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Utah Loop Ride |
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| Captain: Nancy Frase | Phone: 303-926-1591 | |
| Date: May 24 - 26 | Saturday - Monday | |
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| Meet: 7:45 a.m. @ 6th & Kipling (Sofa Mart parking lot) | ||
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Saturday, May 24 |
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Ride leaves @ 8:00 a.m., eat & fuel before meeting |
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| 6th Ave west to I-70, west to CO 9 | 59 mi. | |
| Hwy CO-9 north to Hwy US-40, west to Steamboat Springs | 90 mi. | |
| Lunch in Steamboat Springs, CO | ||
| Hwy US-40 west to Vernal, UT | 167 mi. | |
| Day Miles | 316 mi. | |
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Spend the night in Vernal, Utah Call to make reservations before May 15th |
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Sunday, May 25 |
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| The morning will be open for ad hoc touring around the Vernal, Flaming Gorge and Unitas Scenic Byway area. | ||
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Meet @ 1:45 p.m., ride leaves at 2:00 p.m. |
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| Ride south on US-191/40/6 to Green River, UT. | 176 mi. | |
| Day Miles | 176 mi. | |
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Spend the night in Green River, Utah Call to make reservations before May 11th |
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Monday, May 26 |
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Ad hoc rides & activities in the Moab area during the early morning |
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Meet @ 8:45 am, Ride leaves at 9:00 a.m. |
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I-70 east to Grand Junction, CO. Lunch in Grand Junction, CO |
101 mi. | |
| I-70 east into the Denver area. Arrive back in Denver around 5:30pm | 245 mi. | |
| Day Total | 346 mi. | |
| Ride Total | 838 mi. | |
| Detailed Review and History of the Trip Landmarks: The Utah Loop Ride will cover over 800 miles in three days, with plenty of time to explore the Vernal, UT and Green River, UT areas. Here are some of the places you could check out on this trip!!! *****Information on the Vernal (Flaming Gorge) area***** LOCATION: Flaming Gorge is located in southwest Wyoming and northeast Utah. HISTORY: Petroglyphs and artifacts suggest that prehistoric people of the Fremont culture hunted game near Flaming Gorge for many centuries. Later the Ute tribes, whose members spread throughout the mountains of present-day Colorado and Utah, visited Flaming Gorge country. During the early 1800's, fur trappers searched the mountains of the West for beaver. William H. Ashley, organizer of a large fur trading company, came to the Green River, WY in 1825, loaded trade goods into buffalo hide boats, and set out on an epic first exploration of the Green River. Ashley returned the same summer for the first of the famous mountain men rendezvous, held on Henry's Fork, near Burnt Fork, Wyoming. The Ashley National Forest was named in honor of this early western explorer. On a spring day in 1869, John Wesley Powell and nine men boarded small wooden boats at Green River, Wyoming to embark on a daring exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers. Powell and his men slowly worked their way downstream, successfully completing their journey in late summer. On May 26, 1869, Major Powell named Flaming Gorge after he and his men saw the sun reflecting off the red rocks. In the 1870's, the first ranchers moved to the mountain valleys near Flaming Gorge. It was harsh, rough country for earning a livelihood. Backbreaking hours were spent grubbing sagebrush and laying irrigation ditches on the land. Many of the early pioneers gave up the struggle and moved on. Many outlaws and fugitives would hide out in the isolated valleys along the Green River. Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch were the most notorious. FLAMING GORGE DAM: Completed in 1964, Flaming Gorge Dam was built to provide water storage and hydroelectricity. It rises 502 feet above the Green River and includes a Visitor Center, which is open daily for guided tours. Flaming Gorge Dam is a thin-arch concrete dam. From the streambed, the dam stands 502 feet high and contains 987,000 cubic yards of concrete. Construction of the dam began in 1958 and was completed in 1964. The dam was dedicated in 1964 by former First Lady Mrs. Lyndon B. "Ladybird" Johnson. The Bureau of Reclamation operates and maintains the dam and powerplant. Water is released from the dam through large pipes called penstocks into the powerplant where the water turns turbines that generate electricity. Warmer water can be released through the penstocks, to benefit downstream fish, by adjusting the selective withdrawal structure located on the upstream face of the dam. Additional water can be released through the outlet works and the spillways. FLAMING GORGE RESERVOIR: The lake is 91 miles long and has over 350 miles of shoreline. When the reservoir is full at elevation 6,040 feet above sea level, it has a capacity of 3,788,900 acre-feet and a surface area of 42,020 acres. The Utah portion fills narrow, colorful canyons; the Wyoming section is wider and surrounded by high sagebrush deserts. Anglers try for trophy-size lake and rainbow trout, kokanee salmon, and smallmouth bass. Three marinas are located on the lake. SCENIC DRIVES: "Wildlife Through the Ages" National Scenic Byway runs along Hwy 191 and Hwy 44 between Vernal and Manila, Utah. Sheep Creek Geological Loop is off Hwy 44 just south of Manila, and is open during the summer. Sheep Creek Canyon presents a lavish display of twisted and upturned rock. Sheep Creek has been eroding this spectacular canyon for millions of years, since the uplift of the Uinta Mountains. HISTORIC SITES: Swett Ranch, located near Flaming Gorge Lodge (on a 2-mile dirt road), represents historic western homesteading. Ute Fire Lookout Tower, located just off the Sheep Creek Geological Loop (on a very rough 2 mile dirt road), was the first and is now the last operating fire tower in the state of Utah. Both are open seasonally and are accessed by short dirt roads for most vehicles (questionable for Goldwings). John Jarview Historic Site in nearby Browns Park is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It is approximately an hour's drive from Flaming Gorge Dam on a combination of paved and dirt roads, and a turn-of-the-century pioneer settlement. The ranch contains a general store/post office, "undershot" waterwheel, ferry landing, blacksmith shop, and other rustic buildings. DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT: Located 20 miles east of Vernal on Hwy 40 is the dinosaur quarry which lends its name to all of Dinosaurland. Discovered in 1909 by paleontologist Earl Douglass, the quarry is the largest Jurassic Period dinosaur quarry in the world. One entire wall of the glassed quarry building is a fossilized sand bar that collected dead dinosaurs as they were swept down an ancient river. Originally established at 80 acres in 1915, the monument was enlarged in 1938 to include more than 200,000 acres of wilderness in Utah and Colorado. Included are the spectacular canyons of the Green and Yampa rivers. DUTCH JOHN COMMUNITY: Dutch John, Utah, was founded by the Secretary of the Interior in 1958 as a community to house personnel, administrative offices, and equipment for construction and operation of Flaming Gorge Dam, Reservoir, and Power plant. The community was named for a pioneer settler of the area. Since completion of construction, the community has been managed by the Bureau of Reclamation and has served primarily as a residential area for those involved in the operation, maintenance, and administration of the dam and surrounding area. In 1998, Congress passed legislation that provided for the disposal of most lands, structures, and community facilities in the Dutch John area and transfer of administration responsibility to local government. Today, the town is home to around 300 residents and two gas stations. VERNAL: Vernal is the largest and oldest city in northeastern Utah and is the Unitah County seat. Situated in the verdant Ashley Valley, Vernal was initially settled in the early 1870's, although trappers, Ute Indians and the Dominguez-Escalante expedition (1776) passed through the area much earlier. In Vernal, a number of interesting places merit a visit. At the Utah Field House of Natural History and Dinosaur Gardens, visitors stroll through historic, prehistoric and geologic time as represented in Dinosaurland. Fremont Culture artifacts and Ute Indian ceremonial attire are featured in the Amerindian Hall. Geologic formations are highlighted on a fascinating mural of the Unita Mountains and Basin. Fourteen life-sized dinosaurs, the work of Utah artist Elbert Porter, dominate the museum's garden. The Bank of Bernal (now Zions Bank) holds the distinction of being the only building in