230615 Canyonlands National Park 2 Mesa Arch

Epic Road Trip: Canyonlands National Park (Part 7)

230615 Canyonlands National Park 2 Mesa Arch

Canyonlands National Park Mesa Arch

Waking up and coming off the previous day spent in Arches National Park was quite the high. After spending days in the vehicle, getting to stretch our legs and fully breathe in the fresh air, let alone being one of very few people actually inside the park. WE could not have asked for a better first day experience heading into Canyonlands National Park.

That morning after making a short stop back at Arches, we headed over towards Canyonlands, where we experienced a slight backup at the station waiting to get in.

We slowly made our way out to Grand View Point Overlook, taking in various stops along the route.

The coolest stop was for sure Mesa Arch, over looking incredible views into the canyon. This also made it quite busy with a lot of people making the hike out to see it and parking can be a little difficult to secure.

230615 Canyonlands National Park 1

Canyonlands National Park

230615 Canyonlands National Park 3 Upheaval Dome

Canyonlands National Park Upheaval Dome

While there are always more ways to dive in deeper and really explore the area, we took a birds eye approach, seeing the various canyons from above. Hiking where we could, most notably out to Upheaval Dome.

We also took the opportunity the night before to stock up on some deli items, veggie and fruit trays, etc. and had a wonderful lunch inside the park. This is really a key thing we planned for on both our trips, trying to pick up some groceries to make easy meals when in the middle of no where. Then we use the money saved to try and make our dinner the only sit-down restaurant meal of the day.

Overall Canyonlands was ok, but definitely did not rank up there with Arches.

230615 Canyonlands National Park 4 Grand View

Canyonlands National Park Grand View

Side note, having now done two National Park road trips, one thing is I am very cognizant on is our experience and how they are very similar. I say that because our whole family’s favorite part of the 2019 National Park Road Trip happen to be the Badlands. Which happen to be the first National Park on that tour. Yet here we are on our second National Park road trip and the first park we visit is also our initial favorite.

So sure there is that initial rush one gets from the first experience. However, I feel it might be just more of a coincidence that we loved the first parks best. We will see how it all ends up once we get to the end of this trip report.

As a total unexpected surprise, we also happen to run into friends that used to work at some of our favorite amusement parks from our CPFoodBlog business. They are fulltime nomads, traveling the world, and quite the inspiration for this wanderluster.

Overall we spent about 3 hours inside Canyonlands National Park, enough to get a feel of what the area entailed, but not enough to fall in love with the park.

230615 Canyonlands Boat Tour 1

Canyonlands Boat Tour

Later on that evening we had arranged a Sound and Light Show Jet Boat Tour with Canyonlands by Day and Night.

The evening started out with and included cowboy-style buffet with terrific food!

Once it started to get dark, we boarded a flat-bottom boat that took us up river, explaining the various sites. We got very lucky because we thought the tour was going to be cancelled for thunderstorms in the area. However, they luckily skipped this area and we were able to do the whole tour.

230615 Canyonlands Boat Tour Dinner

Canyonlands Boat Tour Dinner

Once we made our way up river and the sun set, we began the lights and sound portion of the tour. Here, audio narration played stories of early settlers and a truck along the road illuminated the canyon walls.

This ended up being a really cool core memory experience for our family. The staff were really fantastic, and at about $100 per person, was a very unique way to spend the evening in Canyonlands, especially when it also included a meal.

230615 Canyonlands Boat Tour 2

Canyonlands Boat Tour

That evening we returned to our same hotel as the night before in Moab. The two free nights in the same hotel made it easy and affordable.

Daily miles driven- 100 miles
Accommodations Cost- Free (20,000 IHG points)

Continue reading about our journey below.

Just like our 2019 National Park Road Trip, we will break down the trip each day in separate posts as highlighted below.

Epic Road Trip: National Park Tour (Part 1)
Epic Road Trip: Cleveland to St Louis (Part 2)
Epic Road Trip: Silver Dollar City (Part 3)
Epic Road Trip: Rt 66 to Texas (Part 4)
Epic Road Trip: Texas Surprises to Santa Fe (Part 5)
Epic Road Trip: Four Corners and Arches National Park (Part 6)
Epic Road Trip: Canyonlands National Park (Part 7)
Epic Road Trip: Capitol Reef National Park (Part 8)
Epic Road Trip: Bryce Canyon National Park (Part 9)
Epic Road Trip: Zion National Park (Part 10)
Epic Road Trip: Knott’s Berry Farm (Part 11)
Epic Road Trip: Universal Studios Hollywood (Part 12)
Epic Road Trip: Meow Wolf Las Vegas (Part 13)
Epic Road Trip: Worlds of Fun (Part 14)
Epic Road Trip: Trip Wrap Up (Part 15)

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230614 Arches National Park 3 Sand Dune

Epic Road Trip: Four Corners and Arches National Park (Part 6)

230614 Arches National Park 3 Sand Dune

Arches National Park: Sand Dune

Today’s adventure begins us digging into the meat of the adventure and one of the main goals, seeing some of the magnificent Utah national parks.

