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May 29
As we hooked up this morning it was a bright and beautiful day. David had gotten Red out early as he is still having trouble with diarrhea. He seems to feel fine, good appetite, wants to play but is still having urgency issues. As David was up fairly early with Red, I had just put my robe on and let Dottie out on our spots grass. She was cold and I was hoping to get coffee, so she didn’t dawdle. Once again David was gone some time, I almost had breakfast ready when he and Red returned. I asked if Red was having trouble and he said no they were watching the ducks! Turns out that those ducks are hungry in the morning and they can get through the pasture fence into the campground. I think the same people own both pieces of ground but not sure they intended the ducks to visit. David could hardly contain himself as he explained that the ducks were lonely and had tried to come visit him but were weary of Red so instead they went over to a nearby tent and surrounded it, quaking loudly and pecking at the tent to the
point they were dimpling it. At this point David was almost hysterical laughing. He said a lady crawled out of the tent and tried to shoo the ducks away but they surrounded her. She eventually was able to get them to move on, as they decided she had no food, and went on down to the nearby cabins. David said it was one of the funniest things he’d seen. As we left this morning I think all four of us will miss those ducks!
After breakfast David was quick to be ready to go on unhooking but I think I was a little slower, reticent about my anxiety of driving today. Before long however we were hooked up and pulling out and turning east towards Capital Reef National Monument and Hanksville Utah. From there we would turn north to Price, then northeast to Vernal. A total today of 264 miles. As we drove through Capital Reef National Monument I was regretful of not sightseeing yesterday. It was beautiful as we drove through the area and down through the canyon. I’m afraid we really missed some beautiful shots. David and I both agreed that we’d just have to comeback, but
I added not over Boulder Mountain. David laughed. The road today was slow with winding turns but not very many ups and downs.
We continued to enjoy the scenery as it changed from the red sandstone formations we’d been seeing all this time to more grey, clay like looking sediment. It was like the color of the landscape had suddenly been changed to a monochrome display. We arrived in Hanksville. David and I reminisced about the many trips we had through this tiny town. Several trips to Lake Powell’s Bull Frog Bay, and one 4x4 trip to Robbers Roast where Butch Cassidy and the outlaws hid out. We saw rocks where they had carved there names. It was great fun and David and I were saying we should do that again. I reminded David, that was in 1997, 22 years ago when we were a hell of a lot younger. I don’t think we are up to taking the Jeep across the Dirty Devil River and floating again!! David said that his mind was willing but the body not so much. As we turned north heading to Green River we passed over the river bridge which lets you cross
over the Dirty Devil River. The River was flowing pretty fast too. The Dirty Devil is one of the five rivers that contribute water to Lake Powell and on to the Grand Canyon. The rivers that flow into lake Powell are: the Green River from Wyoming, the Colorado from Colorado, the Escalante and Dirty Devil from Utah and the San Juan from New Mexico. The Green River has been the largest contribution of water of the five but snow fall in the Rockies plays a major role.
The long drive between Hanksville to Green River Utah was such a welcome drive. It was straight and with few hills. The scenery was expansive and beautiful but desolate. We turned east for 4 short miles on I-80 to Green River Utah. We found a truck stop that had a parking lot to pull into. The dogs were able to get out for a break as were we. The truck stop had a Subway so we all shared a ham sandwich before getting on the road north again out of Green River.
Highway 6/191 led on north to Price Utah from there it split and we’d take 191 to Vernal. The
road to Price was pretty straight too so I was feeling pretty good about our road choices except there was a big mountain range to the east of us and at Price we would turn east. I could only hope we’d be driving through a canyon. As we left Price we started into a canyon but then 191 turned off and at first glance both David and I got nervous. We pulled over and reviewed the map again, yeah this looked liked the right road. Campers, trucks and trailers passed us coming down toward us so I was feeling better as I merged back on to the road. For the first 10 of the 60 miles yet to go things looked pretty good as we followed a river through the canyon. Then we saw an ominous sign, “Chain Area next 12 Miles!” OMG I said are we going over a mountain pass?David agreed with my assessment but he was feeling more confident than I. So we ventured on. Now at this point I’m sitting here writing this and thinking, “Don’t these people learn from their mistakes!” I guess not is the answer. LOL.
The road continued to climb as
did we and it seemed at some point it was straight up. We could see snow along the sides of the road, the sky’s were dark with storm clouds but so far no rain or snow coming down. Would you know that as we were climbing Red started to complain bitterly about needing out. Soon the summit sign appeared 9114 feet, as well as a turnout. We let Red out as he has continued to have bouts of diarrhea. Red and Dottie did there business and the truck cooled off from the big climb and my heart rate cooled off too. As we continued my fear of the descent was short lived, yes there were some steep 7% grades but they were short. The next 20 miles was a very gradual descent down a beautiful canyon.
Thankfully the rest of the trip was easy and we were so glad to make it to Vernal.
Google lists the population of Vernal as 12,000 but to us it was much greater like 3-4 times that amount. It possible that there were multiple communities all close together. The area is a heavy oil and gas drilling area with specially manufactures.
In
no time we pulled into our campground for the next two days, the Vernal KOA. It was a nice park, pretty big, and very nice campground staff. Within minutes we were in our spot, unhooked and the dogs were enjoying a romp around the dog pen. At the recommendation of Mike the camp host we headed out for dinner and left the dogs at home. We stopped by the pet shop for some new toys then downtown to the restaurant called, The Quarry. The Quarry is a small micro brewery and also had a variety of food as well. We had a very nice meal, halibut fish and chips, and very good service. When we got home the dogs had a great time with their new toys and we crashed early. Tomorrow Dinosaur National Monument.
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