Sunday, July 06, 2008

We left Salt Lake City at 10:30 am ( Ga Time... 8:30 am MT). The traffic was a little bit hectic at times... and as most days there were construction areas to go through.


A lot of varing scenery today of desert and mountains. We saw 7 deer and one small moose lying dead on the sides of the road between Heber Utah and Vernal Utah. I wish they had been alive... especially the moose.


We arrived at the KOA Campground in Vernal Utah at about 2:30 pm (Ga Time... 12:30 pm MT). We were going to stay at a different campground, but it looked like it might be too difficult to get out of in the morning.


After dinner we went to Dinosaur National Monument. The quarry was not open so decided to go on the auto tour. It was a pretty good tour. There is a lot of beauty in the park. It amazes me how the mountains can be so many different colors and shapes.


Along the tour there are rocks that take on the look of a turtle and one of elephant toes or maybe "apatosaurus toes". There were also petroglyphs (drawings) on some walls of the rocks. Some drawings were of people, sheep and lizards.


We passed the Chew family ranch. The family has lived on the site since the early 1900s. They raise alfalfa, corn and other crops, as well as sheep and cattle.


At the end of the tour is Josie Bassett Morris' old homestead. She chose this beautiful spot to live in 1914. The last cabin she built with the help of her grandson and his friend was built in 1935. In 1964 she broke her hip on slippery ground while feeding her horses. She died of complications of this injury at the age of 90.


It was a nice day with clouds coming in the late afternoon. We bought gas in Vernal at $4.77 a gallon. Then we went to Wal-Mart to buy a couple of things. As we left it started to sprinkle a little rain. We were out of it by time we got home. After our showers it started to rain a bit harder.


We traveled 177 miles today plus another 60 or so on our sight-seeing tour.