2017 Summer Road Trip: Salt Lake City, Cedar City and Home

Dave says: The final leg of the trip was through Utah. We pulled into SLC in the late afternoon and met up with Richard and Brittany. Amber came over from Price and the kids played. Skye had a good time with her cousins and it was nice to see everyone. We even managed to get the whole crew to settle down for a picture on the slide at Arctic Circle.

Then, we were off to Cedar City for our final stop. Brody and Elsie always like to hang out and we did a bunch of family-related things such as building a huge tower, going on a  few bike rides, traveling to the park, visiting the aquatic center (including a poop-related closure the second time), and having a cookout. The weather was warm but stopping in Cedar to see everyone is always fun.

At long last, we woke up very early on July 16th and left for Phoenix. 5,500 miles later and the big adventure was finally at an end. It was quite the trip!

2017 Summer Road Trip: Missoula, Montana

Dave says: Part of the strategy on the way home was to break up the driving with stops in some fun places. On the way into Missoula, we stopped at a very interesting Buddhist Shrine and gardens in the middle of nowhere. It was, among other things, a great place to stretch our legs. 

I booked what looked to be a nice hotel online that turned out to be quite the dump in person. We barely fit into a tiny room with a bed wedged so tight that you couldn't open the bathroom door all the way, cracked glass, and plywood. The good news was that the hotel was right by the bike path and so the next day we went exploring around town. We stopped at a park first and then rode to the far end of town along the river where we found some dirt and a little bit of good singletrack. We stopped at the university to walk around and then headed into the downtown for brunch at a hipster restaurant. After Skye's nap, the biking continued with a trip to a downtown festival with some music and ice cream. We rode Missoula's famous carousel and then tried to convince Skye to play in the park but it was hot and she was ready to do something else. Not surprisingly, she was much happier when we took her to the aquatic center. Finally, we had dinner in a cool little Brazilian restaurant.

2017 Summer Road Trip: Jasper National Park, Alberta Canada

Alisha says: On our last full day before starting our trip back south we ventured to our farthest north location of the entire trip which was the Columbia Icefields Visitor Center in Jasper National Park. I read online that a drive up the icefields parkway was something extra special. I was a little worried because rain was predicted but it turned out to be an incredible day filled with lots of fun. We got an early start and first stopped for a quick view of the turquoise blue Peyto Lake. Dave then suggested that we go to the Visitor Center next before it got too busy which turned out to be a great idea. We got to the visitor center which is across the street from the impressive Athabasca Glacier and were lucky to snag tickets for the tour that takes you out onto the glacier. We had an hour to look around before we got on a bus that took you across the street where we transferred onto a big special vehicle that was specially designed for driving on the ice. We then were taken a little ways out on the glacier and were able to get off the bus and spend about 45 minutes walking around and taking pictures. It was a really different and special experience. Glacier ice is just so cool, I love the blue color and the formations it makes. Skye liked walking around. It was really slippery and there were channels of water that were melting from the glacier. It is crazy to look at old pictures and see where the glacier was and just how far it has retreated. It makes me glad that we got to have this experience because the glaciers really are melting at a crazy fast pace. After taking the glacier vehicle back off the ice we got back on a bus that then took us to a sky bridge a a few miles north (I guess this was technically the farthest north we got). Skye fell asleep on the bus and napped all through the sky bridge which was a horseshoe shaped walkway with a clear bottom that went out over a cliff. It was cool but the real highlight was walking on the glacier.

After getting some lunch at the now very busy visitor center we started our trip back to the campground but we stopped for one more adventure hike up Parker Ridge to get a view of the Saskatchewan Glacier. It sounded easy enough at only 3 miles round trip but it was a steep climb and Dave got a workout carrying Skye. Even though it was steep, you climb up this mountain surrounded by beautiful trees at the beginning giving way to a just a carpet of green tundra and wildflowers. You don't see the glacier until you are on the ridge but then you see it on the other side, a huge glacier stretching down the valley below you. Wow, I was so glad we made the trek to see this view. Nature is amazing! We hiked up the last part with another couple hiking with their dog so we took each others pictures and visited for a bit while enjoying the view before doing the steep hike back down.

After the drive back we picked up some pizza to eat at the trailer as we got things ready for an early start the next day. It really is hard to rank everything that we saw and did on this trip but this full day was really something special.

Peyto Lake

View of the Athabasca Glacier from the Columbia Icefields Visitor Center

The cool vehicle that took us out onto the glacier

Walking on the Athabasca Glacier

The Sky Bridge

Saskatchewan Glacier after hiking up Parker Ridge

Resting and enjoying a snack with a glacier view

My heart and spirit were full from such an amazing day in nature

Skye playing at the campground in her Canadian pajamas

2017 Summer Road Trip: Lake Louise Campground, Banff National Park, Alberta Canada

Alisha says: When we first booked most of our campground early in the planning stage of this trip we only had a few nights at the Banff campground, but after looking at the maps and planning out what exactly I wanted to do in the area I realized that we were going to need a few more days and to go just a little farther north so I snagged us two nights in the actual Lake Louise campground. Since the transfer from Banff really wasn't that far we decided to do a morning activity in the Banff area before driving north to Lake Louise campground. We decided on a bike ride and there was a nice paved path that connected Banff to a town 20 miles south called Canmore. Dave had researched out that if we drove and parked in Canmore, then catch a bus with our bike back up to Banff then we could ride the entire 20 miles mostly downhill back to Canmore. We arrived in Canmore and set off to purchase bus tickets, we first tried the grocery store (which online said sold tickets) and the cashier said they didn't, so then we rode over to the community center/bus stop and once again no place to buy tickets. A friendly local pointed us in the direction of a drugstore that sold tickets and off we went a little stressed because we didn't have much time before the bus was suppose to arrive. Well, they did sell them at the drugstore but only in 10 ride cards and the lady was super slow. The bus only takes Canadian money (which we didn't have any) so we tried to get some cash back but she wouldn't let us do that. By this time the bus had probably already come so we came up with plan B and just started riding the path north towards Banff. We still had a nice time and rode up 10 miles and then turned around and rode back 10 miles. We had lunch at a super busy McDonalds afterwards where I got a special "only available in Canada" burger that was actually really yummy.

Then we drove up to the Lake Louise campground and got things set up. Right from our campground there was a river and a trail that we could ride our bikes on so of course we had to check it out and it was awesome! It was dirt, mostly smooth, right along the river and we could loop it up one side and back on the other. It was a fairly short ride so we actually did one and a half loops. 

We weren't quite done for the day though as I had one more thing that I wanted to do in the evening when the crowds died down and that was to visit Moraine Lake. Driving up to the Lake there was still a ton of cars but when we finally got to the parking lot there were actually a lot of parking spaces. This lake isn't quite as famous or get as much attention as Lake Louise but it was just as spectacular, if not more. Dave actually thought it was a little more scenic and declared it as "the best lake he's ever seen"! It had a magnificent blue color and amazing mountains coming right out of it. We were there at sunset so I feel that our pictures don't quite do it justice. We climbed up the "rock pile" and admired its' beauty from a great vantage point before walking along the shoreline for a little bit.