June 21st - Alliance Nebraska to Denver Colorado
It was another day of continued driving and this time making our way to Denver Colorado. It was about a 4 hour drive to the city. We pack up the cars in the morning and let the kids play at the park across the street and then got in the car and started driving to Denver. It was still more back roads with little traffic and we were able to go pretty fast. We never saw any police cars until we made it to the main highway which was nice. We stopped a couple of times on the way, once at a rest stop and a second time for lunch close to Denver. We tried eating at Culvers and it wasn't as good as we were hoping. It tasted a lot like Wendy's food. We got back on the road and went to our Airbnb which was a small place in the city and we fed the kids and put them in bed. We let Alan and Tammy to go out where they went to a place called Acova. They told us it was a really good place to eat so we took their word after they got back and Alyssa and I went there to experience it ourselves. It was really good and we got to watch the Dodger game that wasn't in our favor winning wise but the food and the atmosphere were excellent and we enjoyed the time with no kids. That was about it for the day.
June 22nd - Denver to Moab
We packed up from our front dwelling Airbnb home and headed to Costco for some cheaper gas and started towards the mountains. Highway 70 took us up and over the Rockies and we got up to nearly 11,000 feet and the car definitely was feeling it, it struggled to make it up the road but after making it over the pass it was all down hill from there and we were able to save about 100 miles worth of gas as we descended to the desert. It was a nice and scenic drive through the mountains and passing some awesome ski towns. Once we made it to Grand Junction we stopped and got some food from QDOBA Mexican food chain. It was pretty good as it was our first time trying it. I let Alyssa drive the rest of the way to Moab. The temps kept rising but we stayed cool inside the van. We made it into Moab and we wanted to eat some food. We stopped at a parking lot with lots of food trucks to choose some food. Alyssa got a strange tasting smoothie that was sweet and a little sour too. I chose to get a snow cone with a scoop of ice cream. It was good for the heat but they were missing a flavor that made it not taste as good as it could have been. After that we drove to our Airbnb that was south of Moab. It was nice and cozy but didnt have AC, it was okay because it cooled down to the low 80's and felt really nice. It was a house that had an upper and a lower living area and we were on the top floor. Once Taylor, Alan, and Tammy arrived we unpacked and headed out to Arches National Park while the air was cooling down. We did a couple hikes, one to an arch between some cool rocks and was kinda hidden. We stopped quite a few times to take some pics of some cool rocks, arches, pillars and other things but the sun was going down quickly and we made our way back to the Airbnb but not before stopping at the grocery store and picking up some food to make some dinner.
June 23nd - Canyonland National Park
This day we decided to go to Canyonlands and it was a great day to go. It took about an hour and a half to get into the park. 45 minutes of that was waiting in line to actually get in the park and we are pretty sure that it was because they closed arches and forced everyone else to go to Canyonlands. We started off by going to the visitor center and buying our magnet and then on the way we went to the Mesa Arch that is apparently a really popular arch that sits on the edge of a cliff. We then to the Grand view where it overlooks the whole area and quite an amazing view. It felt like you were on the top of the world with cliffs all around, it made us a little nervous having the kids run around and climb all over the rocks. They do have a mile hike around the rim but we didn't feel comfortable with the kids so we didn't do it. We then made our way to a picnic area and Clark was not a happy camper. He wanted to run around and climb on rocks and doing his own thing. Instead we kept him in the car where he eventually gave up after we put a movie on the entertainment screen. I was also able to take a nap since we didn't get out of the car. After lunch we continued on and made our way to Whale Rock where Alyssa, Alan, Taylor and I did a short fun hike up the Whale Rock. It was pretty big and Taylor just wanted to run with the other kids that were on the trail so we let her go for a little bit until she fell and didn't want to walk any more. It was quite the hike with all these kids that wanted to push over all the stacked rocks. Once back we continued driving and found we saw most everything we could with our on-road vehicles, maybe next time we will go with some off-road vehicles and go on more adventurous trails. We made it back to Moab and went to find some food. We ate dinner a little early and enjoyed eating at the Broken Oar. Alyssa and I had eaten there before on a previous road trip and my cousins worked there while they went to high school. After eating there we drove down the road and got some ice cream. We tried to get some from this Coffee shop but they closed at 5pm so we went down the road and saw many other eating ice cream and found they all got it from the Spoke on Center. It was delicious and made us happy. Overall it was a good day with the exception of the kids driving us a little crazy.
