Wild West Drivin’ Quest – May 2021 – Sam and Katelyn's Travels

May 15, 2021 – May 26, 2021

Where We Stayed:

Tru by Hilton Rapid City Rushmore

Best Western Plus Plaza Hotel

Old Faithful Lodge Cabins

Hyatt Place Salt Lake City / Downtown / The Gateway

Hyatt Place Moab

Trip Highlights:

Minuteman Missile Sites
Custer State Park Bison Herd
Twisty Scenic Drives Through the Badlands
Hot Springs and Dinosaurs in Thermopolis
Everything at Yellowstone National Park
Lots of Mormon Stuff and Tacos in Salt Lake City
Incredible Red Rocks at Arches National Park

Favorite Restaurants:

Our big return to travel post-pandemic was our trip out west, which we referred to as our “Wild West Drivin’ Quest” (The name was inspired by a cybersecurity convention called “Wild West Hackin’ Fest” that is held out in South Dakota. We thought it was funny). We had originally started planning this trip in the fall of 2020, intending it to be relatively “COVID safe” regardless of if we were vaccinated at the time. Once we knew we would be fully vaccinated, we made a few quick adjustments to the trip: eliminating the several days of drive time to Rapid City in the beginning of the trip and home from Denver at the end of the trip. Instead, we started off the trip by flying out to Rapid City, and ended by flying home from Denver, cutting nearly four days from the original itinerary.

This trip was (somewhat surprisingly) Sam’s idea! He had always wanted to visit the Minuteman Missile sites in South Dakota, but they can be a little difficult to get to as they were intended to be out in the middle of nowhere. The trip slowly grew from there, adding in Yellowstone (somewhere I had always wanted to visit but again was a bit difficult to get to given it is almost 5 hours from the nearest major airport) and wrapping up in Utah.

Travel to Rapid City, SD

Our travel day to Rapid City started off a little rocky. About an hour before we were leaving for the airport, I twisted my ankle walking down a flight of steps. Not exactly what you want when you’re about to start a hiking/outdoors vacation! Luckily after icing it in the time we had before we needed to leave and wearing a brace, I was able to calm it down enough that it wasn’t too much of an issue throughout the trip.

During the pandemic we had made a few plans to make our return to travel even better than it was before. With that, we had acquired access to several airport lounges, including the Delta Sky Club at both the Milwaukee and Minneapolis airports during our flight. So, our first stop in Milwaukee before the flight was the lounge to snack on rice crispy bars and other goodies, and we spent most of our layover in Minneapolis in their Sky Club as well. The Minneapolis club didn’t have too much available for dinner that either of us could eat, so we did pick up McDonalds to enjoy in the lounge along with our free glasses of chardonnay.

We arrived in Rapid City at nearly 10:30 p.m., picked up our rental car (which we nicknamed “Jimmy”), and crashed at the hotel before beginning our first full day of adventures in South Dakota.

Rapid City, South Dakota

The trip began with five nights in Rapid City, South Dakota. While in South Dakota, we took several day trips out of the Rapid City area to see some of the local sites, and ended the stay exploring the city itself.

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

After spending an hour or two our first morning stocking up on road trip necessities we would need for the remainder of the trip (cooler, water bottles, snacks, etc) we hit the road and drove about one hour east of Rapid City to the first of the Minuteman Missile sites. During the cold war, hundreds (if not a thousand) nuclear missile silos were created throughout South Dakota and the surrounding states. Some of these sites still exist today, though all of the locations of South Dakota have since been decommissioned. Three locations in South Dakota still remain, and we visited all three that morning.

Our first stop was the Delta-09 missile silo. After this site was decommissioned, they replaced the actual nuclear missile with a dummy missile and created a viewing area so the public could walk around the site and view what the missile would have looked like in its silo.

Once we walked through this area, we drove 15 minutes down the highway to the visitor center, which is across the street from another former silo site. The visitor center had a small museum about the program, telling about its history and impact on the area. If you’re interested in learning more about this program, we’d highly recommend visiting the visitor center. It was free and incredibly well done.

