I ,the mother, went with Lauren on most to this trip. I jumped 0n board in New York State. She is so right! Our National Parks are a gift to us and we need to support these incredible, protected areas, as well as get off our butts and go visit them.

Your eyes along with all your other senses will love you for doing this! You can read about the National Parks or look at pictures but there is absolutely nothing better than the experience!

I take some decent photos but when I got home and looked at mine on my computer I was disappointed. I posted many of my pictures on Facebook and got complements galore but, still, when I first looked at them I was convinced that there was no way I captured the grandeur of what I saw.

Lauren, forgot mention that we did travel a little through Minnesota, one of the creative states and also made a brief trip to have dinner in Montana. Montana put on an especially spectacular sunset for us!

We also drove through two National Forests that I had never hear of. Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming and Ashley National Forest in Utah. Both were incredibly magnificent! We went to Dinosaur National Monument in Utah not Colorado but last year we did go through Rocky Mountain National Park in CO and loved it!

I would happily to return to any of the places we saw on this trip but there is so much out there yet to see!