I am so glad we decided to detour to add on Arches National Park. It was a bit more out of the way than I expected, but was definitely worth it. We did several short and fairly easy hikes and enjoyed them all. The kids are getting physically tired from all the hikes some days, so sometimes one will hang back and rest while the others go on. Occasionally, I leave them both behind for a while to explore a little more on my own. I have absolutely loved every National Park we have visited and the photography opportunities are endless. I am now adding visiting all 63 of the National Parks to my bucket list. I also want to visit as many national and state forests and preserves as well. They are just great places to spend the day, recharge your batteries, and enjoy nature.

The hardest part of today was choosing the pictures. I think I’m just going to dump a bunch of galleries here to deal with later. Like most of the places we’ve been, the pictures don’t do this justice at all. The views are just too amazing for any photos to take in. The colors, the light, the textures, they are so unique and each park is so different. I hope you enjoy the pictures, and I hope you get to visit here one day too. I promise you won’t regret it!

We stopped in Moab afterwards for food and to figure out our next stop on the way to Denver. Trying to plan anything without wifi or cell service is pretty much impossible. We found some spotty service eventually, and to my dismay I discovered that part of I-70 to Denver was closed due to mudslides. The forest fires that have happened recently have left many mountain areas without the usual erosion protection the trees afforded. As a result, more mudslides are causing problems throughout the West. And without I-70, there was really no efficent way to get to Denver at all. We were looking at having to add a day to the trip just to get around, not what I wanted to do. Momentary panic ensued.

I quickly tried to find a workaround (couldn’t do this trip without Google Maps) and discovered the Dinosaur National Monument, a 210,00 acre park that straddles Colorado and Utah. Meredith continues to be obsessed (in a good way) with dinosaurs, fossils, and all things archaeology related. Her fifth birthday party included a visit and presentation by a U of Chicago paleontologist PhD, dino coprolites, and pin-the-tail-on-the-dino (yea, not your usual girl’s fifth birthday party, I know).

This has been a long-held obsession of hers. Last year she even got to take a hands-on archeology class with a local college professor. She loved every minute of it. I won’t be at all surprised if she majors in something in this area. So there we go – there’s even a town named Dinosaur! We would go there for the night, visit the park the next day and then head up to I-80 and skip Denver altogether. Problem solved, and a new adventure awaits tomorrow

---

We are finally back into civilization with cell service and wifi! (Currently in Laramie, WY). I will have to be short and sweet to catch up on our adventures. I have realized that if I don’t post pics and a summary of our activities, there is no way we will remember what all we’ve done. I barely know what day it is or what state we are in at this point. I can’t really pass judgment one way or the other on what we think of Salt Lake City. The weather was bad, rainy, overcast, and extremely windy. The wildfire smoke was about the worst we’ve seen, so that greatly affected things, and kept our eyes gritty feeling as well. Doesn’t seem fair to make a decision about a city seeing it like this. I guess we will have to come back again! I will say it wasn’t at all what I expected. It was much larger than I anticipated. Including Ogden and Provo, this place is huge. It is long and skinny due to the mountains on one side and a lake on the other, so traffic was unbelievable. They appear to have some of the same issues that are plaguing many if not all cities these days, homelessness and drug addiction. I feel more than a little naive that I didn’t realize how bad things have become in many cities. I obviously need to do lots more research and analysis when we return home.

We still managed to do a ton of things today. We started out by driving around the city just car sightseeing. The LDS Temple is being renovated so it was covered in scaffolding and we couldn’t see it at all.

We headed next to the Clark Planetarium, a small but extremely high-tech museum. Best of all, it is free to everyone. We had a great time talking to one of the employees about sunspots and flares. They had a recording of the sun made on highly specialized lenses that really let you see what is happening on the surface. It was mind-blowing and beautiful. The kids attempted to save the planet from destruction, colonize Mars, and send rockets into space, all with varying levels of success.

