The National Park quest continues

I now own a National Park passport.
Yep, I'm that cool.
It was a nearly perfect day and I'm exhausted.
We started out early traveling from Salt Lake City's Midvale area to Price, Utah. It was a beautiful drive. Utah's mountains are close. They're not some beautiful peak in the distance, they're so close it feels like you can reach out and touch them. The further we traveled south and east away from SLC, the red rocks of the southwest become more and more prevalent. Breathtaking canyons lined with juniper made it hard to concentrate on driving. There are still pockets of snow, so all of the colors made for an incredible pallet of color.
At Price we stopped at the Eastern Utah University dinosaur museum. It was quick and easy and very informative. The kids had a great time. This state has a remarkable history.
We stopped for picnic lunch in the tiny, desolate town of Green River. The main drag is lined with out-of-business motels which were probably locally owned. The outer edge of this town is lined with chain hotels. Currently in business. There's a surprise. We have yet to figure why anyone wants to stay in Green River. It was actually kind of a creepy place.
We continued east toward Moab and the scenery became more and more spectacular. There's no real way to describe it -- we've all seen this area in the movies. Thelma and Louise went off the cliff just outside of Moab. Against a Crooked Sky, Mission Impossible II... There are countless pictures of the area on everything from postcard to Utah license plates. We had originally planned on getting settled in our hotel and then heading out to one of the national parks.
But when we came across the sign that said "Canyonlands National Park next right" -- how could we simply drive by? So we coined a new term. Remember we have the voice of Homer Simpson on our GPS navigator? Well, when we go against Homer's instructions, go renegade you might say, we call that "Going Bart". We turned Homer off. Again, there is just no easy way to describe the vistas in this park. We had a blast.
We took short hikes at several of the popular sites. The air was crisp and clean. And as the sun set, we kept thanking our lucky stars we were able to make such a journey. How lucky are we?
We also met Adventure Man, my son's alter ego.
"Sometimes, I'm just an ordinary 7-year-old boy, but when I'm on the trail, I'm Adventure Man."
Adventure Man guided me through the trail making sure I got back to the car.
"Watch out for that cactus."
"The snow makes it slippery here, step over there."
"You know, the older you get the less attention span you have."
"Really," I said.
"Yep, the older you get, you just don't pay enough attention."
"The younger you are, the more agility you have."
With Adventure Man's help, we made it into Moab and had a great dinner at a place with fire grilled pizza and a nice salad bar. It was some of the best pizza I've ever had. We got back to the hotel and swam a couple of laps in the chilly pool.
A hot shower and I'm ready for sleep.
Tomorrow we will take on Arches National Park and make our way toward St. George. There are a number of parks and monuments along the way and two big parks to cover while there.
I hesitate to say it in fear I'll jinx our luck, but if the rest of the vacation goes this well, it will be an amazing vacation.