On the final day of our family road trip, we decided to take a dip in the hotel pool before jumping into the Jeep for the 500 mile drive home. While the kids played in the hotel pool, I chose the jacuzzi for my relaxation location.

Though, before leaving the hotel completely, I had the kids take a quick shower to wash the pool water from their hair. And for efficiency, they went into the hotel room shower-tub together. They were not in the shower for more than two minutes before I heard our little KK say "let's do a butt high five" which was immediatelty followed by our little guy being knocked down into the floor of the shower. Perhaps it was the excitement of having gone swimming or it being our final vacation day, either way, a butt high five in the shower can be a dangerous thing, so let this be a lesson to everyone to proceed with caution before doing a butt high five in the shower.

Fortunately, no one was hurt and there was only some crying and hurt feelings after the butt high five.

As we set out across the desert from Prescott, Arizona to San Diego, California I could not help but to recount all of the states we traveled through, nine in all:

1. California

2. Nevada

3. Arizona

4. Utah

5. Idaho

6. Wyoming

7. Montana

8. Colorado

9. New Mexico

While we were not able to thoroughly travel through each state, we did have some great experiences including:

117 degree heat driving across the desert in Mesquite, Utah (hotter than Baker, California) while enjoying a home made iced latte.

Brian Head, Utah where we reached the mountain top at 11,307 feet elevation. As well as seeing Yankee Meadow, where we were able to play amongst the Aspen Trees.

Idaho Falls and dinner at the Republic restaurant as well as almost getting blown off the road by heavy winds as we drove toward Victor, Idaho before crossing into Wyoming.

Taking pictures at the Wyoming border crossing, driving over Teton Pass, and driving into Jackson Hole. Enjoying Cowboy Coffee and playing soccer with the kids in the park.

Riding bikes for 16 miles in Grand Teton National Park, seeing the Grand Teton mountains for the first time, and watching a deer graze on grass outside our cabin window.

Seeing Old Faithful and the many natural wonders of Yellowstone, KK photobombing my video of Castle Geyser, our mistaken close encounter with a real live Bison, and crossing the Continental Divide in Wyoming.

Ascending the Bear Tooth Highway and taking in all of its natural beauty. Making new friends in Red Lodge, Montana and the help of a local to get a hotel room for the night.

Spending time with family in Joliet, Montana and properly celebrating the Fourth of July with loads of fireworks. Oh, and taking a rock to the Jeep windshield as a souvenir from Montana.

Driving through Flaming Gorge, Utah and watching the kids encourage the truckers to pull their air horns. And Jensen, Utah's Dinosaur National Park.

Driving the Unaweep scenic byway, hanging out in Telluride, Colorado, passing through Ouray in the rain that continued to pound on us all the way through Silverton. Staying at an Airbnb house in Durango and taking care of 11 chickens that provided us with fresh eggs each day. And riding the Durango-Silverton narrow-gauge train.

Passing through Four Corners and seeing more of beautiful Utah and its rock formations.

Taking a wrong turn on an Arizona highway and ending up in beautiful Prescott. And a "butt high five" in the shower to finish off an incredible trip.

As we pulled into our driveway at the end of this trip, we had driven a total of 3,618 miles. Our Jeep Wrangler ran flawlessly through extreme heat, rain, and hail.

We hope you enjoyed following us on our road trip around the western United States. And thanks for following us!

We started our day in Durango by collecting enough fresh eggs from the chickens so that we could have eggs for breakfast.

With a loose plan, we departed Durango at 10:00AM and set out for the Mesa Verde Indian ruins, however it turns out that there is a 45 minute drive past the entrance gate before getting to the ruins. Keeping in mind that we wanted to make it into Arizona, we made a U-turn and headed back out on the road knowing that someday we will be back with enough time to tour the old Indian living spaces.

We had also been talking about stopping at Four Corners so that the kids could experience being in all four states at once. However, there was quite the line of people waiting to take a picture on the giant round ground marker, so we decided to take a picture from on of the raised overlooks and save ourselves some time...which provided more time for souvenir shopping. I don't think we will need to stop at Four Corners in the future as the kids now know and remember (I hope) the names of the four states that meet: Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. Speaking of New Mexico, it is our ninth state visited on this family road trip.

Continuing on through Arizona, we headed for Tuba City, a destination I have been to before, but the kids have not. Why Tuba City? Is it for the heat, sand, and wind? Not really. Actually, just outside of town are dinosaur footprints preserved in the sandstone of the desert floor. After seeing real dinosaur bones at the Utah Dinosaur National Monument, we decided it would be fun to see these actual footprints that have been verified as real by paleontologists. Because these are on an Indian reservation, there is no actual fee, just a donation if you choose.

