US-191......WOW!

6:45 am - Monday - June 1st - Rock Springs, WY - 58° F, 51% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the southeast.......high clouds today with a forecast high in Rock Springs, WY of 84° F.....the view this morning.......↴

Walmart RV park in Rock Springs, WY

Our Sunday destination was a modest 120 miles from Jensen, UT....Rock Springs, WY.  We last set foot in Wyoming back in October of 2017 when we departed our summer job at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store in Yellowstone.  Wyoming has always been one of our favorite states to reside in, and travel through.  TLE and I hauled our anchor around 9:30 am and were on our way westward on US-40 into Vernal, UT where we merged onto US-191 northbound....this is a new secondary road for us, and I had no idea what to expect........

.....it wasn't long before we began our first long climb of the day.....all the way from 5,000' in Jensen, UT to over 8,400' at Daggett Pass......

......over the course of 120 miles we surpassed 8,000' in elevation 3 times.....

.......the views we encountered were stunning, and unforgettable.........

 Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area

Taking a 30 minute break at the Flaming Gorge Dam parking lot/visitor's center

 (Picture courtesy Glenn Parker)

 (Picture courtesy Glenn Parker)

(Picture courtesy Glenn Parker)

 I don't remember driving across a dam in the Newell before, but there's always a first time for everything

.......we pulled into turnouts on numerous occasions to soak in the beauty, and snap a few pictures to memorialize the experience.....

.....as we were making our last descent of the day to I-80, and Rock Springs, TLE caught this great picture of the sun lighting up the distant mountains......it was stormy, and we saw numerous lightning flashes in the distance.

We arrived at the Walmart in Rock Springs around 1 pm after a 3.5 hour drive along one of the most amazing highways we have traversed in some time.  We've overnighted at this Walmart on 3 prior occasions over the 8+ years we have been on the road.  In that 8+ years we have logged over 67,000 miles touring this amazing country, and we have still only just scratched the surface of what there is to see.

Glenn and Laureen arrived around 2:45 pm, and found a spot to park overnight about 100 yards in front of us......you can see their 1984 Newell in the center of the picture below.....

....TLE and I quickly walked across the street to the local Starbucks to purchase our favorite blended ice drinks....mocha frappuccino for moi, and a vanilla bean frappuccino for TLE....it is one of the perks of staying overnight at this Walmart.

After winding down with our individual frappuccino selections we walked into Walmart to do our customary shopping, which we always do as a 'Thank You!' to them for allowing us to use their facilities.

Later in the evening Glenn and Laureen came over bearing the gift of ice cream......ice cream will always get you in our door.....always.....lol!  We spent time talking about the boondocking site near Driggs, ID, and the surrounding area before bidding our adieus for the evening.

We'll be rolling our wheels within 2 hours ever northward to Driggs, ID where we will boondock for 7-10 days right on the banks of the Teton River.....at least that is our Jello plan.  The boondock site is a first come, first served area, but we are relatively confident we will be able to secure a couple of sites....fingers crossed!

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They were giants......

7:08 am - Sunday - May 31st - Jensen, UT - 59° F, 72% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the northwest.......high cloudiness today with a forecast high here in Jensen of 87° F, but we will not be here to experience that.....we roll our wheels in two hours northward to Rock Springs, WY.  On this day in 2014 I was riding the 'Flume Trail' with  Michelle and Mark Douglas......

View of Sand Harbor from the 'Flume Trail'

Back in September of 2012 we spent a few days camping at Flaming Gorge in Wyoming.  I saw on our map that Dinosaur National Monument was about 70 miles south of our position, and wanted to see it, but we were headed east on I-80 at the time to work at Amazon in Campbellsville, KY for the first time and a round trip drive of over 150 miles was not in the cards, so we said to ourselves 'next time' we are in the area we'll see it......next time did not come for 7.5 years.  A couple of weeks ago I saw our travel path would take us by this national monument again, so we decided to make it happen.

We are staying at Outlaw Trail RV Park, which is across the street from the road which takes you to the western entrance of this very large park.  When we go sightseeing with Glenn and Laureen we almost always ride in their Honda Element, mostly because the ingress and egress from their vehicle is easier on our aging bodies than the VW.  We left in their Element just before 10 am to enter the park......

....as is the case with all the National Parks, and Monuments we have visited thus far on our summer travels the visitor center was closed at Dinosaur National Monument, along with its main attraction, Quarry Exhibit Hall, where you are able to view many fossilized dinosaur bones still embedded in the rock quarry where they were originally found......

.....nevertheless, we decided to take the hike up to Quarry Hall to attempt to view some of the fossilized bones through the tinted windows.  Along this 1.5 mile long trail you can view some petroglyphs......

