The Road Trip

I love traveling. I knew this before going on our road trip, but it has grown to a level I never expected. I could write an abundance of blog posts about our travels out west, but I’m not going to as of now. Although I could attempt to convey my experiences through stories, I want them to remain that, experiences. I don’t think my writing would ever do them justice anyway. I will, however, include a couple tidbits. 

First, I just wanted to talk about traveling in and of itself. One of my favorite aspects is simply watching the change of scenery out the car window. We drove over 6,000 miles, went through 15 states, camped in 3 of them, slept in the car 3 times, and got a hotel in two. When we were visiting friends in Denton, Texas, they mentioned that our drive the following morning would be long and boring, with nothing but desert to see. Haha, little did they know how excited this made me. We were expecting desert and up to the moment, we had barely gotten a taste of it. I don’t think I slept at all on the drive the next day. Nothing to see? Nonsense! There was so much to see! I was so captivated by the desert landscape and how it changed as we went through New Mexico and into Arizona. We saw cacti, all kinds of shrubbery I didn’t recognize, and soo many dust devils (reaching way above telephone pole height). It was fascinating. And that’s how it went the entire trip. Every time I curled up to nap in my seat, I’d spot something new and interesting to look at. There is so much to see in this world, so much to observe and experience. That’s why it can be hard to write about, because it has to be experienced firsthand. So, I’ll just stick to a couple brief stories instead. 

The first takes place in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. We only had a little more than half the day there, so we planned to go on above five short trails, and a couple moderate ones. About halfway through one of our moderate hikes, we came to a trail closed sign. Hm. We could either backtrack the way we came, a long series of decently steep switchbacks, or taking a connecting path. Long story short, we took the connecting path, which ended up going through the entire main amphitheater of the canyon, up the other side of it, and then along the rim. What was supposed to be a 40-minute hike turned into a 2+ hour long hike. It was near 100 degrees out and we were all hot, tired, and soaked by the time we finished. 

However, I think it was one of my favorite hikes we did on our trip. I think it was actually my favorite day of the whole trip. I loved every minute of it. We were able to really explore and experience the canyon in all it’s glory. We found caves, arches, bridges, and hoodoos. It was magnificent. I found myself frequently pausing (definitely not because I was out of breath) to take in the beauty of God’s creation. Every corner brought new wonders. 

While we were in the canyon, we met an extremely nice French man who had somehow lost his family in the canyon and had left his keys and phone in his hotel room. He used Christy’s phone (somehow, she had service?) and tried calling them, but to no avail. After a while of talking to him, his family suddenly came around the corner and they were reunited at last. We ran into them a couple times as we continued our hike; one encounter being greeted with a “Hey! It’s my girls, my Bryce friends! Pints on me tonight at the hotels pub!”

A few days later, we arrived at our last camping destination in Rocky Mountains National Park, Colorado. By the time we were checking into the campground, we were all tired and feeling more than ready to be home. But atlas, we were greeted by the best of surprises, a moderate fire danger! Now, I know that sounds bad, but up until this point, we every place we had been too was under a fire ban. We even drove through a town that was having a massive forest fire of nearly 3,000 acres (the air quality took me back to my first couple months in Moscow that made me dread stepping a foot outside). Anyway, we finally got to build a campfire that evening, complete with hotdogs and marshmallows. It was the most perfect way to conclude our road trip. 

However, we had to take extra precautions for black bears that night. It took a lot of effort to prevent Christy from leaving food out for them (she was so determined to make friends with them). Unfortunately for her, she did not meet any bears. Only an abundance of moose, mule deer, elk, marmot, wild donkeys, squirrels, horses, scorpions, and so much more wildlife. 

( I apologize if the writing or grammar in this post is horrendous, I'm tired, okay?)