a total solar eclipse happened on the day after our kids’ spring break ended, and ian’s parents’ house was right in the path of totality. so, we drove to texas to witness this celestial wonder! since we had the week of spring break free leading up to this, we decided to make our journey to the dallas area an epic national-parks-roadtrip. we went to seven national parks in six days!

first stop was arches np. i got to take moses and gabriel on the hike to delicate arch and ian stayed with the twins. we did this hike all together as a family a couple years ago and i just absolutely loved it, so i was excited to go back. it was a lot of fun to hike with just our big boys. coming around the corner to behold the delicate arch is just such a stunning experience.

we met back up with ian and the twins and got thai food (honestly, the khao soi at this random restaurant in moab is one of my top five meals of all time – soooo good!).

the next morning we headed to canyonlands np. we went to a totally different part of the park than we had been before and did just a quick loop hike and it was really beautiful – especially the fluffy clouds in the big blue sky!

from there we headed into arizona … and we had to take a quick detour to go to four corners! the kids were pretty excited about being in four places at once (moses and eve more than gabriel and august, who were kinda grumpy from being woken up from naps in the car!) and we had fun running around for a while.

the next morning we went to petrified forest np! that place feels like another planet! we thought it was the coolest thing ever when we saw a few pieces of petrified wood and then we realised we were going to see hundreds and hundreds of pieces of petrified wood! we stopped at several different spots and we all were fascinated by the colors and textures of the ancient wood … and by the thought of what this place looked like millions of years ago!

here’s a little map of our basic route! and a snap from a playground stop in some random town in new mexico when ian had a work call and we needed to get some wiggles out over lunch:

the next stop was by far my favourite – white sands np! i was absolutely enamored with the experience of being surrounded on all sides as far as the eye can see with pristine white sand. the kids loved it also! (ian too – he had been there before.) we had picked up some sleds on our way to white sands and especially moses and gabriel had so, so much fun trying to get them to go fast down the dunes. we explored around several different little areas and sunk our hands and feet into the sand (which felt so nice and cool right under the surface – it was a hot sunny day!). very, very cool spot on earth!

roswell, new mexico was just a tiny detour out of the way en route to our next national park so we thought what the heck and went there. we went to this random ufo spacewalk place that the kids were so excited about – blue lights and aliens and spaceships! as we were finding a bathroom for a potty break after, i spotted an ad for a lego place and we decided mo & gabes needed to go there, too 🙂 it was pretty cool. roswell is so, so random – but a fun little stop!

our next park was carlsbad caverns! we went through the natural entrance and wandered through this startlingly huge cave and then took the elevator back up into the visitor’s center. it was wild and amazing!

guadalupe mountains is just short drive from carlsbad caverns, just over the border into texas. we found a trail to explore there, but honestly were very underwhelmed by the scenery (spoiled by too many other national parks!) and we were tired from all our adventuring … so our stop at guadalupe mountains was short. but sweet!

our final national park was big bend. there, it was hot and also quite spectacular in its own way! the kids were excited about seeing mexico right on the other side of the rio grande. we even crossed the river a couple times – we went to mexico! (they thought that was so cool.) after our first hike (at the end of which august and i waded across the river together), we got ice cream which was a very welcome cool-down! then we explored another part of the park a little bit before finding a taco truck for dinner.

we stayed at this cool old-wild-west-esque inn and the next morning went to the visitors center and a different corner of the park which provided different views and experiences along the rio grande.

that evening, we drove to abilene – where ian’s brother and his family live! we snuck the kids into bed since we arrived late and then got to stay up chatting with brigham and lucia. in the morning, the cousins had a lot of fun together!

from abilene it was on to allen (where ian’s parents live). the drive was actually stunning because the grassy areas in the middle of the highways were covered in gorgeous wildflowers (i can’t believe i didn’t take any photos!). it was a joyful reunion with grandma and grandpa, and also ian’s sister and her two little boys who live in fort worth and came to hang out and watch the eclipse with us! oh, and also a very happy reunion with the basketball game in the upstairs of grandma and grandpa’s house 🙂 we slept over and then the next day was all about anticipating the eclipse!! we were counting down minutes and hours and also constantly checking the weather to see what cloud cover would be like. we got out our eclipse glasses and watched as the moon started to cover the sun and marveled as the world around us got verrrry gradually darker and darker. the kids played and climbed trees and ate and had fun while we waited for the moment of totality!

and then, the moment came! it was honestly so so so indescribably cool – exceeded my expectations 100 fold! it was seriously so amazing to witness. i was floored! and while there were lots of clouds we did get a clear view of totality for about one minute as the clouds moved across the sky.
it. was. incredible!!

we decided to rush off to hit the road before traffic got crazy – we snapped some photos, gave some hugs and dashed out, a loooong drive ahead of us!

we managed to miss any bad traffic, and watched the moon continue to move away from in front of the sun through the sunroof (and our eclipse glasses) as we left the dallas area. on the way home we stopped at a random motel to stay overnight, and also at capulin volcano national monument. it was a long drive, and we were so excited when we got back to utah!

what a packed spring break! such a great family adventure.