Prior to leaving we had reserved spots on a tour of the Delta-01 facility. When these sites were operational, this served as the control center, where members of the Air Force would monitor and operate the system. We were given a tour of the facility from a National Park ranger that had actually worked there as a nuclear missile operator at that site during the time. His stories of their life and responsibility were fascinating. Unfortunately due to the pandemic they were not allowed to take is down to the actual control room, normally a highlight of the tour, but it was still interesting to walk inside the facility and hear about his life at that time.

Badlands National Park

After finishing our tour, we drove across the street to the entrance of the Badlands National Park. After a quick lunch break at the Big Badlands Overlook, we spent time driving through the park stopping at the various overlook points to view the badlands. We saw numerous big horn sheep along the way, some up in the hills and one time a few running alongside road beside us.

I had never seen another landscape like the badlands. Unfortunately most of the museum areas of the visitor center were closed, but from what we were able to read we learned that most of the area had previously been under water, and the layers in the rock were caused by the effects of different eras on the rock.

We ended our trip into the Badlands by stopping at Roberts Prairie Dog Town, the home to hundreds of wild prairie dogs. After a while we said goodbye to our new prairie dog friends (including one that Sam named Bartholomew) and exited the park. On our way out we drove past a few bison grazing off on the side of the road. These were our first bison spotted on the trip, but definitely not our last.

We ended the day back in Rapid City with dinner at Murphy’s Pub and Grille (which would become a favorite spot of ours throughout our time in Rapid City) and dessert from Armadillo’s (also a favorite – we stopped here every day!). Our hotel had an area of firepits outside, which we sat by that night with drinks to celebrate a great first day of the trip.

Keystone, SD and Adventure Parks

Our second day in South Dakota again took us out of Rapid City, but this time to the west. We started the morning at Rush Mountain Adventure Park to ride their mountain coaster. I don’t think either of us quite expected what this experience would be like. You start by getting in to your own cart, basically just a seat on wheels, and learning the controls. You are then pulled up the mountain on your seat and then you begin your descent, swerving and twisting back down the mountain. You have control to break and slow down the cart if you want, or you can just let gravity take you down. It was honestly so much fun. On the way down you also have great views of the Black Hills, but to be honest I didn’t notice them too much except for right when we arrived at the top. I’m pretty sure I just giggled the entire ride down.

Our second stop of the day was also filled with adventure. This time we went to Rushmore Tramway Adventures to ride their alpine slide and tube hill. The alpine slide began with a chairlift up to the top of a hill. Once we reached the top, before going down the slide, we were also treated to our first glimpse of Mount Rushmore at a distance. The slide was similar to the coaster, where you had control of your own cart, and swerved down a track down the mountain. It was definitely less thrilling that the coaster we had just been on, but still a nice experience.

We also each took a turn going down their tubing hill. This is similar to snow tubing that we have during the winter here in Wisconsin, but instead they have built the hill out of recycled plastic and fake grass. This was more thrilling than the slide (still not as insane as the coaster) and we both had a great time here as well.

We stopped for lunch in Keystone, SD at Ruby House Restaurant. This was a bit of an impromptu stop, as we decided to change up our original plans for the day, so we were a bit surprised to walk in and find that this restaurant was themed like an old saloon. We had a good time checking out all of the photos and other scenery on the walls, had a decent lunch, and moved on to explore Keystone a bit more. Keystone as a whole is themed after an old west style town, so it was interesting to walk down the street and stare into some of the shops. Most are pretty touristy, though we did both come home with several pieces of Native American made pottery.

Mount Rushmore National Monument

After seeing how close we were to Mount Rushmore, and knowing that the weather for the next couple days was a little questionable, we decided to stop at Mount Rushmore after visiting Keystone. Much of the entrance and certain other areas of Mount Rushmore were under heavy construction, however the museum about the monument and many of the viewing platforms were still open, so we enjoyed those. After wandering through the small museum to learn about how the monument had been created and watching a short film from the park service, we headed back in to Rapid City for dinner and of course ice cream again from Armadillo’s.

