Flaming Gorge National Recreational Area, Utah

We woke up with the sun this morning. It was a very cold morning, temps in the mid 40’s. We packed up and before 7AM we were on our way. We arrived in Vernal, UT and had breakfast at McDonalds, then headed for the Flaming Gorge National Recreational Area.



Deer at the Deerlodge Park campground at the Dinosaur National Monument



Our campsite at the Deer at the Deerlodge Park campground





Sunrise over the Yampa River



Dirt road out of Deer at the Deerlodge Park campground



The road through the Dinosaur National Monument

We took 191 to the dam and visitor center first. They gave us some suggestions on camp sites, but I already read about them on the internet and had a pretty good idea where I wanted to stay. Many of the camp grounds have gravel roads, at the visitor center they have the information which camp grounds have paved roads and which have gravel roads.



Welcome to Utah



Climbing 191 North of Vernal, UT



Nice view from around 7,000 feet



The Tiger leaking antifreeze again



The Flaming Gorge dam on 191

We headed back on 191 and turned on 44 heading north. The camp grounds weren’t too far from the junction of the two roads. We were actually looking for the Red Rocks campground but next to it we found the Canyon Rim campground, even nicer with mostly tents. Canyon Rim campground is located on the southern rim of Red Canyon at 7428 feet in elevation, some 1,300 feet above the Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Views of Red Canyon and reservoir are breathtaking. The campground was $15 per night, vault toilets, no sinks or showers.



The view of the Flaming Gorge from our camp site



Lunch is served: turkey sandwich and cheetos



Dinner and snacks

We snagged camp site #9, the view was amazing and we got there just in time too, not a few minutes later people came looking at sites, they looked at ours with envy and were probably kicking themselves for not showing up earlier. At noon we were setting up our tent, we had the rest of the day to do whatever.





Relaxing on the rim of the gorge



There are gas stations and small grocery stores in the recreation area. Mike went to grab some food and I finished setting up the tent. We ate lunch and then took a hike on the Canyon Rim trail. The best views on the trail were actually from our camp site but it was nice to be able to do a long hike. We wanted to do that at the Grand Teton National Park last weekend but we got there too late.



Flaming Gorge chipmunk

After our hike we were all dusty from the trail, we discovered the platypus makes a great shower. What is it with all the big parks that they don’t have showers? We could have gotten on our bikes and gone done to the reservoir for a swim, but the nearest beach was 45 minutes from here. The platypus shower was great, we spent the rest of the evening hanging out on the rim of the canyon watching the boats down below and the sunset.

The temperatures cooled off a bit at night, bit only into the 50’s.



We did about 150 miles today