Day four was our last LONG day of driving and the scenery was breathtaking the whole time. There was so much to see! From Boulder to Bryce Canyon, we drove through the beautiful snow-capped Rockies, rough rocky jaggety canyons, desert landscapes, etc. In the morning, we saw people skiing down snowy mountains and then later in the afternoon, watched as tumbleweed skittered across the road, with mesas in the distance.
So, the pictures are going to do most of the talking for day four!
Leaving Boulder in the AM...
All across the country, we saw letters on mountains like this one. It was so interesting because it wasn't just in one area or one state... they were sometimes very spread out. I bet we saw 10-15 during our entire trip.
The letters were fun to spot, but we didn't know what they were until I got home and looked it up on Wikipedia. Turns out, there are over 400 "hillside letters" across the United States!
"Hillside letters are giant letters emblazoned on hundreds of hillsides. These letters, representing towns and schools in hundreds of locations across the American West, are symbols of school or hometown pride and local identity. "
Cool.
Driving through the Colorado Rockies...
Our first glimpse of the snowy mountains!
SNOW! So beautiful. I think the winding drive through the snowy mountains was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We were only surrounded by snow for less than an hour I think... and it just felt so surreal.
If only Cleveland winters were this gorgeous!
And just like that, we were out of the snow. I noticed these little stick teepee-looking things along a particular stretch of I-70.
And again, because it peaked my curiosity, I had to google it upon arriving home. God bless the Internet. Here's what I found out. If I understand correctly, a beetle epidemic has wiped out 90% of the pine trees in Vail, Colorado since the 1990's. These "teepees" are the solution to removing the old, dead trees... stacking them up, and performing a controlled burn. Smart. But it's sad that all those trees were lost. Moving on...
My good friend Wikipedia informs me that No Name, Colorado is named for nearby No Name Creek and No Name Canyon. Oh, and it's also close to the No Name Tunnel. Seriously.
At some point, Shea's gas gauge stopped registering. It always looked like we had a full tank, so we stopped every two or three hours just to be safe. We think it had something to do with the elevation because once we got to California, it fixed itself.
I think we were in Utah here...
Coming out of the mountains for awhile...
Utah. Was. Awesome. It was by far my favorite state on the drive. It was so interesting and so surprising. For some reason (I guess I don't know anything about geography), I pictured Utah to be really boring and mostly flat desert. Flat it certainly was not! Utah is freaking cool. I also really liked Utah because every once and awhile, they'd have View Points off the highway, where you could pull off (like a rest stop) and take in the great views (duh). And they'd have little signs explaining the geography. Here's Shea and Michelle at one of those View Points. It was really windy!
We got to our hotel at Bryce Canyon around 6pm, just in time to catch this sunset over the pond by our hotel room.
It was too late to do any sightseeing in Bryce on Day 4, so we just had dinner at the touristy hotel restaurant and went to bed. It's crazy to think... just two days prior, we drove through corn fields and cow pastures the entire day... and then compare that drive to everything we saw on Day 4... wow!
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