Custer State Park, Scenic Drives, and Crazy Horse Monument

Our third day in South Dakota was all about the nature of the Black Hills. We began our day by driving back to Keystone and beginning the Iron Mountain Road. This is one of several scenic drives in the area with twisty roads with tunnels that go through the interesting nature found in the area. This first drive would bring us through the Black Hills National Forest to Custer State Park. We stopped at one overlooks along the way to check out Mount Rushmore from a distance, and honestly I may have liked this view even better than when you visit right up close. It really demonstrated that these four heads were just carved into the side of a mountain more so than seeing it up close without the view of the surrounding wilderness. After traversing the twists and turns of the Iron Mountain road, we ended up in Custer State Park.

Custer State Park has its own popular drive called the Wildlife Loop. We knew Custer was known for bison, so we began our drive anxious to see what we could find. It was slightly overcast that day, so after 20 minutes of driving without spotting a single animal we were wondering if the weather may have driven them away from their normal grazing areas. Finally we turned around a corner and were confronted with a heard of what looked like hundreds of bison in the distance. We could see the road curved through that area, so we carried on until we were in the middle of them. The bison we so close to the car I could have reached out and touched them (though I obviously did not). There were also so many babies in the herd! We drove through them for a while, before continuing on the loop.

We stopped to visit the burrows in their pen toward the bottom of the loop, before finishing the drive and continuing out of Custer State Park into the city of Custer for lunch. Our lunch stop that day was The Custer Wolf, where Sam had a burger and I (ironically) had a pulled buffalo sandwich (sorry bison!).

Our next scenic drive was the Needles Highway. This drive starts just inside of Custer State Park and continues north through the Black Hills. This drive is known again for the twists and tunnels but also for the rock spires along the drive. The highlight of the drive is the Needle Eye Tunnel, that is a very skinny tunnel in the base of one of these spires that looks as though you’re driving through the eye of a needle. This drive was even more beautiful than the Iron Mountain road, though I did start to get a little car sick after so many twisty drives in one day.

Our final stop of the day was the Crazy Horse Monument. Crazy Horse was a Native American leader that they are carving into the side of a mountain, similar to as was done with Mount Rushmore. It has been under construction since 1948 and will likely be under construction for much much longer. It is entirely funded by donations and admissions fees to the site, and they have previously turned down grants from the government, wanting the monument to be entirely self-funded. Today, they have carved his face and have begun to carve his hand pointing forward. Once it is complete it will be the largest mountain carving in the world. They have set up a museum about Crazy Horse and about the original sculptor of the project, whose family has now continued on his work. We enjoyed learning more about this project and seeing the carving so far from a distance before heading back to Rapid City for the night.

Exploring Rapid City, SD

We used our final full day in Rapid City to explore a few areas of the city itself and relax before continuing on our travel. Our first stop of the day was downtown Rapid City. We had driven through the downtown several times and stopped here for dinner most nights, but had not had the chance to explore the shops and other attractions there yet. Downtown Rapid City is known for their president statues. Every corner has a statue of a different president for visitors to view. After exploring some of the stores and picking up some local cookies, wandering through their art alley which is filled with graffiti from local artists, and taking a few president photos, we headed up to the Dinosaur Park.

The Dinosaur Park sits high on a hill above Rapid City and features giant statues of dinosaurs. The park was originally created in the 1930s, so the dinosaurs aren’t necessarily accurate or realistic, but its free to wander through and explore.

The rest of our day was spent resting at the hotel and shopping for supplies. This was going to be the last time we were near a major grocery store for much of the rest of the trip, so we stocked up on supplies for meals and other necessities. After one last dinner at Murphy’s and ice cream from Armadillo’s, we prepared to leave South Dakota.

Thermopolis, Wyoming

Our next stop for the night was Thermopolis, Wyoming. We only stayed here one night on our way to Yellowstone, but we fit in a few interesting stops along the way and were able to check out a few things within the city before we left.

Devil’s Tower and Wyoming Travel

On our way to Thermpolis, we made a few stops in Wyoming to break up the drive and check out some of the local scenery. Our first stop of the day was Devil’s Tower. While we thought the tower was interesting, this was probably one of our more underwhelming stops on the drive. Nothing against Devil’s Tower! It just wasn’t our favorite stop. We stopped to take a picture and visit the visitor’s center before continuing on our drive through Wyoming.