In addition to the dinosaur footprints, there are also a few fossilized dinosaur remains, including bones and dinosaur poo.

After our dinosaur adventure, we continued down the road, going further in a south-west direction. Being in this part of Arizona, we were hoping to complete a special side trip out to a waterfall, but we knew the out and back trip on the rocky dirt road would take 2-3 hours that we did not have, so we will need to plan another trip where we cover th south-west more closely.

We considered staying in Sedona, but most options were sold out. Continuing on, we seriously considered Scottsdale and found a reasonable hotel option that we wanted, but I guess when I saw the interchange sign from highway 89 to I-40 going to Los Angeles I was too quick to take the turn off instead of continuing onto highway 17. This cost us some time, but I managed to get a picture of the I-40 sign.

The I-40 route sent us west when we should have been going south, which meant our drive time to Scottsdale got a lot longer. By the time we realized the mistake, it was much too late for a correction, so we decided to change our destination city to Prescott and find a hotel for the night.

Overall, we drove 443 miles today in the course of 10 hours, for an average speed of 43 MPH.

Tomorrow, we will be wrapping up our family road trip tomorrow with our drive back to the San Diego area. Let's hope for a better average speed tomorrow as we cruise across the hot and arid high desert and into the cool coastal region.

We will also plan to summarize our trip with a final blog post tomorrow night. Thanks for following along and we hope you have enjoyed our stories.

Well, today we only drove our Jeep about 10 miles to the Durango train station. Arriving to the train station at the last minute, Kathy and the kids jumped out of the Jeep and ran to check in and board the train. After I paid to park, I had to run full speed to the train station and was the very last person to get on board.

The train ride up to Silverton takes close to four hours with some stops along the way. We chose to ride in one of the enclosed coach cars, which was a good idea as it started to rain halfway up the mountain and those in the open cars were getting rained on with wet soot and cinders from the steam engine.

The scenery is incredible as the train follows the river all the way up to Silverton. We decided not to hang around in Silverton very long as we had just passed through the day before when it was raining. So, today we had just enough time to have an ice cream and then board the bus for a 90 minute ride back to Durango, which worked out well as the weather in Silverton turned from blue skies to black and the rain started dumping across the town.

Back in Durango, we walked up and down Main Street shopping for some souvenirs, eventually having dinner at Fired Up Pizzeria. Here's our little Cowboy eating what he loves most.

And a selfie of me with this lonesome cowboy as we both try to keep a straight face.

And my favorite picture of the day was this one of the kids being all huggy.

Our days have been so full that it has been challenging to find time at the end of each day for the kids to pick their favorite picture and tell a short story about their adventure. However, that can only mean one thing and that is everybody is having fun.

Our adventure will be wrapping up over the next few days. On Saturday, we will leave Durango Colorado and make it half way home, ending somewhere in Arizona. We have a couple of long days of driving, but I am confident we will have some fun and interesting stories to talk share.

We finished up our stay at the Jensen Inn Bed & Breakfast in Jensen, Utah with a yummy homemade breakfast.

The kids also surprised us and packed up our entire room at the Jensen Inn and loaded the Jeep. After the kids finished and we jumped in the Jeep, we waved goodbye and set out for Colorful Colorado.

Despite traveling light, it somehow takes us a long time to get packed up and onto the road each day. While we have gotten used to our late starts, it typically means that we do not arrive at our next destination until dinner time or later.

And while today's total mileage was under 300 miles traveling from Jensen Utah to Placerville Colorado, we still spent most of the day driving and sightseeing as we took the Unaweep scenic byway, also known as highway 141. The Unaweep highway travels deep into a gorge that gives the feeling of driving through the Grand Canyon with its red colored walls and lush green plants. However, don't be mistaken for this red colored river that parallels the highway is not the Colorado River, but the Dolores River.

Here are a few images from our beautiful drive along the Unaweep highway. The weather was a combination of sun, followed by rain that in some parts washed mud onto the two-lane road.

We arrived in Placerville, Colorado and are now just about 10 miles from Telluride. We enjoyed dinner at the lodge and are now looking forward to being in Telluride for the first time tomorrow.

Well, we landed at the Jensen Inn Bed & Breakfast in Jensen, Utah last night, got a very well deserved good nights sleep and enjoyed a homemade breakfast in the morning. After breakfast, we headed a short distance down the road to the dinosaur museum and displays at Dinosaur National Park on the Utah side.

