Arizona and Utah Review

[Diane0977]

Yes, we had Mike Hage. He was excellent, very full of energy and always willing to answer a question. I really felt like he and Kim went out of their ways to offer us some "extras" on our trip.....that's probably what they do for everyone, but it definitely made us feel special.

I agree that it was definitely better to stay there on the rim. I didn't mind the hotel, but felt it was worth mentioning as there were definitely people who did mind it. In particular, I loved it in the evening after all of the day trippers were gone. There were times when we were just out there walking along the rim without another soul in sight. We wouldn't have been able to experience that staying somewhere else.

 

[Diane0977]

We had the same ensemble of native Americans in their outfits- can't say costumes! We most enjoyed the hoop dance. I spoke with the girls afterward and found out they were junior and senior high school students. Quite impressive. I'd be interested to hear, did you feel the speaker was somewhat, how do I politely say this, lecturing in his tone? It was palpable on our trip. It got a few looks from the table mates.
As for the hotel, I could not WAIT to get out of there. Yes, I did enjoy going out to the rim at sunrise, though. I looked forward to the last bus and train leaving with the day guests so the area in the evening was calm too. I get why they chose this and Doug and Pamm (our guides this year) did warn us on the way there. For what we paid, I hated sweating for a couple hours once we got into the room to get the temp down from 80 to 75. The A/C left a lot to be desired in Kachina lodge. I would not work at all unless someone was in the room, so upon arrival, it was quite hot.
El Tovar breakfasts included with the trip were quite good. My son wandered around the lobby photographing all the interesting animals and artifacts while waiting for breakfast to open. We did see an elk grazing one morning between El Tovar and the (can't think of the name) place we got our passports stamped.
The one thing our trip did leave out was the stop after Williams and before getting to Tusayan.

Yes! We definitely felt the same way about the lecturing. My husband and I said that later that evening. I suppose it got the point across to the children, but I felt that it was uncomfortable at points.

Luckily, we didn't have any issues with the AC in our rooms...I was actually cold overnight. We saw some elk the next day when we took a hike, but never saw any near the hotel areas.

 

[Diane0977]

I thought the hotel was adequate and the view made up for any short comings. I am glad we stayed there. The El Tovar did have very good food IMO. The pizza place ......ehhh......it was passable.

We really enjoyed El Tovar and ate breakfast there twice and dinner once. I'll get to that on my next day's report. I agree about the hotel; we enjoyed the view and the location.

 

[alagille]

We really enjoyed El Tovar and ate breakfast there twice and dinner once. I'll get to that on my next day's report. I agree about the hotel; we enjoyed the view and the location.

We did the dinner there on our free night, booking it over a month prior to our trip. (we did the one before you, 7-23-14) Very tasty, nice decor to their main dining room. I'm a little disappointed I didn't know beforehand they would be doing a sunset trip (unadvertised) for that night and our times conflicted. If this is a permanent sunset hike, I would advise eating at El Tovar 7:30-8pm or later.

 

[Diane0977]

Arizona and Utah Day 4: Grand Canyon

Day four was a busy, but fun one. We got up early and walked over to El Tovar for the first of our breakfasts there. The evening before, each family was given tickets for breakfast at El Tovar for the next two mornings. It was a nice walk over to the restaurant from our hotel in the morning, as we pretty much had the area to ourselves. As we walked into the restaurant, they had some freshly baked pastries on display, and me and the girls decided that was our pick for breakfast. We tried a cream puff and the cinnamon roll, and I would definitely recommend the cinnamon roll, as it was delicious.

After breakfast, we had about a half an hour before we had to meet the group for our morning’s activities, so we headed over to the Bright Angel Lodge and then into the Lookout Studio for some early morning pictures. It was a beautiful day, and the view was amazing. We then went to meet the group at the bus, and we were off for our guided tour of the Grand Canyon. We had a guide join us on the bus, and he narrated our drive with bad (funny) jokes and a history of the national park as we headed east along the south rim. He taught us about forest fires and some of the ones that were active in the area; it was very interesting. We stopped for a few minutes at Grandview Point, which was a fun stop. We took the picture below here, as there was a ledge just below the stone wall that allowed for some harrowing poses.

