Family Vacation 2017

Summer Vacation 2017, “Out West!”

(created July 2, 2017; updated Sun. Aug. 13, 2017)

We had been thinking for a few years how fun it could be to visit Yellowstone and other places "out west."

In 2016 we started finalizing plans for a 2017 summer vacation, and we took the trip in June, 2017. It was awesome!

The purpose of this site is to share just some of the fun, and photos & videos of the many beautiful places, that we saw.

We saw so much that we captured more than 6,100 photos in total. That number is almost overwhelming for us. To share with others, on this site, we have grouped the photos into two groups:

1.60+ photos on “Highlights” and “Highlights 2” - for “a quick overview” We tried to just list the things we did and keep the photos to a couple from each day, which was a challenge.

2.countless other photos, grouped into pages dedicated to amazing drives, cities, National Parks, etc.

Links are at in the top header bar and at the far bottom of this page: type Ctl-End on a PC or Command-down arrow on a Mac.

Week 2...

To Zoom in or zoom out on any photos (or any other website),

on a PC: Ctl-+ and Ctl-- (plus and minus)

on a Mac: Command-+ and Command-- (plus and minus)

To get back to the “standard 100% Zoom, Ctl-0 or Comand-0 (zero)

Day 8: Jackson, WY, to Park City, UT

1)A relaxing morning with a little shopping in Jackson’s town square
2)Family Photo with one of the four elk horn arches, at the corners of the town square
3)A relaxing drive through impressive mountains
4)Seeing the World’s Largest Elk Horn Arch, in Afton, WY
5)An almost constant downhill once we got into Utah, and impressive grades for the UP / Union Pacific railroad’s trains that paralleled the highway (actually I-80 follows the transcontinental RR, which follows the grade of the land)
6)Arriving in Park City, and eating next to the hotel, where we met someone who knows somebody at the office - they used to work together in St. Louis (small world, again)

Day 9: Park City, UT

1)A nice morning walk
2)Some air hockey in the activity center, and bingo
3)Pool time
4)Painting after dinner, in the lobby

Day 10: Park City, UT to Dead Horse Canyon State Park to Moab, UT

1)A nice drive through much drier countryside
⁃Watching Desolation Point arise on the horizon, grow, passing it, and seeing it fade in our rear-view mirrors
2)Dead Horse Canyon State Park
3)Moab
4)Seeing the once-wild, now clearly tamed, Colorado River literally five feet down the embankment off the side parking lot of the Marriott Fairfield Inn, Moab, UT
⁃Dad seeing a beaver in the bushes at the bottom of the embankment, then becoming quickly sorry that he talked so loudly to Mom, to let her know to “come quick,” and scaring the beaver off in the process.

Day 11: Moab, UT and Arches National Park

1)Celebrated Mass at St. Pius X Catholic Church
2)Arches National Park in the 105-degree heat of Moab, UT
3)Pool time
4)Dinner in Moab
5)“Moonset o’er Moab” photos by Abby

Day 12: Moab, UT and the drive along the Colorado River, on Utah Hw 128, and then I-70 into Vail, CO

1)Get up early for breakfast, walk across the foot bridge over the Colorado River
2)Drive along Utah’ s Highway 128, which follows the twists and turns of the Colorado River, 10-50 feet above the river, and far below the top of the canyon it formed, from Moab to Dewey, UT; then I-70 into Vail, CO
3)Pool time with friends who met up with us Vail
4)Fondue dinner at The Swiss Chalet in Vail - great food!

Day 13 - 14: Vail, CO

1)Lazy day with a 3-mile hike from the hotel to a hill across I-70 and pool time
2)Dinner at the grill and patio table... outside the room... 20 feet from the rushing Gore Creek, for which the Marriott Streamside is named
⁃AWESOME food thanks to Ann Marie
⁃AWESOME family and friends
⁃and AWESOME location
3)Painting at the table after dinner - another great idea by Ann Marie
4)Lazy day with another hike... this time above 8,000 feet... we rode the Eagle Bahn gondola to the to
5)the kids riding the Forest Flyer toboggan / roller coaster at the top of the gondola.

we enjoyed dinner at the picnic table five feet behind where I stood to capture this photograph.

Yes... that’s snow, on June 28.

Day 15: Vail to DEN to STL to Ballwin

1)Early rise to make sure we got going, to beat the Denver traffic and get to the airport
2)Beautiful mountains to drive through
3)Driving through the tunnel at the highest point of the US Interstate system - the eastbound Johnson Tunnel is named for the Senator who helped get it built, while only the westbound tunnel is named the Eisenhower Tunnel
4)Awesome photos by Abby on the departure

Note: we captured all other photos using ProCamera, by Cocologics.

See also http://vanvooren.us/Photography for more photography links

Links to the rest of this travel journal: