Great Salt Lake......Not So Great

From Dinosaur National Monument we headed west on hwy 40 and continued our trip towards Heber City, UT.

It was Father's day while we were traveling and that morning we gave Diego his cards and in the evening drove to Provo, UT to see the new Avengers movie.

Week of Nationals

This was a week of National Parks and Monuments.  We hit three parks.................Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches and Canyonlands and two Monuments...........Colorado and Dinosaur.  Did I mention that we were in the high desert heat at about 100 degrees each day.  HELLO! We did not realize that we would be leaving the mountains so soon and entering those kind of temps.  We were not happy campers part of that week.  The humidity is low, so you're not sticky, but it was so hot!!  

We had left Glenwood Springs and had a short drive down the Interstate.  It was amazing how much the climate changed in that 1 hour or so drive. 

We stayed at James M Robb State Park (Island Acres Section) and were sandwiched between two mountains.  The mountains were beautiful however the interstate was sandwiched between those same two mountains, so that was a little weird.  It just became white noise and didn't bother us at all, but might have if we had been at a site closer to the road.  The campground itself was nice, but had a strange crowd of people.

Rocky Mountain High

After leaving St. Vrain we headed south and then west on I-70.  We have been avoiding interstates for the most part, but man are we glad we took this one.  Twisting and turning through mountains, some tunnels through the mountains and the final hour or two were through Glenwood Canyon.  It was just beautiful.

Glenwood Canyon

I Remember This Place

From Golden we traveled north to a state park called St.Vrain.  Ahhhh..... The space of a state park I had missed so much.  State parks are my favorite and we had not been to one since our last stop in New Mexico, so I was very excited.  The park itself was pretty, had nice lakes for fishing, and a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains off in the distance.  It was quite close to the interstate so you didn't quite feel remote, but it was a pretty nice place.  We had a fire pit and put it to good use a few nights.  Attempted cooking our veggies and some other things over the flame, but our wood was a little smokey from being in the back of our truck and exposed to all the rain.  The veggies were a little smokey :)