Jack and Carol's Epic Journey: Flaming Gorge

We left our motel in Rock Springs, WY on Friday morning and headed to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, where we have a campsite reserved for the next 5 nights. It's a government campground in Ashley National Forest called Buckboard Crossing. The surrounding landscape is an arid desert but it has some trees, shade shelters over the picnic tables, a view of the 91-mile-long lake, electricity and showers--and it's cheap, due to our Golden Age card that gets us in free to National Parks and big discounts on government campgrounds. We have a raft/fishing trip scheduled for Aug. 25 down the Green River below the dam that creates this monster lake, but we decided to just park in the area for awhile and soak up the peace and quiet and work on our respective books.

Before turning off onto the scenic byway that leads to the Recreation Area, we stop for gas at a truck stop called Cruel Jack's--very apt, says Carol [--I'm an abused husband, says Jack]. The gas was $2.50, the highest we've paid so far on this trip. Most places it's been under $2.00.

The scenic byway fulfills the promise of its name. Lots of stops for photos. The landscape changes with the changing elevations, from arid sagebrush-covered hills, now blooming yellow, to steep, cool wooded mountains, to bare red rock cliffs. This scenery is one big reason why we love the American West so much! We drive down the east side of the lake, catching glimpses of it here and there. We're looking for the Dutch John Resort, where we will meet our guides for the rafting adventure on the 25th. We find it easily and reward ourselves with an ice cream cone. Yum.

Blooming sagebrush.

Driving on, we finally come to the big dam that creates the lake and stop for a photo op. Impressive structure.

Flaming Gorge Dam from lakeside.

Then we drive across the dam and start up the west side of the lake, where our campground is, called Buckboard Crossing. It's next to a marina that also has an RV campground, much more crowded and noisy than our quiet National Forest campground. After exploring the place, we're very happy with our decision to stay here for a few days.

Before we descend to lake level, we stop for a picture of Jack with the Flaming Gorge in the background.

Carol snaps a picture of the multicolored sandstone for which the Flaming Gorge is named.

We see mule deer ambling through the campground with their babies in tow. And this morning (Sunday) we wake up to see a small group of cows grazing next to our van. We've seen lots of signs telling us this is "Open Range" so I guess this proves it!