July 7, I LOVE Utah!

I know I have mentioned that I love Utah, but here it is again. Today was an amazing day driving through the Flaming Gorge Rec. Area and the Ashley National Forest! I have lots of pics of the stunning scenery to show you! I will say that I have never been to any area in Utah that wasn't amazing!

First, we left our little gravel road very early, well early for me, around 6:30. Jeff started down the route, and I headed back into Manila to get some coffee and see if I could scare up some ice and maybe a breakfast sandwich for Jeff. Can you believe that all the convenience stores in that town were closed at 6:30 on a Monday? Luckily, I found a restaurant that was open, a little country diner place. I wish I had taken my phone in. It reminded me so much of the fire station! I ordered, then looked around. The same type coffee maker that we had at the station, and in the middle of the room, there was a big table with all the old guys in town drinking coffee and shooting the bull.

Going back up the road, I noticed a lot more of those signs that talk about the rock formations. There were a lot of them on that road going through the forest. It was very interesting to me, as I have always been interested in rocks and fossils. I did some scavenging on the side of the road in the road cuts, but didn't find much in the way of fossils. I did take a pic of something that looked like it might be an imprint of something up in the cliff.

Could this be a fossil of some sort? Or an imprint?

 

Not sure what a bizarre shark is....

 

 

 

 

Hard to see those fish scales, I bet!

There were so many really great scenery shots. It seemed like there was a new one every mile or so that was really gorgeous. There were so many different colors in the rocks and sandstone. All the way from alabaster to deep purple. I wanted to bring a sample of all of them home! Here are some of the scenic shots that we got.

I loved the light play on the cliffs. 

This big rock was sort of standing on its own little tiny base.

Sheep Creek

Our RV parked near Sheep Creek!

I love the way you can see the sedimentation in this area.

Flaming Gorge Reservoir off in the distance. We came from there!

A little pond I found that talked about the moose. I never saw one, but I waited...

Once we got to the "top" you could see forever!

Another pretty little creek.

There were some other interesting things out there. For instance, I finally found something on the side of the road worth more than 25 cents!

Yes, a real dollar bill!

I also kept my eyes peeled for wildlife today. There was supposed to be a lot of different animals out in the forest. I never saw a moose, and I never saw a bear! Heck, the only deer I saw were back in Manila as I went to town for coffee!

There were a lot of informational things in the forest.Jeff stopped and read many of them.

We did find several Flowers of the Day. There are a lot of different kinds of wildflowers out here! I even saw a small pink shrub rose of some sort, blooming on the side of the road in places.

 

And the road ahead looked quite hilly pretty much all day! We got to about 8500 feet I think today. There were also warning signs!

We found a national campground in the Ashley National Forest called the Firefighter Memorial Camp Ground. It was only a few miles off the route, so that is where we are over-nighting. They actually have a memorial here, overlooking the valley below. Much like our camp site! It is amazing. No hook-ups, but they do have a dump station and water. I don't know that you can read much of the inscription on the memorial, as I also tried to get the view of the valley in the pic. In 1977 there was a fire here where they lost 3 guys when the wind changed.

One thing we never found in the forest was a mailbox! Sorry....