This stop also had a bit of a trail that allowed you to walk down to some other vantage points; it was a bit unnerving with the kids, but a lot of fun.

After Grandview Point, we headed onward to Desert View. This is where we saw the watchtower. We had about an hour at this stop. Before we got off the bus, Mike mentioned that he would be leading anyone who was interested in a fairly aggressive hike down a bit into the canyon for some amazing views. Unfortunately, he said the trail was a little too difficult for kids, and asked that only adults come along. I, being the good wife, told Shawn to go ahead on the hike while me and the girls went up in the watchtower and did some hiking…this gesture on my part would be paid back in a few days.

Me and the girls started first in the watchtower by climbing to the top. It was quite a climb to the top, and the narrow stairs and large crowd was a bit unsettling for me, so we didn’t stay up too long. We then walked out along the point and took some pictures of the group climbing down along the cliffs below us; we even got a few pictures of my husband as they went. The adventure guides had given the kids all a few quarters to use on the binoculars at the lookout, so we spent some time doing that.

We then went into the gift shop to do some shopping. To be honest, it was really crowded, and a bit crazy. We got a few t-shirts and got out of there. We took a few more pictures along the rim and behind the watch tower and then headed back to the bus. The crew coming back from the hike looked pretty short of breath and sweaty when they returned, but my husband said the view was well worth the walk. This was one of his favorite activities of the trip, and I was glad he had the opportunity to do it.

The picture below was taken from the lookout point at the watchtower. If you look very closely, you can see a person standing on a rock in the distance...that is a member of our group that did the hike with Mike.

We left Desert View and headed back west along the rim again. We stopped at the Yavapai Point and Geology Museum for the next part of our tour. Here, we were given the option of getting out and hiking back to the area of our hotels as part of a geology tour given by our local guide, or just riding back on the bus. I was surprised, as only us and two other families opted to do the hike. Most of our group rode back on the bus. Anyways, we took the approximately 2 mile hike along the Trail of Time with teaching by our local guide, and it was very interesting. Our youngest daughter had to stop and take a picture of just about every rock we walked by, so that was cute.

Around noon or so, we made it back to the hotel area. Mike and Kim had mentioned in the morning that they would be offering a group hike for anyone who was interested in the afternoon. Again, I was really impressed that they took their free time and offered to do more activities with us. We were a bit overwhelmed with the options, so it was a no-brainer for us to stick with them. We had about an hour before we were to meet up for that, so we headed to the Bright Angel Lodge café for some pretzels and hot dogs for lunch. We took a short break in our hotel room and then we headed to a Junior Ranger activity for the kids that showcased some of the animals found in the park. After that, we met up with the group to take the afternoon hike.

I think there were 3 families that decided to go on this hike. We met right outside of Bright Angel Lodge, and then headed towards the Red Line bus stop. Now, this was one of those moments where being with ABD was just amazing. There was a long line for the bus, and the kids were getting kind of cranky. Kim, our amazing guide, whipped out a flash cards game and got the kids engaged immediately. Our 30 minute wait for the bus was made so much easier because of this. Eventually, we got on the bus, and rode to Maricopa Point. I’m not entirely sure this is where we stopped, but it sounds right). From there, we hiked along the rim westward and ended up at Pima Point. We were hiking for about 2-3 hours, and it was a beautiful walk. There were points when we were right on the edge of the canyon, and we could see rain in the distance for the majority of the time we were out. At one point, we moved up to the main road because there were elk feeding on the other side, less than 10 feet away from us. This was a real crowd pleaser for the kids for sure.

