Cross Country

2003 Cross Country Road Trip

July 9, 2003 - July 31, 2003

22 days 5,237 miles 21 stops

Family & Lazy Daze at Colorado Riverway

This is the trip that will go down in the annals of Gaidus travel ventures as the all-time favorite, a kind of “Best Of” journey through Utah. This was to be our fifth cross country trip and we had already visited all 48 continental states and seen most of the highlights in the West. As a result, the pace of this trip was less frantic, the daily driving mileage was lower, and the duration of each stop was longer.

During this trip, we selected a few favorites to go back to and discovered some new ones on the way.

Road Trip Highlights and Lowlights

  • Cruising the solitary waters of the Green River north of Fire Hole Canyon.
  • Trying to outwit the elusive trout while rafting the Green River below the Flaming Gorge Dam.
  • Discovering the best desert sandstone imitation of a phallus at Kodachrome Basin State Park.
  • Hiking from Sunset to Sunrise Point though the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon
  • Swimming in the 80 degree turquoise waters of Lake Powell, our family’s unanimous choice for best place ever visited.
  • Panicking when Tommy got pulled down by an eddy while rafting the Colorado River near Moab/Big Bend.
  • Hiking to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.

The biggest problem with this trip is that it will be a hard act to follow. Maybe we’ll just do it again another year.

Itinerary

# Stop Date Miles Hours
1 Flying J - Toledo July 9, 2003 549 11
2 Lake Anita State Park July 10, 2003 630 11
3 Lake McConaughy State Park July 11, 2003 421 7
4 Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area - Fire Hole Canyon July 12, 2003 475 8.25
5 Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area Dam July 14, 2003 55 1.5
6 Huntington State Park July 15, 2003 178 3.75
7 Kodachrome Basin State Park July 16, 2003 208 6
8 Bryce Canyon National Park July 17, 2003 23 0.75
9 Cedar Breaks National Monument July 18, 2003 60 1.5
10 Kanab - Kanab RV Corral July 18, 2003 66 1.5
11 Lake Powell - Wahweap July 19, 2003 71 1.5
12 Moab - Colorado Riverway / Big Bend Recreation Area July 22, 2003 277 6
13 Moab - Town July 23, 2003 15 0.5
14 Arches National Park July 24, 2003 23 0.5
15 Battlement Mesa Campground July 25, 2003 172 3.25
16 Breckenridge July 26, 2003 138 2.5
17 Fort Morgan July 27, 2003 154 2.5
18 Prairie Rose State Park July 28, 2003 513 8.5
19 Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore July 29, 2003 460 8
20 Emlenton - Gaslight Campground July 30, 2003 408 7
21 Home July 31, 2003 341 6