Hello and welcome to the newest edition of From The Vault! The series where I go back and dredge up old, lost, or unwritten stories of my travels. This was a multi-day trip I did in 2018 that was one of the first ever true road trips. In early April my Dad passed away from the vicious disease known as ALS and I only had a few weeks to process this before heading off to Philmont for the summer. Mom didn’t really want to stay at home alone during this tough time so she decided to come with me! Initially I was just going to go straight to Philmont, but when Mom offered to join we made it into more of a road trip. The thing about this trip was that there was no Official Plan since it was before I had my trip log on my laptop. It was also before I bought the legendary trip journal at Family Dollar. All of this combined has made this blog particularly challenging to reconstruct.
Long story short, I’m just going off of pictures and memory for this trip. I’ve been thinking about writing this for ages. Hope you enjoy!
Day 1
Anyways, the original idea for this trip was to waste no time and drive straight to Chicago in one day, but Philip had a college swimming & diving team banquet so we stopped in Clinton, NY for a night. The next morning we drove to Fremont, Indiana for night two. Fremont was about two and a half hours east of Chicago and that meant we could enjoy a peaceful night with no honking traffic. I believe we didn’t really do much until we reached Chicago so I combined the first couple days into one day for your reading pleasure.
Day 2
One thing about Chicago is that you can’t pass through it and not see Andrew and Matt so that’s exactly what we did. The first thing we did was walk around near Cloud Gate (aka The Bean) through a bunch of parks. The Bean is an iconic Chicago artwork that you absolutely can’t miss on a first trip to the city.
We then made our way up the street to the historic Chicago Theater to snap a picture before walking to the river. You kind of can’t miss the Chicago river that runs through the city. It would be like going to San Antonio and skipping their river walk. What happened next was pretty confusing at first since it seemed like we were doing the Chicago River walk, but (I think) we were in fact on the architecture river boat tour!
The Trump Tower is first on the tour (ignoring the name plastered on it, it seems like an impressive structure I think).
On the tour it seemed like Chicago is a mix of 1950’s style buildings such as the Merchandise Conference Center and more modern glass skyscrapers. New York City meanwhile seems to just have more modern looking skyscrapers based on my most recent visit. Chicago seems similar to NYC except that there are less people walking around on the street. (That is my opinion).
I’m not actually sure what the route was so I’ll just post a few more pictures. I thought it went to the Nuveen building, but then I think we turned around and went back because it seems unlikely we went past the railroad yard. Haha not really sure what happened next.
After the tour Andrew took us to his building: the Boeing building! I love airplanes and he happened to work for Boeing so we got to visit. Pretty cool!
We passed Wrigley Field and then went to dinner at a German brewery that had burgers and such. The food was delicious!
Day 3
Mom and I started out day 3 by walking to the Willis Tower (AKA Sears Tower). That day we were going to do a high adrenaline activity. Have you heard of the window that sticks out of a building over the city in Chicago? That’s called Skydeck and it’s what we were doing! The view while waiting in line was incredible and I still think that between the EDGE in NYC (from the public viewing platform), the Space Needle in Seattle, and looking out of an airplane window at Boston on a clear day…the Sears Tower still boasts the greatest city view.
We had waited about an hour to do the window picture and the whole time we got great views all over the city. It seemed like there were a few types of people in line who was waiting for their turn. We had the people not afraid of heights who would just walk right on and smile for the camera. A few fearless people who would jump all over the glass (like me). Absolutely terrified people who had to be lead onto it basically blindfolded. Lastly were the social media influencers with (usually) a boyfriend taking what had to be the ultimate shot.
At last we got to the front and snapped a few pictures on the glass. Really cool to look down 1,353 feet to the city below. I still have to go back to do the tower that lets you lean out over the ground. Maybe next time?
After the tower Mom and I toured the art exhibit on the lower floor then headed to Andrew and Matt’s (old) house. Mom felt pretty awful (sort of sick) so she went back to Andrew and Matt’s house (since we were staying with them) to rest while Andrew and I walked around. One of the best peaceful spots is the walkway next to Lake Michigan. It is made of a bunch of huge slabs of granite (don’t quote me) and looks impressive on a good day.
