Rockies Caravan - Part 5 - Dinosaurs and Flaming Gorge - STR-2021…

Sunday, 28 August

After several clear days without smoke/haze, the smoke is back. As we headed north from Moab at 7am, the sun looked like a red ball in the sky - very different from the sunrise we watched two days ago.

Today's itinerary was repositioning to Vernal, UT, about 230 miles north. The recommended route was to remain in Utah and take US 191. Our Wagonmaster said not to take the route through Colorado as the roads were worse.

A quick check of the recommended route saw that it went through Helper, UT, home of the Carbon Country Club Golf Course. Conveniently located about 2 hours from Moab and 2 hours from Vernal. By leaving Moab at 7am, we arrived early at the golf course and were able to take advantage of a cancellation to start earlier than our scheduled tee time.

The course was nice and in good condition. We both had a mix of good hits and ones we wished we could do over. Darrell managed to lead at the turn. Kris played the back nine better, but wasn't able to catch Darrell.

Although there was a Starbucks a few miles away, they were out of caramel for our usual treat. So Kris had to settle for a rain check.

We continued on to Vernal, stopping by Walmart for some provisions as did a number of folks on the caravan. Our campground for tonight was Fossil Valley RV Park in Vernal, UT.

The Wagonmaster held a short meeting at 7pm to go over the events for the next couple of days.

Monday, 30 August

With the first caravan event not until 9:45, the four of us (Darrell x2, Kris and Brenda) got breakfast across the street, then the two Darrell's headed for Lowe's for some materials for a project.

At 9:45am, everyone lined up for the short caravan to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum.

Surrounded by life-size dinosaurs, the museum offers a number of interactive displays and exhibits on the region's prehistoric fossils and artifacts. There we learned about the exposed geological history of the rock layers in an 80-mile radius of Vernal - described as one of the most complete fossil and geologic records in the world.

The rotunda of the field house had a full-size dinosaur skeleton, one of several exhibits.

Lots and lots of exhibits on the geologic significance of the region, with emphasis on dinosaurs.

We enjoyed a group lunch at Cafe Rio Mexican Grill, marveling at how they managed the 60 people who descended on the restaurant.

After lunch, we went to Dinosaur National Monument to visit the dinosaur quarry. The Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center in Dinosaur National Monument, is about 15 miles east of Vernal.

Dinosaur National Monument includes one of Earth's richest known dinosaur fossil beds. These remains are from the Jurassic period 150 million years ago. During a drought, many dinosaurs died near river's edge. When rains returned, floodwaters carried the jumbled bones of over 500 dinosaurs, representing 10 species, here.

Ancient river settlements, now called Morrison sandstone, entombed the dinosaur bones. Minerals then saturated the bones (though some organic material survive) and cast of them in stone. Erosion eventually exposed the fossils. In 1909 Earl Douglas, of Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum, declared this site "the best looking dinosaur prospect I have ever found."

Surprisingly, the park video on the National Monument was showing in the visitor center theater - most of the National Park Service theaters we have visited since May have been closed for COVID. An interesting overview of the work that goes into fossil digs and recovery. Very meticulous, detail work.

We then boarded the tram to the Quarry Exhibit Hall, a building constructed to showcase an actual excavation of dinosaur bones. The world famous wall of dinosaur bones is displayed in a brand new Exhibit Hall. The wall has bones of over 1,500 fossils in bedded in the rock. You can even touch some of the 149 million year old fossils.

We carpooled back to Vernal and three of us took advantage of the Great Clips across the highway to get haircuts.

Tuesday, 31 August

Today's itinerary was repositioning to Rock Springs, WY (113 miles) for an overnight stop as we make our way to Grand Teton National Park. The itinerary suggested visiting the Flaming Gorge Visitor Center & Dam and Red Canyon Visitor Center enroute as the driving route went through part of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.

Darrell (H) and Brenda had visited Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area on a motorcycle trip and made some good recommendations. So we made an adventure plan for the reposition day.

First up was for the four of us to depart at 8am, before the caravan pancake breakfast and anyone else from the caravan, to take advantage of the cooler morning temperatures to hike to Moonshine Arch, a 1.4 mile hike rated "east" in AllTrails. We parked the RVs at the Steinaker Nature Trail and used Brenda and Darrell (H)'s Toad to drive the last couple of miles to the trailhead. The last mile and a half to the trailhead was on a gravel/dirt road. The trail brochure indicated it was possible to drive to the arch, but it required some high clearance, technical driving.

We parked in the gravel parking area, and as we started on the trail, the term "technical" must have been dated as the erosion was significant. However, we did see some recent ATV/UTV tracks that lead to the arch.

Fortunately, most of the trail was sand or slickrock, and was a fairly easy hike although we had over 250 feet of elevation rise.  Darrell (H) was sporting his new waist pack.

The arch is about 85 feet in length and 40 feet above the ground

The arch was as impressive as any in Arches National Park - and we had it all to ourselves.

The two Darrell's enjoyed some rock scrambling behind the arch and on the rocks around the arch.

After the hike and retrieving the RVs, we caravanned to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area (Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway Highlight Tour: https://www.redcanyonlodge.com/media/uploads/files/Byway-Highlight-Tour.pdf)

First stop was the Red Canyon Visitor Center located atop a peninsula overlooking the lake. Perched high above the reservoir, the visitor center offers commanding views of the 700' wide and 1,400' deep Red Canyon that frames the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.  The views from inside the Visitor Center were impressive.

One of the visitor center exhibits we found very interesting was a plumbing picture of the Colorado River basin showing the rivers, the man made lakes and the major uses of the water. Note the amount that flows into the Gulf of California.

As impressive as the views were from behind the glass in the visitor center, it was even more impressive when we walked out to the Red Canyon Overlook.

Another recommendation from Brenda and Darrell for their motorcycle trip was to drive the Sheep Creek Geologic Loop.

We left the RVs at the Visitor Center and rode in their Toad.

The Sheep Creek Geologic Loop is a drive through geologic time as the route takes you through the center of the Uinta Crest Fault. Along the way, various rocks layers got pushed up, exposed and eroded. Some of the rock formations towered hundreds of feet above the road.

A very scenic drive.

On the west side of the loop, we stopped to look at the Uinta Crest Fault.

Returning to the Red Canyon Visitor Center, we saw a herd of big horn sheep grazing near the road, so we started a small animal jam. Just practice for next week.

Reunited with our RVs, we started heading for Rock Springs. We stopped at the Flaming Gorge Dam Visitor Center at the Flaming Gorge Dam. We were disappointed to learn that the free dam tours were closed. So we had to settled for the visitor center exhibits and the overlook of the dam

We continued to Rock Springs to the Pilot Butte Campground at the Sweetwater Events Complex in Rock Springs, WY. Driving US 191 for much of this leg was driving on top of a ridge with a lot of scenic views. It made me wonder if this was a Wyoming version of Alaska's Top of the World highway.

Sweetwater Events Complex is basically a huge fairground with over 1,200 campsites, most are full hookup. It is where some of the big RV clubs like FMCA and Escapees hold their national conventions. Not a destination RV park, but a convenient overnight stop if you need one around Rocks Springs.