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| no partners | | | Original plan was Arches NM and 5 days of hiking and camping in the area and a couple of hikes in Grand Gulch Cedar Mesa Area. Right before trip camping was banned on private and public lands in the three counties surrounding Moab. Plan B was hiking and camping in Grand Gulch Cedar Mesa. With the drive 3 hours farther and less metropolitan areas nearby seemed like a good social distance thing. Alas, school got cancelled for the oldest until at least 4/20 leaving my wife to re-evaluate PTO as we are trying to homeschool along with both of us working in healthcare. Anyway, this turned out to be nothing we expected, but was a good family trip nonetheless. We hopped in Yertle and headed out on Saturday and hit the Colorado Gator and Reptile Park on the way to Zapata Falls Campground. It was a cross between deliverance, Route 66, and the guy who built Bishop Castle. Most of the animals there are rescues. The alligator from Happy Gilmore resides there after 25 years in movies apparently because he became too aggressive. The place was originally a fish farm for tilapia or something and although they still raise fish for consumption it morphed into one of the more interesting animal places I’ve been. Buy a t shirt and get free lifetime entrance if you wear the shirt. They have numerous gators of all sizes. Emu’s, large tortoises walking around everywhere. Several parrots, snakes, monitor lizards, alligator snapping turtles, greenhouses. It was quite bizarre, but the kids loved it. They got to hold alligators feed turtles and fish. The farm has geothermal pools where the alligator live all year round. We headed off to the campground as dispersed camping in Medano creek road was closed. Forecast for rain between 3-6 never materialized, but an hour after setting up camp and cooking pizza on the campfire an unforecasted blizzard Blew through dumped a couple inches of snow and disappeared as fast as it appeared. Leaving the skies clear and the temps 10 degrees colder in the low 20’s. I maintained the campfire during the storm while kids roasted marshmallows on the heater buddy in the awning room which is how they also cooked the sausages for breakfasts well. My wife and I went out and enjoyed the campfire and stars after kids went to bed. Got up drove over to Sand Dunes (free admission) and drove out our favorite picnic area before the medano creek rd. closure. Sand is pretty firm, but still requires 4x4. Kids and I climbed up highest dune in the area and sledded down and ran around. Saw one other vehicle with two people who went to a different dune. The main dune area was packed probably because of the National Parks free admission and there appeared to be no social distancing. Headed home after picnic lunch. Plan is to get out to the other areas this summer after things cam down. |
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