We started out from here on June ?, 2003 and headed west. 5 weeks and 9,000 miles later, I had traveled through numerous states, visited many National Parks & Mounuments, took over 1000 photos, and barely scratched the surface. I could have spent the whole summer traveling like that. There was no itinerary, just specific parks to see.
First destination was Breckenridge, CO for a week -from there we took day trips to Mt. Evans and Rocky Mountain National Park. On July 5th we left Breckenridge and headed west to Moab, UT - seeing Colorado National Monument, Canyonlands, and Arches National Mounment. From Moab it was north to Fossil Butte, WY visiting Dinoasur National Monument, CO along the way; farther north to Jackson Hole WY, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone National Park. It was difficult to leave Yellowstone - just one more day! After tearing ourselves away from Yellowstone, it was northward again to Glacier National Park, then Southeast to Devil's Tower, WY, the Badlands and Mount Rushmore, SD. At this point, we started our journey home with only one other specific destination in mind which was the St. Louis Arch. We just drove, picking a route that we could easily cross a state border just so we could say we were in the state. We also stopped a couple of days in Northern Kentucky to visit with friends.
Besides siteseeing, we dug for fossils, scouted for petrified wood, and did some geocaching.
As my son put it "It was the BEST VACATION EVER!" |
