My husband, our 3-year-old golden retriever, and I, decided to embark on a journey road tripping to Moab, Utah from Springfield, Missouri May of 2023. This was the first time we took our sweet Patches on a vacation with us, so this was definitely going to be an experience for all of us. We loaded up our truck and headed West. Our first stop was the quaint artsy town of Taos, New Mexico. As we got closer to Taos, we noticed mountains and streams alongside the road, then the adobe architecture.

The word Adobe in spanish means mudbrick. The materials used to build these structures are composites of organic materials such as sand, clay, silt, dung, water, straw and so on. Structures built with these materials are more common in the Southwest of the United States and are durable in dryer climates such as in this area.

After driving for over 750 miles, we were ready to stretch and relax. We had booked a room at the pet friendly Taos Inn ( Taos Inn, a historic hotel in the heart of Taos, New Mexico. | Top Taos Hotel | Taos Inn ). We were greeted and welcomed by the delightful Innkeeper. The room was very southwest style with the local adobe architecture and was beautiful and perfect for an overnight rest. Patches even had his own bed to sleep on! We ate at the restaurant at the Inn, and I would rate both the Inn and its restaurant 5 out of 5 stars. The next morning, we walked around the town in the little shops, then took off towards Moab.

We checked in at the pet friendly Expedition Lodge (Expedition Lodge | Expedition Lodge Moab UT ). It’s location and price were perfect for us. We didn’t plan on spending much time at the lodge, except to rest. The next day we were going to head towards the La Sal Mountains. We woke up, harnessed Patches up, and headed to the main office of the lodge for our free breakfast and coffee. The temperature and dry atmosphere were so comfortable. We were surrounded by views of beautiful red canyons. We couldn’t wait to venture out and discover more.

Heading Southeast of Moab on Highway 128 East for just over 15 miles, we found the Castle Valley/La Sal Loop Road. This heads towards the La Sal Mountains and into the Manti-La Sal National Forest. The views on this road were beautiful and vast. The mixture of snowcapped mountains and red canyons in the same view were spectacular. As we continued on this road, it led us to The Bull Canyon Overlook Dinosaur Tracksite. This was amazing! The size of these dinosaur prints was astounding.

Once we got to the Bull Canyon Overlook Dinosaur Tracksite, it was a short walk to the fossilized tracks. These dinosaur tracks were created when a dinosaur in the suborder theropoda, walked in sand that has now hardened into an Entrada Sandstone layer. These tracks are said to date back to the Jurassic Period, 145-200 million years ago!

Patches’ favorite part of this day’s excursion was to jump into the mountain stream and play as we were heading back down the Mountains. After playing for about 30 minutes in the stream, we decided to go back to Moab to eat and rest up for our next adventure… so stay tuned.. because Patches let’s his fur down on day 2 of our next Utah outing…. and gets into a little mischief.