Once we got to Pima Point, we took some fabulous pictures, and then hopped on the Red Bus back to the hotels area. We all cleaned up from our long day and headed over to El Tovar for our dinner. Of note, I made a reservation for this day 30 days prior to our arrival. It was simple to do via email, and we ended up with a perfect time. I think everyone who wanted to dine here in our group was able to, but they all didn’t get their choice in dining times. In any case, dinner was good. We weren’t seated by the windows overlooking the canyon at all, but it was fun to get dressed up in such an iconic spot. Dinner took about two hours total, and then we walked back to our hotel rooms and went to bed. We were exhausted from our busy day, and yet another one was on the horizon.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Really enjoying the trip report. It's actually made me more interested in this trip with all the mentions of the extra hiking. I love the ABD "surprises" like this, but I sometimes think they'd be better off letting people know to give a fuller overall picture of the trip. Your trip report is selling it to me

 

[Bobo912]

Really enjoying the trip report. It's actually made me more interested in this trip with all the mentions of the extra hiking. I love the ABD "surprises" like this, but I sometimes think they'd be better off letting people know to give a fuller overall picture of the trip. Your trip report is selling it to me

We didn't have any of these optional hikes on our trip. It might be a recent change or maybe it's just adventure guide's discretion. We had a small group (16) with only one little kid (7-year old), so it would have been easy to organize, but we weren't offered any optional activities, which was okay because it was easy to find things to do on our own at the Grand Canyon. Interestingly, our guides indicated that the stop at Williams and the stop at the spot that Diane0977 referred to as "a park of some sort" (I don't know what it's called either ) were not usually part of the tour, but we were able to make those stops because our group was so small. Apparently, those stops aren't as rare as we were led to believe. But I don't think those locations are listed in the intinerary, so they probably omit them if they are running late.

 

[Diane0977]

We didn't have any of these optional hikes on our trip. It might be a recent change or maybe it's just adventure guide's discretion. We had a small group (16) with only one little kid (7-year old), so it would have been easy to organize, but we weren't offered any optional activities, which was okay because it was easy to find things to do on our own at the Grand Canyon. Interestingly, our guides indicated that the stop at Williams and the stop at the spot that Diane0977 referred to as "a park of some sort" (I don't know what it's called either ) were not usually part of the tour, but we were able to make those stops because our group was so small. Apparently, those stops aren't as rare as we were led to believe. But I don't think those locations are listed in the intinerary, so they probably omit them if they are running late.

I definitely think that our guides decided to do them on their own. This was the first time that Mike and Kim had worked together, so I don't know whose idea they were. We definitely made sure to express our appreciation to them for offering the extra activities, because they ended up being some of our favorite moments from the trip. If I were going on this adventure, I wouldn't stake my happiness on doing these extra activities, but plan on them being icing on the cake if they occurred.

 

[Diane0977]

Arizona and Utah Day 5: Monument Valley and Travel to Moab

Day five was essentially a travel day, but ABD did an excellent job of splitting it up into manageable segments with a stop in Monument Valley. Looking at Google Maps this morning, it shows the drive from the Grand Canyon to Moab to be about 5 ½ hours, but thinking back, I really don’t feel like I was on the bus for that long.

We got up early to get our luggage outside of our room for pickup. I wasn’t feeling great from dinner the night before, so I decided to skip breakfast, but my husband and the girls went and said it was just as good as it was the day before. As we were packing things up, our girls reminded us that we had forgotten to get their Grand Canyon stamp in their National Parks passport book, so we decided to try to go to the Kolb Studio before we left to get it stamped. Well, the Kolb Studio didn’t open until 8:00, and we were scheduled to leave at 7:45, but there was a worker in the building who responded to our knocking and pleas to let us use the stamp before we had to go. He really wasn’t happy about it, and I felt a little bit bad about bothering him, but we don’t have any plans to go back to the Grand Canyon and our kids were really upset that we forgot to get it…it’s amazing the things you will do for your children.

Anyways, it was raining as we got onto the bus, and unfortunately this would be a theme for the remainder of our adventure. We drove for about an hour and a half, and everyone entertained themselves for this portion…Cars was shown during some portion of our drive, but I’m not sure if it was now or between Monument Valley and Moab. Snacks and water were available and passed out with regularity. Our stop was at a gas station/convenience store in the middle of nowhere, and it was literally pouring when we stopped. Our bus driver was fantastic in that he drove right up to the door so none of us got wet as we walked in. This was a quick 10 minute stop for the bathroom, and some got drinks/coffee. Quickly, we were back on the road. As we drove through the Navajo Nation, Mike and Kim gave us a history of the area as well as some education about how it is run. It was a very interesting talk.

