Red Canyon, also known as the Flaming Gorge, is impressive. I would have loved to have seen it before the dam was built.

The prime directive for today was to find a place to launch the kayaks tomorrow. We have two options: the reservoir itself and the Green River below the dam. Running the river would involve setting up a shuttle. I found a flyer for one outfitter that charges $45 to $99 to help you set up your shuttle. The cost depends on length, number of people, number of boats, etc. That’s a little steep.

However, we talked to a Ranger that showed us a great spot in the reservoir to kayak. The boat landing is easily accessed and a nearby fiord-like side canyon looked inviting, at least on the maps he showed me.

We drove to the boat landing to scope it out and it is nice. If he was right about the landing, we are banking that he is right about the side canyon. We can’t wait to get on the water tomorrow, especially with the 90º forecast we are hearing about.

Scenes from the Red Canyon Visitor Center where we talked to the Ranger that gave us some kayaking tips.

At first I thought this was a fault-line, but it’s more likely an area of ledge cracking from weathering. In a 1000 years the whole face will fall down the cliff. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.

For fun, we drove down to The Little Hole, the takeout for the popular river run from the dam to Little Hole. The river is swift and we sure wouldn’t need our motors.

This is the area of the Green River that is called the Little Hole. I have no idea why it is named that.

Dutch John, the only town near our campsite, turned out to be a village with high hopes. All the streets were wide four-lane streets bisecting empty land just waiting for that building boom. There is no downtown and only one small residential area occupying a couple of blocks. That was it. Sadly, the hopeful streets were old and full of cracks.

The next highlighted area on my maps was the Sheep Creek Loop on the southwest side of the Flaming Gorge. To get to the loop, we had to drive over the dam. Of course, we stopped to check it out. Completed in 1964, it is relatively new. It holds back 90 miles of reservoir. After seeing how low the Lake Powell Reservoir is, and hearing that Mead Lake is at historical lows, I was surprised to see how full the Flaming Gorge Reservoir is.

Notice how full the reservoir is.

The river just below the dam.

Anyway, the Loop weaves around the Uinta Mountains, the mountain range with Utah’s highest peak, King’s Mountain, rising up to 13,528’. Gorgeous orange and pink sandstone cliffs formed the foreground with snow capped peaks looming in the background. A little mountain creek, Sheep Creek, tumbles along the rocks continuing its job of carving out a canyon.

We drove the 14 mile loop at 10 mph, not because the road was bad, it was paved, but because we didn’t want to miss even one cool rock.

We ended up in the town of Manila. Again, not much there, however there was one modern-day general store. It was a combination True Value Hardware store, grocery store, tourist trinket and T-shirt store, coffee shop, and pre-made sandwich deli.

We returned to V-Jer early so I could start perusing my maps for our next campsite. I found some ideas but nothing definite.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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