Adventuring {Red Canyon Camping}

Happy campers.

Since our two earlier attempts went amazingly well, all things considered, we decided we had to squeeze another camping trip in before it got too cold.  The destination this time?  Our ever-favorite, Red Canyon (area) in the Ashley National Forest near Flaming Gorge.  We left Thursday (7 September) after work/doc appointment and arrived in our favorite dispersed camp spot, Meadow Park, in less than three hours.  Gregg took tent duty, and I got dinner ready and in the bodies of the two tiny ones.  We had a nice fire that evening, thanks to our firewood hauling crew (the campsite next to us had tons of chopped wood just waiting to be carried to our fire ring and stacked and burned and Cal and Sam did a lot of the carrying).  And then it was time for bed.

Happy camper number one.

Happy camper number two.

7:56 pm
Smokey sunset - at least here you could see there were actually
clouds, not one big haze of smoke like at home (thanks to a
wildfire just over the mountain in Uintah/South Ogden area,
plus hundreds of fires all over the west, really).

Friday morning started off with tent snuggles and stories.  Then we had breakfast (oatmeal and muffins).  We explored around camp for a while before heading to the Flaming Gorge Dam for the best dam tour in Utah (that's what their shirts said!).  Callie said this was her favorite part of the trip.  The elevator ride was long and cool, and the fish-feeding at the bottom was a real highlight for sure.  We tried to hike a bit along the trail at Little Hole afterward, but it was hot and the kids were tired and hungry, so we decided to let them nap in the car while we took the long way back to camp through Dutch John and up to see the airport and down to the end of the Red Canyon road, etc.  We got back to our site and everyone was feeling much more chipper, so we ate lunch and then the kids played in the tent for over an hour while Gregg and I napped/lazed/read/talked in the shade.  It was heaven!  The disaster that met us when we opened the tent door was well worth that marvelous time.  This is about when the cows mooooved into camp (we had heard and spotted many the day before, but this time they came in and made themselves at home).  Noisy buggers.  We played around camp a bit more, hauled more wood, and eventually ventured over to Red Canyon Lodge to see the ducks in the pond, swing on the porch swing, wander through the old cabins that Gregg's family used to stay in over UEA back in the day, and splash some rocks from the dock on Green's Lake.  We got down to the visitor's center at the overlook just in time for it to be closed up, so Callie was bummed about that.  But we wandered around the overlook for a bit and then drove the two miles back to camp for dinner: chicken nuggets, (instant) mashed potatoes and gravy, and biscuits.  Talk about gormet camping food!  Ha.  It really was delicious, though not very varied in color pallete as far as food goes.  ;)

7:41 am

Lovely morning light.

Callie liked this stump seat she found at the
next-door-campsite.

It's coming!

A seat with a view.  AKA best Christmas
present ever!

I spy a bunch of vultures hanging out on the
powder pole.  I overheard one tour guide telling
her group that they like the smell the arcing of
the wires makes - it smells like lightning and
they instinctively gather there because lightning
often means death?  Interesting...

I like the logo, but I didn't get a very good pic
of it.

Why yes, he is bopping his sister on the head
with his fist.

The Green River from the dam.

That's a better pic to see the vultures.

Sam liked this bridge with a flag.

The Green River at Little Hole.

Hi there, bunny!

Changing leaves.

He loooooves the tent.

Our view from the blanket in the shade
while the kids played in the tent.

Moooovin' through. (And moovin' in.)

bonus video!

walking along, moving along

She's not really asleep, FYI.

Lovely place to read a book - and yes, I have a blanket on
my legs and a sweatshirt on my arms.  It was amazing!

Meadow Park.

Haulin' haulin' haulin'.  (We didn't use nearly
as much as she carried over.  But she loved to
fetch it, so we let her knock herself out.)

My bench swingin' buddy at the Red Canyon Lodge.

Sittin' on the dock of the lake.

Cabin curiosity.

Red Canyon Overlook.

Family selfie flop.  (But I love it.)

Dinner of champions.

Biscuit makers.

Sam always has a car.

He even picked one out for Callie to bring along
(and it happened to be her favorite car in the
bucket - what a sweet boy!).

This huge log was the perfect roadway for
said cars.  (And the hatchet was a "tunnel" - I
love the imagination of these kids.)

6:48 pm

Saturday morning finally arrived after the longest night ever of surround sound mooing (and other strange sounds - at times we wondered what exactly was outside our tent (could it be elk bugling? but no, it's just cows and bulls making a racket all night long)) we woke up to a slow breakfast of eggs, bacon and biscuits (all together if you're a parent, separate if you're a kid).  In our driving between the dam and our site the day before, we had noticed a trail to an overlook that we've never tried before, so after getting dressed and fed, we headed that way for a hike on the Bear Canyon Trail.  It was a nice, wide, flat, easy trail through fields and past an RV park before it turned into a slightly more forested area and boom!  Overlook time.  It was fun to see a slightly different angle on the lake view.  We ate our granola bar snacks and then hiked back to the car.  One last stop was planned for the overlook visitor's center, so we stopped there on the way back to camp to fill our water bottles and stamp our passport and look at the pictures and displays there.  Back at camp it was lunch and then packing up time.  We got it all back in the subaru and hit the road for home.  We had told Cal that we could stop at a restaurant on the way home, so we chose Taggart's Grill, a little restaurant in a cabin and basically the only thing off that exit on I-84 just outside of Morgan.  It wasn't exactly dinnertime at 3:45, but we ate anyway.  The food was great (Gregg got a fish sandwich and I got a French Dip, both on their famous pitas - yummy!, Cal got mac 'n' cheese and Sam got a hot dog ("eat! yummy! in mouth!")), and the crayons and butcher paper on the table was a huge hit with the kids.

bonus video!

some moos (but mostly shoes)

7:22 am

Breakfast bunch (include the three bulls having
a tussle in the background).

Sign readers at heart.

Hand holding sibs.  Yeah, that's adorable.

He walked for a good chunk of this hike
and then, "ready, set, go!" he says as he runs
in front of me, trying to be picked up.  I asked him
if he wanted to lay his head on my shoulder for a
little nap and he didn't refuse.  A minute or less later,
he's out.

We made it!  About 1.5 fairly easy miles to this point,
I think the sign said.

True pano, to get the lay of the land.

Waking up is hard to do.  Not a long nap,
but I guess those early morning cows really
got to him.

We definitely don't go camping for the sleep.  But everything else about being in the mountains with my faves fills my soul completely!