Sometime during last night, the wind must have died down, because the lake was quiet this morning when we woke up. But we’d slept very well, and the view was just amazing! It was hard to leave, but we knew we had a long drive ahead of us.
We went VERY slowly for the first 30 minutes or so, due to the incredibly hacked up roadway along the east side of Bear Lake. But that gave us the opportunity to notice that every other campground we passed was crowded, small, and so much less desirable than Rainbow, where we were, and (btw) we drove around Rainbow before we left, noticing that the other sites, while large and all with a great view, could not compare to the solitude of our campsite. So we TRULY lucked out last night!
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| Cassie at Bear Lake |
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| Sheep Creek Bay |
We finally got through the construction, and began traveling at normal speeds. Rather than describe the road, I am going to link to my blog from 2011, when we drove this exact same route. I took great photos last time (back then, I used a “real” camera, not a phone!), and the descriptions are quite detailed!
Like last time, we did not arrive in time to really get to Dinosaur National Monument, which was our definite plan today. I was bemoaning not having those lost hours of driving from yesterday! But after obsessing about several options, we finally decidedd to at least come down to the Visitor’s Center and see that, and then we would look for a place as close as possible for overnight. Then tomorrow, we would make ourselves get going earlier so we could see the Fossil Wall under glass, which is the real reason we came here in the first place (if you read 2011‘s blog from the day after the drive, you will know what happened to us on that earlier visit. And by the way, we saw the same pink dinosaur today!)
So we came to the visitor’s center, only to find out that there really isn’t much there. The reason to come is to take the shuttle from there to the Fossil Wall. But we got there about 4:45 or so, and if we’d taken the 5pm shuttle, we would have had only 30 minutes, because the last shuttle left the Fossil Wall at 5:30. Instead, I asked the ranger about whether the campground here in the park would likely be full, and was thrilled to find out that it was not! So instead of having to drive around, or back to Vernal to a commercial RV park, we drove another 5 minutes or so into the park here, and got an absolutely lovely spot in the campground as near as possible for tomorrow morning’s trip to see the fossils. And yay-- it cost us only $9 (half price), because we are old! (Just kidding--it was that great American the Beautiful pass again!)
So we stopped early, had time to make a delicious steak and baked potato dinner, and it’s only 8:15, but my blog is almost done! I will upload this, and yesterday’s photos (which finally came through today), and try to fall asleep early. Then we plan to get up early, see dinosaur fossils, and then drive another 5 hours or so to meet Ben and Miriam. We are most likely NOT going to have ANY cell phone connections there (in the Colorado Rockies), so most likely this blog will be it until maybe sometime Tuesday night.
Oh, we DID have some excitement right after we set up our campsite. We’d been hearing thunder on and off ever since arriving at the visitor’s center, and even drove through some brief rain showers on our way. But suddenly, it started pouring-- and then HAILING!! For several minutes we had this amazing hailstorm, with the sun still shining on us from the other direction, and a rainbow too! Mother Nature certainly is amazing, as the photos of Sheep Creek Bay will prove!
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| Map of our current location |
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