Driving to Utah, July 10, 2015

We had a trip planned to go to Utah to spend time with Paul and Joni and their girls as well as Joel and Erin and Eric and Hannah and to go to our mission president's homecoming.  Our plans changed a little and we went a few days earlier than expected for our sweet, wonderful, stepfather, Don Wood's funeral.

We decided to take the scenic route to Utah and drove through Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park (Trail Ridge Road), past Grand Lake, up through Steamboat Springs, Vernal, and Heber City.  It was very pretty and very long.  Our usual eight hour trip took about 12.  It was worth it for these wonderful views...

 Our beautiful Rocky Mountains just west of Estes Park as we made the ascent to the top of the world...

 You seriously feel like you are driving to the top of the world here on Trail Ridge Road.  It is awe-inspiring!

 This beautiful herd of Elk were near the top enjoying the sunshine and all this beautiful green grass.

 This is at the very top before you head down the other side to Grand Lake.

 Beautiful Shadow Mtn. Lake.  We didn't take the time to stop at Grand Lake, but the beauty of these mountain lakes is unsurpassed!

 We stopped in Steamboat Springs and ate in this little Mexican Cafe because it had sidewalk seating.  One of my favorite things about summer is eating outside!  Steamboat brings back some great memories of when we owned a condo here. 

 In fact, this same horse was here when we were here back then.  Hannah was two and we took her picture on this horse.  Now that I look at it more closely, it's either been painted or it's a new horse!
The memories remain vivid and those were some fun times!

 This is the sign that welcomes you to Utah from this side.  Pretty cool to be in dinosaur country after just having seen Jurassic World! 

We stopped in Vernal and took a chance that we could find one of our favorite missionaries from when we lived in Wellsville, New York!  Elder Brandon Gross lives in Vernal with his darling wife, Ashley, and there sweet kids.  It was so fun visiting with them and catching up a bit.

We stopped in Heber City and ate hamburgers and milk shakes at the yummy and very popular Dairy Keen.  It was pretty yummy!  We pulled into Joel and Erin's house at around 9:30 pm.  Not a drive you want to make very often, but it is fun once in a while!  Glad we did it!