We did a fair amount of exploring today and the kids had a great time, including touring of Josie Bassett's old house up the canyon where she had homesteaded and lived off the land for decades.

Here are a few pictures from the dinosaur museum, which is something that everyone should be able to visit in person.

We also viewed some petroglyphs along the way...

While I somehow forgot to take many pictures at the Josie Bassett house @wholefoodfam did take pics so check out her Instagram to see the little homestead house. But here is one picture of the the house and the short story...

We also took a short cut for about 20 miles off-road up to Blue Mountain Road, which brought us eventually to Harpers point, where you are supposed to be able to see the confluence of the Green River and the other famous River (to which the name slips my mind so I need to relook it up again, haha). The weather was very heavy at Harpers Point, so we decided that only I would face the weather on the 2+ mile round trip hike. All alone and part way into my hike, I thought to myself that there are probably bears and mountain lions roaming these grounds, so I decided to carry a few fists full of rocks for defense, just in case. Trying to keep a good pace and remain on high alert for predators along the lonely mountain top trail, I was constantly distracted by grumbling sounds, which I attributed to overhead commercial aircraft. Finally out at the end of the trail, I could NOT see the confluence of rivers, despite my searching, so took a few pictures and headed back along the trail with sharp rocks in hand. Part way back, I believe I found a spot at marker #11 where the confluence may be in sight, but it is just too far down deep in the canyon to actually see; helicopter anyone?

Regardless, here are a few pics and no, I was not eaten by a hungry bear or angry mountain lion, so it was a little bit of a relief to reach the trailhead where I had started out and toss my deadly rocks to the ground.

I should also mention that as we were ascending Blue Mountain up to 8,000 feet, passing cows along the way, that we also crossed into Colorado (our 8th state on our family road trip). The only way I new that we crossed into Colorado was by looking at the Jeep Garmin GPS. No other signs that we were in Colorado, just dirt, bushes, and cows. Yew-Ha! However, later in the day as we descended down from Harpers Point, there was an official "Colorado State Line" sign for which I had to take a picture.

Descending further down the mountain on paved roads, we entered back into Utah.

And headed back to Jensen and our Bed & Breakfast where we cooked outside and watched the kids run around, kicking their soccer ball.

Oh, and we picked up some fresh cow poo to which Kathy was not too fond of, especially since it was all up in the door handle. My new friend Alan of the Jensen Inn let me use his garden hose to give the Jeep a good washing. Here is the poo before I washed the Jeep.

Tomorrow, Day 12, we will hit the road again and venture deeper into Colorado. Keep a lookout for us and if you see us, give us a wave!

Well, we are working really hard to catch up and keep current on our blog posts during our family road trip around the western U.S. Our Day 10 was defined by driving and then more driving, followed by a little more driving.

We departed Billings, Montana at 10AM and drove 520 miles through Wyoming and into the north-east corner of Utah (Jensen, Utah). It was a long day of driving and we have to appreciate the kids for being super-troopers on this long drive. Yes, they have iPads to play with, but they have taken more interest in drawing and coloring books, so we have been picking up more crayons, markers, and coloring books along the way. On a full-day drive, each kid wil color in a complete book and do some nice work given the confines and sometimes bumpy ride in the Jeep.

Of course yesterday's drive was especially long as we were driving all back roads, slowing down for each small town and sometimes getting stuck behind a big rig; however, those big rigs can really move along at a good pace, so you have to keep a lookout for them as sometimes they'll come up on your rearend and turn up the heat.

We drove through Flaming Gorge, which may be a less known spot on your map, but quite beautiful and worth a drive on your next road trip. There is a large lake and Dam as well as the beauty of Flaming Gorge itself. Something tells me that these parts are less discovered than other places like Grand Canyon that get overrun with tourists, so keep this one a secret, OK?

While I could talk about the crazy weather we experienced driving across Wyoming and into Utah, which included wicked rain, I'm taking full-speed windshield wipers (and still could not see), as well as the most incredible spaghetti lightening, and wind so strong it was blowing us onto the shoulder of the road at some points, I'll tell you that there were not many places to get a decent meal on this route, so we finally gave in and ate at Wendy's drive-thru.

While most of us ate, due to just being hungry, our little mouse was on a food boycott. I think the long drive had gotten to him and he needed a break. So, we pulled off along the two-lane highway along Flaming Gorge so both kids could stretch their legs. This roadside break for the kids quickly turned into a roadside competition with them running laps around the Jeep. And as the Mouse completed each of his laps, he took one or two bites of his hamburger which had him feeling happy.