At the house I had what some might consider the best cider on the planet. At some point we ended our late evening chill session at the house and went to bed.
Day 4
This was the first ever trip that I had passed through so much farmland in one day. Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska are well known as farming states. They just happen to also be extremely boring to drive through. There really isn’t much to see in northwestern Illinois so we basically just did 180 miles of solid driving. Mom didn’t want to leave super early so we left at about 6am. The first stop of the day was the World’s Largest Truckstop in Iowa!
I saw it on a Modern Marvels episode on the History tv channel and ever since then I had wanted to go see it. I’d saw after going to many a truckstop this one is indeed very cool.
There was a giant souvenir store, lots of food, a ton of parking, a few car showcases, showers, and other features you wouldn’t find at your average Phillips 66 (midwest gas chain). We didn’t spend a lot of time here and we were soon on our way towards Alliance, Nebraska.
Before even hitting Nebraska we still had to get through about 270 more miles of Iowa. I’ll be the first to tell you that unless you are a trucker getting paid to make that drive…it’s not worth it! I had my first ever highway construction nightmare on this trip. I remember it well: 90 miles of a single lane at 45mph. Traffic cones as far as the eye could see. Normally the speed limit is 75 mph (I think). Not today! It still gives me shivers to think about.
After the construction we hit the boring part of Iowa. I’d consider everything on the left of Des Moines boring. Sorry to anyone who lives there! Maybe someday I’ll revisit and change my mind. Eventually we reached Omaha and that’s where the real middle of nowhere driving began.
I love the wide open views, rolling hills, and endless prairies as much as the next person. Nebraska is still my least favorite to drive across though just because it just seems to take forever to get wherever you are going. Only thing that comes remotely close is the epic 6 flags trip I took at Philmont. THAT has to be the most brutal drive I’ve done so far.
Haha I’m going off on a tangent I think so I’ll get back to the topic at hand. There are a few different ways to get to Alliance from Omaha, but I’m fairly certain Mom and I took the google maps “short cut” 91W route all the way across. We did have a little bit of night driving, which was a little nerve-racking because it started snowing. Driving through a snowstorm at night was not part of the plan. After a long 13 hours of driving we made it to our hotel.
Day 5
First thing to do was drive about 10 minutes north from the hotel in Alliance to see Carhenge. It is like Stonehenge, but made with cars. Rev. Thomas recommended it and so we went! The site also features a time capsule, a graffiti car, a car tower, and a few other goodies.
I’ve officially been in this part of Nebraska 3 times: this trip, the Mt. Rushmore trip, and my most recent Agate Fossil beds adventure.
We decided to hop into Wyoming on our way to Denver, Colorado, because why not? It is always cool to take a picture with a highway sign. We also saw a missile silo! They look like a small slab of concrete with a wire fence around it in the middle of the country. Usually there are no people around and lots of cameras. Mom wanted to get out for selfies, but I was suuuuper nervous a humvee would come out and soldiers would stream out the sides to interrogate us. (This didn’t happen luckily).
From Cheyenne, we drove south on I25 to Denver then headed into the mountains. Luckily most of the snow had melted by the end of April so we didn’t have to worry about ice or snow chains. That would’ve been really inconvenient.
We went through the mountains that I went through when I went to the Chipmunk Crossing in St. Elmo Ghost town. The mountain views from the highway were really cool! This part of Colorado is mostly made up of old mining ghost towns and 14,000ft tall mountains.
The main stop of the day was Mesa Verde National Park. The closer you get to the nearby city of Durango, the more intense the road grade becomes until finally you end up in a valley surrounded by mountains. This is where Mesa Verde is. We decided to stay in a hotel on park property rather than in Durango. This was officially the first National Park stamp in my passport book!
Day 6
We did the most adventurous tour at Mesa Verde first, which was called the Balcony House tour. This tour brings you up a bunch of really tall ladders to the cliff dwelling. The ladders are similar to the ones at Bandolier except two people can go up at once instead of just one.
