Roadtrip 2021 - Utah - 2 - Arches

Spring Break Road Trip 2021: Nebraska -> Colorado Springs -> Utah (Dead Horse) -> Utah (Arches) -> Utah (Canyonlands)

 Now the Arches. This National Park is quite literally just a bunch of Arches. I couldn't reduce this incredible experience any further. 

1. Be prepared to be device-free cause no signal most of the time.
2. Get in the entrance for Arches National Park before 8:30 am. Cause there is huge rush in and they close the gates after n number of cars are in. Really. That's how we lost the first day and made it in on the 2nd day.
3. Pack lunch and get. No way to get out of here before dark just cause you are short of food.
4. Shoes - get the best ones. We clocked 30k steps on this day alone.

The rock mountains right after entrance are enthralling enough. But I wonder why we wasted time here instead of Arches.

 

 

North & South Arches

I climbed on of these arches and got stuck sobbing & groeling with fear. Kids had fun but helped me down.

Double Arches

Broken Arch

This one involved first a halt the Sand Dune. This narrow caveous sight.

Then a small hike to Broken Arch.

Devils Garden Trail

This is a hike place and shows quite a few arches in the range of 2 to 9 miles.

We checked out the Landscape Arch. tunnel arch view was not so great.

Delicate Arches

We saved the Delicate Arches for the grand finale. And it was totally worth it.

Our whole party has numerous stories to tell about just this one. Different story for each of us cause it was a different adventure for each.

If you plan it make sure there is 2 hours of daylight there. Coz the return walk was in twilight & slowly faded to dark. It was all on the tilted mountain, but there were millions others with us and with flashlights or phone-light.

This walk on the cliff-edge - not for the faint-hearted and yet ah-doable. We did it - to & fro. And at the end, we saw Niagara-level of crowd !

Messa Arch

Then there is Messa Arch. We visited this next day to check out the sunset.

I have proof we clocked more than 30K steps that day !

Roadtrip 2021 - Utah - 1 - Dead Horse

Spring Break Road Trip 2021: Nebraska -> Colorado Springs -> Utah (Dead Horse) -> Utah (Arches) -> Utah (Canyonlands)

  After 2 days in Colorado Springs, we drove to Moab, Utah. I was asleep when we entered the town & went straight for check-in and sleep. Next morning, the mountain rocks we visible from the hotel window itself, even being on first floor.

The 4 days stay was full of walking. There were orange rocks of all shapes everywhere. I was even dreaming of them at night.

National Park pass is useful when visiting more than 1 park. But there are state parks too and they won't accept the Natl Park pass. So budget for it.

1. Dead Horse Point State Park
2. Drive across the Canyons
3. Arches National Park
4. Canyonlands National Park

These parks are vast. Which means once in, you can't drive out for something simple but crucial like lunch. So pack & carry it with you. You don't want to stumble out of these vast, arid deserts, clamoring for food & water, while there is entire half day left to explore the parks.

Dead Horse Point State Park

Drive across the Canyons - Potash Road

Now the drive down the cliff is one of those extreme-dangerous-road-drive videos. My kid did get the whole thing on video. Including all our voices. First we thought we would mute the video. But nope - the voice commentary (of everyone's nervous chatter) is a gem of a companion to the cliff-visuals.

At the end of the road, in the bottom of the cliffs, park people have built what we thought we would need - a bathroom. Like really.

This is the Potash field which the reason for this road name. 

Arches National Park & Canyonlands National Park next up.

Roadtrip 2021 - Colorado

Spring Break Road Trip 2021: Nebraska -> Colorado Springs -> Utah (Dead Horse) -> Utah (Arches) -> Utah (Canyonlands)

Spring break roadtrip continued towards Colorado Springs after the night halt in North Platte, NE. In Colorado we visited:

• Mesa Verde National Park, 
• Royal gorge Bridge & Park Canon City,
• Pikes Peak Colorado Springs &
• Denver 

Denver 

Our first halt was to sight-see Capitol and surroundings. One marked thing visible are the Dispensaries and clinics unique to this state and their users roaming all the streets & settled in there.

Next up, Denver Art Museum. Lovely place to relax and take pics with its numerous installations.

Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs

First thing on entering Colorado, is the never-ending chain of mountains on all sides. That's a sight to see. This was a sight of the peak, from behind our Hotel.

Pikes Peak is a 16 mile drive with many overlooks for lovely sights. 

Finally at the peak on 16th-mile, is the place to park the car and climb/walk/crawl uphill. There were large stones and snow all over. Such a lovely view to see snow after so long - it had melted in MN in March itself. The climb uphill to the top looked treacherous, maybe was, but I didn't see any of the crowds get injured. So I did it too. Its a sight to behold. No amount of picture could capture the vastness of it all.

Royal gorge Bridge & Park, Canon City

As soon as we entered the park, it was a Disneyland feeling. There was Zipline, Gandola ride, Swing on the top-most point and a Bridge across the Gorge. And again, no amount of pictures could capture the stomach-churning depth of this gorge.

There are different state flags, and when we neared Minnesota, there was another MN family. Lot of yelling to show the homie feeling.

Gandola rides & Zip Line and Swigs basically stopped after 3pm. There were long waits in lines. Later for some or the other excuse, they closed after 4pm. 

Mesa Verde National Park

This hidden gem was revealed to us by another fellow hotel stayer.

There are these unbelievable Cave houses, villages, squares etc built on the cliffs.