Eventually, we made it into the Monument Valley area. I was surprised to realize that Monument Valley is part of the Navajo Nation. First, we stopped at Gouldings, which is a company that gives tours and has a restaurant right outside of the entrance to Monument Valley. After a quick trip to the restroom, we boarded an “off road” vehicle (it was really more like a bus without windows) to begin our excursion. Kim and Mike handed out bandanas for everyone to use to cover their mouths and noses because of the dust, but it had rained enough that day that they really weren’t all that necessary. Monument Valley is cordoned off and visitors have to pay to enter; it is run by the Navajo Nation. There was a long line to get into the area, but we were able to bypass that with our Goulding’s tour. We then drove into the valley and made our first stop for a photo opportunity in front of the mittens. There were also stalls set up for tourists to purchase Native American goods. After a few minutes, we got back into the bus and headed to the Three Sisters Area. This is the area where you can pose on a horse on a cliff and get your picture taken…we did it, and they are cute pictures. Eventually, we got back on the bus and headed back to Gouldings.

The dynamic between the staff at Gouldings and our group was odd. I would say it was tense, but that is a bit stronger than I want to imply. When we first got there, we all had to use the restroom because we had been driving for a few hours, but the gentleman in charge kept yelling at us to get in the vehicle…Kim and Mike made sure that we all had the opportunity to use the facilities before we got in. Then, there was an awkward interchange where the guides were counting our group and coming up with different numbers, while Mike kept telling them there were 33 of us and counting us for them…it was just a bit weird. During the drive, the driver was giving us information about the area, but we couldn’t hear what he was saying at all because the vehicle was so loud. I don’t know, the whole thing was just “off”. I’m glad we went here, and the area was beautiful, but I don’t think this is something we would go back and do again.

After the tour of the valley, we went back to Gouldings for lunch. We sat in a reserved section of the restaurant and placed our orders. It took over an hour to get our food, and at one point Mike and Kim were going back to the kitchen to help bring out orders to get things moving. Unfortunately, all of our family got our food with the exception of my youngest; so, she ended up eating my lunch and it was a good thing because her meal finally came about 20 minutes after the rest of ours. Because we had to wait so long, we really had to rush to get back on the bus. We didn’t have any time to look around at the grounds at Gouldings at all. I’m not sure there was anywhere else in the area for us to eat, and the food was fine, but not a great experience to be sure.

Back on the bus, we headed out of Monument Valley. Mike started telling us that we were going to get off in a minute to film a video for him. After many safety warnings, we pulled off the road and waited until traffic cleared. We all got out in the middle of the road, and Mike and Kim told us to run towards them. It was all in the name of re-creating a scene from Forrest Gump, and here is the picture below.

Back on the bus, we headed towards Moab. This was a long drive, and we didn’t split it up at all. I think this is where they played Cars, but I really can’t remember for sure. Eventually, we arrived at the Red Cliffs Lodge in Moab, which was our resort for the remainder of our Adventure. First, we all met up in the meeting room where we got an introduction to the Lodge and refreshments (lemonade and cookies) while they handed out room keys. Originally, they had our two rooms on opposite sides of the resort, but we asked Mike and Kim if we could be closer, and we ended up with two connecting rooms, which was a very nice arrangement. The rooms here are really cool. They include a big bedroom, and then a walk down to a living room/kitchenette area. Each room has a patio, and ours overlooked a small creek and the horse pasture. The Red Cliffs Lodge was probably our favorite resort of the Adventure by far, and we would love to go back at some point to explore the area more.

After an hour or so of exploring the area, we headed back to the meeting room for dinner. The kids again sat together at one big table, and there was a big buffet set up with different types of tacos and toppings. Some foreshadowing for the next day…at one point I looked over and noticed my youngest was eating a bowl of sour cream. I made her stop, but it was halfway gone at that point…

We all called it a night pretty early, and we headed back to our room to go to bed. The next day was the one I had been looking forward to for the whole Adventure, Arches National Park, so we wanted to be well rested to enjoy the day.

