Most of our Utah trips have been in the southern part of the state, so this is a different take on Utah. Cliff and Don traveled from Idaho to Green River, WY where they met Vince. Then proceeded down the west side of Flaming Gorge Lake and into Northern Utah. Tucker was waiting to meet us at the Flaming Gorge Dam. We camped near the Little Hole Recreation Area on the Green River. This section of the Green River below the dam is considered a premier fishing spot. It turned out to be the coldest night of the trip, being in the 20s. The cold night was our first surprise and the weather had other surprises for that would impact our trip plans. The first part of the trip was in Eastern Utah near the Colorado border and even dipped into Colorado a couple of times.
The next morning we had breakfast in camp and headed south, and along the way we passed the Simplot Vernal Phosphate Mine, which is used to make fertilizer. Simplot is well known for suppling potatoes to McDonalds for French fries. One of Cliff’s two Cruiser batteries had died, so he stopped at Napa Auto Parts in Vernal for a new one. Then it was on to Dinosaur National Monument, where they have a great display of dinosaur bones exposed in a rock hillside. Dinosaur also has a number of 4WD roads that take you to scenic areas and remote campsites. Taking some of those roads we arrived at Echo Park on the Green River, which is in the Colorado side of Dinosaur. We camped there in a primitive campground that had pit toilets.
Leaving Dinosaur we entered the oilfields which cover most of Eastern Utah and spill over into Colorado. This is also where we started to encounter high winds with gusts up to 60mph. Our first stop in the oilfields was Fantasy Canyon, which is filled with fanciful rock shapes. It is a grey version of the colorful Little Finland in Southern Nevada. We then made our way over to the Gilsonite (link) Vein area.
What we were hoping to capture, but didn’t due to winds (venture2roam’s photo)
The vertical veins had been mined leaving trenches, some over 1,000 deep. When we arrived we discovered the trenches were fenced off, so we could not get close. The high winds prevented us from launching our drones to get photos of the trenches; this was quite disappointing as we had high hopes to capture these unique features. We cut short our time in the area and headed south to get out of the wind. Our next challenge was to find a road that would get us down the Book Cliffs at the south end of the plateau we were on. After some dead ends and winding around some, we found the right road and got down from the plateau. With a little searching we found a campsite, surrounded by junipers, near the base of the cliffs and we set up for the night.
When we woke in the morning we were surprised to find the landscape white from an overnight snow and the winds dying down. Rather than make breakfast in the cold we decided ordering a late one at the Moab Diner was a great idea. We weren’t far from I-70, then UT-128 for the scenic route along the Colorado River to Moab. The Diner was busy with the Cruise Moab event in town, but after a short wait we were sitting down to one of their great hot breakfasts.
Well fed and gas tanks filled we headed for the RimRocker Trail. The trail goes from Moab to Montrose, CO. After some hours of rock garden trail, rough and slow going and without much of a view, we decided to head back to Moab and on to Green River, UT for dinner and then find a camp. Before leaving Moab, Cliff stopped at Tey’s Home made Mexican Food and picked up a steak burrito for lunch the next day. Tey’s is highly recommended by travel photographer AdventureTaco (link), and it had been on my list to try for some time. Dinner was at the Tamarisk Restaurant overlooking the Green River. We camped off a dirt road about 50 miles north of there.
After breakfast in camp it was a short jaunt to Sunnyside, UT near where we picked up Water Canyon Road and drove to the top where Bruin Point is over 10,000 ft elevation. On the way up we passed the Sunnyside Asphalt Mine and its tramway. The road was snow covered at the top and most of the way down Dry Canyon Road. With the snow we were concerned we might have to turn back, but our Cruisers handled it with ease. As we approached Nine Mile Canyon we saw a number of petroglyphs in Dry Canyon. I ate Tey’s steak burrito for lunch and it was excellent with a unique flavor. After lunch we explored Nine Mile Canyon, which is considered the premier US petroglyph site; thousands of petroglyphs. Tucker decide to head home from Nine Mile Canyon and Don, Vince and Cliff left Nine Mile further West on Argyle Canyon Rd which is part of the Utah BDR. The plan was to take the BDR to Evanston, WY, the plan lasted several miles past US-191 when slipping and sliding in deep snow made us turn around. Back out on US-191 we headed to Duchesne, where we camped at Starvation State Park. Earlier Don’s Cruiser had picked up a wobble in the left front wheel and Cliff’s engine started to miss and the Check Engine light had come on.
In camp after cooking a breakfast of hash browns, eggs and bacon we tackled the Cruisers. On Don’s we pulled the wheel and discovered the wheel bearing was loose, it was tightened for the trip home. On Cliff’s we decided maybe water in the fuel, so we added some fuel treatment we bought in Duchesne. Vince decided to head East for home from there, while Don and Cliff headed home to the West. By the time Cliff got to Huber City the Check Engine light was back on. An auto parts store had the needed tool to check the issue and we discovered one of his spark plug had come loose. A new plug and coil pack and we were back on the road to finish our trip without further issues.
Video of some travel sections (no sound)
Click on photos for a larger view, some photos have more detailed captions only visible in the larger view.