Another Summer, Another Epic road trip in the books.
After a great vacation last year, we decided we could do another 10 day, drive across the country cramming in a as much as we could. Spend all day doing stuff, then load into the truck and drive another 4-6 hours... why not!!! I think I spent the entire vacation on almost no sleep and all coffee. I was dehydrated the whole trip since bathrooms were sparse while driving and hiking. Almost now water just coffee!!
- Pre Drive Friday Night to Altoona IA
- Day 1 Drive to Denver Co - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
- Day 3 Part 1 Drive to MOAB, Hike Corona Arch!!
- Day 3 Continued - Jet Boat Tour and Sunset at Dead Horse State Park
Day 3 continued.
This is the continuation post of day three of our vacation. Last post ran a little long cuz we crammed so much into the days and it took me awhile to get all these photos. I actually had to go through some of the videos and pick out the best frames to include. Afternoon was one of the fun activities we planned for the kids, before we got too long really likes. We booked a jet boat adventure, we'd never done one before but they always look like fun and without the kids might have a blast.
Jet Boat Tour
There are a couple jet boat tour companies in the area, but I'm pretty sure we booked the best one by far. Nothing like the baby blue Moab jet boat tour boats and a couple of nice captains to give you some education along the way. The boats themselves are very nice to ride in, tons of horsepower, excellent drivers, and we feel really stable.
Just the start of the tour
You can tell this is just the beginning where they have one of their employees standing on the bridge to take photos. He goes back and forth a couple of times just to get you comfortable with the boat and how it rides and how everybody sits. Couple of sharp turns and photo ops make for a couple of great and exciting ways to start before you go up the river.
Photos bought from the Tour Company
Like most adventure companies, they take photos, I try to sell it them to you at the end. I have found out that I am willing to pay any reasonable amount of money for the photos they take to have them digitally emailed to myself. Clearly I didn't take any photos is good, nor could I really.
I have never seen water be smooth like this - it was a rapid turn for sure
These boats would turn on a dime. It was absolutely insane to think about of that size with that many passengers going that fast could just whip a 180 to 360 without any problem. It's really quite amazing when you think of it, and there's no feeling like it.
Perfect shot, you can see an arch up by the clouds. Perfect views
The views were great, going up and down the Colorado River in valley, looking at the rocks on both sides is really just a beautiful ride. Absolutely a great way to spend an afternoon, especially one that was nice and hot like it was. The only downside for us in this entire trip was the fact that it had torrential storms the day before, and half the town actually flooded. When it floods in the Colorado River in the southwest, it means it's full of sediment and silt. Instead of the water being clean and clear, it was more of a muddy silty texture. Put your hand in the water and brought it out you'd actually feel the grit left behind.
Getting a little bit wet... err all the way wet that is
Other Boat View Point
I took a video of the other boat building waves and then running through them. This is what they called getting all the way wet. They would actually build ways big enough and then blow the bow through the wave sending sheets of water on top of you. Quite honestly by the time this was done there was a good six to eight inches of water in the bottom of the boat. He was running multiple bilge pumps to empty it all out before we could do it again.
Face Shot!!
When I'm saying sheets of water, I mean sheets of water this poor person ahead of me took the brunt force, but there was plenty of left for those of us in the back row. We got absolutely drenched and it felt like you were getting tackled by a sheet of water it hit so hard.
Another Wave Incoming
Just look at how low that boat is compared to the wall of water on the outside. I'll let you know just how much water was coming over the top and landed on us. The kids loved it although my youngest did a little bit cold
Driving to Dead Horse and Watching the Sunset!
As @summertooth knows I'm a rule follower, and that means cramming even more into the day. We took a half an hour drive up to Dead horse State Park after we showered and did some laundry of our muddy stinky clothes to watch the sunset. Dead horse state park is amazing place and is actually known for its stargazing more than anything. It has fast views, no civilization clothes so it has no light pollution, and it is an absolutely stunning vista.
Sunset Views
Not sure why the views are always this pretty, and how there's always so much color. But every time I go there it's feels like this and it's just makes them worth watching.
These have to be my favorite time. Right here in the very Twilight where you get absolutely crimson red and fiery oranges that light the sky, all the rest is still a nice baby blue. The clouds actually provide a really nice contrast. It's pretty impressive to think these are all this taken on them pixel 5 and not a real camera.
Vacation Stats
Pre Drive Friday Night
Day 1 -Drive to Altoona
- 271 Miles
- 4 Hrs
Day 2 - Drive to Red Rocks & Hike - Drive to Look out Mountain and Eldorado Springs
- 694 Miles Red Rocks
- 10 Hours to Red Rocks
- 65 Miles Round Trip
- 2 Hours Round Trip
Day 3 Drive to MOAB - Hike, Jet Boat Tour and Dead Horse State Park
- 342 Miles
- 5.5 Hours
- Corona Arch, Pinto and Bow Tie Arch
- Jet Boat Tour
- Dead Horse State Park
Vacation Running Stats
Total Miles - 1372
Total Time Driving - 21.5
Summary
So that's it. That was the end of our day three. We got back to the hotel room nice and late, not even sure what time it was to be honest but it was probably pushing 9:00 or 10:00. Not a bad time to get back to the hotel I'm on a vacation but what I do remember is the fact that no matter how we looked at the clock we are all wide awake with the lights on and we knew that we would be up and moving to our next destination within 6 hours. While the kids groaned and said they wanted more sleep, I just made sure to secure my coffee for the next morning so I won't have to go anywhere. Frozen iced coffee for the win but my supplies dwindling I'm getting worried. The next day will also be full of fun, and I was excited even if it meant almost no sleep.
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