June 16, 2009

June 16, 2009

Before leaving Vernal, UT we stop briefly at the Utah Field House of Natural History. I figure since a large dinosaur quarry is close by, the fossil collection has to be good. I am not disappointed. Although the museum is relatively small it is well designed and filled with lots of fossils.

From Vernal we drive north. Soon after, we pass a sign for Red Fleet State Park and another for Dinosaur Trackway. I can’t just drive by. The park is named after three sandstone buttes that resemble battleships to someone. A couple miles off the highway we hike three-miles to the edge of a reservoir lake. Unfortunately almost all the tracks are below the water level. We need to come back during the dry season. There is only one dino footprint visible. Even though the field expedition is a bust the hike is very pretty going thru red and white rock canyons that remind us of Capital Reef National Park in southern Utah. Many of the layered rocks in this area have been uplifted to almost vertical so we are either treading over the ends or carefully sliding down steep slick rock.

Back in the RV we continue north climbing up the Uinta Mountains to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. Flaming Gorge is a reservoir formed by a dam on the Green River. Passing Elk and Big Horn sheep, we stop at the Red Canyon Visitor Center for information and we are greeted with a great view of the 1800-foot canyon bordering the lake. Beautiful! We park for the evening at the nearby campground. Our site is literally feet from the sheer cliff edge. We are also the only ones here, and at 8400ft elevation, it is freezing. Summer comes late to the mountains.