Where in the world is Outdoorsy Girl?

Long time, no post! I can’t believe that I haven’t been able to post for so long! One of the things I am most looking forward to when I return to Georgia is a reliable computer–actually, reliable internet. I had looked forward to writing about and sharing all my experiences here in Utah and beyond but it has been a very difficult task. It seems my internet connection and free time can’t seem to come together. But here I am. For those of you wondering, I’m still alive and having a blast.

Picture Perfect Drive
I kicked off the month of July with a scenic ride with Best Friend’s family through the Uintas on the Mirror Lake Highway on July 1st. The highway winds through the beautiful Uinta Mountains in Northeast Utah. We began the route in Evanston, Wyoming winding back into Utah and ending in the town of Kamas. I had taken this route before but this day provided fairer (perfect, really) weather and even better opportunities to take lots of photos. Along this road are numerous lakes reflecting the high peaks surrounding them, the Provo River Falls, and countless other scenes that belong on a wall calendar. I even saw a moose along the road to Lake Whitney.

After this drive, I wished I had a Utah fishing license.

Camping in Dinosaur Land
The following day, Best Friend, Slot Canyon Boy, and I headed out to Vernal, Utah to meet up with Best Friend’s cousin and her family for a camping trip. We drove through the Flaming Gorge, which deserves a much nicer name. It was very color-rich (isn’t that better than flaming?) with reds, oranges, and other fiery tones. It’s a very beautiful area, but the most exciting thing for me to behold were the little road-side signs informing me that fossilized crocodile teeth, squid, and other oddities were found in the long-gone ancient sea floor that I was now riding along. There were fossils, fossils, fossils! I knew we were nearing the town of Vernal, which is known as Dinosaur Land. I cannot dig up ancient dinosaur bones in the moist soil where I live. Dinosaurs are a somewhat abstract and amazing thought to me.

We finally were greeted by giant dinosaur statues along the street signaling that we were now in Vernal. First we visited the Dinosaur Museum Park to take a look at some ancient fossils and learn more about the area. Next we headed off to Dinosaur National Monument to the dinosaur bone quarry. That was so awesome to me! This quarry is a huge pit dug in the middle of a dinosaur graveyard. You could see the vertebrae, leg, arm, and tail bones and skulls of dinosaurs right in the wall! I even got to touch some bones and feel very small standing next to a Diplodocus’s femur!

After acting like a kid, we followed Best Friend’s cousin and family from hot, dry Vernal to our camp site back in the mountains above Vernal in heart of Ashley National Forest. We camped in a very pretty area full of Aspen trees and lush meadows full of wildflowers. It was a perfect place to hike around the woods and across meadows. It was fun being an explorer in unmarked territory.

But the first night of camping was even more fun. And it became more and more fun as drinks were poured. The drinks resulted in a midnight ATV drive. My driver was a little scary, but more fun than scary. The campfire was nice and cozy when we returned from the ride and I stayed up longer than I should have talking with some of the guys. It’s amazing how speaking in a different accent and living in a place where none of them have ever visited could warrant so many questions. Does this mean that I am an interesting person?

It was a very fun night. You know fun has been had when nine year old twin girls yell out of their camper, “Dad! You have to come fold out our bed. Mom passed out!”

After a more relaxing night of camping the following night, we were early to rise and head out of the forest. We returned to Dinosaur Monument to drive the scenic route through the park along the Green River. We hiked and saw many cool petroglyphs and pictographs left behind by an ancient civilization. It was very amazing to walk along so many layers of rich history.

In Search of the Donners
On July 10th Best Friend and I headed out to Wendover. Part of Wendover is in Utah and part is in Nevada, which means casinos! We didn’t make the drive across the Salt Flats for gambling, though but for a trip into history. First, we wanted to stand in the place (one of the only places you can see this) to see the curvature of the earth. I did see a slight curve though it wasn’t exactly what I had imagined. I, for some reason, envisioned this to be a horizontal curvature, but it was not. Staring from this hill straight ahead at Interstate 80, I could see a slight curving, though if uninformed about what I was seeing (if I noticed at all), I would have thought it was a gentle hill I was looking at. Since I was informed, I knew that the interstate traveling through the salt flats was perfectly level.

After being like Christopher Columbus and proving that this earth is indeed round and not flat, we took on the role of investigating another piece of history...pioneer history. Like the dinosaurs, the pioneers and cowboys of the wild, wild West are somewhat of a mythical history to me as, until I met Best Friend and explored her native West, I had no tangible evidence of the reality of such things that I studied in my history books in school. I was thrilled and amazed a year and a half ago as I stood on the real Oregon Trail and gazed down at the still visible wagon wheel ruts of the trail. Naturally, when I heard that you could still see the tracks of the most famous pioneers, the Donner-Reed Party, near the Bonneville Salt Flats around Wendover, I was ready to find them.

With a hard-to-follow, vague map in hand, we headed for the scenic byway that would lead us toward Pilot Peak and the salt flats that these wagon trains had passed through. After we reached the right spot, a three mile hike was to lead us into the flats to the tracks. This byway was a dirt road and as I mentioned, the map was vague. The road and its forks were unlabeled. We took the wrong fork and wound up in the middle of the salt flats. It was so slick and muddy and we were sideways and anyway other than the way we were supposed to be. Worse than driving on ice! We turned around and finally found the path that we were supposed to have taken. It was an over 50 miles roundtrip on this dirt road. We had driven 7 miles and it felt like 20! The scenery was dull and dry and we were already thirsty. Discouraged by the deep ruts in the road, scorching heat, boring scenery, and urgently growing thirst, we decided that unless we wanted to re-enact the ill-fated Donners’ tragedies, then we better turn around. I really wanted to see their wagon ruts. I really wanted to see the spring they miraculously discovered in this parched desert. I wanted to stand in the footsteps of the Donners and see what they saw before they left the harsh Great Salt Lake Desert and headed into California’s mountains and met even harsher conditions that lead some of them to cannibalism. But my dry mouth and merciless thirst helped me sympathize enough with the Donners to give it up and turn around.

We went back into Wendover, not to gamble but to stuff ourselves silly at the grand buffet at Peppermill Casino. If my wishes of discovery couldn’t be fulfilled, at least my stomach was!

On our ride home we stopped at a rest stop along I-80 and gazed out into the wide open in search of wild mustangs that live in the area. I didn’t see a horse, but I did see a faint line crossing the interstate and disappearing into the distance. It was the famed California Trail, which shared part of its path with the Oregon Trail before breaking away in Wyoming and heading south into Utah and westward to California. I imagined what this trail must have looked like in 1849 when thousands flocked to California in search of gold.

I may not have found the Donners, but I still felt the old Western cliche come to reality as we rode off into one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. The only thing missing was the horse.






Just a sample shot of the scenery along the Mirror Lake Hwy.









Flaming Gorge. (I'm still racking my brain for a new name to rename it.)







Welcome to Vernal! Wish I could've taken a shot of the cowboy dino that greeted us.










Bones in the fossil quarry.









Ancient art along the rock walls.









The heart of Ashley National Forest near the spot we camped.








The white stuff in this picture isn't snow, but salt. I took this shot of the Bonneville Salt Flats along I-80 near the place where the world's fastest land speeds were recorded.








The above picture is the salt flat. This is your car on salt flats. Any questions? By the way, chunks of the salt flats are still falling from the underside of the vehicle!








Sunset over Great Salt Lake, one of the West's best.