One of the most interesting parts of the day was driving through the Bighorns. I had never seen mountains before, so turning the corner and seeing snow capped mountains in the distance was an incredible sight to see! Even more incredible was as we drove through them feeling the elevation change and seeing the temperature slowly creep down the higher we drove. At one point we turned a corner and were surrounded by snow and the temperature had dropped nearly 20 degrees outside.

Most of the day was spent driving, so once we arrived in Thermopolis we were pretty hungry and ready to relax. We both had delicious steak dinners at the One Eyed Buffalo in downtown Thermopolis as well as ice cream at a local spot. Thermopolis is built on natural mineral hot springs, and the hot tub in our hotel was fed by that hot spring. Since it was fed by the hot spring water and not heated by typical controlled methods, it was by far the hottest hot tub I had ever been in. The sign near the pool warned the tub could reach more than 104 degrees! You could also feel the minerals on your skin and the tub itself smelled like rotten eggs from the sulfur. We didn’t spend too much time in there for those reasons, but I’m glad we were able to experience the hot springs a little during our visit!

Hot Springs State Park and Wyoming Dinosaur Center

Before leaving Thermopolis the next morning, we made a quick stop at several popular destinations in town. The first was Hot Springs State Park. Our hotel was actually located within the state park (hence the hot spring fed hot tub), so we just needed to drive a minute or two down the road to reach the actual hot spring. We walked next to the spring as well as over the swinging bridge that leads across the Bighorn river next to the spring.

Our final stop in Thermopolis was the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. Wyoming and the other nearby states are common sites to find dinosaur fossils, and the Wyoming Dinosaur Center had a collection of the fossils found nearby and throughout Wyoming. This was a small museum, but what I found the most fascinating was that you could get so close to the fossils. In the main room with the larger fossils, you were just feet from many different dinosaur fossils in every direction. We didn’t spend too long here, as the museum itself was pretty small, but it was really interesting to see the different types of dinosaurs that roamed the area millions of years ago.

Yellowstone National Park

After ending our time in Thermopolis we continued on through Wyoming to Yellowstone National Park. On our way we drove through several National Forests as well as Grand Teton National Park. We had intended to spend more time with the Tetons on on drive leaving Yellowstone, however as you’ll see weather kept us from seeing them on that day. So, this day ended up being our only glimpse of the Tetons on this trip (with no photos of them sadly!) but they were beautiful to drive through even for just a little bit.

Old Faithful Lodge Cabin Check-In

We drove into Yellowstone from the southern entrance and made our way to the Old Faithful Lodge. We spent our time in Yellowstone at an Old Faithful Lodge frontier cabin. The cabin was small, but it had its own bathroom (important, because some cabins use a communal bathroom) as well as one double and one single bed. We picked up dinner at the Old Faithful Lodge and spent the night exploring some of the other buildings in the Old Faithful area.

We were also treated to our first glimpse of Old Faithful erupting. Old Faithful geyser got its name because it erupts pretty consistently, typically every 90 minutes. Apparently this night, Old Faithful wasn’t being quite so faithful to that schedule, however because while we were there it erupted both 30 minutes late and then 40 minutes early in the same evening. It erupted as we were leaving the lodge with our food, so we stopped to watch for a bit before continuing back to the cabin. On our way back to the cabin, we came across a woman who was running out from the cabin area toward the geyser. As we got closer, she yelled to us “Did it just go off?” and we told her it had just gone off 40 minutes early. She told us that she had just been waiting there, but decided to go back to the cabin because she had time. She had apparently now missed it twice because it was not following its schedule that evening and she “was going to kill it!” because of it. So, as faithful as Old Faithful is, it definitely can go off schedule from time to time.

Grand Prismatic Spring & Mammoth Hot Springs

When we had arrived at Yellowstone the first night it was in the 50s and sunny. We knew it was supposed to cool down for the day. What we did not know, and where not prepared for, was to wake up in a full on snowstorm. The weather had dropped into the low 30s and big flurries were falling down outside. After a quick breakfast from the lodge, we stopped by the general store to purchase winter gear, including two Yellowstone branded winter beanies. While we weren’t expecting to need winter gear, we were in good company. Throughout the day, more than half of the winter hats other visitors were wearing were also Yellowstone hats, so I think we weren’t the only ones who were caught off-guard that morning.

