Southwest Road Trip

Southwest Road Trip

Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada. Aside from Salt Lake City, I had never been to any of these places before and the Southwest has been on my travel list for a long time. We had planned to car camp but discovered that most of the top destinations are at a higher elevation than someone who had never been to this part of the country would think and it ended up being too cold except in eastern New Mexico by Carlsbad Caverns. Outside of the national parks, my favorite things we did were the Georgia O’Keeffe museum; Meow Wolf (it’s hard to find info online on exactly what this place is, but if you dreamed of opening your closet as a kid and being transported into another world, this place will blow your mind); the Titanic Artifact Museum, which is by far the best part of Las Vegas; and how often does one drive through or close to central Idaho? So we had to stop and visit Ernest Hemingway’s grave. Ghost towns, aliens, a tarantula, snow, a bat flight at dusk, Breaking Bad filming locations, an Eiffel Tower- 16 days may have been a bit ambitious but we sure did see a lot.

Highlights:
Zion National Park, Utah
Monument Valley, Utah/Arizona
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Georgia O’Keeffe museum, Santa Fe, NM
Meow Wolf, Santa Fe, NM
Route 66 in Williams, AZ
Titanic Artifact Museum, Las Vegas, NV
Ernest Hemingway’s grave, Ketchum, ID

Favorite restaurants:
Yia Yia Nikki’s in La Grande, OR
River Rock Roasting Co in La Verkin, UT (We ate here three times in two days)
The Farm Bistro in Cortez, CO
Jimmy’s Cafe on Jefferson in Albuquerque, NM
Danny’s Place in Carlsbad, NM