning tool I’ve ever seen. They were rubber-printed reproductions of tracks and scat for a variety of animals. A bit gross, but useful and educational nonetheless. After seeing the prior “evidence of bears” in the Tetons, I’ve decided that I need to increase my heretofore lacking storehouse of scatological knowledge.

We then drove into Nebraska and stopped for a late lunch in Ogallala (let me check that spelling again), because with a name like that, it’s gotta have something interesting. And it did! The Front Street Steakhouse and Crystal Palace Saloon and Museum. We were only sad not to have been able to attend an evening dinner show. I’m sure that would’ve been great. The free museum was cute and a great way to spend the time waiting for your order, and the food was amazing here. We took a couple of slices of homemade pie to go with us (we keep a cooler in the car) and discovered later that evening that they were every bit as good as they looked.

Our last stop for the day was at a Pony Express Station. It was closed, but we could see in the windows well enough and it was just fun to be at an actual station.

The next morning I got up early to try and catch up with posting. I usually head down for breakfast with my computer early in the morning while the kids sleep later or get ready. It’s not busy this early, so I often end up chatting with other guests or with hotel staff. It’s how I’ve learned some of the most interesting things on this trip, and been redirected to new places to visit that I never would have found. Having the pictures up on my computer sometimes generates comments, but never as much as today. The folks traveling this time of year are usually couples without kids, primarily retirees, so they have time and interest in chatting. It’s a very different experience than traveling during the summer. We have also gotten to speak with lots of people who work on location in plants, construction, and mining. They stay in hotels for weeks or months at a time. It’s amazing how much we have learned by asking them questions. And truck drivers; you can learn so much by talking to truck drivers if you just ask!

A nice couple and amateur photographer were complimenting my photos and we got to chatting about travel photography. The ensuing conversation about the herons I had seen the day before brought over another guest who wanted to see pictures of the birds I was describing. Turns out these weren’t herons at all, but the Sandhill Cranes that the Platte River area is famous for. The lovely lady studied and followed the birds as a hobby, and travels to try and find them. I had seen these in an unexpected area apparently and she was quite excited by my unintentional discovery. It was so fun to learn about the cranes and how unique they are, and to meet so many nice and interesting people over breakfast.

We stopped at the Great Platte River Road Archway in Kearney, Nebraska. I had wanted to stop here because I thought it was unique, but I never in a million years would have expected this museum to be as fabulous as it was. Yes, even after seeing so many museums lately, we still all get excited when we visit a really great one. This was such a fantastic stop that I highly recommend for anyone. Who builds a museum over a huge interstate? Turns out that a Boy Scout actually helped as part of his Eagle Project!

The museum taught us all about the Great Platte River Road and the Lincoln Highway, about which I had known nothing. It also had great high-tech exhibits about western migration. The museum utilized individual audio devices that would play additional information at whatever displays you chose. These guides were informative and interesting and added a lot to our understanding and appreciation. The kids also begged to do the panning for gems and were happily surprised with the quality of the rocks, fossils, and “gems” that they discovered. We also got to see cars zooming below us and clock their speed — Slow down out there folks!

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Yikes! I am so far behind in my postings. Turns out that losing an hour every couple of days traveling back east does a whopper on your already limited free time. We are back in D.C. now after rushing the final week to make it in time for the annual Hydrocephalus Walkathon (Mer was born at 24 weeks gestation, so suffers from several medical conditions, one of which is hydrocephalus. She has had 14 brain surgeries as a result. It makes her ability to do all the things she can do even that much more impressive to me.)

With more miles to cover quickly, and wanting to ensure I had enough sleep to drive safely, I had to make the hard choice to forego updating our progress. I really regret having to do this as I found the daily summary helped me remember all the little things that I wanted to document. I also like having my impressions be fresh. Time and distance seem to dilute the memories and the excitement somewhat. They are also affected by anything that has happened later. We take off again in two days and I am committed to finding a way to keep up with daily posts. I have to find a way to cut back on the number of photographs, but I find that excruciatingly difficult.

We woke up to a cold, overcast, and drizzly morning. As we planned on hiking, this was a bummer, but what we had planned was too important to miss. Turns out that this day would be way better than our previously planned drive into Denver. We drove through Dinosaur, Colorado and had to stop for some pics in front of the somewhat creepy dinos. Mer was, of course, appalled at the scientifically incorrect anatomy depictions, but we loved the street names in the town. They have fully embraced their dinosaur heritage here.

Driving through a random small town, we saw a field full of (what I thought were) herons. Herons like to eat our koi back home, so I wanted to send a quick photo to Griff of this field full of sushi-loving birds. The sound when I stepped out of the car was deafening. They are beautiful birds (spoiler alert – they weren’t herons, as I was to find out in a few days) and it was amazing to see so many. I was unaware at the time of how unique of an opportunity this was. Traveling teaches me how much I don’t know, and spurs me on to want to learn more. I have no idea how much my kids are getting out of homeschooling with me, but I know at least that I’m learning tons!

