Kastle's Journey: Flaming Gorge, Firehole Canyon

We finally reached the Flaming Gorge, our first destination Point.

Thursday morning back on the road by 9 am heading to the Flaming Gorge from Snowville Utah. Today will be cooler, only getting up to 23C instead of 33C. We put on our jeans for the first time on this trip. lol

We stopped a few times for a stretch and a snack and carried on. Today’s drive went up and up continuously on I-80.

One of the rest stops, near Ogden where we turned onto the I-80, is beside this "green oasis" with a little river beside it.

As much as I hate going anywhere near Salt Lake City due to the traffic, I have to say turning at Ogden east is great. We had very little traffic all day.

We travelled through the high plains desert to 6700 feet into Wyoming. Passed through an area that reminded us of the “Bad Lands” with some of the same colours in Blue Mesa at Petrified Forest NM.

Fueled up in Green River Wyoming ($4.97) and carried on turning off on Highway 191 down the west side of the Flaming Gorge. We were headed right into a massive thunderstorm. It mostly stayed ahead of us but there is hail on the side of the road … Yikes.

A few miles later we stopped at an overlook to see the canyon where we're headed. Ray jumped out to take some pictures.

Shortly after, we took the turnoff down to Firehole Canyon Campground, part of the Ashley National Forest. A very windy, although beautiful drive on pavement. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we noticed the gate across the campsite. They closed it 2 days earlier according to the people with a motorhome at the sani-dump even though their website said it was open! They suggested we go on down to the disbursed area down on the beach. What a view. We drove the car down first to check it out and make sure we were on a hard surface. That turned out to be important as more thunderstorm cells are to go through all night and did not want to “sink”.

Here comes da bus!

We were all set up by 3:30 and then the rain started. It started and stopped frequently. We tried to get out for a walk and 2 times it started to rain. Third time we were lucky. This place would have been one of Freya's favourites with sticks and water nearby.

Ray headed out to take some more pictures. It's absolutely stunning here, even with clouds.

The iconic views of Chimney Rock at Firehole Canyon.

Gravel road down to the beach

More roads leading to other areas to camp.

What a view.

Overnight, some great storm cells come through with lots of wind, so the satellite dish came down. Lol We both slept well though.

Friday morning Ray poked his head out the door soon as it was light, checking to make sure we were still good and not getting sinky. Unfortunately, with no cell service/internet we can’t check out the weather report. We decided to stay as it is so beautiful and we seemed to be on solid ground.

We spent 45 minutes or so driving around with Ray taking pictures.

Here are pictures of the picnic/boat launch area. This is where we would have moved to if we felt the ground was too soft where we are. There is a gate that could be closed here too and everyone left on the 30th .... so don't know if they were encouraged to move on or not.

Picnic/day use area.

The road continues after the turnoff to this campsite but shortly turns to gravel. Not where we would take the motorhome. Lots of roads down to the water though all along the east side of the gorge looking on the map. The picture below is looking back towards the turnoff to the campground.

Turning around back into the campsite road we parked and walked the campsite too. Out of about 30 sites there was only 2 that would fit us. Also, all the sites are doubles. They each have a shelter for the picnic table and one side is blocked from the other for privacy. They have 2 washrooms with flush toilets and showers though and great views. The beach for dispersed camping is the place to go for us even if the campsite is open, and it's free, instead of $18/night for the campground. This area is huge and would take multiple rigs of any size.

We saw several people just come for the day to fish of the shore. I also saw pelicans fishing.

After checking out everything we decided to stay another night right where we are, the only people here at this area. Down at the boat launch parking lot there were a few small rigs that stayed overnight.

Back at the coach it was time for a “big breakfast”. I have not cooked anything other than pasta noodles since we left home 😊. Time to get back to our regular schedule with shorter travel days. Most of the day is sunny with a few cloudy periods. It warmed up quite nicely to be able to sit outside for a few hours and only a few bugs to contend with. While outside we heard a coyote bark and howl very close to us. Sounded like just in the draw beside us. Took out our long walking sticks just in case. Never did see it though.

There obviously was a bug hatch, the damsel flies were everywhere, but they don’t bite so it was fine. They did paste the inside of the coach roof however and we were constantly swatting them then having to wash the ceiling. The skies clouded up more around dinner so we came inside about 4:30 pm. Two more rigs came in to camp and one van by 5:30 pm. They were a good distance from us though, which is nice.

As the sun set the clouds parted and the golden light hit the peaks around us. We first saw the picture below out the front window so he stepped outside and looked backwards ... WOW! Now we know why it’s called Firehole Canyon! Ray stormed out the door in a flash, driving the car up on the hill to get some shots.