Day 33

We had another nice travel day as we headed north out of Utah to Rawlins, WY. We traveled on HWY 191 for about 100 miles on a fairly good road and beautiful country from desert to green forest to the high planes of Wyoming. Along the way we went through the Flaming Gorge area and across the dam. The first wildlife we have seen were Prong Horn Sheep in the meadow then at the campground two deer were hanging out under a shade tree next to the playground and on the Put-Put course. They did not mind us being here.

Day 32

Dinosaur National Monument was the plan for today. The park is in both Utah and Colorado and we chose Utah to visit the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit Hall which we enjoyed seeing the dinosaur bones in the positions they were found. The more you looked the more you discovered and enclosed in an exhibit hall to protect them from vandals. Then we took the 12 mile Auto Tour of the Tilted Rocks road. We were out about 2 ½ hours stopping, reading and enjoying this diverse landscape. Near the end of the paved road it turned to a one mile gravel road ending at the Josie Morris Cabin where we took a short hike into a box canyon. Josie’s story is fascinating and Karen will include it in her scrap book.

Turtle Rock

More Petroglyphs

Box Canyon

Did not see much wildlife so we included this one

Josie Morris Cabin

Tilted Rocks

Green River

Fascinating Rock!

Day 31

What a perfect day with cooler temps, sun and beautiful Utah. The journey went from little vegetation to a valley and canyon full of green trees and rivers then to orange/tan rocks. After setting up camp we took a short excursion to Native American Petroglyphs in Dry Fork Canyon. We took a rugged hike up to the trail along the petroglyphs from about 1 – 1200 A.D.

From a rest area

The original painting was done in 1898 in memory of  the blowing up of The American battleship The Maine in the Havana Harbor

This is the wall the flag is on in the center of the picture

Registering and donation for the petroglyphs 

No petroglyphs just like the view! 

Love this series of Karen climbing up! 

Day 30

We went for a long walk after breakfast and Wal-Mart just happened to be part of the walk. Resting and enjoying the comfortable 70s weather was the schedule for today. Our friends Mike and Susanna pulled in next to us and we had a great visit then went out for dinner with them.

Day 29

When we got up this morning it was 75° and clear skies and we headed for Promontory Summit, Utah and The golden Spike National Historic Site. We drove in very high winds and the sky turned gray and it was 53° and rain. Oh well, we watched each of the trains move into place. They only have one engineer so he brought in the first train then went back to the engine house brought the other one to the site. It was still raining when we got back to camp so we did laundry, well I helped carry it. The skies cleared and temps went back into the 70s so we took a drive into Brigham.

Our Campsite

Brigham Courthouse 

Day 28

Travel day to Brigham City, UT for three days, rest this evening then two days of sightseeing. 

Day 27

Today was a short 107 mile drive to Boise, ID where we visited the World Center for Birds of Prey Interpretive Center. This was a small exhibit, very well done with a lot of information about raptors.

I remember watching the California Condors catching the wind at the Grand Canyon, 15 of the canyon’s condors were released from the Peregrine Fund origination.

Here are a few of what we saw today.

Ornate Hawk-Eagle 

Bald Eagle 

Bateleur  Eagle 

California Condor 

Peregrine Falcon  

Western Screech Owl