 

[sayhello]

We didn't have any of these optional hikes on our trip. It might be a recent change or maybe it's just adventure guide's discretion. We had a small group (16) with only one little kid (7-year old), so it would have been easy to organize, but we weren't offered any optional activities, which was okay because it was easy to find things to do on our own at the Grand Canyon. Interestingly, our guides indicated that the stop at Williams and the stop at the spot that Diane0977 referred to as "a park of some sort" (I don't know what it's called either ) were not usually part of the tour, but we were able to make those stops because our group was so small. Apparently, those stops aren't as rare as we were led to believe. But I don't think those locations are listed in the intinerary, so they probably omit them if they are running late.

Perhaps it's because some groups are more efficient at getting on & off the bus & to meeting points on time, etc. The smaller the group, the easier this is. But maybe some of the larger groups are better at it than others. So that could play into the "running late" portion of the equation.

I definitely think that our guides decided to do them on their own. This was the first time that Mike and Kim had worked together, so I don't know whose idea they were. We definitely made sure to express our appreciation to them for offering the extra activities, because they ended up being some of our favorite moments from the trip. If I were going on this adventure, I wouldn't stake my happiness on doing these extra activities, but plan on them being icing on the cake if they occurred.

When I did this trip in 2008, with Mike as a shadow Guide, I had a late breakfast because I wasn't able to do the "other activities" that were available (horseback riding, jeep rides) due to my bad back. Mike said he was going to go out hiking to check out the area around the Red Cliffs Lodge, and invited me to join him. (It was tons of fun!) So if I had to make a guess, I'd guess your hikes were Mike's idea.

This also points out another advantage of staying on the Rim vs out in Tusayan. We wouldn't have had the option of just showing up for hikes like that, as the Guides would have had to arrange multiple trips back & forth from the Hotel to do that. Definitely an improvement!

Sayhello

 

[Diane0977]

Arizona and Utah Day 6: Moab

Day 6 was the day I booked the Adventure for. I was so excited back in December when we booked this trip to go on the hike at Arches National Park, and specifically to see Delicate Arch. My husband and I made a resolution when we booked the Adventure that we were going to get healthy specifically so we could take our kids on that hike…and we lost over 80 lbs each between the time we booked the Adventure and when we left to go in July.

We woke up early on Day 6, and Shawn and the girls headed over to the resort lobby to eat breakfast. I didn’t join them because I wanted to get everything together for our hike that morning. The morning was beautiful, it was nice and sunny, which was a relief to see because it rained pretty much all night and we had some pretty strong storms that woke us up while we were sleeping. However, they came back pretty quickly because our youngest was complaining of a stomach ache. At the risk of providing TMI, I’ll just say that it wasn’t anything contagious, and I tried my best to get her feeling better before it was time to catch the bus to the park…here’s where that bowl of sour cream comes into play. We ended up getting her to the bus about 5 minutes after it was time to leave, but Shawn and I were divided on whether or not she was going to be able to handle the hike. We decided that one of us would stay on the bus with her, while the other took our other daughter on the hike. Unfortunately, she ended up feeling worse as we traveled into Moab to pick up our local guide. At that stop, Shawn volunteered to get off the bus and find transportation back to the resort so that she could be near a bathroom and get some sleep for the morning. I was so unsure about this decision, but he encouraged me to go on with the hike since he had the opportunity to do the one earlier in the Adventure. I really wanted to prove to myself that all of my hard work had paid off, so I took him up on his offer to go back with our daughter who wasn’t feeling well.

ABD helped us out immensely here. Mike and Kim called the resort, who arranged for a taxi to come and pick them up and transport them back to the room. It may have been the most expensive taxi ride ever, but when they got there, the staff at Red Cliffs Lodge had been kind enough to supply some Gatorade. Our daughter spent the morning sleeping, and was feeling better within a few hours.