To spice up this roadside event, we decided to do some good 'ol fashioned airhorn pulling with the truckers that were passing by. I remember doing this when I was a kid and I think that most people have forgotten about this and how much fun it can be for the kids and for the truckers. Check it out here...

https://instagram.com/p/43CdtPx7Jw/

Here are a few more pictures from Day 10, including the dam, bridge, and Flaming Gorge. The pictures don't do justice for this beautiful place, so take my word for it and put this route on your next road trip, just don't tell anybody else that this beautiful place exists!

Our Day 9 in Montana was fairly mellow and spent on the farm visiting with family. However, I could not help but make an extra stop as we drove from the hotel to the farm...it turns out that the fireworks booths are also open on the day after the Fourth of July, so I just had to buy a few more items.

The only unfortunate occurrence so far has been a result of how Montana does road construction. Ya see, first, they tear up the road, leaving all of the gravel and debris sitting there for days (maybe even for weeks). So traveling along the highway becomes a game of inadvertently tossing rocks at windshields. Now, I'm sure my new 35" Goodyear tires caused someone else some window damage, but I also took a big rock at my windshield, which took a big chunk out of my glass. So, with that I say thanks for the souvenir Montana. And dear Insurance company, I'm going to need another new windshield...

And here is the Jeep sitting on the farm as the weather turned cold and rainy on July 5 in Joliet, Montana.

We spent our 2015 Fourth of July with some of Kathy's family in Joliet (pronounced Jolly-ette) Montana. Her Aunt and Uncle also joined us from Michigan and they drove their yellow Transformers Camaro.

We spent most of the day relaxing and enjoying the warm Montana weather (90+ degrees with some humidity) with a good 'ol fashioned BBQ and watermelon and cookies for dessert.

Later in the afternoon, we drove over to the local fireworks booth and bought everything we could possibly fit into the Jeep. After loading up on fireworks, we moved over to the road side ice cream shop for more treats and Kathy modeling herself by the Jeep.

Our little Mouse, who in these parts has been referred to more often as "Cowboy" as he loves to wear cowboy boots and shorts everywhere he goes, including for ice cream...was spotted behind this cobbled together antique car.

Later in the evening, at around 9:30PM, is when the sun really set. At this time, we started up a campfire on the farm, roasted marshmallows and made s'mores which was followed by our fireworks celebreation. We all had a great time, especially me as I loved setting off all of the fireworks. Everything ended around midnight, which is the latest the kids have ever been up (yikes!), but I have to say that everyone had a great time being together and celebrating.

Here are a couple pictures from our Fourth of July celebration.

https://instagram.com/p/4x5_kjx7FY/

Following our Day 6 Bison adventure, we departed the Lake Yellowstone Hotel and drove further east into the park, stopping along the way to see the Upper and Lower Falls.

While driving the side road from one waterfall to another, we happened across a small group of Bison, but this time from a relatively safe distance as we were sitting inside the Jeep.

We also stopped to see a variety of other sights (like the mud volcano and Dragons Mouth), which meant a lot of getting in and out of the Jeep.  But overall, Day 7 was a driving day. To help break up the drive, we stopped to have a roadside picnic and let the kids run around and climb on boulders.

Driving further into the east half of Yellowstone, we happened upon large herds of buffalo grazing out in the open meadows, but that only seemed to moderately entertain the kids. I guess once you have been up close and personal with a Bison, seeing them in the distance is no big deal.  Besides, we were in search of Moose and Bear at this point.

With patches of snow still on the mountain tops and streams of water pouring into larger rivers, we couldn't help but to talk about finding a spot to dip our feet into the water. So, sure enough, we happened upon a dirt side road that meandered down to Rock Creek.  We were all able to put our feet into the icy cold river and take in the sights and relaxation of the water tumbling over the river rocks.  The kids played and had a competition to see who could toss a rock the furthest distance into the river.

Continuing on our drive toward Montana, we climbed Bear Tooth Highway, which has the most incredible views...possibly the best scenic drive in the world.  Bear Tooth Highway ascends up to 10,947 feet elevation where the temperature drops and there are still very large sections of winter snow remaining (during years of heavy winter storms, the mountain top would be still deep in snow at summer time).  Along the road there are a variety of streams running down into large pools of water, which tend to be crystal clear and spectacular to see in person...sorry that photos don't capture this type of beauty.

