day 11 May 25 Green River to Vernal, Ut

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May 25 Day 11 Green River, Co to Vernal, Ut

I guess you can call this a vacation day. Our day consisted of driving about 3 hours to Vernal, checking into our hotel, then reading and napping the day away. Vernal is the gateway to Dinosaur National Park. As we drive down the main street many of the signs are dinosaur related. Of course, we are staying at the Best Western Dinosaur Inn and just down the highway is the Dinosaur Museum (a must-see, I am told). We are in the Utahame Basin, a huge expanse of nothing to see except mounds of grey like-dirt and dry creeks and the ubiquitious desert scrup. We did climb a mountain pass and got stuck behind a truck going about 5 miles per hour for quite a while - great relief to finally pass.

I know there are lots of creatures out there, but we rarely see them. We saw a sign warning us of eagles on the road and there is the occassional "open range" signs that means to look out for cattle on the road. Now and then we see the cute little bunny standing alongside the road. Then there was the prairie dog I saw standing high (maybe 5 inches) right in my lane. I'm going about 80 and there's a little bump and that's it. The prairie dog is no more except road kill for the crows that are everywhere. M almost cried. "That poor, little thing." Lots of "Elk Crossing" signs. I DO NOT want to run into one of those things!

We drove through Carbon County - one of those self-explaining signs - and low and behold, we go around a bend in the road and there is the carbon mill with the conveyor belt spitting out huge piles of black stuff. They have huge cooling towers, so, at first, I thought this was a nuclear powered generating plant. I was so intrigued that I missed my turn and got the GPS lady really angry with me. I placated her by whispering softly, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. It won't happen again."

We are a little over one-half of the trip and I'm really pleased with what I've seen so far. Our two favorites are Zion and Arches just for their pure scenic value. The Dead Horse Point panoramic view may have been better than Grand Canyon because we were much closer to the view and the Colorado River. Mesa Verde had tremendous views and offered us a glimpse into the past with its cliff dwellings - very interesting. Capitol Reef offers amazing geological views of its 100 mile long high and colorful cliffs. The drive from Zion to Natural Bridges, Capitol Reef to Mexican Hat is just something to see. I loved Monument Valley - neat! The Durango-Silverton Rail Road was an interesting and relaxing ride - well worth the price of the ticket. Tomorrow we go through Dinosaur, then drive north through Flaming Gorges, Grand Teton, then Yellowstone. It will be a long and beautiful drive.

When I left Redwood City, gas was $3.39 per gallon. The further east I go, the lower the price, but not much lower. Here, in the beautiful city of Vernal, the price is the lowest I've seen, $2.96 per gallon - that's a difference of 45 cents.

We've been away from the news, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I saw on the TV that Barry Bonds hit his Babe Ruth tieing home run and that's pretty much it for me. Read the Salt Lake newspaper for a few minutes. Ugggh! M and I talked about how we missed seeing our families, our grand kids expecially. But, in another week or so, we will see them again.

No pictures today. M would not let me take a picture of the squished prairie dog.

Bye, for now.

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Comments

[rpemrich]

We're SO EXCITED.................
.............because of your excellent rendition of places and events, we are definitely following your lead into the wilderness next year. Sounds awesome and very, very enjoyable. You need to be published Kon !!