In what seems to be an annual tradition since our twins flew the nest, we took a trip to mark the end of spring and kick off summer. Last year we traveled to Spain as a family and you can check that story and pictures here. This year we hit SW Colorado and NW Utah for a quick desert teaser and tromp. I call it a teaser because it was short and the land is so big. The area has so much to offer and endless sights to see. I call it a tromp because Natalie and Jen ran a trail run outside of Moab and tromped through the desert over rocks and through the sand.
The spark behind this trip was the running race. A close friend asked Jen if she and Natalie would run the Thelma and Louse trail run in Moab along with her and her daughter. We are always eager to travel so we checked in with our girl and made sure she was done with finals. She said yes and a plan was hatched. The overview of the plan is that I would drive to Colorado with my bikes, see my mom/family in Longmont/Boulder, ride, do a short bikepacking trip on/around the Kokopelli, pick Jen and Nat up in Grand Junction, they’d run the event in Moab, hike in Arches & Canyonlands National Parks, drive back to Grand Junction to see Colorado National Monument and visit friends, And then Jen and Natalie would fly home. On top of that, we added two additional activities, a short day’s float on the raging Colorado River as well as renting mountain bikes and riding in Fruita, Colorado. I ended the trip with an 18-hour straight drive home to make it to The Heywood Ride in Northfield, MN. Honestly, I got tired just writing all that down. It was an awesome whirlwind and I’d do it again in a second!
This trip left a mark in a number of ways. It really was a desert teaser. There is so much to see in this world. Our desert southwest region is so vast, so rich and so amazing. We only scratched the surface on our short trip. Each day we were amazed at what we saw. Each day we discovered more we would like to do and see. I can’t wait to go back. I was blown away by the beauty of the blooming desert. The pics have a lot of pictures of flowers and blooms but those are only a fraction of the beauty. I took some postcard shots as well as some artsy landscape stuff. For the first time in a long while, I was inspired to take pictures. It was grand and incredible and I am happy with the results.
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I mentioned that we had two, unplanned events added to our trip; floating the Colorado River and mountain biking in Fruita. Unfortunately, I did not bring a camera nor get a single picture of us floating the Colorado River. In hindsight, I certainly could have brought my camera as the river while incredibly fast was also very, very mild. So I will leave you with a few shots from Fruita, CO where we rented mountain bikes from Over the Edge and rode some of the Mack Ridge trails.
As you can see, we had a great time and saw some incredible things. It was a special trip to a beautiful place. Thankful to spend it with Jen and Natalie. Unlike Spain, Nathan was not with us. Nathan was home in Minneapolis working. We really missed having Nathan with us this year. I can’t wait to go back to the desert and hopefully, we all can be there together as a family of four! Next time!
I’ll be back later this week or early next writing and sharing some pics from my personal bike journey and adventures. Stay tuned!
ImagineGnat 