After we got them situated and the ride back arranged, I got back on the bus with the rest of our group. Unfortunately, I had missed some updates from the local guide, and was met with a shock when we pulled into Arches National Park and got out for our hike…not to Delicate Arch! You see, the road to Delicate Arch had been flooded by the storms the night before, and was closed. At this point, I was so disappointed, that I started to cry. I know, completely ridiculous, but I was just so looking forward to that hike and all of the drama of the morning with my daughter just caught up with me. I think I hid it well, but I’m not entirely sure.

We got out at Arches National Park, and proceeded to do two easy hikes out to Pine Tree Arch and Landmark Arch. It was fine, I was in a bad mood, but we made the best of it. We got a few pictures of the park, and the sky started to darken while we were taking pictures at the Landmark Arch. My oldest daughter and I decided to head back to the parking lot where the bus was, and it literally started pouring again within 2 minutes of us getting on the bus. Once again, it was pouring and storming pretty good, so the decision was made not to tour the park anymore because our local guide was concerned about mudslides and even more roads becoming inaccessible.

While we were heading to the Visitor’s Center at the beginning of the park, Mike came back to me on the bus and let me know that our daughter was feeling better and that the staff at the Lodge would be bringing them to meet us at the lunch spot. He had been able to communicate with the staff at the Lodge, which was a relief, because our cell service was not allowing me and Shawn to communicate at all. I was happy to hear that. At the Visitor’s Center, there was a movie to watch, but my daughter wanted to skip it. We bought some things for my youngest at the gift store and explored the exhibits at the visitor’s center a bit. By the time we got done there, the storm had passed.

Next, we went back to the stop where we picked up our local guide (I don’t recall the name of the place), and met back up with Shawn and my daughter. She was looking much better after sleeping all morning, so I was happy to see that. Lunch was served in a cafeteria style area, and it was delicious; it consisted of Pulled pork, French fries, and these amazing cookies. During lunch, Mike and Kim came up to my youngest and gave her a bag of goodies that they had purchased for her at the Visitor's Center...a stuffed animal, a pin, things like that. She was very surprised and happy that they thought of her while she wasn't feeling well. After lunch, we all got onto a boat for a tour of the Colorado River. We got about 30 minutes in, and it started raining pretty hard once again, so we turned around early and headed back. Our driver dropped us off in town, and we had about an hour to do some shopping and exploring. After that, we headed back to the Red Cliffs Lodge, where Mike and Kim had arranged for a bottle of wine with a note apologizing for it being such a challenging day. Both of these gestures were really appreciated, and not at all expected...just another example of ABD service at it's finest.

Below is a picture Shawn took while they were riding back to meet us for lunch. He said the waterfalls coming off the cliffs during their drive were amazing, but that they were concerned about driving in such a downpour.

Back at the Lodge, we made the girls take a rest for an hour in the afternoon. Then, we walked around exploring the Lodge area. We walked over to the horse stables, and they let us pet some of the horses there. We had elected not to do horseback riding, as our youngest was still too small, but it was nice that they let us go over and talk to the ranch hands about the horses. Later, the girls went swimming.

That evening was the Junior Adventurers Night. The kids all met in a meeting room at the Lodge, and the parents had the opportunity to eat at the Lodge Restaurant kid-free. They had a blast, and it was a nice meal. We ended up eating steaks, and it was pretty good. After dinner, we picked up the kids, and went back to the room to go to bed. That night, we all got awakened at about 3:00 a.m. by one of the emergency alerts coming from our phones…it was storming once again and there was a flash flood warning for the area. A bit concerning since we were right on the Colorado River, but we went back to sleep without issues.

 

[kristilew]

Oh, I am so sorry your big day got derailed! Goals are such a big deal when you are getting healthy. I don't blame you one bit for crying.

There's always some moment on every big trip where the tired and the being "on" the whole time catches up to me and something that I could normally handle makes me cry. Same thing happens to DD. We call it "having too much fun."

Your DH sounds like a prince, though.

