Saturday, Sept. 25: Aurora, CO to Green River, UT

On our way out of Denver, we experienced a traffic jam....

It doesn't look bad here, but we were stopped enough that the GPS asked us if we wanted to switch to pedestrian mode! :) Once we got past that though, the rest of the trip had much better sites to see than back bumpers. I couldn't put my camera down, as every second it seemed we passed another breathtaking scene!

We were literally driving through mountains! They got much closer than this.


Prettiest rest stop I've ever been at! :) A greenway trail for bikes & scenic trail for pedestrians met up with it.
Also at the rest stop- dipping my feet in the Colorado River! It was freezing and I couldn't bare to keep that foot in any longer!

The scenery gradually changed, but as you can see, it's quite dynamic and full of variety in this area of the country! Just hours after the rest stop, we passed other-worldly rock in Utah that could pass for set designs in the old Star Trek! The sky is such perfect blue, it looks like a studio backdrop.
What perfect timing! A free national park pass day on the day we're near Arches National Park. The drive through the park takes only 45 minutes, but we turned it into a few hours between gawking and picture taking. The structures around us were truly amazing!The 7:15ish sundown came before we could finish the complete tour of the park, and it was another hour or so to our hotel. By the time we were checked in and at a restaurant, it was 9:30 we ate our dinner. Late nights, early morns, long drives, and site-seeing sure have tired us out, but it's been worth it.

There are a ton of interesting photos from this day- I'm overwhelmed by all I saw! I'll have to create a facebook album eventually to share more with you, as this was only a taste of the beauty we experienced two days ago!