Today we were in Ashley National Forest

Near Green River town, the Green River winds through a deep gorge Flaming Gorge.

We followed the road in a loop around this Gorge.

First we began to see lots of rocky out crops with the snowy Rockies behind them

We began to see Pronghorn deer and prairie dogs.

Then the rocks changed and became many different colours and shapes.

To our surprise the Flaming Gorge was out of this world.

It was named by Wesley Powell who set off from here to explore the green river and then the Colorado when the green river joined it. He eventually went down the Grand Canyon and beyond, mapping out the areas.

In Flaming Gorge there is a rift line and the mountains have been forced up and mangled. The strata is up down and in all the wrong angles! Very impressive…

We were travelling along what had been the bottom of the ocean billions of years ago. Many dinosaurs and fossils are being found here. The ancient rocks were millions of years old. I need to study geology more

 

Next we went down a geological area named Sheep Creek Canyon. We were so unprepared for the delights down there. Our photos cannot show off well enough the contrasts in rock formations and sheer sided valley sides and rock towers formations. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was 5 miles of magic.

Back on the loop road  we stopped at Red Canyon Lodge for lunch. It is built round a small lake and has lots of water activities for families who can hire log cabins and boats. We saw several humming bees sucking sweet water from feeders. There were 2 bird tables that had little reddish finches feeding from them . We saw 2 woodpeckers on the bird tables too.

We continued along the loop to Flaming Gorge Reservoir Dam and crossed the Green River by this bridge.

Eventually we were right on the top of the mountains along a ridge with marvellous views 360* Wow!

The whole area is classed as a cold desert and rarely reaches temperatures over 80*f

Today was hot again with a warm wind about 78*f. It looks very stormy outside now though. The sky has very dark clouds maybe we are in for thunder?

(no its just passed over)

xxxxx