The cliff dwelling itself was rather large. Bigger than Gila in New Mexico I think and had a bunch of houses and such on top.
This tour also had us squeeze through a small tight corridor to the other side of the dwellings.
At the end of the tour we climbed up a rock face with chain railings. I thought it was awesome and reminded me of the metal ladder rungs set in the boulders at the top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine. The next thing we did was probably lunch because unlike me on my solo trips Mom actually needs to stop and eat.
After lunch we set back out and did the Cliff Palace tour! It is a less intense tour that brings you to a massive cliff dwelling that is much much longer than the Balcony tour. There was a pavement path to it, which made getting there pretty easy. After the tour we probably had dinner somewhere nearby then stayed in the Mesa Verde hotel one last time before crossing the border.
Day 7
At 8am we packed up our things and checked out the gift shop. There I bought a black bear hat and we set off towards Arizona. I recall Mom being pretty terrified of my driving on the way down from Mesa Verde. You see, the drive from the hotel to the entrance sign is about 15 miles of windy roads with a steep cliff drop off on one side.
I went slow!! Under the 45mph speed limit, but I guess that wasn’t slow enough. Heh. I’ll never let her forget. At the bottom it feels like you are already in Arizona because the only thing on the horizon was flat desert.
Right after you cross into Arizona you can’t miss the Four Corners National Monument. It is right off the highway and it is supposed to be the corners of New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado all in one spot. (In reality I think the actual border is sort of impossible to get to by car so they put the monument where everyone can get to it.)
There was basically no one there that day so it was rather easy to get a picture with just me in the frame. Overall this park was really really hyped up back home, but in actuality kind of lame to see in person in my humble opinion.
On the way to the Grand Canyon, the final destination of the day, we stopped at the Navajo National Monument. This is small cliff dwelling out in the middle of the desert. We also passed the sign for Canyon De Chelly National Monument, but Mom thought we either didn’t have enough time to visit or the road looked too sketchy to drive down so we continued on.
It was a rather long drive from Mesa Verde to the Grand Canyon South Rim, but totally worth it! We saw some elk on our way into the park which was really cool. We would be lodging inside the park itself rather than in nearby Grand Canyon Junction.
Day 8
Our first full day was going to be hiking the South Kaibab Trail or at least as much as we could. The plan was to hike as far into the canyon as we could. There were a bunch of warnings such as bring plenty of water and don’t do anything stupid. Ok so that wasn’t official, but that’s kind of what I got out of the website.
The South Kaibab Trail was really steep and it was maaaybe 95F that day. Perfect weather for a serious hike. Going down into the canyon was rather easy. We were seasoned hikers because of the time I spent in my Boy Scout troop on camping trips so we had all the necessary gear, but there were a lot of people who come unprepared! We are talking 1 Dasani water bottle, flip flops, and short shorts for a 6 mile intense hike. Heh. Good luck on the way back up!
The first viewpoint that we got to was Ooh-Ah Point. It was about a .9 mile hike into the canyon. This was the first real view of the canyon since you were actually off the rim. It was indeed very awesome! We just had to stop and take a bunch of pictures.
Throughout the trip Mom was worried about taking pictures close to the edge of the trail, but I thought it was great fun so we compromised on 2 feet away for most shots.
Next up was the Cedar Ridge Point, which was about 1.5 miles into the canyon from the rim. This was the place we stopped for a snack break. The basic thing to remember on a hike is to watch your salt / water intake and have a good balance of electrolytes so I had brought potato chips, a gatorade, and a bunch of waters. I remember a bunch of HUGE squirrels that had tried to steal my potato chips. I harassed them away and continued to be constantly vigilant.
There was a ranger posted there that said to not go past this point unless you were absolutely certain you could make it back out on your own and had plenty of water. Most people were turning around here since going in further would turn a relatively easy 3 mile hike into a sort of deceivingly hard 6 mile hike.
