Our Eastern Grand Circle Map

Eastern Grand Circle Detail (map shows southeastern Utah and Western Colorado)

Colorado National Monument
Goblin Valley State Park and San Rafael Reef
Hanksville, UT
Capitol Reef National Park
Torrey, UT
south on Notom-Bullfrog Rd
Bullfrog, UT
Ticaboo, UT
Colorado River Bridge at Hite, UT
Natural Bridges National Monument
Canyonlands National Park, Needles District
Moab, UT
Canyonlands, Islands in the Sky District
Arches National Park

Utah Spring Break 2018

This post is brought to you by everykidoutdoors.gov

This is the Spring of Maya's 4th grade year and we are happily taking advantage of the program that gives 4th graders National Park Passes to use for a year!

3/25/18, Day 1: Kalamazoo to Omaha, Nebraska.  We passed a lot of ice in Iowa and many hours-old slide-offs.
We gave in and rigged up an i-Pad movie theatre loaded with some Hoopla Movies for the long drives.  A sequence of reading, spelling, and homework had to be completed to earn screen time.  We are skipping a week of school to make this a 2-week Spring Break, so we have some make-up work to travel with.  Hotel Pool in Omaha was closed.  😢

3/26, Day 2: Omaha to Denver.  Saw hundreds of Sand Hill Cranes in fields of Nebraska.  A sign in Kearney proclaimed "S.H.C. Capital of the World." Obviously!

The clouds cleared past Denver just enough for the girls to get a glimpse of the Front Range.  Coors Brewery Tour was closed.  Hotel Pool up and running!  The girls went for a 6am swim to let Papa sleep in the next day.

3/27, Day 3: Woke up to 2" of snow in Lakewood, CO.  The drive over the Rockies was sunny and glorious.  Genna snapped many peak photos from her window.  

4000 miles total.  It took us nearly 1400 miles just to arrive at our first camping location, Colorado National Monument, outside Grand Junction.

Maya pointing out the Coke Ovens formation at Colorado National Monument.  We only spent one night here and did a quick driving tour of the park in the afternoon.  The Saddlehorn campground had some neat sandstone buttes to climb through caves and rock flakes.  

3/28, Day 4: Goblin Valley State Park.  I have always wanted to come here..... so have thousands - it was very crowded!  There are no trail routes, you are free to wander the Goblins and discover secret nooks and crannies. 

The girls discovered a small cave that tiny people could exit through the ceiling.  This was not the famed Goblin's Lair.  

Maya!

Antelope Crossing!

Goblin Valley had one (expensive) campsite available when we arrived, but we opted to free-camp on the adjacent BLM land and found this sweet spot on babbling Horse Creek for 2 nights.  The second night got down in the 30ºs. 

The campsite had neighbors from Denver with 2 girls ages 10 and 11.  Our girls played with them for hours and after dinner we all went back to Goblin Valley to run around.

3/29, Day 5: Entering Little Wild Horse Canyon.
It's a popular slot canyon outside Goblin Valley, thus a busy place.  We made our way around the whole loop finishing through Bell Canyon, which made it a tiring 8 mile day for the girls.   So many canyons cut into the San Rafael Swell here to explore in the future.  Ended the day with an ice-cream provisioning trip (30 miles) to Hanksville. 

3/30, Day 6.  There is so much to explore at Capitol Reef National Park.  We'll definitely be back.  It is a drive-by park for many on their way between the more famous Zion and Arches - but there are many backcountry roads and trails to discover in this long narrow band of the Waterpocket Fold.  The drive through Capitol Gorge was incredible.  We were too late to get a spot in the Park campground, so we BLM'd a lackluster spot off Cottonwood Wash on Notom-Bullfrog Road.  

Lackluster campsite, aside, Jeff did snap some lovely moonrise photos over the Henry Mountains, a feature we circumnavigated during the trip.

3/31, Day 7: Day hike in Sheets Gulch. 
Genna, what's wrong with this picture?

A very cool Arch in Sheets Gulch, described as a bowstring, looked like an elephant trunk.

We finished the day at our mid-trip hotel to break up the 8 nights of camping. The showers and beds were a welcome respite.  To get to Ticaboo we finished the scenic drive south down the Fold all the way to Bullfrog Marina at northern Lake Powell.  Ticaboo is a one-horse town 15 minutes north of the Marina that caters to Lake tourists and ORV renters.  Here we diagnosed that our stove was not going to be reliable for the rest of the trip.  The readily-available Colman gas canisters were not compatible with our MSR stove - so we are on cold meals until we can get to a real camping outfitter in Moab.

