Getting to Flaming Gorge, Utah (Monday, August 23rd, 2016)

We've been having so much fun on our little adventure, so last night we decided that we would continue on today, instead of going home. We thought we would head to Telluride, a small, incredibly beautiful (or so we've heard) mountain town.  So first thing this morning, we took a look at the weather to see what it looked like in Telluride.  It showed thunderstorms all day, so we turned on the news to see what they had to say, and their news was even worse. They showed a huge storm over the entire Telluride area, with flash-flood warnings throughout the entire region.  Since we have to drive many steep mountain roads, and go over a few mountain passes to get to Telluride we decided that it no longer sounded like such a good idea. But neither of us are ready to go home yet.

So we pulled out our old trusty paper atlas, and started looking for an alternative plan.  The best thing we could see weather-wise was to head north, into north west Colorado and beyond.  So that's what we decided to do.  

We headed north out of Rifle, Colorado toward Meeker, Colorado. 
As we moved further north, the landscape became drier, but still quite beautiful.







On our way, we say a group of wild turkeys, something neither of us have seen before.  So we stopped and took a few pictures.  

And then once again enjoyed the views as we continued on. As we neared the town of Meeker, we encountered another group of turkeys,

And another.  Pretty crazy to see so many, when we have never seen them before.

When we got into the town of Meeker, we spent a little time looking around, 

A little book exchange in someone's front yard.  They are common in the smaller towns in Colorado.

and then went to their hunter and tourist information center, which is located on the highway coming in.  It is a small one room cabin, they had a nice bathroom for weary travelers like ourselves.  

At this point, we still didn't really have a plan for the day, so we decided to head further north to Flaming Gorge, Utah.  It is a National Recreation Area and Reservoir, so we thought it would be a pretty place.  

On our way, we went through the town of Rangely, Colorado, which looked to us like it survives solely on oil and gas. Everywhere we looked there were wells, tanks, and trucks.  All of the businesses in the town seemed to be related to the industry as well.  

After leaving Rangely, we continued down the highway and made a brief stop at Kenny Reservoir as it was time to get out of our long pants and put on shorts!  Yay!  

At the spillway, we met the nicest couple from Kansas.  They were on their way to Park City, Utah tonight, and would eventually head to California to tour Yosemite and then end up at the Stanford vs Kansas State Football game which is to be held on Labor Day weekend.  We had a great talk, they wished each other a safe trip and moved on down the road.

We found ourselves at the visitor center in Jensen, Utah for lunch. We had packed up our leftovers from the Thai Restaurant in Silt two days earlier.  So we laid them out in the car to warm up.  As we sat at a nice picnic area at the visitors center and ate our Thai leftovers, we once again saw the nice couple from Kansas, it appears that we are chasing each other down the road.

Jensen Utah is right outside of Dinosaur National Park, where many dinosaur bones and fossils have been found.  The whole area, including other towns like Vernal, Utah all have dinosaur themes and dinosaur parks.  It's kind of fun to drive through them.  

  

Other than that, there's not a lot out here besides farms and oil.

Vernal Utah is not a pretty town, but they have worked hard to change their look by planting flower containers all over the town.  

After leaving Vernal, we made the steep climb into Ashley National Forest.  This is where Flaming Gorge is located.  But before getting to Flaming Gorge, we noticed a huge mining operation, which we later found out was phosphorous mining.

In the high country of Colorado, as well as other states, the snow can pile up very high.  They have to extend the road markers so that they stick up above the snow so the snowplows know where the road is.



They also have snow fences to help keep the snow off of the roads.

We enjoyed the views through Flaming Gorge National Park, and eventually reached the reservoir.  

Next stop, Flaming Gorge Dam!