Pulaski

BMW X5, a rented one, so only the in-line 6cyl motor, but still has well over 300hp, so "goes" fairly nice, just not quite like my own X5 with the V8. It has proved fun to drive on this trip, and with adequate room for the three of us, but for a 4x4/ SUV it isn't large on the inside and for anyone familiar with the petrol-head scene in the UK, I would describe my own X5 as "a giant hot hatch" rather than an SUV.

Thank you. ... After Yellowstone we went to the Devil's Tower, and then into South Dakota to see Mt Rushmore.

Finknottle

Pulaski - a child in time!

Pulaski

I have been driving a BMW X5, a rented one, so "only" the in-line 6cyl motor, but still has well over 300hp, so goes fairly nice, just not quite like my own X5 with the V8.

It has proved fun to drive on this trip, and with adequate room for the three of us, but for a 4x4/ SUV it isn't large on the inside and for anyone familiar with the petrol-head scene in the UK, I would describe it as "a giant hot hatch" rather than an SUV.

Thank you. ... After Yellowstone we went to the Devil's Tower, and then into South Dakota to see Mt Rushmore.

Olly_

You're pretty much copying the trip I did last month

Steerpike

In my opinion, based on a fair amount of travel in that neighborhood, you really should try to include Bryce Canyon NP (#1) and possibly Zion NP at some point. Bryce is simply 'out of this world'. It's quite close to Vegas and you can pass through Zion on the way to Bryce quite comfortably. I also thought Canyonlands and Arches were great; but not as great as Bryce! What did you think of Moab, the town? I thought it was a cool little town, and totally out of character with Utah; they had breweries everywhere!

Great trip you are on, by the way, and fantastic pictures! Thanks for sharing. I haven't done a long road trip in ages ... this really makes me want to do one! My last really serious trip was from Arizona through Monument Valley to Moab (for a visit to Arches and Canyonlands), then a long, long drive due west through Nevada and the Sierras to San Francisco. I'm long overdue!

Rete

Great trip you are having. I second Bryce Canyon and also Red Rock Canyon. Enjoyed visiting them both when daughter lived in Vegas.

tht

I got a pic of canyon lands/Island in the Sky on a flight to SIN via LA a few years ago.

Need to do a trip like this sometime when the kids are a little older.

Pulaski

Speed king! 😁

Deep Purple in Rock was the first hard rock album I ever heard, thanks to a friend at high school who found it in his brother's record collection. It was a life altering experience. I saw them three times on their "farewell tour", but I am still hoping to catch them again with their new guitar player.

Pulaski

So on Wednesday it didn't rain - the only day between leaving Denver and returning that it didn't rain!

Between where we spent Wednesday night and getting back to Denver on Thursday night is Pawnee National Grassland, which is partly federally owned, and partly private, but is a giant prairie grassland, so rather than whizzing along interstates we drove to and through the Pawnee National Grassland. It was almost certainly the most remote and desolate place I have ever visited - the above-mentioned Bear Tooth Pass was congested with traffic in comparison. Although we were driving along public roads, we drove about 50 miles on gravel (actually hard-packed fine grit and sand) roads for about 50 miles. We turn off onto a track to reach the "visitor center", which comprised a few information signs, a modern but rudimentary toilet building, and a couple of picnic tables with a roof over them.

Pulaski

I remember seeing a dramatic canyon from the window when I was flying to Vegas a decade ago, and had assumed it was the Grand Canyon, but perhaps it was Canyonlands NP.

On this trip Canyonlands would have taken us significantly off our route and itinerary towards Yellowstone, so to everyone who has suggested other places to visit in Southern Utah, Nevada, and California, those places will have to wait until a possible road trip loop starting and ending in Las Vegas, though I am not sure when that might happen.
That's very smart, they won't remember much if anything if you take them when they're young. My daughter doesn't remember much of holidays when she was 5-7 years old, and we had deliberately held off on taking her to "significant" destinations when she was young because we knew she wouldn't remember them.

Pulaski

Something I missed from earlier in our trip was a short detour to Golden Spike NP, UT, where the railroads being built from the east and west, met in 1869.

The spike is in Stanford, CA, and has the wrong date on it anyway - the meeting ceremony was 2 days after the date on the spike. The line across what is now Golden Spike NP was only used for about 40 years until the line on a wooden viaduct was built across the Great Salt Lake, which shortened the route. Then during WWII the lines were removed and melted down as part of the war effort - the lines were re-layed when the National Park was created in the 1970's, but at least they used authentic rails ftom the 1860's.

The locomotives are both replicas, built in 1979 by the company that makes the rail and car systems that film makers use to shoot films with cameras running on smooth rails; these are the only locomotives the company ever made. The construction crews had already passed each other by about 250 miles when Congress told the companies to stop laying more track (Congress was paying them by the mile) and make the railbeds they were working on meet each other. And the US flag used at the spike-driving ceremony in 1869 should have had 37 stars, but none of the official event organizers had remembered to bring a flag, and the only flag available was one a worker had in his bag, which was 50 years old and therefore only had 20 stars. ... So the flag flying in Golden Spike NP has 20 stars.

So the event in 1869 was a cluster, and pretty much nothing of the original infrastructure remains, except the spike, which is in California.

joto

We did a trip with a visiting cousin, a few years ago when we lived in Denver. Through Grand Teton NP, to Yellowstone NP, down the Bear Tooth Pass to Little Big Horn and Fort Laramie. We did another trip coming to the end of the Covid restrictions, but a lot of things were still closed, including a hotel we had booked at Monument Valley and a tour round there. We did manage to get other accommodation, and did do another tour, nice enough, but not quite the same, but got a pic of the "Forrest Gump" road with no traffic on it, so it was worth it. Then on to Yellowstone, and not quite so crowded this time. Love that place. We circled back through some of the Utah NP's, but didn't do any hiking, as those days are done. We did take a big cooler with us, because we didn't know what the food and restaurant situation would be.

Steerpike

My picture of the 'Forrest Gump' road ... sadly a few cars on it (this was in 2013):


We drove around the bases of the 'monuments' ourselves, it was pretty cool:





But my favorite shot of all was this - a massive RV towing a teeny car - "only in America" !


We then went on to Moab, Arches, Canyonlands, etc. Fantastic trip!

Steerpike

One more great pic I found while looking through the pics of that trip - about 30 minutes north of Monument Valley, you can take a short detour to 'Goosnecks State Park' -


You can actually see the 'monuments' on the horizon in the distance.

lansbury

It seems to be the thing in these parts. Not long after we arrived here, we went on a trip to the Oregon coast. While there we went to the fort Lewis and Clark built while they wintered at the end of their expedition. Turns out it was a replica of what they think the fort looked like, and as its exact location wasn't know they put the replica as near as they think the spot was. Some years later the replica was destroyed by fire. A new replica was built which I'm told is a fair likeness to the first replica.

By the way the drought is in the real West. We haven't had rain for about 60 days, where you are pottering around is eastwards.