May–13 – To Flaming Gorge

Today we moved a bit west and 50 miles north to the Flaming Gorge area of the Ashley National Forest.

We also climbed about 3500 feet in elevation from around 4700 feet to about 8200 and then down to 7500 at our campground. You know the RV is in for a rough day when you see a sign that says “5%-8% upgrades, 10 switchbacks next 4 miles”. 

Also since the campground has no hookups we had a full tank of water and I was uncertain of the availability of gas so the CRV and RV had full tanks. Therefore we were about as heavy as we could be.  We chugged up in first gear at about 20mph. Thankfully there was very little traffic and lots of passing lanes to let anyone by.

We are in the Firefighters Memorial Campground. This time of year it is first come first serve. That always worries me a bit but it turns out that we are the only people in the campground other than the hosts. So we drove through the entire campground and picked what looked like a great site. As I was paying the host confirmed that it was the best one in the park.

It doesn’t look like much from the road side.

But the view on the other side is great. This from our door.

My window.

And the roof. There is a dam just below us on the Green River and that is the reservoir behind it.

The photosphere.

After we got setup and had lunch we headed up to the Red Canyon Visitors Center. I am not sure about the distinction between Red Canyon and Flaming Gorge.

The visitors center doesn’t open until Memorial Day but there were some great viewpoints down into the Gorge/Canyon. This looking northwest.

The photosphere.

As the sign says it is 1700 feet deep and 4000 feet across.

As we walked along a bit of the canyon rim trail there were some disturbingly large cracks in the rocks.

Around the corner looking east.

Lots of viewpoints as we walk along the rim.

This looks like a nice new one.

After the short walk we headed back to the RV for an easy afternoon.

The campground is named to remember three firefighters that lost their lives fighting forest fires in the area. There is a plaque at a viewpoint near our site.

There also seems to be a fire burning that is perfectly viewed from here.

I hope it is a prescribed burn.

We will explore the area for a week.