Our goal for the first day was to visit the main areas on the west side of the park, which included the Grand Prismatic Spring and Mammoth Hot Springs. We stopped first at the Midway Geyser Basin, which is home to the Grand Prismatic Spring along with other springs and geysers. Once we found a parking spot (which was a challenge several times at Yellowstone, but we always managed to snag one!) we walked across the river and into the geyser basin. The entire basin smelled faintly of sulfur, but it was only strong when you were actually in the clouds of steam from the springs. Because it was so cold that day, the hot springs were letting of a lot of steam, so it was difficult to see some of the springs at all other than the areas on the edges. We didn’t mind, because it was still so interesting to see and feel the heat from these springs. We could faintly see the colors of the Grand Prismatic Spring through the steam as most of these springs are brightly colored due to the bacteria and heat.

Once we completed our time at the Midway Geyser Basin, we drove another hour north to the Mammoth Hot Spring area, stopping at a few points, such as the Roaring Mountain, along the way. One thing that amazed me about our time in Yellowstone is both how large the park is and how the weather can change as you drive through it. Mammoth Hot Springs is almost 1.5 hours north of Old Faithful (though still inside Yellowstone!) and while most of the snow in the Old Faithful area did not actually stick to the ground, the Mammoth region was blanketed in snow.

The Mammoth Hot Springs were the primary draw of this area of the park. These hot springs looked completely different from the ones we had already seen, as the minerals had solidified turning the ground white or orange in places.

On our drive south when leaving Mammoth, we came across a traffic jam. Cars had pulled over along the side of the road, and the cars that were driving still were moving at an incredibly slow pace. As we got closer, we saw many people had cameras out and were pointing at something along the left side of the road. Turns out, it was a bear! A grizzly bear! We stayed in our car, but took a few photos and video as we slowly passed the bear on our way back to Old Faithful.

We spent the rest of the night eating dinner from the lodge and playing games in the cabin. We were treated to another eruption of Old Faithful, though the weather had turned to gloomy and rainy, so this one we enjoyed through the windows from the warmth of the lodge.

Mud Volcano and The Dragon’s Mouth

The next morning we headed east toward the canyon area of Yellowstone. Our first stop was another geothermal area, this time to visit the Mud Volcano and The Dragon’s Mouth. The mud volcano is a churning hot spring that is filled with mud, which made it incredibly unique from the typically crystal clear blue hot springs. The Dragon’s Mouth is a fumarole, meaning that rather than water bursting from the ground, it is a crevasse where steam emerges. It’s called the Dragon’s Mouth because of the low rumbling that comes out of it, which we could faintly hear when we visited. From this area we drove through the Hayden Valley, saw a few more bison, on our way to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

The Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is a massive canyon with a river at the bottom running through the western half of Yellowstone National Park. There is viewing at the lower and upper points of the canyon, with overlook points for the massive waterfalls and roaring rapids below. We stopped at all of the major overlook points. We climbed in elevation to get to this part of the park, so we definitely felt the elevation when taking the stairs at a few of these overlook points!

Norris Geyser Basin, Fountain Paint Pots

Our final stops in Yellowstone were a few additional geyser basins we passed on our way back to the Old Faithful area. We took a quick stop at the Norris Geyser Basin, one of the most acidic and active geyser basins in the area, just to visit the overlook area. We also took a quick walk to the fountain paint pots, which similar to the mud volcano, had a chalky appearance, so they almost looked like bubbling paint.

We concluded our last night in Yellowstone wandering around the Old Faithful region, once again watching it erupt, buying a few souvenirs, and packing up the car to continue our adventure into Utah.

Salt Lake City, Utah

The remainder of our trip was spent in Utah, split between Salt Lake City and Moab. We spent two nights in Salt Lake City, though most of our first day was spent in transit between Yellowstone and the city.

