Day 17 and 18: Boise to Dinosaur National Monument to Estes Park. CO

It was sad to leave our friends after such a brief visit, but on Memorial Day we departed Boise to Dinosaur National Monument (Utah side). It was another long drive in which we again passed through Salt Lake City. It was rainy for much of the drive and at one point I pulled over because hail was sticking to the road making it icy.
We had a campsite reserved at Green River Campground in Dinosaur National Monument near Jensen, Utah and we were all a bit wary of camping due to the continued bad weather. Fortunately, the rain subsided as we arrived at the campground around 7pm. After erecting the tent and having dinner in a drizzle, I made the kids load back in the car for a car tour of the park. We didn't do a hike because the sun was about to set, the sky still threatened rain, and Ezi said he was coming down with a cold. Luckily, the rain stopped as the boys and I began the Tour of Tilted Rocks. This car tour was actually really fun, especially because we were the only ones driving around the park. I let Ezikai drive, so he was extra excited. The drive took us to petroglyphs, strange geological rock formations, the Green River, a private ranch, and an old homestead. It was dark by the time we got to the old homestead and the darkness made everything a little spooky and we didn't stick around long. There was a large lizard petroglyph we had somehow driven past on our way to the homestead, so on the way back to the campsite we made sure to stop and see it. To see the lizard we had to climb up a trail to a rock outcropping. It was challenging to climb in the dark, but also fun and a little scary. We went back to the tent and climbed into our sleeping bags around 10pm.
The forecast called for a chance of rain all night and into the morning. It only rained lightly a few times in the morning, but when we woke up the rain had stopped. The tent had to be packed wet, but we did it quickly and got to the Dinosaur National Monument Visitor Center in time to catch the 8:30am trolley to the Quarry.
The Quarry is a two-story covered area of excavated rock. From two viewing levels visitors can gaze upon a crazy amount of  uncovered dinosaur bones still held in rock. Most of the bones are from large dinosaurs. The bones are in a jumble and come from hundreds of individual dinosaurs. It really is amazing to see. Apparently there is only one other place in the world (China) where there is such a concentration of dinosaur bones.
There is a Fossil Discovery Trail that goes from the Quarry back to the Visitor Center. We followed the trail and were able to see a few dinosaur bones still in the rocks along the way. Visiting Dinosaur National Monument was a super amazing and unique experience.
Another long drive awaited us as we left the Monument. It was a stressful drive because rain and snow were in the forecast again and our destination was up in the mountains. I am from warm, flat places and driving in icy mountainous conditions freaks me out. Snow did fall on us as we drove through Vail, CO, but fortunately the road never became icy. Around 6:30pm we got to Estes Park. We arrived without incident, as the weather cleared up nicely. Since snow was predicted at any time, we checked into the hotel then went straight to the grocery store. When we got back to the hotel we switched rooms because the original one we were given smelled badly of mildew. A remodeled room had just been finished and we gratefully moved all of our stuff there. We made dinner in the microwave, ate, showered, and went to bed.