Las Vegas
Monday, September 28, 2026
Today we cleaned the RV and packed everything up before returning it to the rental company and grabbing an Uber to our hotel, where we were able to check in early. It is very tacky and Paris themed. We have our very own Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Parisian streets inside the hotel. And lots of slot machines as soon as you step in the door, of course, but we will be avoiding those. After enjoying the feeling of a real bed again for a few minutes, we looked around at the Bellagio, got a very delightful raspberry tart at a bakery, stopped at Walgreens to grab some bubble bath and nail polish for some “pedicures” back at the hotel, and picked up some Korean food to eat back at the hotel. We watched the Bellagio Fountains for a bit while eating out lunch/dinner, updated the website, and then headed out to see a Cirque du Soleil show which was very impressive and definitely worth it! We walked back towards the hotel afterwards, grabbed some sweet treats on the way, and now are enjoying a nice night (in real beds)!
An illusionist (“Will move for tips” – we gave him a tip and received a fist bump)
Waiting for Cirque du Soleil to start
In Venice (sort of)
Does it look like Paris?
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Grand Canyon -> Las Vegas
Sunday, September 27, 2026
After hearing a strange sound for a bit this morning, we finally saw a female elk pass right by our RV, closely followed by a huge male elk. It’s rutting season, so the males are competing for females which makes them particularly aggressive, so we were sure to stay away, but it was crazy to see them so up close. We started driving towards Las Vegas shortly after breakfast and after doing some packing/cleaning. We stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way, which Peter particularly enjoyed. The water in Lake Mead was crazy low due to the drought. We got to the RV park in Las Vegas shortly after, took some showers, did some more packing, ate a delicious dinner of beans, rice, and chicken, and then had to say bye to Peter which was sad. We’ll miss him!
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Grand Canyon
Saturday, September 26, 2026
Pancakes for breakfast this morning, which was delicious. We drove to the rim and walked the Rim Trail for a bit, and headed down Bright Angel Trail a little before we felt like we needed to turn around. We have some fear of heights in the family. We went to a geology museum and then walked about 3 miles to get to a geology talk just in time. We learned that squirrels are the most dangerous animal in the park – on any given day around 30 people have to get medical attention for squirrel bites! We walked around various trails and paths until sunset, checked out a little gift shop, and then headed back to the RV. This was our last full day as a family before Peter headed back to Maine!
Twins!
Recreating a photo from about 7 years ago when we were at the Grand Canyon (below)!
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Mesa Verde -> Grand Canyon
Friday, September 25, 2026
There was a very loud coyote last night! It was also raining pretty hard – we’ve gotten used to pretty dry weather so the sound of the rain on the RV roof was comforting. We left Mesa Verde pretty early in the morning. We stopped at the visitor’s center first (to get some stickers of course) and check out Mesa Verde’s museum. We got to see someone doing some archeological work in a lab which was very cool. On the way to the Grand Canyon (which was quite a long drive), we stopped at the Four Corners, which was Jordan was very fascinated with when she was little for some reason, so we got to fulfill that childhood dream. We got some delicious frybread with honey and cinnamon sugar. We stopped at the Navajo Cultural Museum and Tuba City Trading Post, where we looked around at the exhibits and the girls got matching dream catchers and Jackie got some earrings. We grabbed some Little Caesar’s on the way (yum), picked up some groceries, and finally got to the Grand Canyon. We did a short walk to see the sunset from a nice outlook, came back for a movie night in the RV, and then headed to bed! While we traveled for most of the day, we still got to see a few things on the way which was nice!
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Mesa Verde
Thursday, September 24, 2026
We woke up in Mesa Verde! We did a tour of Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America. It features 150 rooms and 23 kivas (family gathering spaces), indicating likely over 100 people lived there at a time. It was constructed out of sandstone, mortar, and wooden beams and occupied between around 1200 and 1300 AD. It’s remarkably well-preserved despite having sat unoccupied and unprotected until around 1920. It’s crazy how well the people were able to live here in so unpredictable and dry a climate as Mesa Verde. The agricultural and engineering genius is very cool. We did a few short walks to see some remnants of ancient pit houses. Jackie and Jordan did the hike and tour of Balcony House which had a couple of scary sections, including some stone steps in the rock face and a 32 foot ladder, as well as a 12 foot tunnel. Going inside the house itself definitely made the experience feel more personal and like you could connect with the space on a deeper level, and our tour guide was awesome (shoutout Frank). We went to a small museum in the park that featured some pottery artifacts. We headed back to the RV, had some chicken nuggets for dinner (health food), and watched some Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version, of course).
Cliff Palace
Balcony House ladder
Balcony House stairs!
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Ouray -> Telluride, CO -> Mesa Verde
Wednesday, September 23, 2026
After waking up and having breakfast in the RV at the Ouray campground, we made the short-ish 1 1/2 hour drive to Telluride. It rained in Ouray last night and on the way to Telluride we could see that the mountains got snow! Telluride is a super pretty town, and we took advantage of the free gondola ride up to San Sophia Station, Mountain Village Center Station, and Market Plaza Station (where we got some snacks in the market). After taking the gondola back into Telluride, we window shopped in a thrift store and got some goodies at a little chocolate shop on the way back to the RV. We drove another 3 hours to Mesa Verde National Park and did some laundry before finding our camp site. We took advantage of the cooler weather by having a fire out in the fire pit and making s’mores!
