After two weeks on the road, the kids are starting to suffer from "grandeur fatigue," and feeling a little bit homesick. Several times, we caught Evan exclaiming "WHOOAAAA!" without even bothering to glance up from his electronic device after I'd yelled "Look at THAT!" one too many times for his tolerance. Luckily, our last three stops turned out to be captivating, and totally magical, in their own unique ways and they powered through the last week on the road with valor.
Now that we have survived the 5,000+ mile journey, from Birmingham to Glacier National Park and back (with kids!), we are sharing with you how it went, in three parts. This is part three, documenting our stops at Fossil Butte National Monument, Dinosaur National Monument and Rocky Mountain National Park. You can find part one, about our stops at Badlands, Wind Cave, the Mammoth Site and Mount Rushmore HERE and part two, about Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks HERE. We got into all the National Parks for free with our fourth grader thanks to the Every Kid in a Park Program! Find out about the program HERE.
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Fossil Butte National Monument
If you are traveling anywhere near Fossil Butte National Monument, in the southwestern corner of Wyoming, you must take the time to stop and visit. For one thing, it is FREE (even if you don't have a national parks pass), and you can see the most interesting parts of the monument in a short amount of time. However, if you have more time, you could easily spend a half day or longer, exploring the monument in greater depth.
About half a mile from the visitors center, you start seeing signs on the side of the road marking major points in time on planet Earth, starting with the formation of Earth 4.54 billion years ago. The timeline is set to scale (with every 9 inches equaling 1 million years in time!) and continues along the road up to the visitors center and wraps around the porch. Our kids were astounded when we reached the end of that long timeline of geological history to find humans all the way at the very, very end. Talk about an effective way to blow a kids mind!
 Cole poses in front of some of his favorite fish fossils, including gar, paddle fish and stingray! |
Inside the visitors center, we discovered all manner of fossils from fish to turtles to insects to plants, all from the shallow, freshwater Fossil Lake ecosystem that once existed here over 34 million years ago (during the Eocene Epoch). We even got to watch one of the rangers working on a fish fossil using a tiny fossil jackhammer and magnifying glass. He worked on the fossil right in front of us and his up-close viewpoint of the fossil was displayed on a TV screen above his work area! How cool is that?
 Evan watches a park ranger blasting away the overlaying layers of rock from a fossil. The overhead TV monitor shows the ranger's closeup viewpoint. |
Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur wasn't on our original trip itinerary. But after visiting Fossil Butte, and seeing how much the guys enjoyed it, we decided to add it in. I had briefly visited the park years before, and didn't think there was all that much to see. Oh how sadly mistaken I was. Dinosaur ended up being one of my personal favorites, tieing with Yellowstone in my mind for diversity of things to see and do. It is also much, much bigger than I thought. If you visit the Utah (visitors center) side, you have only seen one small corner of the park. To get to the wilder, Colorado side, you have to drive out of the park and quite a ways down the road to another entrance.
 Early morning, panoramic view along the Green River Trail, between the Green River and Split Mountain campgrounds. |
Just like Yellowstone, there is so much to see and do in Dinosaur National Monument that it would take way too long to describe it all. So here are my top THREE recommendations for things to do on your first visit.
1. Visit the Quarry Exhibit Hall and participate in a junior ranger program - Of course, no visit to DInosaur would be complete without seeing actual dinosaur fossils! Here you can touch real dinosaur bones and see tons of them in the side of the cliff where they were uncovered. We happened to arrive just when a junior ranger program was starting, and it was fantastic. In fact, it inspired both boys to sit down for about forty-five minutes (!) and complete (!) their entire junior ranger booklets for the park! This enthusiasm carried over into Rocky Mountain National Park, where they earned another junior ranger badge.
