In March the kids had a two week spring break, so we took a trip to Utah. We decided to go via Canon City so we could visit the Royal Gorge Bridge and park. Here we are taking the gondola over the gorge.
We met a set of grandparents there with their grandkids on the gondola and struck up a conversation. Their granddaughter seemed super social like Allison, so I encouraged her to get to know her. They made fast friends. Here they are playing on the teeter totter and climbing wall at the playground on the other side of the gorge.
I enjoyed the view while the kids played.
Even Tyler and their older grandson played together. We were sad to have to separate the kids at the end of our time here. The grandparents are from Canon City, but they and their grandkids live in Wyoming now, so not an easy visit.
Here are the girls playing on the train car.
We then went down to cross the famous bridge, and the girls held hands while they walked it together.
Our new friends took a family picture of us before we grabbed some lunch and continued on our way.
We're used to seeing tumbleweeds on our road trips, but these were full on tumble bushes!
A couple hours later our drive got a bit scary. I have no intention of ever going over Monarch Mountain pass in March again. There was also a delay from a stalled semi truck not being able to make this tight turn that made things even more nerve-wracking.
It wasn't too bad after we'd made it through the pass. We made a quick stop at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison lookout.
I was the only one willing to hike down to the main lookout at the lodge. I'd heard about it from my lovely friend Judith, who'd been one of my coaches at last year's vocal arts festival. After dropping the family off at our hotel I went over to her house and had a lovely evening making music and coaching with her.
The next morning we continued our drive to Utah, stopping off for some amazing scenery at Colorado National Monument. Silly us. We were expecting an actual monument - like a statue or something, but it's this whole gorgeous canyon area.
Here was the first of many gorgeous stops
And the 2nd major viewpoint. We walked out on the path to fully appreciate this one.
We were pretty much in a constant state of awe!
The amazing scenery just kept on coming.
Oscar, Allison, and I got out at this lookout, but Tyler had had enough scenery.
I had Allison take a picture of me and Oscar got pictures of her taking that picture.
I can't recommend this place enough.
There were some neat rain clouds in the distance as we wound down the mountain.
From there were got some lunch at Dairy Queen then took the kids to the Dinosaur museum in Fruita.
Road trips are always better when the kids can get out and play or just do something they might do on any other day (like visit a childrens'/science museum). It gives them a much needed sense of normalcy.
This display of a Utahraptor eating a sauropod was pretty gruesome!
I love Allison's dinosaur impressions!
Both kids liked the dinosaur ride in the gift shop, and Allison had fun on the triceratops she could sit and play on.
Tyler appreciated the pretty rocks in the gift shop, and we all gaped at this random white hill as we headed out.
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This was amazinging and the photos were wonderful
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