| Mindi and Carol Do SE Utah Spring 2002 Roadtrip |
| Colorado National Monument Arches National Park Canyonlands National Park Natural Bridges National Monument Back to Road Trips Back to Tarol's Homepage |
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| During Mindi's spring break in 2002 she flew into Denver, CO and I picked her up at the airport. We then stayed the night with Andrew in Boulder and in the morning drove east to Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction. We camped there and in the morning we hiked out to Window Rock and went to the Visitor Center. Then we headed into Grand Junction and went to Gene Taylor's, a great outdoor store, where Mindi bought Tevas and I bought some camp chairs. We then headed into Utah. We took Hwy 128 south of I-70 and we set up camp at Hittle Bottom Campground (a BLM campground) along the Colorado River and hiked towards the Fisher Towers. In the morning we headed towards Arches National Park. In Arches we hiked up to Delicate Arch, took the ranger-led tour into the Fiery Furnace, hiked out to Pine Tree and Landscape Arches in the Devil's Garden, and hiked to Broken Arch near the campground. We spent one night in a hotel in Moab then we were off to Natural Bridges National Monument. There we hiked to some ruins and rock art I had discovered when I worked there and the next day we did the loop hike to all three bridges - Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo. We also had dinner and watched olympic ice skating with my two old friends and coworkers, Jim and Will. Finally we headed up to Canyonlands National Park, the Island in the Sky District. We did a bunch of short hikes there including Mesa Arch and Upheaval Dome. On the way back to Laramie we took Hwy 139 through the Book Cliffs and over Douglas Pass. It was snowy and icy and quite the adventure! Then as we headed east along the Yampa River we saw about a dozen bald eagles between Dinosaur and Craig. |
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| Broken Arch |
| Delicate Arch |
| Devil's Garden |
| Buttes near Canyonlands National Park |