The day also meant a lot of driving with a lot of ground to cover.

Before we get in to deep, we also want to point out in the planning stages, we really wanted to see the Mesa Verde National Park. However, knowing we had an all day drive ahead of us and very limited time slots that worked with our scheduled to get in and see the park, we opted to skip it on this trip.

We started off making the 4+ hour drive up to the Four Corners Monument at the intersection of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

Since the site is part of the Navajo Tribal Park system, our National Park passes did not apply and we were required to pay $8 per person.

Be prepared with everything you need to make the journey to the site. That includes plenty of gas in your vehicle, food and water, although there are porta potties on-site as well as some food trucks, subject to being open.

We were actually quite surprised how beautiful the four corners monument is, as it is not just some markers on the ground, but a nice complex with picturesque views of all four states. Surrounding the site is various tribal vendors offering handmade items. We ended up spending several hundred dollars on items that we now proudly display in our home and office.

Our prior research also told us to make sure we get the food from Grandma’s Frybread Shack. Handmade Navajo taco dough topped with various toppings made for a nice treat along with some our Pops 66 sodas.

230614 Four Corners Monument Fry Bread

Four Corners Monument Fry Bread

Further along our route into Utah we accidentally stumbled upon Hole in the Rock. What started out as a quick restroom stop turned out to be a very unexpected surprise. We had no idea what to expect, but offered up the $7/person ($5 for kids) and were guided into the 5,000 SF home carved into the mountainside.

While no photos were aloud to be taken inside the home, it was an interesting place frozen in time and showed how resourceful the owners had to be to survive in the desert.

230614 Hole in the Rock Utah

Hole in the Rock Utah

After the hour stop or so, we headed into our hotel at Moab and then with plenty of daylight hours, decided to go check out Arches National Park.

Arches was the only one of the Utah parks we needed a reservation in advance. We had secured two days of reservations with the earliest entry time slots (7-8am). Time slots are good for anytime after, so the first day did not really matter since we arrived so late. The second day aloud us to get in early though.

We arrived around 5:45pm on a Wednesday and experienced no back up of traffic of crowds. In fact, the park was quite peaceful with very few people throughout our entire visit.

This would be a good point to mention we are big fans of the Guide Along app (formerly Gypsy App). We have used the app for various National Parks we have visited, and the narration is the perfect guide to the history of the area and best advice for what are must see stops and which could be skipped.

I am not going to get into every site within Arches National Park as there are plenty of resources available. I will say that we were able to visit the entire park within about 4 hours, which is quite easy since there was only one road in and the time of our arrival. We got out and hiked as many of the sites as we could and were able to see everything. This includes Park Avenue, where to my surprise, there is a rock formation of Queen Nefertiti of Egypt. While that may make no impact on most people, I have worn a pendant of her around my neck since high school. So getting to see something completely unexpected and natural had a big impact on me.

230614 Arches National Park Queen Nefertiti

Arches National Park Queen Nefertiti

230614 Arches National Park 1

Arches National Park

230614 Arches National Park 2

Arches National Park

We also hiked the Windows Trail, Double Arch Trail, Sand Dune Arch Trail, and Devils Garden Trail. By the time we got out to the later, people were non-existent and the sun was setting and it was a beautiful experience.

Since we arrived (and departed) so late at Arches, we never got to stop into the visitor’s center. So we circled back the next morning to see it and allow the boys to get the first of this trips National Park badges. This is also where we were vary glad with our decision to visit Arches in the late afternoon and evening, as the crowds for the day had already swelled.

230614 Arches National Park 4 Pine Tree

Arches National Park Pine Tree

230614 Arches National Park 6 Dawn

Arches National Park Dawn

230614 Arches National Park 5 Landscape

Arches National Park Landscape

The only area inside Arches we briefly went into see since we skipped it the night before was Delicate Arch Trail. We opted for the much easier viewpoint trail and did not hike all the way up to the arch.

The real point of heading back into Arches though was to see our first petroglyphs.

We will end the Arches portion here as we then continued on into Canyonlands National Park.

230615 Arches National Park Badge

Arches National Park Badge

230615 Arches National Park Petroglyphs

Arches National Park Petroglyphs

Daily miles driven- 500 miles (not including inside Arches)
Accommodations Cost- Free (20,000 IHG points)

Continue reading about our journey below.

Just like our 2019 National Park Road Trip, we will break down the trip each day in separate posts as highlighted below.

