The White River Expedition

We rendezvoused with our friends Taylor and Amy at our other friends Rob and Betsy's house in Boise.  We briefly discussed our travel plans and the all headed downtown to sample the local beers and get some dinner.  We returned to Rob and Betsy's house for some awesome rhubarb and strawberry pie.  Unfortunately Rob had to get to the airport by 5 the next morning so after staying up a bit later than we should have (especially Rob) we turned in for the night.  The next morning we got our shopping done for the next week and headed south towards Utah.  We spent the night at Massacre Rock State Park, a really nice park right next to the Snake River.  The weather was turning cold again so we headed farther south into Utah, stopping Lava Springs for a picnic lunch.  After driving most of the day we found a campground near Flaming Gorge.  Unfortunately for us the rain had followed, but fortunately for us we started our fire just in time; you can see us in the photo below really enjoying ourselves.  I woke up when the patter of rain stopped and looked out to see that the rain had been replaced by snow... 

  

After some discussion and investigation of the weather report we decided to head further south and to lower elevation, postponing our intended Flaming Gorge float trip.  Stopped in Vernal for some information on Dinosaur National Monument but no one there was much help so we just headed for the park.  We didn't see any dinosaur bones but we found a nice camp along the Green River with lots of hiking possibilities.  Because of the weather not being terribly well suitable for a river trip we instead spend two days in the park hiking around.  We did a nice loop hike up a anticline and visited an old ranch that was run buy a woman named Josie from around 1910 to 1950.  She seemed like a pretty wily woman.  After our turn in Dinosaur, and with the weather still a bit cold, we decided to not do the Flaming Gorge trip but to instead do a trip on the White River.



  

We had learned about the White River while trying to get information on Dinosaur in Vernal.  We planned a two night, three day, trip starting near Bonanza Utah (go ahead and try to find it on a map).  We camped at the put in and launched early(ish) the next day in good weather.  The river passed through some amazing country with steep canyon walls and few signs of people.  In fact we only saw one other group in our three days.  Our second night camping we hiked to Goblin City, which was described by men on one of Powell's expeditions, and were enjoying the view until the clouds rolled in and my hair started to stand up.  Taylor and I decided to make a hasty retreat.  Amy and Alexis saw us coming down the hill and, not waiting for us, ran down as fast as they could.  A minute later there was a pretty good bolt in the area and then it really started to rain.  We took shelter under some ledges but it wasn't the driest place I've ever been.  The rest of the night was stormy, with only a short break in the weather during which Alexis cooked us a great baked pasta dish. 

By nine the following morning there wasn't a cloud in the sky and we enjoyed a leisurely drift down the river...until a little cloud was joined by a couple more and pretty soon we were paddling hard towards the take out to beat the looming storm.  Made it just in time and, after packing up, drove through a wind/sand storm back to Vernal where we are now.  Tomorrow we're gearing up for our float trip down the Green in Desolation Canyon.