Six in Six – Bobby Cox

We hit 6 National parks in 6 days. We changed our route at the last minute because of a fire north east of Flagstaff which sent us right by the Grand Canyon. n

Day 1 – Grand Canyon

We reached Mather Campground, got the camper setup and were ready to head to the rim when Kyndal rolled her ankle getting out of the camper. Angie and Kyndal stayed back while I did a quick evening hike. I’ve seen the canyon many times and it never gets old.

Day 2 – Bryce Canyon

We packed up the camper and headed north around the canyon. We took the scenic drive around the south rim of the canyon and on up to Page, AZ for lunch. We were not sure where we were going to camp, but we were hoping to camp somewhere between Zion and Bryce Canyon so we could make a basecamp for a few days. We ended up driving all the way to Bryce and set up camp at Sunset Campground in Bryce National Park. Sunset Campground doesn’t take reservation, and we were fortunate enough to get a spot. My first hike was on the Wall Street trail with my GoPro.

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Bryce was by far my favorite park. It was hard to choose which photos to share.

Day 3 – Zion

Zion was just over an hour from our base camp in Bryce, so we took a day trip for a visit. We left Marley in the camper to catch up on some sleep. As we drove through the park, we all kept saying, “Wow, this is massive.” The colors and shapes were stunning. We drove through the mile long tunnel through the rock. Its mind boggling to think people dig through the rock for that long. we stopped at the visitors center at the other end of the park, walked around, bought some t-shirts and started back through the park. We stopped periodically for panoramic photos but didn’t take any time to hike any of the trails. On our way back to Bryce, we ate lunch in a small town and stopped at the Rock and Espresso shop for coffee (no rocks).

Day 4 – Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef National Park is about halfway between Bryce and Moab so we thouget it would be a good stop for one night. As we were leaving Bryce, the sky to the west of us was filled with smoke. Obviously a fire, but we couldn’t get any info on it. We were driving northeast so were not worried. We took backroads to Capitol Reef and it seemed like the smoke followed us As nd even caught us a few times. By the time we pulled into Fruita Campground in Capitol Reef, the air was clear. Angie and I did an afternoon hike. As the sun was lowering on the horizon, we could see the smoke starting to drift into the canyon. The hike was so beautiful that when I got back, I talked Kyndal into taking a short hike to see the sunset. n

We attended an evening activity at the park the night before and learned the history of the park. The name “Capitol” was used because of the large dome rock that looks like the buildings in our nation’s capitol. “Reef” was used because of the terrain being so difficult to cross much like the Great Barrier Reef so Reef was used.

Day 5 – Canyonlands

After breakfast, we packed up camp and explored Capitol Reef a bit more. We hiked the trail to Hickman Natural Bridge and saw the old schoolhouse and some petroglyph.

We had no reservations at a campground, so we decided to take our luck at a fist come first serve spot at Dead Horse Point State Park just north of Canyonlands. No such luck. The campgrounds were all full. We ended up camping in Moab which turned out to be a good idea. We drove through Canyonlands but didn’t stay long. We camped at a full service campground with hookups, showers and flush toilets… the girls were happy.

Day 6 – Arches

I got up at 4:45am to do a sunrise hike to delicate arch in Arches National park. It took 30 min to get to the trailhead. I had my headlamp and GoPro and was ready for the backcountry trek to the iconic delicate arch.