Epic Road Trip: National Park Tour (Part 1)
Epic Road Trip: Cleveland to St Louis (Part 2)
Epic Road Trip: Silver Dollar City (Part 3)
Epic Road Trip: Rt 66 to Texas (Part 4)
Epic Road Trip: Texas Surprises to Santa Fe (Part 5)
Epic Road Trip: Four Corners and Arches National Park (Part 6)
Epic Road Trip: Canyonlands National Park (Part 7)
Epic Road Trip: Capitol Reef National Park (Part 8)
Epic Road Trip: Bryce Canyon National Park (Part 9)
Epic Road Trip: Zion National Park (Part 10)
Epic Road Trip: Knott’s Berry Farm (Part 11)
Epic Road Trip: Universal Studios Hollywood (Part 12)
Epic Road Trip: Meow Wolf Las Vegas (Part 13)
Epic Road Trip: Worlds of Fun (Part 14)
Epic Road Trip: Trip Wrap Up (Part 15)

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230613 Tepee Curios New Mexico

Epic Road Trip: Texas Surprises to Santa Fe (Part 5)

230613 Tepee Curios New Mexico

Tepee Curios New Mexico

Early the next morning we continued on route 66 and our initial stop of the day was the first Phillips 66 station in Texas in the small town of McLean. Built and leased to Phillips in 1929. Outside of the plaque on the wall, the station is a pretty much abandoned relic of the past.

230613 Texas First Phillips Station

Texas First Phillips Station

Next we drove past the Leaning Tower of Texas, an abandoned water tower that was moved to the field adjacent a service station to act as a roadside attraction. Now it’s pretty much abandoned.

230613 Leaning Tower Texas

Leaning Tower Texas

We also took the opportunity to stop early in the morning at the VW Slug Bug Ranch. Buried Volkswagen Beetle cars are along the road and available for graffiti. We brought cans of paint with us but made a small donation. Unfortunately it was rather windy that morning but the kids did get to leave their mark. The nice thing was we were also the only people there at 8:45 in the morning. Might not be as popular at the Cadillac Ranch (see below).

230613 VW Bug Ranch Texas

VW Bug Ranch Texas

The big event of the day was we were contacted to come and visit the National Roller Coaster Museum and Larson International in Plainview, Texas. During our planning we opted to skip the invite because it was about an hour detour of the way and we planned on going to Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. However, they oddly were not open on Tuesdays during the summer, so we suddenly had availability and shuffled around the day to make this happen.

230613 Roller Coaster Museum

Roller Coaster Museum

Boy were we glad we did! As an amusement park family, getting to see the museum up close was rather an emotional experience. Seeing rides from our childhood like Memphis Kiddie Park (Cleveland) or Cedar Point brought back great memories.

The museum is not open to the public yet, but you can read more about our experience in our newspaper article on the Sandusky Register.

Heading back to our route, at this portion of the day we swung by the Cadillac Ranch. During our 2019 trip we drove past this site, but opted not to stop as were on our way back home.

Sadly, besides saying you did it, the Cadillac Ranch was sort of a bust. The vehicles were all sitting in a lake of water, so no one could get near the cars. The site clearly is not maintained well as the couple garbage cans onsite were overflowing of disposed spray paint.

We also found it amusing that despite signs all over, the entire road and retaining wall adjacent to Cadillac Ranch, and the only area to park, had graffiti everywhere.

230613 Cadillac Ranch Texas

Cadillac Ranch Texas

My wife had requested we stop in Tucumcari, New Mexico on the route so see some more of the old town appeal. We stopped at the Tepee Curious shop which was cute and checked out the historic Blue Swallow Motel.

230613 Blue Swallow Motel New Mexico

Blue Swallow Motel New Mexico

We ended our day up in Santa Fe, and upon the recommendation of the our tour guide at Larson, we ate at Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen. Here we were over 300 miles from the museum, and this restaurant was the real deal. What made it special though were two things. One, they had bottles of honey on the table. Upon asking what it was for, we used them with the chips and salsa, and dare I say it was life changing. The spiciness of the salsa blended perfectly with the honey, and I am not sure I could ever go back to eating them without again. The second thing was the honey was also used for our first time having sopapilla. So, so good, and so was our main dishes. I do not even know what I ordered as I told the waiter to choose for me.

That evening we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Santa Fe again in a two queen bed suite with pullout sofa. The price point again was so affordable, it made no sense to redeem points. It was also nice that our Diamond IHG status not only got us free bottled waters, but also a bag of Knott’s Berry Farm shortbread cookies, which the boys enjoyed.

Daily miles driven- 375 miles
Accommodations Cost- $132

Continue reading about our journey below.

Just like our 2019 National Park Road Trip, we will break down the trip each day in separate posts as highlighted below.

Epic Road Trip: National Park Tour (Part 1)
Epic Road Trip: Cleveland to St Louis (Part 2)
Epic Road Trip: Silver Dollar City (Part 3)
Epic Road Trip: Rt 66 to Texas (Part 4)
Epic Road Trip: Texas Surprises to Santa Fe (Part 5)
Epic Road Trip: Four Corners and Arches National Park (Part 6)
Epic Road Trip: Canyonlands National Park (Part 7)
Epic Road Trip: Capitol Reef National Park (Part 8)
Epic Road Trip: Bryce Canyon National Park (Part 9)
Epic Road Trip: Zion National Park (Part 10)
Epic Road Trip: Knott’s Berry Farm (Part 11)
Epic Road Trip: Universal Studios Hollywood (Part 12)
Epic Road Trip: Meow Wolf Las Vegas (Part 13)
Epic Road Trip: Worlds of Fun (Part 14)
Epic Road Trip: Trip Wrap Up (Part 15)

Save Money, Travel More!