Finding time to blog when road tripping is proving challenging. The past few nights I’ve been super exhausted and haven’t had energy for much more than survival. Solo travel with kids is fun, but damn. I’m tired. The biggest challenge to solo parenting while traveling is that there is no break, no second set of hands etc. Like. They have allllllll the needs alllllllll the time. Allllllll the needs is a constant battle at home though too, so I guess I might as well go crazy with a view!

We originally planned to be camping tonight at Dinosaur National Monument. It was seriously stunning there, and I’m a little sad it’s not happening, but the kids were TIRED. And I’m TIRED. Plus I think I need to accept I just don’t really love camping in the cold, especially when it’s just me with the kids, and no other adults. So we got a hotel room and I put the kids to bed early.

Let’s jump into a quick recap of the past few days!

Road Trip, Day 3

We headed out of Burlington, CO and on to Glenwood Springs. The drive west of Denver on I-70 is pretty amazing. I need a bumper sticker for Odell the minivan that says “Caution: Stops at all Scenic Overlooks”. I can’t help myself. I snagged some pretty sweet pics of mountains, and Olivia snagged some pretty sweet pics of grass?

The drive was stunning, but also seriously freaking windy. The wind situation was compounded by the child situation in the backseat. And by child situation I mean the fact that my kids decided this windy, mountainous, gusty stretch of the drive was the perfect time to make up the most annoying fucking songs ever in the backseat.

I love my children. I love my children. I love my children. 

After about an hour of the same screeching phrases on repeat I wanted to drive off the mountain imposed quiet time in the van. Then they fell asleep and it was peaceful bliss. Which meant I actually got to enjoy the drive through Glenwood Canyon. Seriously. How is the earth this cool???

When we got to Glenwood Springs, the weather had taken a decided turn for the worse. It was windy. Like. Making waves in the pool type of wind. And it was cold, and it was about to rain. BUT. The big appeal of Glenwood Springs was Glenwood Hot Springs Pool, which I had hyped to the kids endlessly.

*Should have had a rain plan*

Since I did not have a plan B, I put on my big girl pants and took the kids to the pool, even though it was 50 degrees. They had a blast! And to be honest, I did too. The water felt soooooo good. The whole hot springs thing is definitely not overrated. The view from the pool wasn’t too shabby either. I mean, when it wasn’t covered in clouds.

 

After a wrangling two wet, excited, and tired kids into dry clothes I was ready for a hearty dinner. We headed over to Glenwood Springs Brew Pub for some nachos and a beer. Yes, I ordered a beer with dinner. No, I did not get to enjoy it. Taking my kids out to dinner is not something that generally goes well, but I was tired of eating PB & J’s in hotel rooms, so I tried anyways. We lasted about 5 minutes into the meal, packed up our food, and ate it in the hotel room.

Road Trip, Day 4

We woke up in the morning to clear skies, thankfully. We were all excited for a day with only a little bit of driving. The plan was to drive from Glenwood Springs to Colorado National Monument, which should have taken roughly two hours. We drove into Grand Junction, just outside of the monument without incident.

And then. The gravel road. 

How do I always end up on a gravel road? Is it genetic? Is it destiny? Am I cursed? 

Rim Rock Drive into the park was closed, and so I followed the detour. The very sketchy detour, that did not even appear as a road on apple maps. For awhile it was fine, there were signs, the switchbacks were manageable. But then the signs stopped. And I was forced to rely on some very questionable navigation skills. And then the pavement JUST ENDED. No explanation. Nothing. But like, there’s a giant canyon on the other side of the road soooo…. wtf.

But I kept following it because really, what choice did I have? And Olivia is in the backseat going “where are we going? how much longer? ask your phone where to go!” – So.Helpful.

And just as suddenly as the pavement ended, it suddenly began again. And then we passed a sign, and apparently we had entered the park in the middle of the scenic drive. Confused, but relieved, we drove on. Since I was now on a clear path, I could once again revel in stopping at every single pullout and overlook.

Which wasn’t super pleasant because the wind was out of control. It was cold, overcast, and altogether crappy. The kids didn’t even want to get out at half the places we stopped because of the wind/cold. Despite the shit weather, this place is unbelievable.

 

 

We did eventually find some cool places for the kids to scramble around and climb. They couldn’t resist climbing every rock in sight, and I was desperately trying to keep them from falling off a cliff or destroying the land around them. #momgoals. 

At the Visitors Center the girls completed their Junior Ranger Books and were sworn in. The ranger who went over their books with them was AWESOME. He went through every page and talked to them about things they might see in the park. I say this every time we visit a national park, but they really do such a good job with the programming for kids.

Plus the girls saw a lizard. It was like the second coming of Jesus himself. 

I’ve gotten so many comments from people, strangers even,  about how they would love to go to a national park, but maybe when their kids are older. I can’t believe that! There are so many things for kids to do, so why wait?

 

 Camping at Colorado National Monument

With the forecast of substantial wind gusts and temps into the 30’s at night, I wasn’t really keen on camping here like we had planned, but the kids were begging me. They love camping for some reason. I’m calling it: No more camping in questionable weather by myself with the kids. It’s way to freaking exhausting. I don’t even know why I think I can pull this off.

So we head over to our campsite, and it has a pretty spectacular view, and the sun had finally emerged, so I thought? How bad could this be? We have everything we need….

I would love to report that everything went smoothly and I was wrong about all complications. But ya know. That’s not my style. I could not get the tent staked down because the ground was basically all rock, and when I turned around to deal with some miscellaneous squabble about My Little Pony, my tent blew away.  

It just blew away into the next campsite. I’m laughing about this now but in the moment I wanted to just let it fly over the edge of the canyon, sit down, and cry. Here’s a picture for you – me and two small humans running after a tent and trying to pull it over in extremely gusty conditions. It was…. ridiculous.

Eventually we righted the tent. I couldn’t stand to drag it back to our original campsite so I just adopted the new site and staked the tent down where it had blown. The new site was better anyways…. right? Later, as we were laying in bed I realized the tent had suffered a giant gash in the top of the rain fly during it’s escape to new lands. This is the first time we’ve ever used this tent and it’s already busted. A little duct tape and we were good to go.

After a dinner eaten in the van (due to high winds), we drove over to the viewpoint on the other end of the campground. The kids were quickly banished to the car for ignoring my repeated warnings to:

1.Not run towards the edge of a cliff and

2.Not lean over a wall if you don’t know what’s on the other side.

This ended up working out in my favor because I enjoyed a peaceful few minutes totally alone overlooking Monument Valley. There was not one other person there, as far as the eye could see. It was actually one of my favorite moments from the trip so far. This place was so peaceful and awe inspiring.

*If something can inspire peace in you after a tent debacle from hell, it must be good*

We eventually got settled into our tent and even got a chance to star gaze before falling asleep.  THE STARS HERE. OMG. It’s just insane what the sky looks like when it’s so incredibly dark. And wayyyyy off in the distance, we could see all the lights from the town below, and Olivia was totally mesmerized by how beautiful it was.

We woke up this morning a little tired, I don’t think anyone slept super deeply. This post is already a mile long, so I’ll hopefully do another post tomorrow night with a little more recapping!

Did you miss our first couple days? Check it out here!

I’ll be posting more pics and videos from our trip on Social Media, I’d love for you to follow along!

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