Our spring break road trip adventure is successfully complete! We had a great time seeing 5 states and covering about 1,300 miles. It started off on Friday morning with an 8:15am flight from Raleigh to Denver which was fine other than being delayed about 45 minutes or so, causing us to sprint down Terminal B in Denver, but they kindly held the flight to Rapid City for us and for one other family also coming from Raleigh. After a quick 45-minute flight, we landed in the small and vintage Rapid City airport. The ladies got some sandwiches and wraps to go while Bob got the rental car and bags (we had to gate check them for the second flight). Then we hit the road in our bright blue Jeep Compass, and after a little confusion about how to work the screen in the car, we were off and running! Our first stop was Mount Rushmore, about 40 minutes west of the airport. We enjoyed seeing it and walked the part of the short path that was open to get closer.
We saw some snow flurries as well! From there, we passed back through Rapid City heading east to Wall, and had planned to pick up a Walmart order on the way, but we were actually an hour ahead of schedule, so we canceled the order and shopped ourselves. That Walmart was insanely busy - not sure if that was because of Good Friday/Easter or not. We got a styrofoam cooler, some essential snacks, and lunch food for the next day, then headed off to Wall. We arrived there after about an hour, around 4:30pm, and checked into the Best Western Plains Motel. We had a really great "family suite" with a queen bed in the main area and 2 queen beds in a separate, very quiet and windowless bedroom.
We unloaded, then headed out on foot to check out Wall Drug and to get dinner. It was less than a 10 minute walk into town, and we got a quick peek (and made a shampoo purchase) at Wall Drug before it started to close down at 5pm. Wall Drug was a little bit anticlimactic, but that's ok! We then walked across the street and had a yummy dinner at Badlands Steakhouse and Saloon, where we were able to watch the beginning of the Wolfpack men Sweet 16 victory! Then, we headed back, finished our game and watched a little more basketball, and crashed after our busy day that started early and was also made 2 hours longer with the time change.
Saturday morning, we got up and ready and enjoyed a great breakfast at the motel with many other travelers. Then it was time to load up, ice the cooler, and head on to Badlands National Park, where we entered at the Pinnacles entrance about 10 minutes from the motel around 8:30am. We sailed on in (this was the only park of the three that we visited with no wait at the entrance) and began touring the park. Big thanks to the Summer family for introducing us to GuideAlong, a super cool app that uses GPS to know where you're located and provide commentary/route suggestions. We purchased two "tours"(Badlands/Mount Rushmore/Black Hills and Arches/Moab/Canyonlands) ahead of time and downloaded them so they were ready to go in the parks. It was really great with lots of interesting information and fun stories! We followed the main road in Badlands to the northwest, then turned around and went all the way to the southeast corner and exited at the Interior entrance. We really enjoyed the viewpoints and short trails in the park. It was not crowded at all, and we enjoyed the peacefulness.
There was a fun trail near the Visitor Center where we could climb on the rocky terrain. Surprisingly, we saw the most wildlife in this park of the three that we visited, even though it is the furthest north! There were bison, bighorn sheep, deer, prairie dogs, and something else that might have been antelope.
Upon exiting the park around noon, we broke out our Walmart lunch fixings. Anna and I assembled subs for everyone, and we began our drive to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Part of the route took us on a gravel road in an Indian reservation for 18 miles, during which time it started to snow! We made a quick stop at Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska and enjoyed driving to the top of the monument (with tunnels!) and admiring the views.
We saw a lot of cattle in South Dakota and Nebraska. After about a 4.5-5 hour drive, we arrived in Cheyenne and went straight to dinner at Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant near our hotel. It was very good! Then, we checked into the Staybridge Suites and enjoyed a very large suite: one bedroom with a king bed and another bedroom with 2 queen beds, plus a central living area and kitchen. We watched more basketball and then went to bed.
Sunday morning, we packed up, had a yummy hotel breakfast, then checked out and went to 9am mass at Holy Trinity Catholic church about 10 minutes from the hotel. The mass was very nice, and the church was packed! We then began the 3.5 hour drive to Breckenridge. We stopped at our first-ever Buc-ee's north of Denver for gas and perusing the huge store. Anna and Bob got souvenir hoodies, and we got a few snacks and some delicious BBQ and brisket sandwiches for the road.
We made a quick stop at Regis University, a Catholic/Jesuit college in Denver, to check out the campus (Gibbons has told us to start looking at college campuses any time that we are in a town with one that the kids might be interested in). It's a very pretty campus, but their focus seems to be on health sciences (not really Erin's area of interest), and we think Denver is also a little far. After the self-guided tour, we headed west to Breckenridge, listening to the Wolfpack women's game on the way. We arrived around 2pm, parked in town, and followed Anna around to the shops while the rest of us listened to the first half of the men's game.
