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| Welcome to Vernal, Utah -- I never knew they were pink... |
The first cold front of the season was headed to the Grand
Teton/Yellowstone area with temperatures heading down to the teens. We had proven in Canada that our RV could
handle 26 degrees for a few hours but we decided it would be better to leave
the Tetons a little earlier than we had wanted rather than risk frozen water
lines. We checked the forecast and the
map. Temperatures were to remain at or
above freezing in northeast Utah so Vernal, Utah became our destination.
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Beautiful orange aspen leaves
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The drive from Jackson through the Bridger-Teton National Forest on
US highway 191 into northeastern Utah was very beautiful with many aspens still in
color. At Rocksprings, Wyoming, US 191
turned south into the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. Here the Green River was damned to make this very
large blue lake in a gorge of red rocks, stark and beautiful. We descended from this high desert into the
Ashley National Forest – an amazing area that covers 6 life zones: desert,
grassland-sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, aspen-ponderosa-lodgepole, sup-alpine and
alpine.
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Ashley National Forest - aspen-ponderosa-lodgepole life zone
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Creek crossing on the Flume Trail in the Ashley N. F.
In Vernal we stayed at the Dinosaurland KOA. There was not a lot of choice of campgrounds as
most of the National Forest Campgrounds around Vernal were already closed for the season. Two state parks, Red Fleet and Steinaker were
nearby and still open but we decided to stay in town as the first day of elk season was only a
few days away and the campgrounds were filled with hunters.
We had never been to this area of Utah and were surprised at all that
there was to see and do – the variety of exposed geologic formations, Dinosaur
National Monument just a few miles away plus beautiful hiking trails and Indian
Rock Art.
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