Next up with visiting Salt Lake itself. We started at the Great Salt Lake State Park and Marina where a small but very informative museum and film taught us about the lake and it’s formation. It was cold and windy, but very cool to see this HUGE lake (75 miles long and 34 wide). Take a look at the size of the lake compared to the DC-Baltimore area! It really does look like you’ve hit the ocean. And yes, we tested it, it is very salty!

Next up was Thanksgiving Point, south of Salt Lake City. It is hard to explain this place. It has five museums and gardens, and is like a huge family-friendly amusement park without the rides. We visited the Butterfly Biosphere, the Museum of Ancient Life, and the Discovery Center. The Discovery Center is geared toward younger kids, but we still managed to find a few things that the kids enjoyed there. Off to Arches National Park now!

---

We are still loving Idaho! Today we visited the otherworldly, and aptly named, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Its three lava fields cover over 1,000 square acres. Words and pictures could never do this place justice. It is so cool and so very bizarre. We stopped at the visitor center to get a pass to enter the caves. There are restrictions in place due to while nose fungus that can kill the bats. Because we had been inside caves recently, we were required to do sanitation procedures and change some of what we carried with us. The worst part was that we couldn’t wear our hiking boots. That turned out to be unfortunate, and it really hampered our climbing down into the caves. We made due though, and still managed to get into some of the caves. Most of the visitor center exhibits were closed for renovation, unfortunately, but we did get to read a few placards that helped us understand the formation of the area.

Here’s a short video that shows better what the area looks like.

It was so interesting to see the flora that manages to survive in this inhospitable soil (if you can even call it soil). We heard many birds and even saw a few chipmunks. I’m really not sure what those little guys survive on here.

I could have taken photos of the unique rocks and formations all day if I had the time. The kids loved it as well, although they definitely tired of it long before I did.

The caving was more challenging than I expected, and more than the ranger had led us to believe. I thought that you could basically walk into the mouth of the caves and that they had large openings. Nope. You basically bouldered down to get into what I thought were pretty tight areas. We had flashlights but not hardhats, so Graham and I only ventured in a little bit to a few of them. Some we bypassed immediately as too challenging. Mer wisely chose to wait up top for us; the terrain down was just too unstable for her (and my) comfort.

Next up was a tour and late lunch at the World Potato Museum. Unsurprisingly, the potato-based food was amazing. We learned way more than we ever wanted to about potatoes. Turns out they pretty much saved the world. And we all eat a LOT of them.

We decided at the last minute to take a short detour and visit the lava hot springs in the creatively named town of Lava Hot Springs. I’ve always wanted to get in real hot spring, so now was the chance. The kids enjoyed it, although we didn’t stay long . Some of the five springs were really hot. We had a two-hour drive ahead of us to Salt Lake City, so I didn’t want to get too tired. The town was adorable, and we got to walk around a little and see the trees changing colors already along the river.

We’ve made another change of plans that I hope goes well, and doesn’t alter our return date too much. We are going to be so close to Moab, we just have to go see Arches National Park. We will then drive back via Denver, which we hadn’t planned to visit this time at all. It will have to be quick, and I think we will have to make our St. Louis, Kansas City, and Louisville visits equally short. I hate cutting things out and rushing, but this is one HUGE country we have here. There really is no way to see it all. The best I think we can do is figure out where we want to visit again on our next trip west. We are still having fun and not too exhausted, but we are ready to get back home for a rest in our own beds. Thank you for following us on our travels!

---

I don’t know what I thought Boise would be like, but man is it cool! We are all in love with this town, and with Idaho. We are already talking about our next visit here. We would like to spend a couple of days in the city, and then spend the rest exploring and hiking around the state. The state is divided into three different areas: desert, mountain, and forest. About 60% of the state is covered in forests, but the mountains can be seen everywhere. The views, especially at sunset, are amazing. Do I sound like a commercial for the Idaho tourist bureau yet? And we’ve only been here one day. Yesterday we took a day off and stayed in the hotel most of the day. I had the oil changed in the minivan and tires checked out and took Mer to the park twice to swing. It was a much-needed rest after our last few days. We are all recharged and ready to explore Idaho.

