Drive from Santa Cruz to Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo from Bay Area's Most Scenic Drives

The whole point of this trip was to meet Sam's family at Olema Campground in California. They have a tradition of staying at this campground and doing some great hiking. Well, with the grace of Sam's driving, we are here! Yesterday's tour from Santa Cruz to Point Reyes National Seashore was a bit hilarious. We took the best route which was through Marin County on Sir Francis Drake. As Sam drove the twisty roads (and made sure to pull over and let faster traffic zoom around us), I giggled that the road cyclist next to us was taking the hill faster than we were... I'm not even kidding about that. This route is a beautiful cyclists' haven that runs through Marin County and passes through the Samuel P. Taylor state park. Huge redwoods dwarf the road, and for a moment, even made our RV feel tiny. We didn't bring our bikes this time, but I could totally see Sam doing this someday... Anyway, we made it to Olema! More adventures to come!

10/20 Bryce Canyon National Park

Fast and furious. We did it. It's interesting because compared to Zion or Arches, we weren't really amazed by Bryce until you drive in a bit. You have to drive up the mountain to the overlook to get to the sections that are the most famous (the hoodoos or columns that everyone has seen).  There are a couple of hikes that we decided NOT to do because we had already done the bike ride in the morning. There is definitely a lot more to do if we were to spend more time here.

10/12 First Impressions of Utah

The drive from Cortez, Colorado, to Moab, Utah, is only a little over three hours on two-lane state highways.  Yet, the landscape changes so much that it feels as though we had taken a trip to Mars. Now I know that certain family members of mine are not very interested in Utah (cough…cough…), but I have to say that this is some of the most incredible scenery I have ever driven through.  I kept muttering things, like, “This reminds me of Petra!!” or just, “Whoa,” over and over.  With Canyonlands National Park to our left, and Arches National Park looming in the north, the orange landscape seemed pretty impressive to two kids from Chi-town.

10/14 Island in the Sky

PARTY SIZE!!!

Canyonlands is a huge national park.  Island in the Sky district is part of the drivable area filled with hiking paths, viewpoints, and wonderful picnic areas.  We spent much of the day there, and our pictures are in this album.  We listened to a 15-minute presentation with a NPS ranger explaining the geology of the canyons. Sam wants to come back and drive the 100+ mile, 4x4-only White Rim road and camp on BLM lands. Here are the photos from the day.

10/09 An Incredibly Beautiful Drive

Wow. Wow. Wow. We haven't turned on the radio or read any books at all. Both of us are in agreement that this is one of the most beautiful drives we've ever seen.  The combination of the fall colors, the snowy mountain passes, and the pine trees are causing us to whip out the camera and take way too many pictures that definitely won't capture the magnificence of it all. We've added a ton of new photos to the Drive from Colorado Springs to Cortez album. [It's going to take hours to upload all the photos - there are over 100!]

We should be tired after driving through the mountains for eight hours, but instead we are energized.

10/09 On the Road to Cortez

With the weather report favorable again, we've headed out early this morning for our drive to Cortez. There are a couple of different routes we could take, but we decided to take Route 50 through Canon City, and the Rockies. The hardest pass that we have to drive is Monarch Pass over the Continental Divide. This is the pass that was closed yesterday. We're hoping the weather stays above freezing like predicted. So far everthing has been dry, but we will see!