Nole and I were woken up at 6 this morning by 42 degree temperature in our camper. I suspected we ran out of propane in tank 1 of 2 overnight. Sure enough we had so Nole went out and switched tanks. The fridge and freezer were still cold so no harm done there. It became clear pretty quickly that we were also very low on battery. The battery problem would be solved when we drove because it charges as we drive. In any case, we wanted an early start today and we got it. We didn’t rush and we were ready to drive away at about 9 am. After tanks were dumped we left the campground.

Yesterday we discussed the route for today. One route would take us past a few other national park sites and one would not but was an hour shorter. We agreed that the sensible thing to do was take the shorter route since we were already looking at a 5+ hour drive.

We are not sensible people though so today we made a last minute decision to take the longer route and visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The title reflects that we will be seeing 5+ canyons on this trip so maybe we should have called it the canyons tour rather than the Route 66 trip. We won’t be on Route 66 for a couple of weeks yet so it never seemed like the right name anyway. Our first canyon on this trip was Badlands.

After a couple of stops for gas and a one lane construction slow down, we made it to Black Canyon. We ate lunch from our camper stock (kids were not thrilled with this – they wanted fast food) then went inside to work on the Junior Ranger book.

Their book seemed a little more difficult than others and it took us a couple of hours to complete it.

Nole, Cal and Asa went on a 2-mile hike along the rim with some of the Yatzecks.

On the hike, Cal took a bunch of selfies of the different emotions he felt looking at the canyon. A sample of them is below.

I stayed back with those that didn’t want to hike and we kept working on the Program activities. We walked down to the overlook which had 72 steps down and then back up again (that was one of the questions in the activity book). We even got to watch a ranger-led talk about the canyon’s river and the wildlife found there. We also found out that the elevation here is 8,170 feet.

When we were done, the Yatzecks decided to stay and see a couple more overlooks at the park and us Martins decided to get back on the road. We drove about another 1.5 hours and stopped for a dinner break. Nole was tasked with gas, propane and dinner for him and the 4 kids and I was tasked with shopping for our share of the next 5 days of groceries. Then he picked me up and I ate my dinner in the car.

On our way to the campsite from that pit stop we got a chip in our windshield from a pebble. There is an auto glass place in town that we will check with tomorrow.

When we got off the highway in Moab, Cal needed a bathroom. We tried to stop at what we thought was a gas station…and maybe it was?? It was closed but luckily we had a bathroom with us in the camper so, problem solved.

We beat the Yatzecks there by about 40 minutes which allowed us to park the camper with minimal swearing and start getting settled in. When they arrived at about 9:50pm, they set up quickly and we all went to bed. There isn’t one person among us that isn’t completely road-weary at this point. Tomorrow is Day 13 of our trip and our first rest day.

Miles today: 415

Melissa’s post for today: https://wp.me/peTbeK-Lz