Every village we stopped at, the poster explained the whole history. It was made & used by Pbuleo tribe between 1200-1270. Yet there was always a wonder, why did they build on the edge of cliffs ? Why not the plain lands slightly (miles) away and why on these slippery cliffs to climb everyday ? Who came here first & settled those 60-80 families eventually ? Phew.

The drive across the park stops at many overlooks to show the different cave villages and one final grand view across the whole thing. Its so hard to believe these were built in 1200-1270 AD and not some tourist-fraud thing.

Next hop to Moab, Utah.

The drive was via winding ghat roads. With river gorge on one side and yawning mountains looking like rock-slide on the other, totally reminded of Hindi-movies Kashmir.

Roadtrip 2021- Nebraska & Iowa

Spring Break Road Trip 2021: Nebraska -> Colorado Springs -> Utah (Dead Horse) -> Utah (Arches) -> Utah (Canyonlands)

This year Spring break we went out for the first time. A Road-trip to Utah. We passed through IOWA and then Nebraska and Colorado.

Iowa was breathtaking in Jan first weekend with all Hoar-frost everywhere. 360 degrees of glittering trees. Feasted our eyes for 4 hours. Sun was out but it was not melting coz 5-10F temps. Photos don’t do justice to this endless beauty.

In April, nothing stood out. 

Further on to Nebraska, wide plain lands. Cows in the first few were exciting. I kept yelling "Cows on the right/left" so kids would look up from their devices. Soon we discovered there are like million cows in the state. Which was great, until we could smell them too, from inside a locked moving car.

We halted in North Platte for the night, before proceeding to Colorado and then to Utah. Walmart & many eating places were right next to the hotel.

Roadtrip - Packing List 101

 My updated Roadtrip - Packing List 101. Which is different from Camping or Theme Park or Air-travel. These are essential items. You anyway need other regular use stuff.

Factors for this list:

1. Breakfast, lunch & snacks could be covered by many drive-throughs. But one meal needs to be home-cooked. Its not just financial, it's also gut-driven decision.
2. Meals in the Park - So if you are in a city or even village, you can step out to buy some lunch. Even that takes away 2-3 hours sometimes. But if you are going to park, there is no other option but to pack your lunch. There is no question of skipping it, coz you need to consider how long you can suffer, till you breakdown. I mean you will have to stay in the park till nightfall at worst case. And stepping out 50 miles for a meal is not worth it.
3. Cooler - to store yogurt cups, frozen peas or frozen parathas
4. Pack or shop what you left behind. Not all states have frequency of Targets & Walmart as your state. You might find local grocery stores for the staple items. But it could be few & far in between. Until then rely on gas-stations & their inventory.
5. Overnight bag - so packing might involve separate bags for each family member. But if you are going to move from hotel to hotel for night-stays, you need a overnight bag. Be flexible to move stuff around to one bag with only overnight supplies. That will reduce the headache of lugging multiple luggage to the room after a tired day of driving and getting them back to car again next morning.
6. Cold weather layering - need the hoodies & winter jackets. No matter how south, and which month; it's gonna be windy or cold and we end up needing some of those.

Clothing

1. Winter Jackets - coz no matter which month of the year and any corner of the country - its going to be cold or windy at best.
2. Gloves - for the same above reason.
3. Hoodies - coz maybe its not bitter cold, but its still cold.
4. Socks - you need clean ones after wading through sand.
5. Swim bag with all the paraphernalia - to utilize the hotel pool

Grocery/Ingredients list

1. Rice - count the cups based on people & nights to feed. And add more cups to that. 
2. Dal (Moong/Toor)
3. Pickle bottle
4. Turmeric, Chilli powder & Salt in zip-locks
5. Jeera in ziplock
6. Ghee / oil - small bottle
7. MTR Puliyogyre paste
8. MTR Bisibelebath paste
9. Maggi
10. Fruits, bread, jams, chips - shop along the way as you need.
11. Yogurt - shop along the way as you need.
12. Crate of water bottles - buy more every gas station

Cooking & Serving kit

1. Rice cooker
2. InstaPot - 3 qt
3. Cooler - small one will do
4. Griddle - lightweight for Paratha. Or can also be bought at the nearest Walmart/Target/etc
5. Paper plates, cups, spoons, forks (for Maggi)
6. Ketchup packets collected every drive-through
7. Tissue roll

Recipes

1. Peas-Rice
2. Dal
3. Frozen Parathas
4. Puliyogyre - White rice (w/ peas) mixed with MTR Puliyogyre paste
5. Bisibelebath - White rice & dal with peas mixed with MTR Bisibelebath paste
6. Maggi
7. PBJ - Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwiches

Toiletries kit or Shaving Kit

1. Nail-cutter - someone in your large party is going to need it someday; for sure.
2. Travel size shampoo, conditioner, soap - coz all hotels can't be trusted to have the right one
3. Medicines - Volini (for leg pain), Disprin (for headaches), Aquapor (for skin)
4. Rest you know

Others

1. Book bag - with book, book-light, pencil-case. A kids joke-book that I took, was a hit for all of us.
2. Neck-pillow - how can it not be part of a car !
3. Marker pen - to add name initials on  the disposable water-bottle cap, so we don't drink each others backwash - argh. And hence we don't discard perfectly good water, because we forgot whose is which. Ofcourse such water can be used to wash hands & such.
4. Scissor or cutter - coz someone need it someday.