Help! I’m in a Flaming Gorge!
Actually, i’m fine. It’s a bucolic National Recreation Area in Utah and Wyoming.
Camped here for the night after driving from Colorado. I have no idea why, but in my near-middlish age, I’ve become fascinated by dams. I’ve seen about six different documentaries about Hoover Dam, and i want more. Maybe it has something to do about my impending concerns about my sense of a place in the world. Or the blockage of liquids flowing through me.
Whatever the case, when i found that the main feature of Flaming Gorge NRA was its dam (indeed its raison d’etre), i said “Screw you, Dinosaur National Monument! I’m campin’ in the Gorge!” (or something to that effect).
The view from the dam is magnificent (I’ll post fotos when i get home). The reservoir is framed by glorious mountains, and the trickle of the Green River, some 450 feet below on the other side, leads to some of the best fishing in the country.
The lake allows for boating, camping, small coves for swimming, and plenty of summer fun for the droves of families who make their way up here. The sun sets on the forest greens and all seems well.
It almost makes you forget how fake it all is. This is a National Rec Area, not a Natural one. The Green River was doing just fine, thanks very much. The dam wasn’t built to tame a dangerous and wild waters. It was built to store them. There are turbines generating electricity inside, but that was not part of the original design.
Unlike Hoover Dam, Flaming Gorge wasn’t built in a time of great poverty, when America needed a huge Work Project. It doesn’t use its water or its power terribly efficiently. And its visitor center doesn’t have a documentary.
Still, you gotta love the name.
Sounds like it’s beautiful, but with no pics, we’ll have to take your word for it. Now, if you had Postie installed, you could have pics up already.
Sigh.
– Laura, the Nag
I’d love to see your photos, J.Keith. I visited there many years ago–possibly before you were born–and the name comes, I believe, from the colors in the rock formation at sunrise or sunset. It was quite beautiful.
You should not, under any circumstances, miss Dinosaur National Monument. While not quite as cool as the Royal Drumheller Dino park in Alberta, it is probably part of the same geological system. Hence, many dino bones.