Thursday May 11, 2023 - Dinosaur National Park to Pinedale WY

Another sleep filled night next to the Green River. We have been sleeping really soundly. We packed up and drove the 20 miles back into Vernal UT. We stopped for some groceries and then coffee and breakfast at Micky D’s. Today is RT 191 all the way with no diversions. Deb found an RV park that looked pretty nice up in Pinedale, WY so that’s today's destination.  The stretch above Vernal looks forlorn on a map but it skirts a set of big rolling mountains and bobs and weaves way up above the valleys below. Not a lot of trees but the rolling grassy hills with nobody living here. 

We stopped at the Flaming Gorge Dam and walked around checking out how big it is. It was opened in 1964 and they have pictures of Lady Bird Johnson and J.F.K. giving speeches here (JFK died in 1963 so they must have had him for a soft opening or something).

RT 191 goes right across the dam and then climbs more into more remote high rolling mountain terrain.

Not much up here until we saw a few roadside markers indication the Pony Express went through here (1860-61) and the Oregon Trail was re-routed here in 1857 by Frederick W. Lander cutting 250 miles off the trip. 13,000 immigrants went through here the first year. Wow!

We then started seeing dead antelope in the fields beside the road and then we saw a lot of dead antelope as well as a couple of live ones. We turned around to see if our eyes were deceiving us and sure enough they were everywhere, mostly dead. A state trooper was pulled over so we asked him what was up with the antelope and he said it was the terrible winter they'd had. They got more snow than anyone can remember along with some freezing rain that made the snow crusty, and the antelope couldn't get down to eat the grass under the snow so they starved. He said the mule deer had a similar fate but the elk less so because they are much bigger.

We pulled into Pinedale and found the RV park which is brand new with small trees still taking root. The man running it checked us in and when we mentioned the antelope, he said he was at the local landfill when a truck came in with 1500 dead antelope. The past winter is the hot topic of conversation here.

Deb found a brewery a mile away so we walked to Wind River Brewing Company for supper. Then back to the rig and hot showers all around in the amazing RV park bathrooms. Mountain Man Museum tomorrow and then Jackson WY.

Odo = 6700

Gas fillup today = 19.4 mpg