Itinerary - Day 6

This morning, we'll be leaving Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and will drive to our second destination, Arches National Park, which is located near Moab, Utah. Aside from its proximity to Arches and Bryce Canyon National Parks, Moab is probably most well known for mountain biking. The Slickrock Trail is one of the most well known and most difficult biking trails in the United States.

Our drive today will be approximately 200 miles, and should take about 3 hours and 15 minutes. Arches National Park is known to be quite busy in the summer months, so I'm hoping to get on the road as early as possible, so that we'll have as much time as possible for hiking and sightseeing in the park.

The main attractions in Arches National Park are ... the rock arches!!! The arches have been created by the forces of erosion on the sandstone rock over thousands and thousands of years.

Many of the most impressive arches in the park can be seen from viewpoints along the main park road. There are also numerous hiking trails that provide access to see them up close, and to see some that can't be seen from the road.

Josh and I are hoping to do a lot of hiking this afternoon, however, the combination of crowds and weather may influence our plans. First, in order to hike, we'll have to be able to park our car, and from what I've read, this may be difficult at some of the more popular hiking spots. Second, the average daytime temperature in Arches National Park during the month of July is 100 degrees, and temperatures of 110 to 115 degrees are not uncommon. I guess that on the bright side, it will be a "dry heat".

We'll be spending the night at the Devil's Garden Campground in the park. There are several arches and hiking trails near the campground, so maybe in the late afternoon or early evening, after we've set up our camp and rested a bit, we'll do some more hiking. The good news about the dessert is that at night time, the temperature drops to the lower 60's, so we should have good sleeping weather!

That should pretty much finish our day here. In the morning, we'll be leaving for our next destination, Bryce Canyon National Park, and its famed "hoodoos"!

Itinerary - Day 5

The fifth day of our trip will be our first "rest" day ... a day that we won't be traveling from one place to another. We'll be spending the day sightseeing and hiking at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

We'll probably start the day with a hike from the campground to the Visitor Center and then loop back to the campground. After that, we'll load our bikes onto the car and head out along the South Rim Road. I'd love to bike the length of the road, but I think that may be more than Josh can handle. But, then again, maybe we'll give it a try and see what happens ... he may surprise me.

There are numerous overlook points along the South Rim Road offering views of the canyon which I'm sure we'll stop. There are also a handful of short hiking trails that I'm hoping we'll follow.

In the afternoon, the nearby city of Montrose, CO may be a good place to go to restock some of our fresh food items and to pick up anything else we may need, and maybe even do some laundry. Starting tomorrow, we're going to be in some pretty remote areas of Utah for a few days, and may not have any opportunities to do these things.

We should have plenty of time in the evening to relax, play some games and make a nice dinner. Maybe we'll make dutch oven lasagna!  Tomorrow is a combined travel and activities day, so we'll need to get to bed early so that we can get up and out early in the morning.

Itinerary - Day 4

Day 4 of our adventure has us traveling from Gothenburg, Nebraska to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, which is located in the Western part of Colorado. This is the first "destination" of our trip. Today's drive will cover approximately 604 miles, with an approximate travel time of 9 hours 45 minutes. This will be the second longest drive of our adventure, in terms of miles traveled, so it's a good thing that we won't be doing any traveling on day 5! At this point, we're going to need a break from driving.

Given the length of our drive, I expect to arrive fairly late in the day. Once again, the order of business tonight will be to set up camp, cook dinner and relax. The good news, is that we'll be able to take our time the next morning, and not have to worry about getting things packed up and on the road.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison is one of, if not the most impressive canyon in North America, in terms of its narrowness, sheer walls and depth. In some places within the canyon, the depth from rim to canyon floor is over half a mile!!! I'll definitely have to keep a close eye on Josh while we're walking along the canyon rim!

There's a little personal history for me with this place. In 1973, I think that was the year, my family took a similar trip to the one Josh and I are taking, though it was a little less ambitious. The plan for that trip had us visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison (before it was part of the National Parks system) and Mesa Verde National Park (a later stop on our adventure). There may have been some other stops on the that trip, but those are the ones I remember.

One afternoon, while we were sightseeing at Black Canyon of the Gunnison, an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in. It was a severe storm, with hail stones almost the size of golf balls, torrential rains and strong winds. My father had to pull our car off the road and we sat in the car, waiting for the storm to move along. When it finally ended, we continued our afternoon of sightseeing, and later returned to our campground. When we arrived there, we found our tent down, and badly ripped up and our belongings had been scattered around the area. After checking the damage, my father determined that the tent was not usable, so we walked through the campground, collected what we could find, packed everything up, and headed home. I never got to see Mesa Verde National Park, and all in all, it was a real bummer.

I sincerely hope that Josh and I do not encounter a similar fate when we're there!!!

Tomorrow will be a day of sightseeing, hiking and cycling, and who knows what else, but more on that in the next post!

Itinerary - Day 3

Day 3 of our trip has us on the road again for another long drive. Today, we're leaving Rock Island, Illinois and heading for Gothenburg, Nebraska. Today's drive will be approximately 546 miles, with an estimated travel time of 8 hours 45 minutes.

The drive will take us through Iowa City and Des Moines, Iowa, as well as Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. I'll have to take a closer look at some of these places to see whether there's anything worth stopping for along the way.