 

[sayhello]

Ack! So sorry about how this day turned out. Weather & illness are two things you can't schedule, and they can really throw a wrench in plans! That hike was one of the reasons I signed up for the trip, too. I'm glad all basically turned out well, but I'm sure it was a disappointment. I'd've probably cried at that point, too!

I hope the rest of the trip made up for it!

Sayhello

(PS, was the wine from the winery at Red Cliffs Lodge? I remember them having some yummy wines!)

 

[Diane0977]

Ack! So sorry about how this day turned out. Weather & illness are two things you can't schedule, and they can really throw a wrench in plans! That hike was one of the reasons I signed up for the trip, too. I'm glad all basically turned out well, but I'm sure it was a disappointment. I'd've probably cried at that point, too!

I hope the rest of the trip made up for it!

Sayhello

(PS, was the wine from the winery at Red Cliffs Lodge? I remember them having some yummy wines!)

Yup, it was their red, and we actually brought it home with us. We had some of it on the last night there, so decided to bring the bottle home so we could remember our trip on some desolate night in the middle of our brutal winter

 

[Diane0977]

Arizona and Utah Day 7: Moab and White Water Rafting

Day 7 was the day that all of the kids were waiting for; we were finally going white water rafting! After the emergency alert for flash flooding the night before, we tried to temper the kids’ expectations and let them know that it might be canceled. However, we caught a break on this day and everything went as planned.

We got up and ate breakfast in the main restaurant at the Lodge, and then we headed back to our room to prepare for our free time activity for the morning…ATV’ing. We were kind of on the fence about doing this activity, but our plans were solidified after we had such a lackluster day prior. This was something that was offered through the Lodge, and they contacted the company for us. They brought the ATV’s out to us at the lodge and then transported us to the trail. As we had kids younger than 12, we had to rent the Razrs instead of actual ATV’s, but they were still loads of fun.

I would recommend this activity for anyone. I’ve never done any type of ATV’ing or four wheeling before, and I could easily keep up with the group. The kids loved it, and I felt that they were safe with their helmets and seatbelts on. This was one of our favorite activities of the whole trip.

We drove for about 1-2 hours and got really dirty doing it. We drove up along the cliffs and ended up at a beautiful vantage point that offered views of the valleys and ranches below. Once we were done, we were transported back to the Lodge. We headed back to our rooms to clean up a little bit, and then walked to the outdoor pavilion at the Lodge for a group barbeque. We ate as a group, and the offerings included hamburgers and hot dogs, chips, and ice cream for the kids. Everything was very good.

Finally, after lunch, it was time to go white water rafting! We took the bus to the push off point, and we had some safety instructions given while everyone got fitted with life jackets. The guides divided us up into rafts depending on family size, etc. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous as we were getting ready to push off, but our guide was excellent and explained the entire process to us. The Colorado River was really brown and debris-filled from all of the storms over the previous days, and our guide said it was much darker than usual.

There was much in the way of water fights with the other boats. At one point, our guide told us we could jump into the water if we wanted to, and swim for a little bit. Well, anyone who knows me knows that I am the over-cautious type and that I never take chances…but, on this trip I decided to throw caution to the wind. After many reassurances from our guide that he could indeed haul me back into the raft after my swim was over, I decided to jump in! It was definitely cold, and much deeper than I expected; I’m over 6 foot tall, and I didn’t touch the bottom even when I jumped. I understand that the water was much deeper than normal because of all of the rain. I let the girls jump in with me for a few minutes, and then we all got back into the raft. I have to give major thanks to our guide, who did get me back into the raft…although way less than gracefully. The rapids were fun. They ended up being Class II, but in no way scary at all. Just right in my opinion. Soon enough, our trip had ended, and we had a bit of a water fight at the drop off point too.

We headed back to the Lodge, and most everyone went to the pool to wash off and then take a swim. I left Shawn and the girls at the pool while I went back to the room to start the tedious task of packing. Eventually I was joined by Shawn and the girls, and we finished packing and got cleaned up for dinner.

Dinner was a farewell meal at the main restaurant in the Lodge. We had a section of the restaurant that was outside and overlooking the cliffs. It was a great time of remembering our trip and reminiscing with our fellow adventurers. After dinner, we all moved into the meeting room to watch the slideshow. As I’ve already established, I’m a crier, so I did shed a few tears that our trip was coming to an end.