4/1, Easter, Day 8: Maidenwater Canyon is a  short and sweet little slot north of Ticaboo.  This is the non-technical side.  Genna wants to do some roped routes with me next time.  She'll have to save her allowance for a guide service!

There was more than a little moaning and groaning about the amount of hiking, but the girls' Easter card to me admitted that they enjoy adventures in slot canyons... however pale it is in comparison to the all-inclusive, private yacht, beachy vacations they are spoiled with.

Since the Bullfrog Car Ferry was not running on Sundays, we revised our itinerary into Natural Bridges National Monument.  It was a very pleasant diversion.  This is a small Monument (next door to the infamous Bear's Ears) - and is not really on a through route from anywhere, so it was rather uncrowded and we easily got a campsite.  We did the scenic drive and hiked around the oldest Bridge: Owachomo. 

4/2, Day 9: Newspaper Rock, near Indian Creek, HYW 211.

We had originally planned 3 nights in Moab, but were getting increasingly wary of the rumored busy-ness of the popular town, coupled with the difficulty in securing campsites.  Last week was a huge Jeep Rally, and we wanted that traffic to clear out.  Since we did not get a super early start on the day to head to Moab, we decided to put in a night at Canyonlands, Needles District.  

Slickrock Trail, Canyonlands, Needles District

Surprised to find a little water in the potholes.  It did cloud up this afternoon, but we never saw rainfall.

Met another playmate in the Squaw Flat Campground.  The Canadian family showed us a cool route up the campground Buttes. 

4/3, Day 10: Jeff's first impression of Moab was that it was too busy and overused by ORV enthusiasts and other adventure seekers.  It didn't help that we attempted to get a campsite at Sand Flats which caters to off-roaders and mountain bikers, as there are several specifically designated trails for each here.  But we got a decently quiet spot with a friendly threesome of brother 4-Runner neighbors.

Corona Arch
(swinging is now banned - but you can clearly see the rope burns on the other side of the arch.)

In the afternoon, we stopped to gawk at the climbers on Wall Street, then spontaneously decided to drive up to the Islands in the Sky District of Canyonlands, since we'd never been there (Have Passport - Must get stamps!).  The girls barely wanted to get out of the car by now, so we did a short hike and saw some scenic overlooks.  Made me want to study the explorations of J.W. Powell in greater detail and perhaps retrace some of his route (although not via rapids - I do not do cold water.)
We also have to make it to the Maze District some day.

4/4, Day 11: The final camping day was spent at Arches National Park.  Of course it was crowded, but you gotta do it.  We arrived at the Visitor's Center at 8am and were still among the throngs hiking to Delicate Arch in the morning.  We lunched at the Devil's Garden picnic area and closed the day with the Landscape Arch hike.  If we ever come again, we'll have to investigate the Fiery Furnace permits.

4/5, Day 12: Drove from Moab to Lakewood (Denver) with a lunch picnic in Glenwood Canyon.  Made it just in time for the Coors Brewery tour.  The smell of rotting grains was worth the free sodas at the end, or beer if you're so inclined.  

Patronized the Baymont Pool again and found Pho for dinner.

4/6, Day 13: Jeff is down with Maya's head cold from last week... Genna's from 2 weeks ago.  So I got to do my only bit of driving.  We opted to go the Kansas route as the I-80 Corridor was forecasted with snow.  Stopped in KC, MO for the night.

4/7, Day 14: Through Missouri and central IL, finally arrived home on Saturday evening.

Post-Trip musings....

• Jeff is on to van-camper research, for retirement options.
• The girls are wondering when we will go to the boat next. (although Genna is still interested in trying technical canyoneering.)
• I look forward to the next time I can get the old Kelsey guidebook off the shelf and plan the next Grand Circle Tour.  

LINKS:

• We got addicted to Jamal Green's You-tube channel.  This dude has walked all over southern Utah.  What a lifestyle goal!  
• Blogger, Andrew Wojtanik, is a previous staffer at Capitol Reef National Park and has tons of great info and trail guides for the area.
• Richard Pattison is a British-Ozzie mountaineer that has several great videos on Utah's canyon country.  When we watched them we actually commented that there was a surprising amount of information!   (unlike most of the vacation videos posted on any particular trail.)  I couldn't get anyone to do Chambers with me, based on his video.
• We did use the freecampsites.net for several areas.
• And of course NPS.gov has all the links to all the National Parks.... while they're still open.