.......the temp was in the high 80's Saturday making hiking in the intense direct sunlight interesting to say the least.  After about 30 minutes we reached Quarry Hall and attempted to take some photographs through the darkly tinted windows where others have been attempting to do the same thing prior to our arrival....the windows were full of hand prints, and smudges making it difficult, but we did the best we could.....

 Quarry Exhibit Hall

.....between TLE and I we managed to get a few fuzzy pictures.  I wish we could have gone inside.....

 

 
.....the view from Quarry Hall was spectacular, and we spent about 20 minutes resting in the shade before beginning the walk back to the Honda via the paved road, which is currently gated to keep people from making the drive up the hill.....

 'Elephant Toes'

 The trail up to Quarry Hall

 TLE got this picture of a large fossilized dinosaur bone near the hiking path to Quarry Hall

.....once back at the car we continued our tour of Dinosaur National Monument finding more petroglyphs just a short walk from the road....

....about 8 miles into our drive we came to the end of the road at Miss Josie's homestead cabin.....

Miss Josie's homestead cabin

....signage told us that Miss Josie homesteaded this property in 1914 at the age of 40 and lived there 50 years.....no electricity, no plumbing, dirt floors.  A very solitary, basic existence....she must have loved it....

.....we availed ourselves of a picnic table located on Miss Josie's property to eat lunches prepared by TLE and Laureen.  About this time it began to cloud over, the air began to cool noticeably, and by the time we finished it had begun to rain.......it was time to seek the shelter of the Element once again.

We arrived home around 1:30 pm....time for a nap, right?  We had a fun time touring Dinosaur National Monument, but were disappointed in not being able to enter Quarry Exhibit Hall.....that is the main attraction at Dinosaur National Monument, so perhaps a return visit at some time in the future is warranted.  All that being said we had fun with Glenn and Laureen talking and laughing, and just hanging out together.  As the saying goes "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time...."

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

The 'rest' of it.....

6:20 am - Saturday - May 30th - Jensen, UT - 57° F, 60% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 89° F.....the view this morning.....↴

Our Jello plan Friday was to be on the road by 10 am, and we were successful.  After composing and posting my daily missive we turned over the big Detroit Diesel 6v92, and backed up to the dump station to empty our tanks, and fill our fresh water tank.  This was accomplished in record time, and then it was just a matter of dropping the trailer on the hitch, pulling forward and inserting the VW for our 100+ mile drive to Jensen, UT.  As has become our pattern, TLE and I were the first to depart Town Park in Meeker, CO with Glenn and Laureen following within a couple of hours.

For the first time since we left Wittmann, AZ almost a month ago our compass heading was due west.  We left Colorado 13 just west of Meeker for Colorado 64, which would take us all the way to Dinosaur, CO and US-40 for the final 20 miles into Utah once again, and ultimately Jensen.  Colorado 13, and 64 are what we would call 'tertiary' roads, or third order/level highways.  Most often 'tertiary roads' have no shoulders, can be quite narrow, and often have rough patches......Colorado 13, and 64 fit this description perfectly.  US-40, on the other hand, is definitely a very good secondary road, as are most of the US highways we have traversed over the years, with wide shoulders, and smooth asphalt.

Just outside of Rangely, CO about 60 miles into our drive we found serendipity in the form of Kenney Reservoir.......as we came around a corner on Colorado 64 I spied a large parking lot near a boat ramp that appeared quite negotiable for our 62' length, so I pulled in on the spur of the moment to take a break.  I took time to check our 10 tires with our infrared temp gun and found all tires to be in their proper temperature range, drained a quart of Delo 100 40 weight oil from our 2.5 gallon oil reservoir into the 6v92, and then checked the straps which secure the VW in place while we are underway......

.....I then took a few pix to memorialize this great rest stop.....one of our best in a long, long time.....I could have spent the rest of the day there enjoying the balmy zephyrs gently wafting off the lake.....

......we spent about 40 minutes relaxing there, but eventually the call of the road urged us back onto Colorado 62 for the final 40+ miles into Jensen, UT.  We arrived at Outlaw Trail R Park just after 12:30 pm, and were in site #30 within minutes plugging in our electrical, and turning on our A/C......it was hot!

Within 90 minutes Glenna and Laureen arrived in site #31, right next to us.  They drove into Vernal to visit the local Walmart Supercenter, and a couple of RV places.  TLE prepared some Chicken soup for dinner, which we shared with Glenn and Laureen before bidding adieu to each other for the night.....

......on Saturday we will explore Dinosaur National Monument to our heart's content.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!