After dinner, we all went out to a campfire. We were treated to a guitar player who sang us some campfire and Disney songs, and we enjoyed s’mores. After the campfire, it was getting late, so we went back to our room to finish packing and go to bed for the night.

I’m just going to finish up the trip report here rather than adding another page for our last day.

On our last morning, Shawn and the girls went to breakfast while I checked our rooms to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. We all had to be on the bus fairly early, to head to the Grand Junction Airport. The airport was small, so it was very quick getting checked in and through security. We found our gate (there were less than 10 total, I think) and settled in to wait for our flight. After about an hour, we went to Subway there in the terminal to grab some lunch before we flew out. We were heading to Orlando to spend 4 days at Disney World before we went home.

As each family left, we waved goodbye. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to our new friends, but I was glad that we still had a few days left to our vacation. It didn’t make leaving Colorado nearly as sad as it could have been.

And that is the official end of our ABD Arizona and Utah tour. We had a fantastic time. I’m still sad that we didn’t get to do the Delicate Arch hike; Shawn and I keep saying we need to go back to Moab to do it, but there are just so many other places we want to visit. The goal for me on this tour was to determine whether or not we could do group travel, because we wanted to use ABD as a way to see more adventurous locations. I can definitely say we will be doing another ABD in the future. I would recommend this Adventure for anyone, and I think back on this family vacation as one of the best we have ever had.

 

[sayhello]

They have a Subway at the Grand Junction airport now? Thank goodness! There was NOTHING when I was there (except for a shop that sold stuff like candy).

And ABD's are highly addictive! Guess you've learned that!

Please be sure and post a link to your wonderful trip report in the Trip Report Sticky at the top of this Forum! Thanks!

Sayhello

 

[alagille]

I whole heartedly second the recommendation for the Razrs. It was an extra expense, but I'm sure Disney would not accept the risk that comes with either a sanctioned ATV or Razr tour. I'm glad that was offered, though, on our own. That was my family's (with dh, ds8 and ds5) favorite day and activity. The boys were able to get out at one point and wade and play in a creek, climb the trees and then again at nearly the end of the trip too. It rained the night before that day, so Onion Creek had lots of water to splash around in.
My oldest really enjoyed the horseback riding while at Red Cliffs Lodge.
Food wise, I would have to give the thumbs of the trip up to Enchantment Resort.
I absolutely loved staying there at Red Cliffs. Moab is just fantastic. Best location of the trip, by far. So many activities and gorgeous area.
I must say I am SO jealous of the Forest Gump picture opportunity. Our guides told us to look backward out of the bus as we passed only.
Gouldings Lodge lunch was more efficient on our trip, but definitely not memorable. The Goulding Tour trucks had a speaker system out of the 1950s, I think- very staticky and I heard nothing. Agree with the one and done with that area. We got about 10 minutes after lunch for a few photo ops with the John Wayne cutout, the stagecoach. There wasn't really much to miss there.
I am very sorry to hear about your Delicate Arch day. I hoofed it to the top with my oldest and dh stayed with my youngest and one other family on the bus. They really enjoyed visiting about 6 other arches and said he liked that part just fine. I wanted to be able to say I hiked to the Delicate Arch though.
Whitewater rafting was fun for us all too. I even felt ok having my 5 year old out there. He had a lot of fun that day.
It is interesting reading the slight variations in the ABD trips, even one week apart.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Thanks for posting your TR. I enjoyed reading it!

 

[Hlee]

Awesome trip report! Thanks so much. Just booked this for June 29 Hearing that your girls had fun sealed the decision to bring my 7 year old girl on this trip!

 

[Calfan]

I enjoyed reading your trip report. Thanks for taking the time to write about your experiences. My DH is very interested in a Southwest trip, so this one is on our radar. My kids' spring break is always the first week of April, and it looks like there is a trip around those dates, so we might try to do this one as a spring break trip in the next couple of years.