Land of the Dinosaurs, Red Rocks, and Outlaws

Manila, Utah (82 degrees during the day, low 50's at night, occasional  brief showers)

"Dinosaurs may be extinct 

from the face of the planet

but they are alive and well

in our imaginations"

Steve Miller

We spent five action packed days at Dinosaur National Monument, Flaming Gorge Recreation Area, and Ashley National Forest. Lots of miles were put on the jeep as we went up and down the mountain passes trying to see as much as possible. We did not allot enough time  to see this BIG area but we made a valiant attempt. 

Flaming Gorge Recreation Area

The mountain passes oftentimes are  8% grades with elevations over 10,000 feet. John did a great job. Lucerne Campground is located in a tiny town called Manila and many of the sites have lakes views of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. It's right on the border of Utah and Wyoming and is a Forest Service camp ground run by a concessionaire.The drive down the mountain to the reservoir along the flaming cliffs is spectacular. 

Flaming Gorge  Reservoir

Once again we used the my scenic road trip website to plan our first excursion. Click here for the complete details and map. It recommend stopping at the Swett Ranch and Flaming Gorge Dam. We traveled down a long dirt road to the forest service site where the ranch was located. We had a nice tour with a volunteer of the buildings and grounds. It's a classic ranch established in 1909 by Oscar and Emma Swett. They started with a one room cabin and then two and finally after having nine children built a larger home. They lived here until 1960. This area at the time was very remote and you had to be very self reliant. 

Swett Ranch

Volunteer Forest Service Jim showed us all around the Swett Ranch

Sweet ranch

Flaming Gorge Dam

Not far from the ranch is the huge Flaming Gorge Dam. The road trip website recommended taking the free tour. What a great tip! After going through a security check our  guide took us across the top of the dam and then down an elevator to the very bottom where  the power plant was located.  She told us all about the building of the dam (built in 1960). The most spectacular part was seeing the power of the water jetting out the bottom of the dam into the Green River. 

Flaming Gorge Dam

Water jetting out of the reservoir into the Green River

Dam Overlook - Green River

This is taken from the base of the dam. Watching the water jetting out of the reservoir was an amazing sight

View from the base of the dam looking up

Red Canyon Visitor Center

The volunteer at the ranch also recommended a side trip to the Red Canyon Lodge and Visitor Center. The pictures below are taken inside the visitor center. What a view the Forest Service employees and volunteers have working there.

Red Canyon Overlook

The reservoir below is 1700 feet deep and 4000 feet wide. Many explores like John Wesley Powell and William Ashley traveled this river. Other visitors in this area included Indians, fur trappers, ranchers, mountain men and even outlaws like Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch hid out here.It has quite a colorful history.

Red Canyon Overlook 

Lake at Red Lodge. Cabins for rent surrounded this peaceful place.

Red Canyon Lodge

This visitor centers have these free quides with lots of road trip idea

Map of area

Sheep Creek Loop

This was another full day road trip from the Manila area. It rained on and off but the scenery was still delightful. There are a lot of very cool rock formations on this byway. . 

We continued on the Spirit Lake Backway which had been highly recommended by several people. It was mostly a gravel road but easy to navigate. It dead-ends at the beautiful Spirit Lake. It thought it was a perfect name for this special place. There is a small restaurant there ran by a barefoot crew and small cabins for rent. It looked like it could have used a little TLC but the views overcame the cabin conditions. We then drove back the same way and saw a few dispersed camping sites in this area. A storm had passed through and sleet was in the area we had recently passed by on the way up. Camping in a tent right now would be chilly. 

Spirit Lake Backway

Young moose enjoying the wildflowers

Leidy Peak in the distance

Spirit Lake

Dinosaur National Monument

Our last day was spent at Dinosaur National Monument. It is about a two hour drive from Manila. We found it to be fascinating. From 1909-24 Earl Douglass, a paleontologist hired by Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh evacuated thousands of dinosaur bones from  this area. Oftentimes complete skeletons were found.(over 700,000 pounds of material was excavated) The remains were shipped to Pittsburgh and over time the fossilized bones have been displayed in museums all over the world. A part of this quarry wall still exists at the park and hundreds of bones are encased in the rock of the wall. There were volunteers and staff throughout the quarry area to answer questions. This wall was originally a river bed which encased the dinosaurs in a type of rack called Morrison Formation. 

Morrison Foundation rock known to oftentimes contain dinosaur bones

John and his new friend outside the Visitor Center

Shuttle to Quarry Exhibit Hall from Visitor Center (you can also hike out to it)

Quarry Exhibit Hall built right into the famous site

Skull of a meat eating dinosaur - most intact specimen

After visiting the quarry exhibit we drove the Cub Creek Road. Be sure to buy an auto tour brochure from the Visitor Center for $1. It's called the Tour of the Tilted Rock- good description. There are some interesting petroglyphs, rock formations, and historic home sites. 