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Arches -> Ouray, CO
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
This morning we made some breakfast in the visitor’s center parking lot at Arches before hitting the road to head to Ouray, Colorado. On the way, we passed through Moab and spent some time in Lin Ottinger’s Moab Rock Shop, a really cool shop full of ancient artifacts, fossils, bones, rocks, and art. Jordan, Lil, and Jackie got some pieces of dinosaur bone, as well as some fossilized trilobites, megalodon teeth, and Jackie got a prehistoric arrowhead and a piece of obsidian. Peter got a 10,000 year old stone tool found in Utah. Upon arrival to Ouray, the climate definitely felt different! Even though we only drove a few hours, the highs were in the 50s in Ouray as opposed to 80s in Moab. The surroundings definitely looked different – lots of mountains, trees, and greenery. We hiked the Rim Trail and saw a couple of beautiful waterfalls. The trail was pretty steep and narrow and a little slippery from the rain so we had to be especially careful. We also got to hike through an old mining tunnel which was super cool. It felt like real fall weather which was a change! After hiking back into Ouray we stopped in a very picturesque book store coincidentally run by a fellow New Englander. Lillian got a couple of new books before we headed back to the RV park to get ready for dinner. We ended up going to a nice Thai restaurant which was super yummy especially after getting used to RV meals!
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Arches
Monday, September 21, 2026
We had breakfast and then headed to do a short hike to the Skyline Arch. We headed to the Delicate Arch trail where Peter and Jordan did the 2 1/2 hour hike to the Delicate Arch. The view was impressive and the hike was a little strenuous but fun. After, we all went to the visitor’s center museum to check out their exhibits and get Lil’s National Park passport stamp and sticker. After a little chill time in the RV we hiked to the Double Arch and got to climb up the rocks a little which was fun. At the end of the day, we hiked to the Landscape Arch which was a fun, easy hike. Although we only really saw 4 of Arches’ 4,000 named arches up close, it was still a packed day of hiking and sightseeing!
Delicate Arch
Double Arch
Some “Bighorn sheep”
Landscape Arch
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Moab -> Arches
Sunday, September 20, 2026
We all slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then headed to NAVTEC for our white water rafting trip. After the 30 minute bus ride, we reached the Colorado River, where we had some lunch before our trip. The water has been pretty low (about 3,000 cubic feet per second) due to the drought and just the fact that it’s later in the season, so it wasn’t all that scary, but still very fun. Our guide was great and super knowledgeable. We learned a lot about the geology of the area, the history of Moab, and about the flora and fauna of the river. The water was quite brown and there was a lot of debris due to recent flash floods, so we all opted out of swimming. Plus, we all got pretty wet anyways on some of the bigger rapids. Be sure to check out the new King Kong movie – apparently our guide is in it! After, we hit up a great froyo place (Peter’s first time having froyo – he loved it and took advantage of the free samples). After, we drove to Arches and had a leisurely night.
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Dead Horse State Park -> Canyonlands -> Moab, Utah
Saturday, September 19, 2026
Peter drove us all to Dead Horse Point for sunrise which was very pretty. We drove to Canyonlands shortly after for a quick stop in the Island in the Sky region. We hiked the Upheaval Dome Trail which overlooks a crater which is presumed to be from an ancient meteoric impact and also did the Mesa Arch trail which had a great overlook. We continued on to Moab where we were able to do some laundry, swim, and shower (in real showers!). We walked around downtown, did some window shopping, and had some great Mexican food which was our first non-RV food, so we were all very excited. We watched a movie (Bride and Prejudice – a favorite in our family) on the WiFi there, which was a nice bit of relaxation. It’s somewhat strange to be in civilization again!
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Capitol Reef -> Dead Horse State Park
Friday, September 18, 2026
We got some of the famous pie and cinnamon rolls from the Gifford House at Capitol Reef. We did a hike at Capitol Gorge and there was some very satisfying mud left over from a flash flood a few days prior. We drove along the scenic road at Capitol Reef and then made the 3 hour drive to Dead Horse State Park. There was a pretty overlook at Dead Horse Point where we watched the sunset, then did an astronomy talk about constellations which was really cool. It’s been a pretty chill day, and on to Moab in the morning!
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Capitol Reef
Thursday, September 17, 2026
This was our first full day in Capitol Reef. It was nice to see some more green after a lot of desert the past few days. We went to an archaeology talk in the morning and got to see some more petroglyphs which was really cool. It’s crazy to see traces of humans from thousands of years ago. We stopped by the visitor’s center briefly, then hiked the Grand Wash trail which was pretty neat and had a couple of cool caves to explore. We went to a geology talk in the afternoon, where we learned about how the canyons have been formed through deposition, uplift, and erosion. Interestingly, a lot of the sand here (that has been since turned into sandstone) was carried via wind from the Appalachian Mountains. 90% of the erosion that occurs here is from flash floods which is crazy to think about – only about 10% of it is from wind, rain, and the freeze-thaw cycle. We went to Panorama Point after dinner to see the sunset. Later, we went to an astronomy talk near the campground, and got to look at various objects in the night sky with a couple of telescopes, including the Andromeda galaxy, the moon (wayyy up close), a couple of nebulas and star clusters, and a double star. Needless to say it was a packed day!
