Time for some off-season TRs! Mrs. Admin and I took the dogs out to camp for three days and two nights at Flaming Gorge.
For those who may be unfamiliar, Flaming Gorge is a 91 mile-long reservoir on the Green River about three hours east of Salt Lake City that straddles the Utah state line, with the southern third in Utah and the remainder in Wyoming. The Utah portion is mainly, but not entirely set amongst mountains and high plateaus that the river cut its way through over millions of years. The Wyoming portion is set within high arid plains that are typical of most of that state.
We had been looking for a place to take the dogs camping and swimming that was as far away from any other humanity as possible. As Utah is the second driest state in the nation after Nevada, ground water is in somewhat short supply nearby, and save for the Uintas which are currently buried under snow that's still being measured in feet, most lakes/reservoirs are within State Parks that mandate that you camp in a campground. And I hate campgrounds!
Flaming Gorge was the obvious choice. Dispersed camping is allowed throughout the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area as long as you're at least a quarter mile from a developed site and within 150 feet of a road (or 300 feet in Wyoming). There aren't a lot of roads that reach the water, so on Wednesday I started studying topo maps and Google Earth. When I spotted a dead-end peninsula accessible by a dirt Forest Service road and roughly five miles from the nearest paved road, I crossed my fingers and hoped that no one was already established there. When we arrived Thursday night there wasn't anyone else within two miles of our campsite, and it would remain that way throughout the weekend! We didn't even see anyone else venture down the peninsula road.
And as an added bonus, Zoe now legitimately swims. Not just wading in a mountain stream, but honest-to-goodness swimming up to 50 feet out to retrieve sticks. As far as we could throw 'em, she'd go get 'em. No training at all was required; she did it on her own even though Maggie won't go beyond shoulder deep. We couldn't keep the girls out of the water all weekend, and I was a proud puppy father.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDjYYvEk118[/video]
Click the YouTube icon in the embedded video to access HD resolution on YouTube.com (via their settings button if not by default)
For those who may be unfamiliar, Flaming Gorge is a 91 mile-long reservoir on the Green River about three hours east of Salt Lake City that straddles the Utah state line, with the southern third in Utah and the remainder in Wyoming. The Utah portion is mainly, but not entirely set amongst mountains and high plateaus that the river cut its way through over millions of years. The Wyoming portion is set within high arid plains that are typical of most of that state.
We had been looking for a place to take the dogs camping and swimming that was as far away from any other humanity as possible. As Utah is the second driest state in the nation after Nevada, ground water is in somewhat short supply nearby, and save for the Uintas which are currently buried under snow that's still being measured in feet, most lakes/reservoirs are within State Parks that mandate that you camp in a campground. And I hate campgrounds!
Flaming Gorge was the obvious choice. Dispersed camping is allowed throughout the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area as long as you're at least a quarter mile from a developed site and within 150 feet of a road (or 300 feet in Wyoming). There aren't a lot of roads that reach the water, so on Wednesday I started studying topo maps and Google Earth. When I spotted a dead-end peninsula accessible by a dirt Forest Service road and roughly five miles from the nearest paved road, I crossed my fingers and hoped that no one was already established there. When we arrived Thursday night there wasn't anyone else within two miles of our campsite, and it would remain that way throughout the weekend! We didn't even see anyone else venture down the peninsula road.
And as an added bonus, Zoe now legitimately swims. Not just wading in a mountain stream, but honest-to-goodness swimming up to 50 feet out to retrieve sticks. As far as we could throw 'em, she'd go get 'em. No training at all was required; she did it on her own even though Maggie won't go beyond shoulder deep. We couldn't keep the girls out of the water all weekend, and I was a proud puppy father.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDjYYvEk118[/video]
Click the YouTube icon in the embedded video to access HD resolution on YouTube.com (via their settings button if not by default)
