Ashley National Forest and Flaming Gorge

After leaving Dinosaur National Monument, we made our way to my namesake, Ashley National Forest. On the way, of course, we found some diversions to keep us occupied.  This week, it seemed as though we spent more time discovering new things than actually doing the things we set out to do.  Our first stop was a beautiful reservoir in Utah. We climbed down some cliffs to get a better look, snapped some photos, then went along our way.

Our next stop, for lunch, was also along some pretty water.  While there, we saw a sign advertising hike-to fossilized dinosaur footprints on the other side of the lake.  We got sucked in, and about an hour and a half later, we had made our way down the other side of the lake.  We saw (maybe?) one footprint out of the hundreds that were supposedly there.  We're unsure if the water line was too high, or if we really just shouldn't go into a career in paleontology.  The five year old next to us didn't see any either, so that made us feel a little bit better.

A couple of hours later, we made it to Ashley National Forest. It was pretty high up in the mountains, and much cooler than the desert monument we had left behind.  It was nice to cool off a bit, and see some vegetation.  There were even fields of daisies! We decided not to camp there because the accommodations were definitely on the primitive side, and we were afraid it would be too cold at night.

We moved on to Flaming Gorge, which is actually in Ashley National Forest, but is it's own attraction.  There is a huge dam there, a ton of wildlife, and pretty water.  (In case you haven't noticed, I'm a sucker for pretty water. )  We stayed the night there before heading out early the next morning.  I, for one, didn't sleep too well.  It was the first time we camped in "bear country," meaning that bears roam the area.  Although Eric is convinced bears are his friends, I don't think they're all that fluffy and cute.  Luckily, we didn't see any bears, and were able to make our way back out to the desert stress-free.