The hotel provided some entertainment during the night with a fire alarm at 00:29. Thanks to our well trained kids, we were out not more than 1 minute after we woke up. Sarah was the faster to react. We were the first ones out, by far. It turned out to be a false alarm, but it took 30min before we could go back to the room.

In the morning, we woke up a bit earlier than usual and caught the first shuttle bus to the park. We followed a ranger led walk about fossils, where the kids went hunting for old marine fossils.

We took the shuttle to the western part of the south rim, had lunch, and went to the geology museum.

The kids got their 6th junior ranger badge. We, parents, are almost getting tired of it. It’s a lot of work, actually 😉

Since the hotel was just 15min away, we had decided to break early, enjoy the swimming pool, eat diner and go back to the park, by car, for the sunset. The sunset was a magical moment, with beautiful colors on the red rocks, a quiet crowd enjoying these precious minutes.

We’re leaving the park, and Arizona, tomorrow, going back to Utah. They’re both in the same time zone, but Arizona has summer time, which got us seriously confused on the way to the Grand Canyon. The clock on our phones and in the car updated automatically, so we were not aware of the change before quite late yesterday.

We left Moab in the morning, after a last session at the arcade games and at the water slide 🙂

We drove through the spectacular landscape of western Utah, with the iconic monuments carved by erosion. We didn’t stop at Monument Valley, we knew it would take too much time, and already got a good sample of it on the road. Priorities, priorities!

The second half of the trip was less enchanting, the equivalent of the Wyoming on our way to Cody, only with different colors.

We arrived late afternoon at the Grand Canyon National Park, made one stop to see the view on the eastern side (Desert view) and one stop at the main visitor center to plan our day tomorrow with the help of a ranger, smiling and helpful despite having spent the day answering the same questions again and again.

We reached our hotel, right outside the park, at Tusayan. We had read bad reviews in our guide about this town (tourist trap) but it’s the perfect place for families, with plenty of restaurants close to the hotel(s). It’s not charming, it’s not cheap, but it’s very convenient and the hotel is comfortable. And it’s literally 500m from the park’s entrance.

We finally went to Arches National Park. Because of the heat, we woke up early and went straight to the Delicate Arch, an hour hike from the nearest parking.

It was quite busy on the trail and at the arch, but people there were mindful of others and self disciplined, queuing to take a picture under the arch, and always letting 30s between each group for allowing for undisturbed pictures to be taken.

We stayed there half an hour, took our picture under the arch, and hiked back to the car under a burning sun.

And of course, as with all the other national parks, the kids completed their junior ranger program, the 5th one.

We enjoyed a relaxing lunch and afternoon at the hotel, alternating between arcade games and water slide.

We had diner at a local brewery, very nice grilled and smoked food.

This is our last day in Moab! Tomorrow we head west. More parks to visit!

Moab was the first place after Denver where we would stay a few days and relax. It was important after driving over 2000km in less than a week. Our plan was still to try to get to Arches national park early in the morning, but we cancelled that yesterday, and decided to have a quiet morning instead.

The kids enjoyed the Arcade room at the hotel and the swimming pool – or, rather, the water slide. We went for a short walk and lunch on Main St.

Mid afternoon, we drove to the Canyonland National Park, 45min from Moab. A beautiful place, a high plateau between the Colorado valley and the Green river valley. A Lucky Luke scenery, with cliffs and canyons. We keep getting surprised, even though we have been in the area several times before.

Of course, the kids can’t visit a national park without getting a junior ranger badge… They have to work hard, though!

Back to the hotel quite late, Tim couldn’t resist ‘a few’ rounds at the water slide, like 45, and counting…

Today was our second long day in the car, through Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. In the morning we drove along the beautiful Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, reached Jensen around lunch time, and went to the Dinosaur National Monument nearby.

We stayed there for over 2 hours, the time to explore the fantastic outcrop exposing bones of all kinds of dinosaur species (stegausaurus, diplodocus…). The kids went for their 3rd Junior Ranger badge – the official goal now is 5, and Tim wants a ranger jacket with pockets to hang all his badges on. This park was a nice surprise. We had seen it as just an opportunity for a break, but it was the best dinosaur related museum I have ever seen.

We then drove 4 hours across Colorado, passing by the Bookcliffs west of Grand Junction, an area where both Séverine and I have done some field work.

Arrived quite late (19:00) at Moab. Nice hotel with a big slide at the swimming pool, a room full of old arcade games (free!!). The kids didn’t really want to go to bed.

Our last day in the National Parks of Wyoming. We left our log cabin to go for a hike in the southern part of the park. We drove passed Mount Moran, Grand Teton, Middle Teton and South Teton.

Our hike took us to the beautiful Taggart Lake. It’s getting hot, we were happy we started early.

We then drove to Jackson Hole (a topographical feature, not an opinion about the place). This was the last bit of civilization until Rock Springs, 4 hours later, where we are staying for the night – nothing special here, we are on our way to Moab, but couldn’t do the trip in just one day.