Rover and Dover Adventures

We woke up a bit late this morning, at least for us.  The sun was starting to beat down on the camper and we knew we were in for a warm day.  But then again, what can you expect when you head into the desert in late June?!! We had planned to do a short-ish hike in Zion before enjoying the reservoir so we had some breakfast and then drove over to the park.  Unfortunately, when we got into the park, it was clear that the crowds had beaten us there.  There wasn’t a parking spot available at the visitor center.  While there are free shuttles from the neighboring town, given that we were only going to hike for about an hour, we were suddenly looking at ~2 hours of shuttle rides to do one mile of hiking.  Given that we had ridden the shuttle yesterday and sort of seen the park, we decided that the ratio of 2:1 travel to hiking just wasn’t worth it so we decided to do a day at the lake and just relax. It took us a bit of time to get back to the lake, but when we d...

Today we would be packing up again and heading to one of Utah’s State Parks and so we decided to use our electricity a bit less sparingly and have pancakes for breakfast.  Unfortunately, we made a bit (read - LOT) too much batter and so we completely drained the solar generator.  Oh well, that’s ok - we’ll just have to also do our dishes at the state park because there’s nothing left but propane to make hot water and we’d rather use electric when we can. Before we hit the road though, we wanted to go and explore Bryce a bit more.  Amy had again visited with the rangers and they suggested that very few people go to Mossy Cave.  We were a bit surprised to see so many cars when we got there, but we found a spot and started up the trtail.   Along the we way up the trail, we realized that we were close enough to one of the guided tours that was being conducted.  Fortunately for us, the tour guide was willing to let us listen (he made sure to be very vocal w...

After back to back stargazing nights (on nearly the longest day of the year and on the very Western edge of a time zone), we all slept in.  It felt great, but we were concerned about what it meant for beating the crowds into Bryce.  As it turns out, we were right to be concerned, after over two weeks, the crowds of the National Parks had caught up to us.  We pulled into the first area we wanted to see (Sunset Point) and there wasn’t a spot available.  So, we leaned hard into the ranger recommendations for where to go that others wouldn’t go and started up the scenic road.   It turned out that this recommendation was terrific and we were able to stop and get away from others for at least a bit at each stop along the way.  And, despite the crowds not coming, there still were some amazing views of the canyons.  The one thing we did find up the scenic drive was the WIND!  It was a consistent 20+ mph wind and it just seemed to rip up the valley an...

While Sunglow was an AMAZING site, we sadly only had one night there.  However, we hadn’t quite seen enough of Capitol Reef and so we left Dover for a bit longer and headed back into the National Park to see some of the sites down on the valley floor. This visit was completely worthwhile.  The valley of the park used to be a farm with a great number of fruit orchards and the park has maintained this look for much of it.  We parked the car at the picnic area which is an incredibly lush grove of large trees and a big open lawn.  There seem to always be deer here enjoying the vegetation, but what was particularly enjoyable this morning was that there were some other kids there playing a soccer game.  Sebastian and Robinson joined in and got some true kid activity which they had been missing with all the camping we have been doing. Brian took the time while the soccer game was going on to wander through the orchards.  There’s an incredible variety of trees in t...

Today was a travel day but also a laundry day.  So, while Amy started with breakfast and packing up the camper I ran into town to do some laundry.  I found a laundromat that had the truly industrial washers so it was all done with one washer and then one dryer.  I need those things for the house.  Ha! I stopped at the store for some fresh fruit and then got back to camp to assist with packing up the camper.  While not easy, we’re getting better at this, though some is due to the fact that we ate through a fair bit of food in the past week so we have less to pack up (did I mention that we had overpacked for the beginning of our trip?!!). Once Rover and Dover were reconnected we started heading West to see what a few geology professors we had met called the hidden gem of the National Park system - Capitol Reef. We made a brief stop at the park to walk over the mighty Colorado river as it wound its way toward the Grand Canyon.  One the river, Sebastian got to ...

We are officially in National Park territory and it’s clear that others have figured it out.  The campground was full of people ready to enjoy the outdoors - an interesting mix of “Grey Nomads”, mountain bikers, hippies, and general outdoor types.  It was fun to see all these folks mixing in the campground. The weather overnight was ideal for sleep and we all had a great night of dreams.  I woke up feeling a bit under the weather, but thought it was just dealing with the altitude/dry air.  Robinson had reminded us of the dry air with a few nose bleeds as we went into altitude.  Fortunately nothing serious, but a reminder that we are surrounded by high altitude, dry air (it really is a desert!).  Robinson checked out the local dogs and the playground in camp while breakfast we prepared. After breakfast, it was off to Arches.  Amy, in passing mentioned the quote “Too Orange, zero stars” when describing Arches and so the boys were introduced to the concep...