Petroglyph

Green and Yampa Rivers

Turtle Rock - can you see it?

Elephant toes Butte

Jose Morris Cabin-a very interesting lady who was a local legend. 

We traveled back to our campground through the town of Vernal . I didn't get any photos but there were  hundreds of the most beautiful hanging baskets and planters dispersed all throughout the town.

Lessons learned:  our campground was a nice place to stay but very remote. If you have a boat and love to fish it's perfect. However, if you would rather sight see there is a lot of driving involved going back and forth. We saw a really nice campground in the Dinosaur National Monument called Green River which would have been more convenient and can handle a big rig. We would also suggest allowing more time to see this really interesting area. We will definitely return here again. 

Lucerne Lake Campground

Our site (50 amp electric only

We are now in Grand Teton National Park visiting with friends and family. We worked there two years ago and it feels like home to us.  It's a very special place. Be sure to check back soon.

A Scenic Paddle and Road Trip - Grand Junction Colorado

Fruita, Colorado (96 degrees, blue skies, very, very hot)

"A river seems a magic thing.

A magic, moving, living part

of the earth itself."

Laura Glipin

John viewing the Colorado National Monument

Our guide book says the best way to see Colorado National Monument is to take a paddle trip down the Colorado River which run in front of this beautiful park. The next day after arriving in Fruita Colorado we went to a local raft company (Rim Rock Adventures) and arranged a drop off eight miles from their take out. It was the best $20 we have spent for such a service. 

The river was running very fast and cold and seemed to boil as we traveled quickly down it. We were a little bit nervous about going down such a large and fast moving river. However, the brightly colored cliff walls rising 2000 feet above us quickly overcame our fears and they drifted away.

It was a perfect day for a paddle. We left early because the weather has been very hot in the afternoon. We never saw another kayak or raft on our route. It was so serene and delightful. 

It ended far too quickly. We plan to  take a drive up to the park and seeing the great rock sculptures up close. We are staying at John M Robb State Park in Fruita Colorado and it is close to the National Monument. It's a lovely campground. We had 30 amp service ($26/night) which barely kept up with the hot weather. However, there are 50 amp full service sites (a few). The sites are irrigated and very well landscaped. We had a nice level site with a concrete slab and shaded picnic table.  It's located on the Colorado River and lots of folks were launching rafts for multi day camping trips. Our only complaint was we had previously obtained a Colorado State Park pass for the jeep. However, they also made us buy one for the motorhome. Sheesh! 

The Colorado National Monument is easy to view along the 23 mile Rim Rock Drive. There are numerous overlooks with descriptive names like Coke Ovens, Independence Monument, Balanced Rock View, and Distant View. Follow along with us as we travel into the park.

Independence Monument

On the 4th of July someone climbs this and plants an American Flag on top 

Artist Point

Coke Ovens

The wind sculpts many of these cliffs as evidenced in this photo. Note the curve of the long rock wall

Fallen Rock must have made quite a crash

Note all the different rock layers

There are numerous trails here, but it was just too hot to manage one. However, the loop drive offered breathtaking views throughout.

The next day we decided to take a road trip up to the Grand Mesa, the worlds largest flat top mesa rising from 5000 to 11,237 feet. .It was a delightful and refreshingly 30 degrees cooler up there. We used myscenicdrives.com website to help us plan this adventure. Click here to see the complete details of the drive. 

I copied this photo of the Grand Mesa from Trip Adviser. It was difficult to find a place to get this view. 

From a distance the mesa appears to be very barren but this was not the case at all. There are over 300 lakes up there with beautiful forests and lots of wildflowers blooming. We packed a lunch and enjoyed a nice lakeside picnic along the way. It was a perfect day.

Mesa Lakes Recreation Area

Looks like snow but it was some type of wildflower

The drive out to Lands End Observatory was interesting and the views were great. Some of the road was paved but mostly it was gravel. It ends at the now abandoned observatory built by the CCC. 

Road out to Lands End

View below obscured due to recent fires in California

Lands End Observatory

Wildflowers

We were up almost with the clouds at this point

Friendly Forest Service Visitor Center

It was a long road trip but a fun one. We spent our last day touring the vineyards and fruit farms in Palisades. Of course, I had to stop to taste test a few wines. This was an enjoyable area to visit with lots to see and do. My only recommendation is to go earlier in the spring to avoid the high temperatures. 

Vineyards and fruit farms

Our next stop is Flaming Gorge on the border of Utah and Wyoming. We heading into Outlaw Country where Butch Cassidy hid out with the Wildbunch.