There are two direct routes from SLC to Denver: I-80 to the north through Wyoming and I-70 to the south through Green River. We’ve driven I-80 before and we will never, ever do it again. The drive through Wyoming is just too, well, Wyoming. It’s barren and makes you feel sad.

However, the southern route is a beautiful drive through the Rocky Mountains with many possible fun stops along the way. I had a list of possible stopping points since we never knew when Cara would be sleeping or screaming. Unfortunately, our first stop at a beach on the Colorado River was closed due to E-Coli. Ewwww. So we drove on to Grand Junction. The kids were happy to be there because Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat stopped in Grand Junction in Curious George 2. So…yeah. They thought that was cool.

We basically strolled up and down main street, played in the fountain, looked in a toy shop, and ate pizza. Here, Nate’s waiting for the water to spurt up.

Our next stop along the way was Vail. Ooohh. Vail. Very pretty. We visited the free Betty Ford Botanical Gardens and it was one of our best layovers ever. GORGEOUS. The playground was so, so fun and in such a lovely setting that we didn’t want to leave. But after a picnic dinner, we were on to Denver.

This is Caroline’s first time in a swing.

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This sideways video is Rob playing on the spinner thing. We all took turns getting very dizzy.

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One thing I want to remember is that there are quite a few tunnels through the mountains on this route. Every time we hit one all of us would take a deep breath and yell the whole way through. Even little Caroline joined in. Just a fun little memory.