Dinosaur National Monument, Green River Campground

Thursday August 6, 2015     Day 9        Jenson, Utah   
Dinosaur National Monument, Green River Campground, site 1     

189 miles

We got up at 05:00 to the din of sheep making sheep noises.  There’s the baby sheep noises, and the macho sheep noises.  In between is the dogs barking and the horse making horse noises.  It was just getting light when I lit a fire in the pit.  It was cold outside, 50^o, that we wore fleece and some gloves sitting outside with our coffee.  This campground is at 8,500 ft. elevation (2,591 meters).

 

I know . . . another coffee by the fire picture.  But there's nothing like

a good fire and a good wife to have your coffee in the morning with.

 

 

A good coffee mug and some nice cream in

your coffee is the frosting on the cake.

 



Left the site at 08:00 headed for Dinosaur National Monument Visitor Center in Dinosaur, CO.  We no sooner got out of the campground and encountered the entire herd of sheep lined up on the access road for about 300 ft.  The left side of the road was a very steep hill and the right side a drop off and in front of me were all these sheep with nowhere to go.  I very slowly pushed through and they started going around me and climbed up the steep hill like mountain goats.  Some almost had to be nudged by the bumper before they would move.  We slowly made our way through.  A few of the dogs came and herded them up the slope.  They were amazingly agile.  There must have been hundreds of sheep in this herd.

 

A few sheep blocking the road

 



Had a beautiful early morning drive down the Flat River valley to US-40 westbound.  We were leaving the mountains behind and entered the Yama River valley.  Typical western valley, flat in the middle, and low mountain ranges and ridges on the sides.  The further west we got, it got more dry and desert-like, with sagebrush and cottonwoods.  As we approached the Colorado-Utah border, there was more and more rock formations of all colors and types.

We got to the Canyonlands Visitor Center near Dinosaur CO at around noon.  We didn’t even go in the door.  We took a map from the display just outside the door and realized that the Green River Campground, our distination, was in the Quarry Section of the Dinosaur Monument, which is in Jenson, Utah, 25 miles away.  So we went there.  Pulled into main gate, got in for free, and headed to the campground.  It was $12 per night, but we paid $6 per night, for 2 nights.  My America the Beautiful Senior Pass gets me in free to all national parks, national monuments, national forest recreation areas, and other federal units.  Campground fees are half the normal rates.  The whole pass is $10 and it’s good for life.  One of the best deals ever.  But you have to reach the ripe old age of 62 to get one. 

 

Here's some pictures from our campsite at Green River Campground:

 

The ridge in the background is Split Mountain.  It is stunning in person.  This

picture doesn't do it justice.  It is across the Green River from our campsite.



Let’s talk about beer, now.  I noticed when we first camped in Colorado, at Sterling State Park, there was a sign that said only 3.2% alcohol beer could be consumed there.  I thought that was weird.  But ignored it and drank the beer I had bought in Nebraska.  Later we got beer in Sterling at the grocery store.  I was disappointed in the selection.  They only had two brands of craft beer.  And just one type.  One was an IPA and the other an amber.  A few days later at another location I was in a Walmart and noticed the same lack of choice among craft beers.  Bought what they had.  At Mountain Park campground, I was drinking an IPA that had on the label “Does not exceed 3.2% alcohol by weight”.  That explains why I thought I was drinking $9 six packs that tasted like watered down beer.  I had to get to the bottom of this so I called out my research department.  Marsha got on it right away.  In Colorado, supermarkets can only sell 3.2% beer and liquor stores can only sell full strength beer.  So I quit buying supermarket beer and went to a liquor store in Craig, Colorado on the way here.  Yes!  Lots of selection of real beer.  They also gave me a free bag of ice.  I have never lived in a state with 3.2% beer so I was unfamiliar with it.   I have no idea what the situation is in Utah, with all the Mormons and such.  But I’ll let you know.

Going from 8,500 ft. to 4,695 ft. helped my gas milage.  I got the best towing milage of the trip at 12.5 mpg.  Compare that with 10 mpg crossing Iowa and Nebraska.  The gas in Nebraska was about $2.89/gal.  In Colorado it is over $3.00/gal.  Back home, regular gas is 87 octane, mid-grade 89, and premium is 91.  Out here, regular is 85, mid-grade is 87, and premium is 89.  I’ve been paying extra for the mid-grade, just to keep it the same as it’s always been.  Most of my miles are towing 5000 lbs. I think 85 grade would not be good.  Unless, the lower barometric pressure requires a lower grade.  When I was at Hahn’s Peak, the barometric pressure was 23” Hg. 

After arriving at the campground, we had a 3G signal and I took advantage of it to get some blogging done.  Worked a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday’s posts which finally went out last night and this morning.  Had some barbeque pork chops and salad.  Had to hurry, because we wanted to watch the Republican debates.  But it was on the Fox News Channel and I don’t have cable at this campground or a satellite dish.  Can’t stream it because we didn’t have good enough internet, and, we would have to watch it on small computer screen and use too much of our data allowance for the month.  So we sat in the truck from 19:00-21:00 Mountain Time and listened to it on Sirius-XM Fox News Channel 114.

We plan to spend tomorrow at this campground and do some site seeing in the area.

We will be in the Flaming Gorge Recreational Area on Saturday.