Grand Junction, CO to Flaming Gorge Campground, UT 8/27 to 9/3/17

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THE BASICS

From Grand Junction, we drove back, and up, to Grand Mesa for a picnic and to enjoy the cool breezes - it was high 90's back in Grand Junction. We went in the pool and hot tub all three nights we were there. John went up to the Colorado National Monument the next day, but I did laundry and lazed. The next few days, we headed north and west a few dozen miles per day. Between Grand Junction and Rangely, we went through one scary mountain pass. Walked a bunch in Rangely and treated ourselves to a nice Italian dinner. Next day, on to Jensen, a gateway to Dinosaur National Monument, which we visited and enjoyed very much. On to Vernal, a larger town for this area of northeast Utah. We hiked toward a special site until storms threatened. Next day, we drove to Flaming Gorge recreational area and settled in a campground that is so pleasant, and relatively cool (80's), that we are staying three nights. We took a tour of the Flaming Gorge Dam, which controls the Green River. And yesterday we drove to Manila, on the west side of the reservoir, and identified various formations on the Geologic Loop. This morning, we took a nice hike from the campground to the edge of the canyon.

THE FLUFF

Grand Mesa is such a wonderful place, at 100 miles in length the longest mesa in the world. When you reach the forested areas, there are dozens of lakes and camp-grounds, although we determined that our RV would be quite stressed to get to them. We returned to the lake overlook where we picnicked two years ago, and ate our lunch. We had to wrap towels and blankets over us in our chairs, and the cool was delicious. The view across an immense valley toward more mountains, as we descended, was not quite as spectacular as two years ago because of the smoke from western and northern wildfires. Back down at our campground, the hot tub was quite delightful as the sun finally set.

As I said above, I was lazy the next day and stayed put. John went up to the Colorado National Monument, a gorgeous red-cliffed drive, and hiked some. Afterward, he had a nice surprise: he went to Walmart to get the Corolla tires rotated and they said it would be an hour and a half wait. So he asked if there was anywhere else, and they recommended a place nearby, where they did it right away, and did not charge him! I wonder if people are just more conscious of being nice because of the reporting of the flooding in Houston and other parts of Texas.

We headed north, but didn't escape the heat. I disliked a mountain pass we had to go through. But otherwise, it was interesting to watch the pipeline routes that paralleled our route. The terrain was rolling desert hills, mostly uninhabited currently. We pulled into a town camper park in Rangely, and were a bit surprised to have to pay $20 for an electric hookup, period. Later in the afternoon, we walked to the local library to access wifi, and arrived dripping wet. I researched restaurants and discovered that we just happened to pass the top rated one en route back to the park. We had a generous meal, and bottles of beer for $3.75 each (always, not happy hour). There was a tableful of attractive, strong young men who arrived in trucks advertising crane work; there is a lot of energy-related construction in this northwest corner of Colorado.

Next day, we headed toward Dinosaur National Monument, stopping at a very nice visitors center en route. The folks there told us that on Saturday evening, the Utah Symphony was scheduled to play at one of the campgrounds in the monument, in front of a huge rock backdrop. It was, they said, the first time the symphony had played outside of their regular hall, so it was a big deal, with shuttles for parking, etc. etc. When we got to Jensen, we parked in an immense but sparsely populated RV campground, just across the road from the road to the monument. We went to the visitors center at the monument, and they suggested we take the 10 mile drive, and in the hot afternoon, we could go indoors to the wall of dinosaur bones. The drive was wonderful! There are two camping areas, both down by the Green River, and they looked like real winning spots. We drove on through a variety of landscapes and road surfaces, and arrived at Josie's cabin. Josie built it in a clearing when she was 40, and died at age 90 in 1964. After our little picnic, we hiked into one of the canyons where she used to herd her cattle. I am fascinated by homesteads which women managed alone, by the fact that they had lots of social contacts and a fair amount of comfort.

The fossil wall back near the visitors center is awesome. Many of the bones are really big! When the area was first uncovered, sets of bones were sent off to museums all over. Then they decided to preserve what they had uncovered, so we get to look at a vertical wall with masses of bones. They won't continue excavating on that wall. So often as we travel, we learn that one person had been the driving force to get a special place recognized as a national park or monument. That seems like a wonderful kind of passion.

On Thursday, we drove a whole 14 miles to Vernal, Utah, which is a relatively large town. It has a bunch of dinosaur and history museums, but I have to admit we skipped the museums. Someone at the Vernal visitors center advised us to hike to Moonshine Arch north of town. You drive in on a dirt road, then park and hike a mile or more to an awesome sight. Well, we turned onto the first dirt road we spotted, and it was a nightmare. John finally pulled off and parked at the top of a very deeply rutted decline. We hiked along the road and after a long while, came to a wide, dirt, but well-maintained road. We just kept walking toward the parking lot for the arch. By the time we got there, we were surrounded by dark gray clouds and decided the best idea was to go back to our car. So we missed the arch and will have to resort to our memories from Arches and Canyonlands N.P.'s. It poured soon after we got back to the RV, so our cop-out was vindicated.

John had been interested in seeing the Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River, so that was our next destination. We drove separately because I couldn't face another mountain pass, on the passenger side and high up in the RV. This gets to seem silly because the main roads are excellent, have pulloffs at good spots and reasonable numbers of guard rails. I've made some progress, but this drive was minimally stressful. We had a reservation for one night at the Flaming Gorge Resort campground, but it is so nice that it is now our third night here. The RV's are ringed around a big open field and there are a fair number of kids. We are in a forested area, although there is also open range and many warnings to beware of cows in the road. And they do tend to amble along road sides.

We headed on down the road to the Flaming Gorge Dam for a tour. We had to wait the better part of an hour, but the tour was very interesting. We walked along the top, then took an elevator for a view of the bottom. (I don't know why I didn't have any near-panic attacks, maybe because the guard fences looked very sturdy, but John was surprised and pleased.) We fed fish at the bottom. The guide called them babies - they were about two feet long. She said that farther down the river, past the dam barricades, there are 10,000 fish per mile. This area is a fisherman's paradise. There are raft trips available nearby, seven or fourteen miles. Someday...

Flaming Gorge is so named because of the red soil of the cliffs above the reservoir. The red of the cliffs and the green of the river seem very Christmasy. It is a very beautiful area.

Yesterday, it was not quite so scenic since we were again visited by smoke from wildfires. We stopped at a visitors center just west of here, and the guide told us that we absolutely had to continue on that road to Manila, "the prettiest little town I've ever seen." And the road has a Geologic Loop connected to it, which John was very interested in. Well, the road to Manila had a lot of steep switchbacks and I didn't enjoy that part of it. We got to the town, and there didn't seem to be much to it. John and I were very puzzled. It's quite true that many guides give excellent advice but others give advice unsuitable for us. We went to the, the one, cafe in town, intending to have a coffee. But we decided that we deserved ice cream. Nice treat; odd lunch.

The Geologic Loop was very interesting (and avoided the worst turns of the main road). We could see so many layers of rock formed by the upheavals in this Uinta area. By the way, I was often amazed in the last few days to see salt deposits high on hills and mountains, left from when this was part of an inland sea.

Today we began with a hike from the campground which didn't go quite where John had planned but was really nice. I had expected to be in the blazing sun, but there was frequent shade from small trees. The hike ended at the edge of the gorge, and we had a wonderful view of the green forests, red cliffs, blue water with a few boats already out.

I guess we have to leave tomorrow and head for Wyoming. We're having a wonderful time. So lucky, and we know it. Love, Linda and John

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