Gil and I were able to take the last week in June off to attend a family reunion and do some road tripping. We left late Friday night from Rescue, drove into the middle of nowhere Nevada (which is most of Nevada) and camped for the night. We were up early and stopped briefly at Great Basin National Park where we said hello to a few of my friends that were around (most were out and about), before heading up the scenic drive for views and a picnic lunch.
We left Great Basin and headed southeast. We stopped in Moab and had dinner with wonderful NPS friends and got caught up with each others' wonderful adventures. I also got to show off Gil. We said goodnight and continued to the southeastern corner of Utah where we had a room reserved.
The next morning we went to a local church, then continued into Colorado. We have been on a bit of a John Wayne kick of late and have watched quite a few of his movies, mostly his early ones where he is young and tall and handsome. We recently watched "True Grit" and decided we needed to stop in Ridgway, CO on our way to the reunion just outside of Durango. We had lunch on the lawn where part of the movie was filmed and wandered some of the other filming sites.
We drove the scariest highway in the entire United States (this is true, it's on quite a few scary highway on-line lists) before reaching the group campsite in southwestern Colorado where we were having our reunion.
The Allred clan. Oldest to youngest is Darvel (yellow), Rex (purple), Merlin (blue), Sharon (my mother-in-law, green), Bryan (orange/coral), and Randy (white). We were a large and wonderful group.
Sharon was the only one of her siblings with all family members in attendance. Although Charlie is missing from this picture...
Monday morning we had crafts. Gil helped with the leather working and I helped with the weaving. It was nice getting to know the extended family.
Tuesday morning Gil and I were in charge of a scavenger hunt. We had paint swatches from the hardware store for the little-little ones to match with colors in nature, a bingo sheet for the middle littles, and an orienteering course for the older cousins. From aunt and uncle feedback, I think all three were a hit.
That afternoon we went on a hike and explored a small cave. The landscape is beautiful.
Wednesday we packed up and went into Durango. We landed at the old electric plant that has been turned into a museum. We were there until it closed. It was awesome.
We had dinner at a Himalayan restaurant with Gil's older brother Bill and his family. So tasty! We were on our way to our first AirBnB when we got an alert that our reservation was cancelled due to a forest fire evacuation of the area. Thankfully, the group campsite was reserved for one more night. We got in and set up camp again.
Thursday we were on our way fairly early. We stopped at Hovenweep National Monument and hike and explored and earned our junior ranger badges.
Late afternoon we arrived at Grand Canyon. We made a few stops but mostly just drove through and enjoyed the park. It was getting dark fast and we had no plans for where we were staying that night. We ended up at a little KOA cabin. It was nice to get a shower and not sleep on the ground.
Friday we drove into Death Valley. I worked in Death Valley during the winter season and the warmest I ever experienced there was 104*. When we pulled in, the car thermometer said 126*. It was quite warm.
We drove up into the higher elevations to escape the heat and camped the night. We had a horrible time with the flies but the temperature was just right. Next morning we stopped at the charcoal kilns.
We also hiked to Darwin Falls. I'd never been. It was really pretty.
We continued to make our way home. We stopped in Bishop at our favorite BBQ place. It was packed and they ran out of brisket one family before we placed our order. We stopped at a hot spring, then decided to drive over Tioga Pass and through Yosemite to get home. We got in late Saturday night. It was a wonderful trip.