 In the Quarry Exhibit Hall, you can lay your hands on real dinosaur bones! |
 Evan and Cole are sworn in for their Dinosaur National Monument Junior Ranger badges. |
2. Visit the petroglyphs along Cub Creek Road - Seeing photos of the pictures carved into the rocks by ancient people who lived in the area, is nothing compared to seeing them in real life. We were all fascinated by these ancient art works. We had time to visit several sites, only a short walk from the side of the road, but there were many more we didn't get to see.
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3. Visit the Colorado side of the monument - There is a wilder, much less visited side of Dinosaur, and it is well worth a visit if you have time to explore. We chose to make the drive to the Harper's Corner trail head, where you can take a short hike out to the end of the ridgeline, overlooking the Green River and Steamboat Rock. Besides countless stunning views of the surrounding canyons, we also got to see some rafters traveling down the river. It inspired us to add "rafting down the Green River," to our family bucket list! If we had more time, we would have liked to have explored one of the many non-paved, high-clearance vehicle only roads on this side of the park.
 We were so high up on the trail from Harper's Corner that the river rafters down below us looked like tiny, yellow dots floating along. |
Camping in Dinosaur National Monument - Green River Campground
This was definitely one of my favorite campgrounds on our trip, and I wish we could have stayed longer! This campground, nestled alongside the Green River, is gorgeous. I woke up early one morning and took the river trail in search of birds. Not only did I find the trail teeming with birds, it was also one of the most picturesque hikes from the entire trip (the first panoramic photo in this section is from this hike). The trail parallels the river from an elevated view and has a really awesome rocky ridge you can climb up to see a 360 degree view of the area.
Rocky Mountain National Park
After seeing the Rocky Mountains from below in Glacier and Grand Tetons National Parks, it was time to see them from the tops (or at least as close as we could get), in Rocky Mountain National Park. Winding through the alpine tundra, you will find the highest paved road in the United States, Trail Ridge Road. Reaching an elevation of 12,183 feet, it is a thrilling experience! Here's just a little taste for you...
 One of many stunning, alpine views within Rocky Mountain National Park |
We spent one day driving from one side of the park to the other, stopping along the way for short hikes or visitors centers. Lots of amazing views, herds of elk, one moose in the middle of a lake, rushing rivers. So much to explore, if it hadn't been the end of our trip, we could have easily spent more than one day here.
Camping in Rocky Mountain National Park - Timber Creek Campground
We didn't have very high expectations for Timber Creek Campground in Rocky Mountain National Park. The guide book said it had recently been ravaged by insects that had killed all the trees, and as a result, "the campground has lost some of its magic." But the book was wrong. It was extremely magical. Wanna see why? Watch this video of breakfast time around our morning campfire.
Another favorite memory from this campground was Evan and I falling asleep to the sound of elk munching on grass, right outside our camper (literally within 5 feet of us). I remember thinking, " 'fall asleep to the sound of elk chewing' needs to be on my life bucket list..." That is something I could never have thunk up on my own to add to my list! And yet, there we were experiencing it! We also heard elk bugling a ton, even though it was the wrong time of year for it. They must have used elk bugling sound clips in the Jurassic Park movies, because it definitely sounded like dinosaurs to us!
 Evan and Cole getting ready for bed in our home away from home. |
On the last day of the trip, we had planned to spend the whole day relaxing at the campground and playing in the nearby river. I got up early and went to look for wildlife, but when I got back Mike told me the guys were ready to head home. It was time to get back to our pets and our own beds. I was anxious to see how my garden had grown and Mike didn't want to drive twelve-hour days on the way back. So it was settled. We packed up the camper and headed out... FULL of memories that will last us all the rest of our lives.
THANK YOU so much to Uncle Bill for lending us the camper!
 We made it! A little over 6,000 miles and here we are back in our own driveway. Home Sweet Home. |
Thanks for following along for Part 3 of our journey. This concludes our travel series for now. Click the highlighted text to read Part One and Part Two of our epic road trip with kids. For more pictures, visit our Instagram and Facebook pages.
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