Travel to Salt Lake City and Grand Teton National Park

Our travel day from Yellowstone to Salt Lake City was both our longest and most difficult travel day of the trip. When checking out of our cabin, we were warned that several roads in the north area of the park were closed due to weather. The weather near us wasn’t bad, and we were heading south, so we didn’t think much of it and began our hour long drive to the boundary of Yellowstone. However, once we were a few minutes away from Old Faithful, we were better able to see the effects of the weather, and the roads became much slicker and snow covered. Many of the other drivers also were clearly not experienced in driving in snow, so they were racing around the corners, causing us to pull over and many of the pull outs to let them pass us and get out of their way. It was a long and slow drive, but eventually we exited the park.

We had intended to spend the first part of the drive through the Tetons stopping at many of the overlook points to view the mountains, but as I mentioned earlier, weather was not our friend on this day. Once we arrived at the Tetons, we discovered that the mountains were almost entirely obscured in fog. Even if we stopped at the overlooks, we would not be able to see the giant mountains through the fog. So, we drove straight through the park without stopping until we reached our lunch destination in Jackson Hole.

After a brief stop for lunch in Jackson Hole, we continued our drive through the edge of Wyoming into Idaho. While in Idaho, the twisty mountain roads began to catch up with us and I started to feel very car sick. Eventually the roads evened out and my car sickness calmed down, but it wasn’t the most enjoyable drive.

Much of our drive through Idaho and eventually into Utah was along the old Oregon trail. There were many historical markers along the route and we even stopped for gas in Soda Springs, which had been a common resting point for travelers along the trail.

After almost nine hours, we arrived in Salt Lake City. Dinner that night was from In-and-Out Burger, a west coast classic that neither of us had tried before. We checked into our hotel and relaxed at the pool for a while before heading to bed for the night.

Temple Square

We had one full day to spend in Salt Lake City. Our first stop of the day is probably the main reason a lot of people visit Salt Lake City: Temple Square. Salt Lake City is the epicenter of the Mormon Church, and Temple Square is home to their giant temple and other facilities. We wandered through the square, being greeted by many missionaries that passed us, reading about the history of the area. Unfortunately there was a lot of construction in the area, and several of the museums were closed due to the pandemic, but we still enjoyed what we were able to see in the square.

Pioneer Memorial Museum

Continuing on our Mormon-history day, we stopped at the Pioneer Memorial Museum. This museum is free and houses tons of random artifacts from the early pioneers (most of them Mormon) to the area. It was an eclectic collection of things that were donated by some of those original families. It had several major historical artifacts, but also strange family memorabilia. While one room had the original carriage that Joseph Smith (one of the first Mormon leaders) used to travel into Salt Lake City, another room was just filled with chairs that families had at that time.

This is the Place Memorial

After our original lunch plans fell through, we stopped at Taqueria 27 on a whim and were delighted by the delicious tacos and (gluten free!) churros.

After thoroughly indulging on tacos, we continued on to the This is the Place Memorial. This monument is in honor of the spot Mormon settlers were when they decided that they would build the city that would become Salt Lake City in this region. The plaque had a nice history of the region and the views from the top of the mountain were also gorgeous.

GilGal Gardens, Thirst Drinks, Dinner, and Dessert

Our final stops of the day were a little strange, but I love throwing in some off-the-wall places into our travels. The GilGal Garden. This sculpture garden was originally created in the sculptor’s backyard, though it is now a public park. The sculptures themselves are related to Mormonism, though are also off the wall and strange. The strangest is probably that of a sphinx that has Mormon leader Joseph Smith’s head. We spent a couple minutes wandering through this odd, almost hidden garden, and were the only visitors the entire time we were there.

Our next stop was Thirst Drinks. One of the foods unique to the Salt Lake City area are dirty sodas. While they sound disgusting, a dirty soda is actually a fountain soda in which other fruit purees or syrups are added to give it a different flavor. We each ordered our own drink and then also ordered one to share. Sam tried a Sprite with vanilla ice cream added, I chose a Dr. Pepper with raspberry puree and vanilla, and we shared a lemonade with added lemon, lime and frozen fruits. These were DELICIOUS! I wish this concept moved to the Midwest so I could have this as an occasional treat. One thing to note about this place is their sizing is crazy. We each got a small, which was 24 ounces! A kids size was 16 ounces! I hardly ever drink soda anymore, so this was a treat, but also a ton of sugar in one sitting!

