First Jedediah Smith Trail 1822 — 1824

Day 26: September 10th, 2009 Green River — Evanston

Map Green River to Evanston

As already suspected, I slept in today promptly because it was yesterday already past midnight when I went to bed. During the night I woke up a couple of times and then once again just before seven in the morning. There I already was happy and thought to relax for a couple of minutes because since a couple of days, I have some hardening in my neck and shoulders which causes permanent light headaches. Well, and then it was just before eight when I wake up again. Now I really have to hurry up to get myself ready for the day.

Highway 374/BUS80/Flaming Gorge Way, Green River, WY

Highway 530/Uinta Dr, Green River, WY

Breakfast is again at the Krazy Moose. This time I receive one of the best coffee refill services I ever had! And they have again great bacon for breakfast. Pretty well sated I drive over to the next gas station. There, also the owner is gassing up who is of course interested in my setup. He wishes me luck on my trails. Then I hit the road.

CR9/FR173/Little Firehole Rd, WY

FR014/Scotts Bottom Rd, WY

Again, I am not able to drive the backroad to Flaming Gorge. Therefore I must take the Interstate to Highway 191. There I am almost back in Rock Springs. But from the highway I am able to turn onto the backroads into the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.

FR014/Scotts Bottom Rd, WY

FR173, WY

There I am even able to drive on real offroad trails pretty close to the bluff along the river banks.

Rim Rd, WY

88 S10 Blazer, Rim Rd, WY

Rim Rd, WY

The trail takes me on top along the ridge, which offers great views in both valleys.

Backroad, WY

At some point, the road does not continue and I must take a real rough 4WD trail down to the main forest road.

CR9/Little Firehole Rd, WY

This is now a well maintained forest road and I make good miles there. Only the coolant temperature of my truck worries me.

CR33/Flaming Gorge Rd, WY

At a nice spot I stop to take pictures and videos and keep the engine running in the hope that the coolant temperature will drop a bit more. But the temperature stays. I open the hood and I don’t have the impression, that the main fan is really engaging. There is some air flowing through but not as much as I have seen back in Pennsylvania. I assume that the visco clutch is not fully engaging when everything is running too hot. I hope that everything will survive this trip, because next year I already plan to install a new radiator and electric fan. I am really curious how this will work out. Maybe I let my Chevy dealer in Wexford install the combo and only do the electrical stuff myself. That is something I will discuss with Jay when I am back.

FR060, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

88 S10 Blazer, FR060, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

FR060, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

For now I continue my journey. There would be another drive up to a ridge, which I abandon when a steep incline with a heavy tilt starts. When I look at this part of the road from down there I am not sure, if I will make it up to the top. And the detour is not as much as to risk to ruin my truck here.

FR123, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

Franklin’s Gull, Pronghorn, FR123, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

FR123, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

Franklin’s Gull, FR123, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

FR123, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

Pronghorn, FR123, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

FR123, Flaming Gorge, Green River, WY

FR123, Flaming Gorge, WY

A little bit later I am again able to take a small 4WD trail and also see a bit of wildlife.

FR106/CR38/Flaming Gorge Rd, WY

Then I am back on this well maintained gravel road.

Flaming Gorge Rd, Green River, WY

88 S10 Blazer, Flaming Gorge Rd, Green River, WY

CR33/Flaming Gorge Rd, WY

Flaming Gorge Rd, WY

Flaming Gorge Rd, Green River, WY

Pronghorn, Flaming Gorge Rd, WY

Flaming Gorge Rd, WY

Flaming Gorge Rd, Green River, WY

Flaming Gorge Rd, WY

From there I have some nice views of the Green River, which is already dammed up to a lake.

Flaming Gorge Rd, WY

Highway 373, State Line WY and UT

Highway 191, UT

Highway 191, Flaming Gorge, Green River, UT

Highway 191, Flaming Gorge Dam, Green River, UT

Highway 191, Flaming Gorge, Green River, UT

Highway 191, UT

Highway 191, Flaming Gorge Dam, Green River, UT

Highway 191, Green River, UT

Finally I arrive at Highway 191 just before the state line to Utah. According to my GPS software I will arrive at my destination today around 9pm. But there must not be too much offroad on the rest of my trail. Otherwise I will completely run out of time. But for now I continue on Highway 191 to Utah and then across the dam, which dams up the whole lake in the Flaming Gorge. Here, from the Utah side, you really start to see the red rocks in contrast to the water color.

