Thursday, July 9, 2009

Bluff


Have you ever been to Bluff Utah? Have you ever heard of Bluff Utah? Well, my parents wanted their kids to go to Bluff Utah with them really bad. So we said we would, if they would camp with us. My sister and bro-in-law even bought them a tent. I found a campsite/RV park called the Cadillac Ranch and booked us a spot for Memorial Day weekend. It sounded nice. It had bathrooms. With showers. It claimed a pond with fishing and paddle boats.

It was awesome. If I ever go to Bluff Utah again, I am staying at the Cadillac Ranch. It was so quiet. No trashy trailers here! The bathrooms were heaven. I was clean every night! The pond on the other hand....not so great. It was really low, not enough water for paddle boats or fish. Just enough for noisy frogs and mosquitoes. But, they did have a small farm which Zack couldn't get enough of. They had horses, Emu's, pygmy goats, and donkeys. Zack loved when the goats and baby donkey would try to eat his clothes.

A good time was had by all, despite the rain. It only rained when it was convenient. One night we had dutch oven enchiladas at midnight and dutch oven cobbler at 1 am. (I always overestimate my dutch oven cooking abilities!) But they were delish-ous!

We went to some really neat spots in southern Utah and Colorado that I had never been before. I highly recommend this trip to anyone who likes to explore.

Our peaceful campsite.


We got Zack to do some dishes!


About one hour from Bluff is the 4 corners monument.


We waited in line to take each others photos. I had to bribe Zack with money to smile in this one because everyone standing in line was staring.


Our second day, we drove to Cortez Colorado, about 2 hours from Bluff and went to Mesa Verde National Park. It is chock full of Indian ruins. The best I have EVER seen. They were amazing and most of them were on such high and steep cliffs that they were not accessible. The park has made it so you can see about 7 of them close up and many of them from view points on the road. This is the first one we saw after a 15 minute hike down hill. (Note Zack and his bear sling shot that he bought with his vacation money.)


One of the ruins you can see from the road.


After our first hike, we went to see this performance. The singing and dancing was neat and unusual but about the 4th song, Zack asked why they kept singing the same song over and over!


Some of the ruins you can only see on guided tours. We only had time for one and this is us hiking down the cliff to see it.


Our tour guide was this weird Barbara Streisand looking lady. She was really boring and at one point she yelled at Zack to just sit down and hold still. We weren't very happy with her as you can tell from my sisters face!


We loved the needles overlook so much we had to take my family to see it on the way home.


Here is everyone who went (except Steve). My mom, Zack, me, my dad, sister Ally, bro-in-law Mike and brother Jeff. We were sad that my other two brothers and their wives couldn't come!

4 comments:

Valerie S said...

John and I did about this same vacation a few years ago all by ourselves. We loved it. Mesa Verde was wonderful and I loved the ruins. If we ever go camping down there I'll remember the Cadillac Ranch. That's too bad their pond was low with all the water we've had this year. Maybe they didn't get as much down there? Weird.

SalGal said...

Deidra, I LOVE your family! I miss your mom & dad. So funny! Tell them hello for me?

Unknown said...

Deid, Fun to see pictures of your family. I haven't seen your parents in way too long! There are so many great places that I haven't been that are close! Thanks for sharing your great travel ideas.

Shannon said...

This weekend while I was camping with my extended family we talked about going here next year. We went as kids and loved it and think our kids would love it too. If we do go we'll be sure to steer clear from the Barbara Streisand tour guide.