According to Wikipedia, Gothenburg, Nebraska is one of only two cities or towns in the world with that name. The other is the second largest city in Sweden, and the original home of the Volvo car company.

There's not a whole lot to say about Gothenburg, NE. It was once a stop on the Pony Express Trail, and there is an original Pony Express station building that has been moved to the center of the town as a museum and historic site. If we have time, maybe I'll have Josh pose in front of the building for a picture.

Gothenburg, NE Pony Express Station

There's also a sod house museum in Gothenburg, dedicated to the design and structure of sod houses, which were commonly built in the high plains of Nebraska and Kansas during the pioneering days of the old west. I'm guessing we'll take a pass on this attraction.

Since this is going to be a day with another very long drive, I'm sure that once again, our main goals when we get there will be to set up our camp, make dinner and relax. We still have one more long day of driving in front of us until we reach our first real "destination", but I'll have more to say about that in the Day 4 Itinerary.

In case anyone is wondering how these locations were picked, our trip has us following Interstate 80 from New Jersey all the way to Colorado. The idea was to try to limit the daily mileage to somewhere between 500 and 600 miles. The places we're stopping are the locations of KOA affiliated campgrounds. I wanted to stop at "brand name" campgrounds along the way, to ensure at least some degree of reliability.

That's it for this leg of our trip.

Itinerary - Day 2

Our second day has us driving from Streetsboro, Ohio to Rock Island, Illinois, a drive of approximately 515 miles and an expected travel time of 8 hours 30 minutes. Along the way, we'll be driving through or near Toledo, Ohio, South Bend, Indiana, the home of Notre Dame University, Gary Indiana, the birthplace of Michael Jackson and Chicago, Illinois. Maybe we'll take a quick detour and get some Chicago style deep dish pizza for lunch!

So, what is there to say about Rock Island, Illinois ... well, honestly, not a whole lot. Rock Island is located along the shores of the Mississippi River, across from Davenport, Iowa. It was the birthplace of the Native American chief Black Hawk, for whom the U.S. Army's UH-60 helicopter is named. It's amazing what you can find on the internet!

Rock Island is also the location of the largest U.S. government owned weapons arsenal in the United States. I wonder if they give out any free samples or souvenirs?

One other interesting note from Wikipedia, is that Rock Island is home to the Quad Cities Hindu Temple, dedicated primarily to the deity Venkateshwara, which means "the Lord who destroys the sins of people". Hmmm ... perhaps a short visit might be in order!

Well, given that this will be another long travel day, with two more to go, I'm guessing we'll probably just get to the campground, set up camp, eat dinner, and relax in preparation for our next travel day. Hopefully, Josh won't have spontaneously combusted at this point.

Itinerary - Day 1

Our adventure will begin on Sunday, July 10, 2011. I'm hoping to be out on the road by 7:00 a.m. The good news, is that Josh and I are both early risers, so this shouldn't be much of a problem.

Day 1, like so many others on this adventure, is a "travel" day. I'm not expecting to encounter anything too exciting along the way, but you never know. Today's plan has us traveling from our house to Streetsboro, Ohio. According to Google Maps, this trip will be approximately 449 miles, and we should be able to complete the drive in about 7 hours and 30 minutes. If all holds according to plan, we should be arriving at our campground at around 4:00 in the afternoon. This should give us plenty of time to set things up, settle in, and maybe go for a swim or a bike ride to loosen up after the long drive.

Streetsboro, OH is located in the Northwest corner of Ohio, about 30 miles Southeast of Cleveland. I tried to do some research on Streetsboro, OH, to see if there might be anything of interest in the area, but I came up empty. According to Wikipedia, there is a Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot and Staples, so I guess that's good. It's also the location of the first Sonic-Burger drive-in in Northeastern Ohio! Awesome!!!

I imagine that we'll probably try to get to sleep fairly early, as we'll have to get up in the morning, make breakfast, pack up our gear and get on our way for day 2. After dinner, maybe a game or two, a small campfire and then off to bed.

If anyone knows anything about Streetsboro, or anything nearby, by all means let me know ... after 7 or 8 hours in the car, I'm sure we'll be up for just about anything. Perhaps the world's biggest ball of string or something like that!!!

Well, that's pretty much it for this post. Stay tuned for an upcoming post describing day 2 of our itinerary. It promises to be just about as exciting as day 1!!!

Introduction

If you're reading this, I assume you probably know who I am. If not, my name is Matt, and I have a 10, soon to be 11, year old son named Josh.

On July 10, 2011, Josh and I will embark on a 22 day cross-country camping trip that will take us from our home in Rockland County, New York to Yosemite National Park in California, and back, with lots of stops in between! This blog has been created as a forum for Josh and I to communicate with our friends and family while we are away on this journey.

Of course, the first question many people have asked me is ... Why??? Why would you do this? The simple answer is that this has always been a "dream" of mine ... to travel the country and visit some of our nation's greatest natural resources ... its National Parks. I always figured I'd do it in an RV or something, but we'll be tent camping every night instead.

During our trip, I plan on posting to this blog on a daily basis, including pictures. I'm hoping that Josh will post as well, so that our trip can be seen through his eyes too. I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions, though I do ask that you "keep it clean", as Josh and his friends will be viewing this blog.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting the details of our itinerary.

I hope you enjoy reading our blog, and as I said, if you have any constructive suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

That's it for now.

Thanks for reading,
Matt