Today I worked a half-day and in the afternoon we traveled to our campground in West Yellowstone, and then into the park. There were a couple of major developments:
On our way from Moab to West Yellowstone we stayed overnight in Willard Bay State Park in northern Utah. It was nice and quiet and we had a short walk to the beach.
At the recommendations of our swimming friends from France, we headed to Dead Horse Point State Park after dinner to admire the view.
This morning we did the Delicate Arch hike. It was rather grueling because of the heat and Lucia was not up for walking very far. Once we got there, it was awesome. Also, I was nervous the whole time because all around the arch there are drop-offs and steep slopes.
It has been really hot here, so today we waited until after dinner to go into the park. We had a nice evening hike and got to see a lot of stars by the time we were done.
This evening after work we made our first trip into Arches. We hit the visitors center to learn about the park then got a taste of what is has to offer.
Yesterday evening we braved the Mossy Cave trail, just up the street from our campsite. I say ‘braved’ because we almost didn’t go because of the weather. Despite cloudy skies, it was a beautiful, cool evening and we had the trail nearly all to ourselves, which was nice.
We had partly cloudy skies for the eclipse, but that didn’t stop the kids from enjoying the experience. We did the old shoe/cereal box method and had great success.
This morning we hiked the Sunrise/Sunset Loop in Bryce Canyon National Park. It was really cool.
This evening we made it to Coral Sand Dunes State Park. We were hoping to make our way to some dinosaur footprints, but the ranger told us the sand was too soft and our vehicle would get stuck. Instead we enjoyed some time playing on the dunes.
Afterwards we stopped at Kanab Drug for some huge ice cream cones.
We had a fun time at Zion National Park. By the end of the day it was much less crowded and we enjoyed some beautiful hikes. Susan makes fun of me for saying this, but it reminds me a lot of Ledges State Park, in Ames. Maybe just on a larger scale.