Highway 44, UT

Highway 44, Flaming Gorge, Green River, UT

Highway 44, UT

Highway 44, Flaming Gorge, Green River, UT

Highway 44, UT

The landscape, through which Highway 191 and later Highway 44 takes me, is absolutely picturesque. There, the mountains are really rugged and rocky and it just looks great. Way too often I stop for pictures and time is now totally slipping away.

Highway 530, State Line UT and WY

Highway 530, WY

At Manila I turn onto Highway 43 which changes to Highway 530 at the state line to Wyoming. The again planned side trip into the Flaming Gorge for pictures from the west side will be skipped. Especially, as I will not enter an area where the rocks will be so picturesque as before. When I reach the exit for my planned backroad this is again a 4WD trail. This is now getting too risky if I want to make it to Evanston today. If something goes wrong there I have no chance to reach my motel at a reasonable time. Even now it will be getting extremely tight. It is now already close to 6pm.

CR4-1/McKinnon Rd, WY

Therefore I continue on Highway 530 North in the hope, that there will be a better way west to shortcut before I reach McKinnon Junction. But unfortunately, these are all 4WD trails. So I must continue up to the branch of County Road 4–1 to the north.

Highway 414, UT

Then I continue on this one to the southwest until I reach Highway 414. Also there are great views of the landscape and in some spots are even again small badlands where the road runs through. On Highway 414 I continue to the west. But on the exit to my backroad I stay on the better maintained alternative road. I follow Highway 414 up to Mountain View, first in northern then in western direction. At Mountain View I turn onto Highway 410 and continue later on Highway 411.

CR212, UT

CR180/Painter Rd, UT

County Roads 212 and 180 finally take me almost up to Evansville. There I have the chance to see a nice sunset on my drive. But I am lacking the time to stop for taking pictures. So I continue up to the Interstate. On this one I drive the final couple of miles to my Motel 6.

There I check in just past eight in the evening. Available rooms are not an issue here. The reception lady must has an officer as Dad because of her harsh and commanding tone. I still ask for the restaurant “The Old Mill” where I had dinner before. But this one does not exist anymore for a very long time. She tells me that they have closed even years ago!

Damned, and I was so excited to have dinner there. The restaurant had such a wonderful atmosphere. So I must have dinner at the Bear Town Restaurant where I had breakfast back then. In return, it is in walking distance and only a couple of hundred yards away. There I order a 10oz Sirloin, which is a little bit marbled but otherwise still okay. It even really tastes like wood charcoal and is very crispy at some spots. This really tastes good. In addition, there are mushrooms and onions on top of the sirloin and additional sweetcorn as a side! This is really huge.

Okay, in exchange it is a bit expensive with $15.99 plus tax. This time I pay cash and walk back to my motel around half past nine. Today, they will close the restaurant earlier, because they are not busy. Otherwise they are open until ten. In the restaurant they show a John Wayne movie on a huge silver screen. Only the sound is missing. As background music they have rock and pop music, which does not fit at all — neither to the restaurant nor the movie. Back then at my breakfast, they were even playing Country. Let’s see how this will be tomorrow.

Back in my motel I first get my stuff out. Then I throw my Eagles CD into the player. But this one is not really convincing me. It seems that there are only two or three songs on both CDs which are nice. This was definitely not worth the money. If I would have payed $15 when it was released, I would have been really furious. Well…

I write again my diary while I listen to the CD. Then I do my bookkeeping. The video tape checking will be skipped for today. All in all, I must not sleep in tomorrow again, because they will shut down the water at 9am due to some maintenance work. Maybe I will arrive not too late in Montpelier. Then I will have the chance to check my video taping there. We will see…

Unfortunately, the motel is very noisy because of my neighbors TV, the Interstate on one side and the gas station on the other side. Seems like I must sleep again with my ear plugs. Slowly, it is starting to annoy me, especially because I must fight for a quarter of an hour until I have these silly things in my ear in a way, they are really closing up. In particular, I have issues with my left ear to get them around the corner into the lower part of my ear canal. But only this way the ear plug will really close sufficiently. Well, we will see…

Around half past eleven I have finished all my tasks. Then I take care of my Nikon. Somehow, all my pictures have a wrong exposure. They are completely out of range. After studying the manual for a while, I realize that the exposure is set to a one point measurement instead of taking the whole picture into account. This looks like a whole lot of picture rework, great…

And so I am ending up with midnight when I am eventually able to go to bed — even without checking a single video tape…

The next day is in preparation…

Sights
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General
Breakfast: Krazy Moose, Green River
Dinner: Bear Town Restaurant, Evanston
Motel: Motel 6, Evanston
Distance: 249 miles

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