We are in dinosaur country. Lots of 150 million year old bones in this part of Utah [also in CO and WY] Most things are named Dinosaur or Split Mountain. The local football team is named The Dino’s.
We got bumper stickers I Love Drilling. This should make us popular in the liberal states. Wells are all over the place. Vernal has a mile long stretch of drilling related firms.
Sunday, April 29 - The Green Valley campground at Dinosaur NM has 83 sites. Half of them are closed because there aren’t many people yet. Of the loops that are open, at least half of the sites are closed due to “Dangerous Trees”. We can’t see anything wrong with the Cottonwoods - no dead branches or dead trees. And most of the best sites are the ones that are closed. But we can’t complain because we moved to a larger site and it has a good view of Split Mountain. We have cell phone, internet and television here. It’s been a month since we had TV.
In Our Back Yard – Split Mountain
Monday, April 30 - We can’t seem to get over how beautiful this place is and how much we like being here. Thanks to Terry and Betty for getting us to come here two years ago. It’s 1:00 and we are the only ones in the campground. There were six last night. We went to the Quarry. It is an ancient sandbar where a lot of dinosaur bones washed down and weren’t discovered until the 1920’s. These are the best that we have ever seen. The Quarry had been closed for about five years because the building was deemed unsafe. [Built on Bentonite]
Bones In The Quarry
Only Real Dinosaur We Have Seen
How about this one Patrick?
We went to the Visitor’s Center and had a nice chat with one of the Rangers. We mentioned that we had really noticed a difference in the National Parks from our previous visits - there are a lot less rangers. What that means is the parks that are supposed to be preserved for future generations to enjoy is probably not going to happen. There is more vandalism, such as Indian art being destroyed or having graffiti added, Indian ruins being destroyed and not obeying the rules. It’s very sad. So off I go on a political rant. Congress is planning to cut the park’s budget another 10% next year. These are the people that vote for worthless selfish shit for themselves all the time. I would be willing to bet that no more than 5% of Congress (and certainly not Obama & family!) ever spend time in our National Treasures. This is very sad! Theodore Roosevelt must be rolling in his grave.
Tuesday, May 1 - Wow, can’t believe it’s May! Today wasn’t too exciting. It was cloudy with very light rain. We did laundry and grocery shopping. Back at cg, we are still amazed at the beauty of this area.
Wednesday, May 2 - We drove to Island and Rainbow Parks yesterday. [Parks are another name for holes] From the overlook at Island Park you can see the islands in the Green River. When we got there we discovered that we have been there before. Old age is wonderful - you get to see everything once again for the first time.
Thursday, May 3 – It was overcast early, but cleared by 10, so we took a drive on Blue Mountain Road. We were not expecting much, but when the road climbed to 7,600 feet we had a drop dead gorgeous view of the entire Uinta Basin. I thought it looked somewhat like Cathedral Valley, only much larger.
We think the colors here are quite diverse and the rock formations are more varied than anywhere we have been.
After arriving back at the campground, two LD’s drive in. That’s a surprise! Even more surprising is that it’s Ed and Carol Daniels from Florida, Southeast LDer’s, that we met before we even got our LD. With them was John and Linda Leach from Colorado. We had a nice visit and then we cooked dinner together. It’s so much fun to spend a joint meal with friends. It’s great seeing old friends and meeting new ones.
Friday, May 4 - We took a really long drive today to Brown’s Hole. This is one of the places where the Wild Bunch hid out. [You know Butch, Sundance, etc.] To access the Hole, which is a basin of farm land, you have to enter through Crouse Canyon. The canyon is just wide enough for a one-lane road and the creek which runs through it. The 1st Armored could not get through the canyon unless they were invited.
A Swinging Bridge We Crossed Over The Green River
After dinner we chatted with Ed & Carol. The weather is wonderful and it was very pleasant sitting outside.
Saturday, May 5 - We took a drive to the middle section of the monument. We just love this place. We will be moving tomorrow after eight days here. Dorothy’s foot has been in pain the last three days.
Sunday, May 6 – We lounged around until 10:30, drove into Vernal did the weekly marketing and headed three hours west to Strawberry Reservoir. Ed had alerted us that this might be a good place. He was right. We are higher, 7,000 feet, so it’s cooler and we don’t have TV. We do have the fastest Internet we have had anywhere ever and a great view of the water below. We streamed 60 Minutes and a missed episode of Blue Bloods.
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