Dinosaurs, oh my!

Deer outside the RV this morning - which way out?

We packed up this morning with a treat to begin with.  When I opened the shades to the windows about 7:15am, there in front of me were 4 mule deer, just staring at me like, What?  They quickly realized they couldn't jump the fence and hopped over to the other RVs and I assume figured out how to get out of the area.  Why didn't they come to visit sooner?  Got on the road at 9am, chilly and about 48 degrees.

Followed US Highway 191 south out of Pinedale, traveled through the Green Valley basin where the old Pony Express and the Oregon Trail crossed in a small town called Eden, then on south into Rock Springs and go on Interstate 80 - yikes - a fast moving road! But only for 6 miles, then south again on US 191.  Dave thought afterward that driving Glacier National Park's

Utah's sense of humor

Going-to-the-Sun Road was a piece of cake after what we went through today.  8%, 9%, and even 10% grade drop in elevation on the road down into Vernal and along the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  Pretty, very scenic.  Glad we tanked up the truck in Rock Springs before heading south.  I got my fix again of aspen trees turning gold, just beautiful in the forests. When we got within 20 miles of Vernal, there was a sign that we read and then got an Oh-oh.  Said, 10 switchbacks ahead next ? miles, 10% grades - use low gear!  Truckers - check brakes!  Oh boy.  Well, they were right.  The poor truck's brake system got quite a workout trying to keep the 15,000 pounds of RV plus the 6,000 of the truck's weight down to a creep of 20 miles an hour.  Talk about screaming engine!  I am surprised Grace didn't yell at us - it must have hurt her ears, it certainly hurt ours.  And Utah has a funny sense of humor - each hairpin turn it would remind you how many more to go.  Thanks.

Finally got into Vernal Utah about 2pm, about 240 miles later.  And the temp was about 80.  Welcome back to the high desert!  What a difference.  Here's the scoop about Vernal.  Vernal is in the basin of the Uinta Mountains which is one of the few mountain ranges in the world where it lies east to west instead of north to south.  Lies 30 miles from the border of Colorado and 20 miles from Wyoming in the northeast corner of Utah. Vernal, unlike most of the other Utah towns, was not settled by Mormons - the president of the LDS church said at that time - this area was a no-mans land, only good for hunting.  Did you know that Vernal is the only town in the US that does not have a railroad!  Imagine that!  One notable person from Vernal - if you are an OSU fan - Gordan Gee.  Why did we come to Vernal?  We stopped here because:  a) 240 miles is alot for one day and we wanted to drive all the way to AZ on US 191 and we need to stop and b) Vernal has the Dinosaur National Monument here, and Vernal is one of the largest archeological finds of dinosaurs in the world.  Are we interested in dinosaurs?  Well, not particularly, but it never hurts to get educated and learn something new.

We plan to be here about 5 days, then move again south to Moab where Arches National Park is and also Mesa Verde National Park is close to drive to.