Intentional Sabbatical Blog
Chronicling the adventures of our sabbatical and cross-country road tripRoad-trip Day 18 – A Relax Day at Mesa Verde National Park
The original plan was to come to Mesa Verde for 1 day of exploration (and 2 nights of camping). But frankly our crew is beat with the recent travel day and fast-paced explorations. We need a down day. So we had a relaxed breakfast and played on the playground in the morning. Then we headed over to the Mesa Verde National Park Visitor Center to do the usual visitor center activities - get the kids' national parks passport stamped, buy postcards, and buy a Christmas ornament. We also purchased tickets for a tour of the most notable cliff dwellings: "Cliff Palace". Cool! After naps we had pool...
Road-trip Day 17 – Dead Horse State Park and the Drive to Mesa Verde National Park
On Day 17 we said farewell to Archview RV Resort and Campground after 5 good nights. Before we left town we ventured over to Dead Horse Point State Park for one last awe-inspiring canyon experience. They have a beautiful view of the Colorado river cutting through what seems like endless layers of the canyon. After a quick visit we hopped back in the RV and headed on to our next adventure. We were initially excited to go to Mesa Verde National Park in Cortez, CO as our next stop and see the Ancestral Puebloans cliff dwellings. But it's a little out of the way so we were considering skipping...
Road-trip Day 16 – Canyonlands National Park: Mesa Arch and lots of Viewpoints
Today we went to explore and hike Canyonlands National Park. The kids (and Drew) slept in a little later (yay!) and we were a little slower getting out of our campground today. But we followed the same approach we've been taking - get up and out as quickly as we can and get to the prized hike of the day to claim a parking spot that our RV can fit in. The #1 activity for the day was to hike Mesa Arch which combines an arch and canyon view. It's a .5 mile round trip hike that is easy for kids with absolutely stunning views. We were blessed again with a parking...
Road-trip Interlude – How we make life work in the RV
We thought people would be interested to see how we manage life in an RV with 2 little ones when confined to our 30 foot house on wheels. First, how we set up the RV for us all to get sleep - "sleep mode"… https://youtu.be/4zhtz-O054I Here's a time lapse of me converting the RV from "sleep mode" to "eat mode"... https://youtu.be/o9MnG4NcBh0 Next, a tour of the RV in "eat mode"... https://youtu.be/yCI4nGMAJCQ And a time lapse of me converting the RV from "eat mode" to "drive mode"... (this video makes it look a lot easier than it really is, just saying 🙂 ) https://youtu.be/-1fm56QQgwM...
Road-trip Day 15 – Playing in the Arches National Park Sandbox
We went back to Arches NP today for part 2. Today's hike was to the Sand Dune Arch, an arch with a "sandbox" 🙂 The area surrounding this arch has eroded into a lot of really fine sand, making it a really fun place to play in the sand for little (and big) kids. We got a tip from the research we did (special shout out to www.utahsadventurefamily.com for great information throughout our trip) saying we should bring buckets and shovels for the kids to play with…so that's what we did. The kids played in the sand for a long while and we were having a great time. But you know what they say, alls...