Green River to Vernal

Through the mountains to see Dinosaurs!

Yep, we have arrived in Dinosaur National Monument.  Our original plans had us setting up at the Green River campground in the National Monument (strict boondocking) but they changed when we ran into a battery issue for my CPAP.  Also, it’s 90 degrees here so the A/C is almost a necessity.

We left Green River (the town) in Wyoming and headed down State route 530 to the Utah line where it turns into 43 and then into Manila where you hang a right on S.R. 44 and follow it to U.S.191 into Vernal.  Okay, this sounds like an easy run and simple directions but lest you think we could take a simple route, read on.

You leave Green River and enter into a foreign alien landscape that bears caution.  This land could kill you, on foot, horse or in a vehicle.  It is hot, the roads are straight with hidden dips and curves and not overly well maintained.  There is no shade that is readily available, just greasewood and bunch grass as far as the eye can see.  There is a gash in the earth on your left that you can see at times but it looks just as foreboding.  At the bottom of that gash is the Green River, that flowing life-giving river of legend and song.  You eventually get to see the Flaming Gorge Reservoir, held back by the Flaming gorge Dam, creating the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  You pass dirt roads with recreation signs on them pointing out into the barren landscape to points of fun on this man-made lake.  Once you cross into Utah things change.  You start the long climb into the Uinta mountains.  This climb starts at the level of the reservoir (about 6000 feet above sea level) and nears the 10,000-foot level as you cross through the mountains to Vernal.

The climb up from the canyon at Sheep Creek is a switch-backed slow climb offering opportunities for the navigator to snap photos along with a couple pull-offs where you can get out and get some great photos of the lake and canyon.  A word of warning on this road; make sure your brakes are in great shape and if you have exhaust or motor braking on your tow vehicle you are miles ahead.  I smelled plenty of hot brakes on this drive as other tow vehicles and RV’s passed going downhill.

The landscape changes to a different kind of surreal, as the rock are upthrust at angles from when this country was in formation upheaval.  Slow and easy is the watchword for the driver as everyone in your vehicle ogles the surrounding vistas.  When you get to the top of the pass, not only have you climbed almost 4,000 feet but you have dropped 30 degrees in ambient temperature.  We experienced 91 degrees in Manila and our thermometer bottomed out at 56 degrees in the high Uinta meadow at the pass.  It was a little incongruous to see tow vehicles hauling fancy speed boats and jet skis up the road into the mountains and forest for if you didn’t know the gorge was on the other side you would think they were crazy.

Going down the other side into Vernal is definitely interesting.  There are mines off to the side of the road.  And the road is definitely the only place the driver should be concentrating as the Utah DOT signs conveniently warn of 8% downgrades and 10 switchbacks.  When we hit the bottom and the Beast stretched his legs out on a straight road again it was a definite sigh of relief.

This leg of the journey is not only beautiful but technically challenging for the driver and once ensconced in our KOA spot a barley based adult beverage went down very nicely.

Next time we explore some bones and other desert things.

BFD

P.S.  If you read this far, would you drop a comment in the box and let me know what you like or don’t?

Thanks, Jeff