the world ever delivered by parcel post. The five tons of bricks in its facade were shipped from Salt Lake City via parcel post because freight at the time cost $2.50 per hundred pounds and parcel post was only $1.05. MANILA: Before the establishment of Dutch John, Daggett County had only two other communities. Both were located in the Lucerne Valley along the Wyoming-Utah border. Linwood, near the site of the first rendezvous of American fur traders in 1825, ended up being flooded when Flaming Gorge Lake was created. Manila (population 207), five miles from Lucerne Valley Bay, is now a year-round center for recreation on the lake, and home to the Forest Service headquarters of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. The town's name commemorates the capture of the Philippine capital in 1898, the year the site was being surveyed. ROOSEVELT: Roosevelt, known as the Hub of Uintah County, was founded by the Ed F. Harmston family who homesteaded the area in 1905 when the Ute Reservation was opened to settlement. The reservation was originally set aside for the Ute Nation in 1861 by Abraham Lincoln. Called Dry Gulch City in the planning stages, the town was renamed by Harmston's wife Mary because she refused to ever be known as a "Dry Gulcher". A personal friend of Teddy Roosevelt's she chose to name the town after him. In a history written for the Roosevelt Chamber of Commerce, George E. Stewart described the Basin's land rush days: "Finally in 1905 and 1906 the Ute Reservation was opened to homesteaders. The big land rush was on! It was not like the land rush along the Cimarron in Oklahoma, the government had learned its lesson there, so in the Big "U" Country the red tape made the rush much more orderly. By the homesteaders came by the hundreds. There it was, it sprang up almost over night, a town; rocky, dusty, rough and raw with a purely frontier flavor." FORT DUCHESNE: Fort Duchesne was established in 1886 as an army post. It served the infantry and cavalry until 1912 when it was abandoned and taken over by the Utes. Two companies of black cavalrymen, named "Buffalo Soldiers" by western Indians, served at the fort until 1901. The Utes are a proud people and enjoy sharing their cultural heritage. Throughout the year, ceremonial dances are performed in major reservation communities. The Ute Pow Wow is held annually in July at Tribal Headquarters in Fort Duchesne. A rodeo and native arts and crafts are showcased at this event. *****Information on the Green River (Utah) area***** HISTORY: The city of Green River, population 860, is located near the site of an historic river crossing used by both Indians and Spanish explorers. Settled in 1878, the town served as a mail relay station between Salina, Utah and Ouray, Colorado, until the coming of the RioGrand Western Railroad in 1882. The town has since supported, and survived the economic ups and downs of a variety of industries including cattle and sheep ranching, railroad and highway construction, uranium and oil exploration and an Army missile base. Today, mostly river recreation and tourism support the town, although it is famous for its production of a wide variety of melons. A "Melon Days" festival is held every third weekend in September, to celebrate the delicious harvest! CRYSTAL GEYSER: Crystal Geyser was "formed" in 1935-36 when a petroleum test well was dug on the banks of the Green River. It erupts every 14 to 16 hours, for about 30 minutes, with water shooting 80 to 100 feet high. SWASEY BEACH & RAPID/NEFERTITI: On Hastings Road is a long (9 miles) sandy river beach back-dropped by shady cottonwood tress. There are grills, tables and rest rooms. If you continue to the end of the road, you will see a rock formation named for its likeness of Queen Nefertiti. There are also petroglyphs close to the road. SEGO CANYON: North of Thompson, Utah, are remnants of a turn-of-the century coal mining town (Sego), and rock art of several ancient cultures. GOBLIN VALLEY STATE PARK: Thousands of delicately eroded sandstone formations give this park its name. From the park's parking area, a short trail leads to the Valley, where visitors are free to wander among the goblins weathered from Entrada Sandstone. BLACK DRAGON PICTOGRAPH: Several pictographs are found at this site, including the "Black Dragon". You may have to walk a 1/4 of a mile if the road is too rough. Do not enter the canyon in wet weather. (Hmmmm . . maybe not a good one for Goldwings unless you can walk the last part . . . ??) |
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