We started out this morning at the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey. I had expected it to be a small information center and then we would spend time outside looking for birds in the preservation area. I was wrong. This place was wonderful. The exhibits inside explained so much about different birds of prey, how many species have become endangered throughout the world, and what the Peregrine Fund has been doing to help. So much I didn’t know. There were live presentations and the rescued birds that were onsight were fascinating to watch. We spoke with several volunteer experts there who added tremendously to our learning and enjoyment. This is a fantastic place for anyone to visit. If you don’t care at all about birds of prey, you definitely will after a few hours here. They play a vital role in keeping an ecosystem healthy.

We learned so much about these unique birds. The turkey vulture, for example, can smell carrion up to 6 miles away! The hole in its nose allows the air to blow directly over its olfactory receptors. We also learned about pear-shaped eggs that won’t roll off cliffs, and the critically endangered enormous California Condors, which at one point were reduced to only 22 alive in the world. Thankfully, although still critically endangered, it appears they have been brought back from the brink.

Next up was a drive downtown. We explored the Freak Alley and enjoyed the murals, and then walked around downtown a bit. The whole city was so clean it looked like you could eat off the streets. What a difference from Portland. It really makes me wonder…the states are right next to each other, and the cities aren’t that far apart. I have some guesses, but I really want to spend time after we get back trying to research the very different outcomes in these two cities. They couldn’t be more different right now.

Boise was full of people outside and biking appears to be a favored activity. There were pedestrian-only areas full of adorable outdoor seating restaurants and cute shops. Beautiful murals adorned many of the buildings. The Boise River bisects downtown and there is a huge park area we enjoyed walking through, complete with a canal with paddleboats (that we sadly didn’t have time to enjoy). This was a Sunday, and many things were closed. We also had only one day to explore, so we definitely must come back one day. We drove by the Basque neighborhood but everything was closed. I would have loved to learn about the Basque people in the area; it is the largest concentration of Basque immigrants in the country.

We did visit two of the museums though. First was the Idaho State Museum, where I drank the kool-aid and decided on the spot that Idaho is the coolest state ever. Clearly, this was a very well-done museum! We learned about the unique geology, flora, and fauna of the state, the history of the state’s formation, the indigenous tribes, pioneer settlers, and the Great Fire of 1910, a devastating fire that changed forestry and firefighting methods in this country drastically afterward. There was also a great temporary exhibit about women pioneers, trendsetters, and rule-breakers throughout Idaho’s history. We learned about so many tough, amazing, and fearless women. Whew! It was a lot, but it was such a nice museum. Every state should use this as a model.

Next up was a short walk to the Discovery Center of Idaho, because my kids insist on visiting every single science museum in existence. This was small but nice, mostly with hands-on physics experiment exhibits that both kids enjoyed. The great surprise for us was the special exhibition of Exquisite Creatures (more info here too). The artist takes deceased animals and geological specimens and arranges them into beautifully stunning artworks. He travels the world looking for unique animals. This was so incredibly cool. To see these animals up close you truly get to appreciate the marvels of nature and evolution. This is a traveling exhibit so if it comes near you, I highly suggest you take a look. All three of us loved seeing this.

The drive out of Boise was a stunning view of mountains at sunset. We are going to hike around Craters of the Moon NP tomorrow and hopefully do some caving as well. We snagged a motel about 20 minutes from the entrance. The drive there was the most of middle of nowhere we’ve been on the whole trip. I think we drove an hour seeing only one or two cars. When the sun fell, it got dark. Like really dark. I can’t wait to see what Craters looks like tomorrow. We’ve heard so much about this park. It wasn’t on our original to-do list, but after several people recommended it, we decided to add on a day.

---