Big Sky!

We made it to Montana last night. We spent the night in a campground--from where I am writing this post now--called Indian Creek Campground in Deer Lodge MT. This is the simplest campground you can imagine and the kids are having a blast. There is no pool (you wouldn't need one--it is damn near freezing at night!) no playground, but what there is, is open space...something they don't get at home! They have been literally running around all morning. They played a game they made up called sprinkler tag--it was hilarious. They big field has one of those agricultural type sprinkler systems where water just shoots out randomly. The object of the game was to run from the sprinkler and not get wet. Everyone was motivated to avoid the sprinkler because once your clothes get wet, it is pretty darned cold. The campground is at the base of a mountain range that is--hope you are sitting down--SNOW capped!! July 31 (Happy Birthday Kyle!!) and there is SNOW on the mountains across the interstate!

We are still about a full day's drive from Glacier NP. We are planning to do a pit stop today at a place called Flathead Lake. It is supposed to be very nice. I will report on it either tonight or tomorrow.

I got a question from my sister wondering what the kids had to do to earn their junior ranger badges at the national park. Here is the answer. Each park creates its own activity book that the kids need to complete. The activities include attending a park presentation, and writing about something they learned. They also have to go see a variety of things specific to each park--plants or animal observations. They have to learn about the geologic history of the park as well. So in Zion earlier this week they had to learn about how the canyons were created and how long it took for they erosion to happen etc... Lastly each kid gets a chance to talk to a park ranger and then they take an oath to protect the national parks, not litter and not harass or feed any wild animals they encounter.

It is almost noon, so we need to get on the road. The three pictures in today's post are some I took this morning.

A morning in Utah

Well, here we are still in Brigham City. I got a lot accomplished this morning. The camper is organized--finally. I did a load of laundry, all kids are showered, and we ate breakfast and I got yesterday's pictures uploaded. Here is one of our budding naturalist Mike in Zion National Park.

It is morning and the kids are currently having a raging argument over who will be sleeping where tonight. I am doing my best to ignore it.

Last night in my post there was something notable I forgot to mention. Kenab Utah. I know, I know...you are thinking why is she going to waste my time blogging about Kenab Utah? Well, there is a good reason. Anyone of you readers who is ever planning to visit one of the many National Parks in the Southern Utah area, will probably find yourself rolling through Kenab at some point. (And I would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to visit some of the parks near Kenab. Zion, Capital Reef, Canyonlands, Grand Staircase/Escalante, Arches, Bryce Canyon are all in this area, and they are such great learning experiences for kids.) So back to Kenab. We have been to Kenab before, at dinnertime and we stopped at a place called Grandma Tina's and despite it's wildly promising name, the food was disappointing. Well, yesterday morning we had the opposite experience in Kenab. We went to a place for breakfast called Huston's Trails' End Restaurant. It was by almost all accounts the single best breakfast food I have ever had in a restaurant. They biscuits and gravy are the real thing to write home about. They biscuits are light fluffy and homemade--not like the heavy fast food ones--and although I'm not a real fan of that sausage gravy that typically goes on biscuits--THIS gravy was totally amazing. The pancakes were light fluffy and just perfect. The only things that were not right were that they did not have actual half and half for coffee, only non-dairy creamer--that was a big let down in a place where everything else was so great. Here is a link with pictures of Huston's.

http://www.houstons.net/

We are going to be getting on the road the minute the laundry is finished its dry cycle. Here is a picture of some of yesterday's fun in Utah.

Zion National Park and other points in Utah

We woke up this morning at Lake Powell. For those of you back East who may not know this, Lake Powell is the man-made creation which resulted from the damming of Glen Canyon. The dam itself is, in my opinion, a total monstrosity. It is horribly ugly and there is just something completely unnatural about seeing that canyon filled with water. This is a case where I wish the environmentalists would prevail and they would remove the dam.

We left the Glen Canyon area at the crack of dawn and headed out toward Zion National Park. We have not previously been to this park so we were excited. The park is gorgeous but if you are confined to the park shuttle, you only get to see very little of the park. Joseph, Marianne, Christoper and Claire all earned their junior ranger badges for Zion, which was a fun activity for us all. Mike spent a lot of time taking pictures of lizards, squirrels and the creek that runs through the park and created the canyons. It was ungodly hot, so we did very little hiking, a ton of sweating and then decided to come back in the fall, and we got back on the road.

We made it to Brigham City, which is where I am now composing this post. Tomorrow we will try to make it into Montana, but not before giving the kids an opportunity to play in the playground that is here at this campground, maybe we can even go for a swim. There is a pool here.

The evening temperatures are not bad. It is about 70-72 degrees as I write this and there is a really nice breeze going. I'm off to sleep. Goodbye until the next wi-fi hot spot!

On the Road Again!

Hello Readers!

It has been many moons since I have last posted to this blog. But there will be a flurry of posts over the coming days as we head out on the road again as a family for yet another fun-filled and sure to be wildly exiting camping trip.

The first step in this journey was to get my boss to agree to the time off. She did and so we are heading out tonight. The camper is almost packed. The kids clothes are in, and the food is in. I still have to put out my clothes and Charlie's. They are all packed, just not moved to into the camper. The canoe is tied to the roof. We are almost ready.

Last year when we travelled to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Bryce Canyon and Arches (scroll back to last summer to read the posts on that trip) we learned that the best plan is to actually have very loosely defined plans. That said, we are planning to go up to Glacier National Park, then head west and hit the Northern Cascade Mountains. We are leaving tonight after I get these dinner dishes (and this blog post) finished. We are going to get to I-15 as quickly as possible, then just head north as quickly as possible. We will have to stop for the night tonight--I have no idea yet where that will be. If we get as far as Zion National Park tonight, I'll be thrilled. The plan, as I write this, is to head out of Phoenix going north on I-17 and then hop on State Route 89 and pick up I-15 outside of Zion National Park. If I have access to wi fi, and any energy left at all, I will post tonight and let you know where we are.

The fighting about who is sitting where has already begun, so I better wrap this up, finish those dishes and get moving. Wish us luck!