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Bryce Canyon -> Capitol Reef
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
After having some breakfast we headed out to do a hike from Bryce’s Point to Inspiration Point which was very scenic. We had a little lunch back at the RV and went to the visitor’s center museum. It had a lot of interesting info about the word “hoodoo”‘s origin from the Southern Paiute language, the climate of the canyon from season to season, the species of plants and animals who live there, and the night sky. From there, we headed to Capitol Reef National Park. We visited Pando on the way, the largest living organism in the world. Capitol Reef features a couple of free-to-the-public orchards as well as some very adventurous deer.
Pando (at least part of it)
Rainbow on the road!
Capitol Reef
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Zion -> Bryce Canyon
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Sorry for the long gap in our updates! We’ve been super busy and have had pretty spotty WiFi/cell connection.
This was our last morning in Zion. We stopped to grab some groceries on the way to Bryce Canyon. Lunch interestingly consisted of a Walmart apple pie and ice cream. Once we got to Bryce Canyon, we did a hike down into the canyon to see all the hoodoos. The weather was perfect for hiking, and there was a little more greenery at the bottom of the canyon which reminded us all a little of Maine, which was nice. We also went out to see the stars at night, and because Bryce is an International Dark Sky Park, the Milky Way was super beautiful, which we all enjoyed.
Zion
Bryce Canyon National Park
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Zion
Monday, September 14, 2026
Peter got a head start (as is his usual) and went for a morning walk on the Pa’rus trail at Zion. By the time he got back to the RV, I was making my coffee and the kids had just gotten up. (My colleagues will be relieved to hear that I have found a way to bring my good coffee addiction on the road using a hand-operated “Nanopresso” machine with a Nespresso pod conversion kit. The coffee is excellent, and so I am not grumpy — key ingredients for a successful road trip.)
Once we had a big, lovely breakfast of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and English muffins (RV meal win) we were ready to hike. We walked to the Visitors’ Center, took the shuttle the stop for “The Grotto” and then made our way to the Angel’s Landing trail. We did not hike the full thing (you need a permit, and you have to sign several waivers in case you die… plus Peter is afraid of heights and I don’t love them), but we tackled about half of Walter’s Wiggles and then made our way back down.
The shuttle then brought us to the “Temple of Sinewava” for access to the Narrows. We didn’t get the waterproof hiking boots and walking sticks for walking down the river, but we got to the beginning of the river-walking portion, sat on a rock to eat our PB & J sandwiches, and then took our boots and socks off to wade in the river there. After several miles of hiking, the cold water felt great on our feet, so we lingered there for over half an hour before hiking back to the bus stop. We got off at the Human History Museum, caught a ranger talk about vegetation in the park, and then wandered around for another hour looking at the exhibits.
We were hungry, so we headed back to the RV to make an early dinner / late lunch (spaghetti and meatballs never tasted so good), then had some chill time for an hour or so before heading back out to the park for an evening hike. We stopped at the Visitors’ Center to stamp our National Parks passport, then stuck to the easy paved path of the Pa’rus trail since we planned to be out at sunset.
The Pa’rus trail winds along the shores of the Virgin River, and it was hot enough that Lillian was determined to use one of the river access trails off of Pa’rus to go for a quick swim. She got her wish, and the rest of us enjoyed wading in the cool water again.
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The Adventure Begins!
Sunday, September 13, 2026
After an early morning start on Saturday to make it to the Portland Jetport for our 7am departure, one quick layover in Charlotte, NC, and a three hour time change, we made it to Las Vegas around noon. We got an Uber to the RV rental place, and then we were on our way!
Our first stop was Valley of Fire State Park. The campsite was close to Atlatl Rock, and we climbed the staircase to view some of the petroglyphs just before sunset — after we saw those, we started seeing them everywhere throughout the park. It’s fascinating to think about how long this artwork has been here (and annoying to see where recent visitors have scratched their names into the rock over them, in places). Some of the symbols represent maps (often to water, or good hunting sites), others tell stories and histories, and still others are more metaphysical — not so much meant to be understood, rather to make you wonder.
Sunday morning we got up to see the sunrise near the campsite, and then we took a quick hike down Mouse’s Tank Trail — it was super hot, so honestly that super quick hike was enough! Fire Wave trail is closed because too many people die between May and September due to the heat, so we didn’t see that iconic view, but there were still plenty of beautiful colors & sandstone sculptures (artist: Nature) to admire and explore on the hike and driving around the park.
We left Valley of Fire in the early afternoon to head to Zion, but we stopped in Grafton on the way to visit the ghost town there.
Tonight we’re in Zion, and while we haven’t seen much of the park yet, the landscape is already pretty impressive.
(*Not our RV… but our scenery.)
Itinerary:
