A sad morning, as I was bitten by a red ant. That’s what I get for copying Will and wandering around in ‘flip-flops.’ I put shoes on straight after! It swelled up a bit and after the initial sting, was fine. Me = tough J.
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| A hot, sunny hike. |
We went on a 7.64km hike through the desert – Voices of the Desert Trail, then the half-mile connector to the Sounds of Silence loop. It was quite a long hike, with some quite steep parts. We saw about fifty little lizards, which whizzed across our path and scared Will after his snake experience from yesterday! There were lots of pretty wildflowers, including lupins and daisies. Pinks, purples, whites and yellows. The scenery was really nice, with stark white cliffs, red cliffs and juniper trees everywhere. We followed a dry creek bed for a while which narrowed a lot, then it was back to the up and down. We had tired feet by the end of it – two and a half hours later!
We continued on to the Visitor Centre to get the shuttle bus for a tour to the dinosaur fossil, but unfortunately the last shuttle went at 1pm. We were a little upset, but then figured it probably wasn’t going to be THAT amazing and besides, we already saw dino prints and a fossil in Arizona. And we were able to actually touch those ones! Anyone would think these tours would go all day, but apparently not!
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| Me at Flaming Gorge. |
So we continued on Vernal to find some internet. McDonald’s obliged as usual! Two burgers later (one each!), we had checked our email and met a man who told us about the area. He asked us where we were going and worried us a little when he asked if there are many Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia, but then when we didn’t really seem to know much about the group’s population, he moved on to more neutral territory: kangaroos and koalas and whether we eat them. He was very nice and drew us a map of the Flaming Gorge area and told us the nice spots to go. He reminded me of my late German grandpa! So helpful and nice. He showed us some pictures of the Flaming Gorge area and even one of a mountain lion that one of his friends saw in a tree in their backyard! As he kept saying to us: neat! We even managed to charge the laptop! I believe that this particular McDonalds had THE laziest employees ever. They just seemed to be sitting around, eating and drinking and when one of the girls came out of the bathroom as I went in, she didn’t move aside, just barrelled straight at me. Rude. I bet she is only paid minimum wage – our $3 purchase will not make much of a contribution to that! I think I drank too much ‘soda’ though, cos I got a bit shaky on the sugar…
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| Flaming Gorge. |
We knew from the old man, Kellar, that the drive up to Flaming Gorge NP would be steep, but after 10 switchbacks (hairpin turns!) and 3000 feet in 10 miles, we were up! Betsey became a little hot, but a few downhills cooled her off. Some of the campgrounds were closed, but after several laps, we finally decided on one. $15 was not the cheapest for drop toilets, but we picked the newest of the four or so campgrounds. Some of them were so new the firepits didn’t have grills yet. We picked one with a picnic table and water right near by – perfect for Will to do the washing up! On our little detour to see all the campgrounds in the area (must be a common decision to all have the same price) I became grumpy as I came down from the sugar high of McDonald’s Dr Pepper – no Diet – but I cheered up when we saw some medium-sized golden/brown furry critter running away from the road. We believe it may have been a marmot, but we’ll have to check. It was so cute!! We saw a couple more scampering around as we continued on.
Big helpings of spag bol later (my first attempt here – result was delicious!) and we went for a little walk to see the gorge. We were actually quite a long way up and could see down into the valley to the lake/river below. Quite hazy. We collected a bit of firewood on the way back – heaps there, so we thought we’d start stocking up for Yellowstone. A couple of final The Goodwife Season 1 episodes later and it was time for these crazy hikers to get some sleep!
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