Utah Road Trip

My sister Lucy has a lifetime goal of visiting all the US National Parks. She planned a trip west for this spring and I joined her, along with my sister Kate and our friend Suz. We left Indianapolis on April 9 and picked up Suz in Denver after two full days of driving. Lucy posted regularly to Facebook with many photos of each place we visited. Some of the pictures you will see are mine; some are from Lucy and/or Suz, each of whom took many more than I did.

From Denver we drove to Moab, Utah, through the Colorado Monument. We had a delightful rest stop where Grizzly Creek meets the Green River.

As we drove through the Monument, we saw our first red rock cliffs -- the first of many to come!

Our AirBnB condo apartment looked out over stunning cliffs to the west and mountains to the east. The next day we spent in Arches National Park. Again, every view was amazing. We walked to this sandy arch through a small canyon.

The following day we visited the Canyonlands section known as Island in the Sky. We drove above the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers.

The next day we left our condo and headed from Moab to Cortez, Colorado. On the way we visited the Needles district of Canyonlands and stopped in Bears Ears to see the Newspaper Rock (petroglyphs).

While in Needles, we hiked around the Pothole Point following cairns on slickrock.

Cortez is the nearest town to Mesa Verde, and we headed up to the top to see the cliff dwellings. These precursors of the Pueblo Indians made their home in caves in the side of the cliff.

Some years ago my sister Lucy took a tour that went down into the village from above, climbing out on ladders. That isn't possible any more.

Part II to follow.