The thing to remember was that the farther we went into the canyon the farther we would have to hike out again. It’s kind of easy to forget, but important to remember. A lot of people get overconfident. We were starting to run out of water so we decided to skip Skeleton Point and head back to the rim (top of the canyon). Skeleton Point had a view of the river so that’s why I really wanted to try to get there.
Going back up wasn’t too difficult, but it took forever! The trail is only very steep at the beginning and then it evened out.
At some point we heard the loud cry of “Everyone off the trail!”. It was a mule train! You had the option to ride into the canyon on donkeys. It sounded pretty fun, but I prefer the freedom of hiking on my own feet so we skipped that program. Once the donkey riders passed us we were on our way up again.
Once we got back to the top it was time for a celebratory picture to commemorate our hard work and the first ever hike into the canyon! Before getting dinner we probably went back to the room and changed as we are well spent from the hike.
Then we went back to the Rim Trail to experience the majesty of a Grand Canyon Sunset. It is always worth it to grab a sunset here on a trip if you have the time. Overall I’d say this day was a big success!
Day 9
This was the second day at the Grand Canyon and the plan was to explore the Rim Trail. We took a bus to the Desert View Watchtower at the far right side of the canyon. It is a big circular tower that you can go into that has spectacular views. Unfortunately I can’t find any pictures I took of the tower.
I think we started here and hiked our way back to the visitors center. The Rim Trail is extremely easy to walk on because it is mostly all flat and you walk on a nicely paved walkway.
One thing to note is that the bus drivers are pretty funny. They have seen and heard it all so they sarcastically say things much of the time, which Mom and I found extremely funny.
The last thing we did for the day was go to Hermits Rest. This is on the far left side of the Rim Trail. It is supposedly the best place to see the sunset and there were a lot of people here that night to check it out.
*One thing to note is that we most definitely didn’t do the entire 13 mile Rim Trail. We most likely took a bus to skip sections of it.
Day 10
The last day of the trip we sadly left the Grand Canyon and I headed to Philmont! Of course I had a few stops first, but on the way there we saw a bunch of billboards for a ‘Meteor Crater’ and just had to check it out. There are really only 2 ways to the Meteor Crater and we took the scenic route. This is the one were you go south through Grand Canyon Junction and then east through Flagstaff to I-40. Pretty soon we were there.
This is one of those strange stops. This wasn’t supposed to be on the route, but when we saw a lot of notice for this attraction that meant to me that it was probably interesting at least so that’s why we stopped.
This was a huge crater! Haha not much to say. There was an option to hike down into the bottom of the crater, but that was kind of a lot of money and I thought that was a waste of time so we just snapped a picture at the top and then we were on our way again. I’d say that this place is skippable.
The next place was the Petrified Forest National Park, which was relatively close by. It is basically a huge park in the desert that had once had a lot of trees. Mom was fascinated by it, but I was pretty stressed out because my car was acting strange. I was certain that the brakes were ruined, but Mom was like “nah they are good”. That was extremely hard to accept so I just wasn’t in the mood for a bunch of trees.
At the park there was a driving route that brought you to a bunch of viewpoints. Unfortunately most of the pictures I took here have been lost over the years so I don’t have much to choose from. I think we did the Crystal Forest and Giant Logs trails. Looking past my troubled emotions it was very cool!
After the forest it was time to check out the Painted Desert National Park, which occupied the northern section of the Petrified Forrest NP. It is comprised of a bunch of mesas that are colored blue, orange, and red. We did a short paved walking trail around this part and I practiced my photography a bit with the big cannon camera. I think I had an iPhone 8? So pictures were ok, but nothing comparable to my iPhone 13 Pro (What I have now). Quality was better with the bigger lens.
After the Painted Desert we traveled the rest of the way to Albuquerque and I dropped Mom at the airport then drove to Philmont. Before I left on the final 220 miles north, I got my summer haircut! I usually buzz it very short because of the heat of the summer.
Trip Stats:
- No BB8! I had one, but it was before I ever started blogging or bringing it places.
- Longest single day of driving: Chicago to Alliance…850 Miles!
- Estimated mi: 3,364 miles (53 hours)
- Actual mi: unsure (I never logged it)
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