Flaming Gorge

One of our recent traditions (which we hopped on with the Andersons!--thanks guys) is to go up to Flaming Gorge to camp and do a little mellow rafting on the Green River.


standing around the ready-to-burst-into-flames campfire--the kids' favorite part

We decided to experiment with smores-style ideas. Amy goes wild balancing two graham crackers with chocolate and marshmallow creme (according to Bella, "marshmallow goo") sandwiched between. That balancing act is a lot harder than it looks.

the perfectly fire-roasted smore

my first attempt at smore-style crescent roll wraps

they actually turned out really well! it's a new camping staple

climbing a juniper to retrieve glowstick rings stuck on its limbs


the Flaming Gorge Dam -- our put-in

We stopped shortly after the dam to do a little rockjumping. Carl doing a frontflip.

Matt's backflip

Bella kept saying she wanted to jump. Over and over again, enthusiastically. So I'd swim her over and we'd climb up and her mind would be changed. I helped her down (threw her down) once, then a while later she said she wanted to try again, and that she wouldn't be afraid this time. So again we went.

The best she would agree to was a dual jump, hand in hand.

Torrin ready to jump

Amy's jump!

hanging out by the riverbank

the gorgeous Green

rafters

Me and Carl on a rock we wished to jump. As we stood there a sheriff raft floated by and they told us "only jumping from 10 feet in this county," so we got down. (Later, as we pushed off to leave, I ran up and jumped it anyway then swam to the floating raft. Only yesterday did I find out how much Amy hated that!)

Beautiful little waterfall area from a tributary. Carl and I climbed up this for a short distance. This is the infamous spot that gave me so much misery, so much poison-ivy!

us boys

The next day we visited the Swett Ranch on our way out. Jarom and Bella and I visited last year, but Amy had stayed in the car with sleeping Oey. So this time all of us explored. It's an inspiring little ode to simple living and being in touch with our environment. Their small homes/cabins/shacks should be more than adequate for most of us. Our ranger guide had us balance on this one-legged stool which was used for milking cows. Then we had to mimic the milking.


so into it

Bella was the only other one who wanted to try


the view from the Red Canyon campground, near the Red Canyon visitors center

We went to the McConkie Ranch petroglyphs again on the way past Vernal, up Dry Fork Canyon. There are two trails; last year we took the Three Kings trail, so this year we took the main one.


post-it notes inside the little entry shack (this is virtually identical to a picture from last year's blog post about our trip)

starting out the trail with walking sticks

Oey loves this bending over backwards business. Me, not so much.

Look closely! Fremont petroglyph figures everywhere around here. Amazing.

baby girl

Moses and his followers

One tough gang, hiking in the heat when the sun comes out.

We always love to stop and admire the Vernal temple. It was the first temple to be converted from an existing building (from the old tabernacle building).

[below is a map of our places]

View flaming gorge, july 2009 in a larger map