Long Weekend

It was Fall break last weekend. We had a lot of days off. It started with a fun pack meeting for Alex.

Then on Thursday Alex had more dental stuff done. He had some teeth pulled. Here is the before.

Here is the after.

After he rested and his lip was not asleep anymore- We went to the zoo. (When we went to the zoo in August, we bought a year pass because it was only a few more dollars than buying the one day pass)

These zebra's were really crazy and were kicking each other.

 

With our pass we get to take a friend with us.

Friday morning we took off for a weekend jaunt. 

We stopped in Vernal and added a temple picture to  our collection.

Then we made it to Dinosaur National Monument.

We explored the quarry,

and saw all the bones...

They are cool.

Then we went on a hike.

and found a bone in the mountain side.

We also found some fossils in the rocks.

It was great weather. About 70 degrees. So hiking in the desert was not bad. 

And even though the sign said that there was no shade- we found some.

We went to our campsite. The boys were inspired to dig for bones.

We went to the beautiful Green River. But it was not really easy to play in.

But  we kept searching and found a beach to play on.

They build dams and dug in the sand. It was perfect.

But- we had a whole park to explore and only 2 days to do it. So we had to leave the river. 

We went to see some petrogylphs.

And went to find another hike.

We found rocks to climb on.

This is my boy's favorite thing to do ever.

This is such a great picture- my favorite. I can see Tanner holding on to Chase. You can't  tell- but Chase was at the edge of a pretty high cliff. Tanner thought Chase was getting too close and was being his protector.

Then we went to another place along the Green River.

Found some more sand...

Threw mud...

And saw the amazing scenery.

That night we made dinner even though I forgot a lot of things we needed. It turns out that even a one night camping trip you need a million things. 

That night was a clear night and we got the see the amazing night sky with it's millions of stars. It makes me sad that we live where it is too bright to see those stars.

The next morning we went on a hike called "The Sound of Silence".  It was in this cool riverbed.

The kids got to climb on impossibly high cliffs.

We saw lots of rabbits and this one was not afraid of us. Can you see him?

We only saw a couple of other people on this trail the whole time. At one point we stopped and sat down and listened to the silence. The only thing we heard was Chase's stomach growling. And then a bee buzzed by. It was cool.

Then we started up on the exploring the park thing again. Throwing lots of rocks into the river and freezing our feet in the water.

It was great to be here with all the fall leaves.

More petroglyphs

Alex had decided to earn the Junior Ranger pin. So we stopped by the visitors center, turned in his book, and got his badge. He loves stuff like that. 

 

Then we left the Utah side of the park and drove to the Colorado side. To my knowledge I have never been to this side before. I remember going to this park when I was around 7 and again at around 12. Andre remembers going on the way home from one of his soccer tournaments when he was a young teen. Neither of us remembers the Colorado side. 

First we followed a trail that said Prairie dog trail. It was very misleading. There were many many prickly bushes in the trail and no prairie dogs.

We did find a hole that looked very old and not used.

We decided that we would call this the elephant trail. Because we saw just as many elephants as we saw prairie dags.

Then we started up to explore the park. At first I was disappointed because it was just a bunch of overlooks. The kids wanted to get out and explore and there was nothing for them to do. 

But the scenery kept getting more and more beautiful. 

At the end of the road was a hike. It was really high in the mountains so it was not as desert-y as we had been up to now. It was green and had pine trees everywhere.

We saw some kind of pheasant.

The view was amazing.

We were on a little peninsula of land and we could see views on all sides. This was looking east.

This was looking west. That is the Green river behind Andre.

So- two rivers join up at this spot. The Green river comes out of "the cliffs of Lodore" (sounds like Lord of the Rings to me) and joins up with the Yampa river- which you can kind of see at the bottom of the canyon's below.

Then the river goes around the cliff that we are standing on and flows west through that canyon. 

The green river flows south west through most of Utah and then joins the Colorado river and forms Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon. This scenery is hard to capture with a camera- but it was just as beautiful as any of those spots.

Here is the very edge of the peninsula that we were on. They didn't let us go all the way.

A few more pictures- just cause it is my blog and I can do what I want. 

The whole family- except Jaxon.

Then we left here and drove back home. It took a little more than 4 hours from the highest point in the Colorado side of the park. 

I think I mentioned in my last blog that Jaxon went off to California with his band buddies. He was gone from Tuesday to Sunday. He went to Disneyland, Hollywood, the beach, and lots of band practices and performances and one competition.
Here he is as I picked him up.  He didn't want me to take this picture but I made him because it is the only picture of the trip.

It was a fun weekend for everyone. Now- back to reality and homework. blah.