As we descended down from the top of Bear Tooth Highway and officially entered Montana (our 7th state on this trip), we encountered rain and hail, which of course is exactly when the girls needed to go potty. Luckily, and randomly, there was a roadside rest stop with bathrooms, so they ran between the rain drops and hail so that they did not get soaking wet.

Leveling out at the bottom of the mountain, we entered the small town of Red Lodge, Montana.  We instantly liked this little town and could feel that this was a true cowboy kind of town (with in town rodeos and pickup trucks with gun racks).  We drove thru town and stopped to walk around and visit a shop.  It was at this time we decided we wanted to stay the night in Red Lodge, but with it being 4th of July weekend and a rodeo happening, we knew it was going to be next to impossible to get a hotel room for the night, let alone for multiple nights.

So, following a suggestion from the local shop owner for a dinner restaurant recommendation, we drove to the north end of town to the local pub (Sam's Place).  As we enjoyed dinner, both Kathy and I called every possible hotel, motel, and bed & breakfast in town...but everything was sold out.  Which is when I told Kathy that there is a place available in town, but we needed some magic to make it happen.

As the kids wandered outside to the enclosed grassy area to run around and play, I followed to watch them. And it was shortly after this time that a guy walked up and asked if his little girl could play with our kids. After the guy walked back to his table and the kids started playing together it dawned on me that this guy was the magic we needed...so I walked over to him and we started talking. It turned out that he was somewhat of a local being from Billings. I explained our situation of calling every hotel in town and everything was already sold out, which is when Kathy walked out with two six packs of the pubs Montana brewed Hefeweizen; she confirmed to our new friend (Nate) all of the hotels that we had called. Which is when Nate called the Rock Creek Resort and they magically had a room available.

We spent the remainder of the evening at the Pub with Nate and his wife enjoying the local brews and watching the kids play in the grass with the confidence of having a local hotel to rest ourselves that night.

On Day 6 of our family road trip adventure, we departed our cabin and Teton National Park and drove into Yellowstone National Park, crossing the Continental Divide at 8,391 feet elevation.

While we were really expecting our legs to be  sore from our previous days bicycle ride, we were actually feeling great and ready to tackle more new territory, in particular Yellowstone and all of the different Geysers, like Old Faithful.

We arrived at Old Faithful around lunch time and mistakenly ate at the cafeteria instead of the fancy Lodge.  However, our lunch table provided us a window view of Old Faithful and as soon as the Geyser starting spewing steam, we new it was time to run outside for an up close experience of water shooting into the air.

There are also many other geysers and sights in the area with elevated walking areas that help to provide an up-close experience.

However, the one experience we were really hoping to have by this point was being able to see some of the large animals that are known to be in this area, such as Elk, Moose, and Bison. So, as we finished our walking loop, we had a perfect timing visit to see the unpredictable Castle Geyser display its water and steam spouting show for more than 30 minutes.  I also thought it would be great to capture a slow-motion video of Castle Geyser in action, which is when KK decided to photobomb my video.

https://instagram.com/p/4piObIx7Cm/

Now in search of ice cream on this hot summer day, we decided to make our way up to The Lodge for a treat. Along the way, we came across a fake Bison and decided that this would have to be our substitute for seeing a real Bison.  So, I led the family along the walking path, observing real Bison poop along the way, and then stepping into the grass in front of the fake Bison so that I would be able to have the kids pose for a picture.  As I stepped up to the Bison, the head turned up at me with pointy horns aimed in my direction. I could then see its eye, at which time Kathy said something about life-like animatronics, and then the tail spun up into the air and everything registered in my head that the Bison we were standing only a few feet away from was really real...EVERYBODY, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!! Of course (and thankfully) this particular Bison had no interest in us at this time, but it sure was a scare. I guess you could liken it to walking up to a lion; would you ever do that?

The point and advice is that if you see a Bison (or other large animal) and it's not stuffed and mounted inside the visitors center, then it is probably real, so take your pictures from a distance.

Here is the Bison, which we almost go too friendly with (I approached up to the edge of the small clearing that he is standing inside of) and for better or worse, we never captured an up-close picture. Also, keep in mind that a Bison can reach its top running speed of 30 miles per hour in just three steps!

We lived to have our ice cream at The Lodge as well as drive to some of the other sights in the park.

And we finished up our Day 6 by staying at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel.

All in all, our big story for the day (including the kids story) was our event with the Bison. However, one of my favorite pictures from the day is this family photo at the Yellowstone River.