Breckenridge is a very pretty town, and the skiing looks super fun! After some shopping, we checked into our Airbnb at 4pm and finished watching the men's victory on the tv in the condo. This place is right next to one of the ski lifts and is super convenient for skiiers. It had 2 bedrooms and was 2 stories, in addition to being on the third floor without an elevator. Carrying suitcases up all of those stairs was tricky at 10,000 feet altitude! Once we celebrated the men's basketball team moving on to the final four for the first time since 1983, we headed to dinner at Ollie's, a floating restaurant in Breckenridge. The food was really good, and we appreciated the congrats from the server on the Wolfpack win (Bob was wearing a State pullover). After dinner, we played in the snow for a little bit (it had been lightly snowing most of the time that we had been there), then I ventured to the very busy City Market grocery store to get laundry detergent and food for breakfast.
Monday morning, we packed up and headed out to Moab! It was about a 4.5 hour drive. We enjoyed a beautiful rest stop right along the Colorado River and a quick Jersey Mike's lunch in Grand Junction. We passed by some other ski towns in the area and admired the beautiful mountain views. We had a timed entry ticket for Arches National Park for 1-2pm; we arrived a little before 1pm, but had to wait about 45 minutes to get to the ranger station to enter, even with 2 ranger stations open. That place was busy! We made many stops within Arches and hiked 4-5 fairly short trails that afternoon. We saw Park Avenue, Balanced Rock, Double Arch,
and North and South Windows,
as well as Delicate Arch from a distance. The weather was great, the park is beautiful, and we had a wonderful time! After exploring the park, we drove into Moab for a yummy pizza dinner at Antica Forma, had a gas and breakfast muffin stop, then on to check in at Under Canvas! This glamping experience was awesome! We had a heated "suite" tent with a king bed, a queen pullout bed, and Anna had a single cot. The tent even had its own bathroom with a flushing toilet and shower (with hot water)! We had fun playing yard games and roasting s'mores, admiring the sunset, and then got cozy for the night, thanks to our woodburning stove inside the tent. We were up to see the sun rise around 7am, 3 of us showered, packed up, and had breakfast in the lobby tent, then sadly bid Under Canvas farewell. It was a super fun experience, and we'd do it again!
We drove about 30 minutes south to Canyonlands (Island in the Sky section), had a very short wait at the entrance, then hit the visitors center and began exploring!
We ended up seeing the entire area of the park that is accessible by road, as well as hiking a few short trails. We found Canyonlands to be surprisingly beautiful! I had assumed that Arches would be more breathtaking, but I would say that Canyonlands is as much, if not more so. The canyons are huge and dramatic, and the various viewpoints are incredible. We were blown away!
After seeing all that we could feasibly see, we headed out and on to Salt Lake City. It was about a 4-hour drive from the park to the city. Instead of backtracking to Moab, we attempted to find lunch on the way, which ended up being iffy sandwiches from a gas station, but luckily we had plenty of snacks to keep us going. The drive was fairly uneventful after a few days of mountain and snow driving, and we rolled into Salt Lake around 4:30-5pm, checked into a very nice Springfield Suites, and got Chipotle takeout that we ate in the hotel lobby for dinner. We then hit the indoor pool/hot tub for a little bit of relaxation at the end of the trip, where we met another family who had been on a similar trip. The hotels in Wall and Cheyenne also had indoor pools, but we didn't really have time to use them. We showered and re-packed that evening as well. We had 2 queen beds and Erin slept on a trundle twin bed. This room was exactly the same as the one we stayed at in St. George near Zion!
Wednesday morning, we were packed and out by 8am, had a yummy breakfast, then went to the Great Salt Lake State Park "on our way" to the airport. The lake is beautiful!
We got the car dropped off, through security, and picked up subs to take on the flight. We had an on-time 11:35am departure and an uneventful flight back to Raleigh, where Finley was at home waiting for us! He did well with Maggie watching him at our house this week instead of going to the kennel, so we are glad that it worked out to try that instead.
So, it was an adventure for sure! We will always remember this as the trip that both of our basketball teams made it to the Final Four, as well as the super memorable time that we had exploring this part of the country. Everything went smoothly, and we are really glad that we did this trip! I think it worked well to spend half of a day driving and the other half in a park or town to not feel like we were driving quite so much. We could have skipped the Cheyenne or Breckenridge stops and driven 7-8 hours in a single day, but it was nice to have more variety. If I personally were to go back, I'd definitely go to Canyonlands again and bike or hike some of the trails. I'd also be up for seeing Badlands and Arches again, but we did feel like we saw most of those parks. We have not yet been to Capitol Reef, the fifth of the Utah "Big Five" national parks. It sounds like many of the state parks in Utah, as well as Custer State Park in South Dakota, are worth visits as well. We've also got Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Glacier on our radar (not to mention the Grand Canyon and several parks in California), so surely we can combine some of those into a couple of trips. The weather was cool everywhere we went, but it was nice to not worry about extreme heat and sun like we were in Zion and Bryce Canyon in the summer. I'd go to this area again during Spring Break; it seemed less crowded than peak summer times as well. All in all, we are awed and amazed by the beauty and accessibility in each national park that we've visited and highly recommend going to as many as you can!