For dinner we ate at Red Iguana, a Mexican restaurant known for its mole and featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. When doing research prior to the trip, this was considered the place to eat in Salt Lake City. Not going to lie, we just thought it was okay. We actually preferred the tacos we had for lunch over this. It was fine, we just weren’t impressed.

For dessert we stopped by Zeppe’s Italian Ice and Frozen Custard. We stumbled across this place accidentally, and found it hilarious, because it felt like a knock-off of our favorite dessert place, Rita’s, out in Philadelphia. We ordered the equivalent to our typical Rita’s orders, and while the ice at Zeppe’s was no where near as delicious as Rita’s, the custard might give Rita’s a run for their money.

Arches National Park

We left Salt Lake City the following morning, driving south through Utah toward Moab and Arches National Park. We knew that Arches National Park had been flooded with visitors lately, and the park often shut down for several hours in the middle of the day because they had hit capacity. So, we made a plan to arrive at the park around 2 p.m. so the gates would be open again and hopefully some of the morning visitors would have left for the day.

As we drove through Utah the ground slowly became redder and redder. As we approached Arches we were surrounded on both sides by columns of red rock. It was completely different from any of the terrains we had been in previously throughout the trip. It took us about a half hour to get through the entrance line and into the park and after a quick stop at the visitor’s center, we continued on into the park.

Park Avenue, Balanced Rock and Double Arch

Our first stop was Park Avenue. We just visited the overlook and didn’t take the trail through the rock, but we stopped to take in the view. This was the first time we really felt the heat that we had traveled into. It was 85 degrees in the desert, and we could immediately feel it even at this overlook point.

Next we moved on to Balanced Rock. This formation is two different types of stone, and the top stone is balancing on top of the column on the bottom. According to the park, the bottom rock type erodes faster than the rock balancing upon it, so eventually the bottom column will wear away causing the giant rock to fall.

Our second stop was Double Arch. At this arch, we took the short trail from the parking lot across the sand to the base of the arch itself. We climbed up the rocks and stood beneath the two arches that towered above us. This was such an amazing experience, to be able to actually stand underneath and see these formations up close.

Petroglyphs and Delicate Arch

We made a quick stop at the trailhead to Delicate Arch, and walked just a short way down the trail to visit the petroglyphs. These were carved here several hundred years ago by Native Americans that lived in the area.

Delicate arch is the most popular, and largest, arch in the park. While we didn’t take the full 3 mile hike to and from the arch. we did make a quick stop at the lower viewpoint for the arch to see it from a distance. Even at this distance you could see just how large that arch was based on how tiny the hikers beneath it looked from a distance.

Moab, Utah

Arches National Park is right next to Moab, Utah, where we spent the night. We stopped for BBQ and ice cream for dinner before heading back to the hotel to relax at the pool for the evening. This was probably the nicest hotel we stayed at on our trip, as the pool areas was just surrounded by towering walls of red rock. It was too bad we only had one night to enjoy it. We relaxed in the pool and hot tub as the sun set on the red rocks around us.

Denver, Colorado (Flying Home)

The final day of the trip was a long travel day home. It started at 5 a.m. as we began our drive from Moab, Utah to Denver, Colorado. By this point, we were both exhausted and had gotten very little sleep the night before, so this was a rough drive. Most of the drive was through the Rocky Mountains, and while Jimmy (our rental car) had struggled on some inclines during the earlier part of the trip, he really struggled to get through these mountains at times. The views were beautiful though as we drove through small skiing villages on our way to Denver.

Once we arrived in Denver we dropped off the rental car and boarded a shuttle bus to the airport. However, partway through the bus ride, Sam realized that he left his phone in the rental car. Once we got to the airport, I took our three suitcases (two carry-ons and a check bag) into the airport while Sam quickly re-boarded the shuttle to go back and hopefully find his phone. I checked in our bag and waited until he finally texted that he was able to track down the phone. A bit of a rough start to our travel day home!

After that we hung out at the Centurion Lounge in the airport for about a half hour, enjoying some of their food, before boarding our two hour flight home. It was definitely not the most relaxing way to end our long trip, but we were happy it all worked out in the end.

Overall, this trip ended up being the perfect return to travel we needed to kick off our summer of adventures!

Wild West Drivin’ Quest – May 2021