Our first stop was Dinosaur National Monument, which straddles Colorado and Utah. The small part of the park we saw was beautiful. After excavating many complete skeletons, they were left with a jumble of bones that had flowed down a river wash to collect in a mixed-up pile. The building is built to cover the remaining unexcavated bones.

You are even allowed to touch some of them! Talk about cool. The kids were in heaven. For a fossil lover, this was a dream come true.

After oohing and aahing over all the fossils, we took off on a short hike to see more bones in-situ. The views were amazing. I still can’t get over how beautiful the landscape is around here. My flashbacks to college Geology class make we want to study this all over again. Things that I had previously only read about in textbooks are making so much more sense to me now seeing them in person. This hike had some precarious parts, and I was wishing I had brought along our hiking poles. I hadn’t packed them when we left D.C., and that’s a mistake I won’t make again. The drizzle at least was light enough it didn’t cause any problems, thankfully.

Next up was a drive further into the park, and a short hike (again wishing I had hiking poles for all of us) to see my first petroglyphs. I have never seen petroglyphs or pictographs in-situ, and it was on my must-see list for this year. I was thrilled to see these, but all it did was whet my appetite to hit our next stop.

We spoke earlier to a park ranger in the visitor center who highly suggested I visit McConkie Ranch if I was really interested in petroglyphs. Word to the wise, if a park ranger suggests you see something that isn’t even in their own park, Go See It! Turns out this was – for me- the coolest and best part of the trip so far. No way I would have ever discovered this place had it not been recommended. You drive up and it looks pretty sus. Personally, I wouldn’t want to do this alone, and certainly not if it were close to dark. There’s a hut you enter for info, mostly consisting of warnings about how dangerous the hike is, how everything is at your own risk, and yeah, you could definitely die doing this. Again the images of the German Tourists in Death Valley come to mind — they stopped in a hut just like this and signed the visitor log. Not instilling confidence in me.

Thankfully, we encountered a couple returning from the hike. They hadn’t gone far up the hills, but gave me reassurance that we would be able to do at least the first part safely, and it would be easy to stop at any point and descend if we didn’t want to go further. I am so glad we did this. It turned out to be much more challenging than I expected — I will NEVER hike again without poles — but was absolutely worth it. We got to scramble over boulders and squeeze through tight spots. At one point, Mer chose to sit and rest while we continued on. I parked her in a safe level-ish spot that wasn’t close to the edge and kept on with Graham. After a while, he too chose to stop and wait while I traversed on. Obviously, the kids didn’t find the petroglyphs as awe-inspiring as I did. They did enjoy it, but at this point their legs were tired and their brains were probably oversaturated with history and fossils. These were “only” about 1000 years old. We will see more next year during our Southwest tour, so hopefully, they will get another opportunity to be properly awestruck.

After descending, we met another couple at the trailhead who had just completed the other hike to Three Kings. They had done both, and swore that I had to go to Three Kings, it was easier and much better. She even showed me the pics on her phone to prove it. Knowing full well I am unlikely to ever be here again, I really wanted to visit this part as well. The kids had zero interest but convinced me they would be fine in the van and were more than happy to just rest for 30 minutes. They have to grow up sometime, and the last month has shown me how much independence they gain when I get out of the way. Another couple had arrived and was about to set off, so I asked if I could tail along with them and they graciously agreed. Again, this isn’t something I personally would want to do alone, and I almost certainly would have turned back early had there not been others with me. I do carry a Garmin emergency GPS signal with me, but really hope to never have to use this. I am not an experienced enough hiker to be off on my own in potentially hazardous locations.

This was such a weird hike to me — it’s through private lands on an unkept “trail” winding through fences that you open and close behind you, through (I am convinced) snake-infested grasslands. I was wearing hiking shoes rather than boots and really wished I had something more snake-proof. I really, really don’t like snakes. The directional signs could be called “subtle” at best. Turns out the couple I was with own a rock-climbing gym in Colorado. Super cool. It was great to enjoy seeing these together. I loved this hike once I was safely out of the knee-high grass. The views and the petroglyphs were amazing! If you are only going to do one section of McConkie’s, then the Three Kings part is best, although I would definitely do both if you have time.

I hated leaving the kids – even though I know they are old enough and experienced enough to take care of themselves – so I double-timed it back as fast as I could. Turns out that running at this elevation takes a lot out of you, and I am not a runner to start with. I did get this short video of the area while catching my breath on my jog back. You can see how middle-of-nowhere it is, how high we climbed, and the grassy “trail” I was stomping through. I don’t think snakes actually hear, but I figured they feel vibrations so I did my best to be LOUD. If the panting wasn’t enough, I figured my ungraceful clomping would be enough to scatter any unfriendly reptiles. Did I tell you that I really don’t like snakes?

I found the kids happily resting and eating. They thought I had been gone about 15 minutes (it was 30), so clearly didn’t miss me one bit. We then had a stunning drive through the aptly named Flaming Gorge before finally getting back to I-80 in Wyoming to continue heading east. This was one of the coolest things I have ever done. And had I-70 been open, we would have spent the day in Denver as planned. No offense to Denver, but this was a much cooler experience. One door closes, another one opens.

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