Sunday 9-11 Utah & Wyoming to Idaho & Palisades Creek Campground

 

Welcome sign to Palisades Creek campground

We had a long day of driving. We left Flaming Gorge at 7:30 and arrived at Palisades Creek Campground at 3:00. Larry drove 275 miles.

I woke up at 7:00 because I knew Larry was going to drive a long ways. Last night we bagged our chairs and put the grill away. Today we put everything down. For Breakfast we had a protein shake and granola bar. Once everything was secured inside. I went outside and put in the step. Larry started the Minnie and warmed it up.

We were on the road. Before leaving Flaming Gorge we stopped at an overlook area. It was a beautiful view of the mountains and the huge reservoir. At the overlook there were signs about the plight of the pronghorns, big horn sheep, bald eagle, moose and other wildlife in the area. I took a few pictures but the reservoir was too far away and there was a lot of smoke in the air from the wildfires int the north.

We drove two lane highways out of Flaming Gorge and through Wyoming that we hadn't driven before. We only drove 15 miles before entering Utah. In Wyoming we started in a mountain range then we had rolling hills covered with sage brush and then back to a mountain range. We saw pronghorns, mule deer and cattle. Some of the area was open range so we had to be careful of cows. We saw a few wildlife crossing bridges. When we got to Pinedale we stopped and filled the Minnie and had sandwiches for lunch. 

After lunch we were back on the road, we had another 90 miles to our destination. About 20 miles before our destination we crossed into Idaho. We stopped at Palisades Dam, to look at a campground, they did have a couple of power sites available but there was no shade nor were there nearby hiking trails. It wasn't bad but we decided to drive another 5.5 miles to  Palisades Creek Campground, we stayed here around 10 years ago. It's a small campground with lots of trees, hiking and Palisades Creek runs on the back of the sites. There is a vault restroom, no power and the water is shared. The hiking trails are shared with horses and they go on forever.

We had just parked the Minnie when Nick the host showed up. He was very nice and gave us a lot of information about the area and different campgrounds and things to do. We filled out the envelope and paid for two nights.

We read a bit. When dinnertime came around I barbecued hamburgers. After dinner I walked around for an hour. I walked to the hiking trailhead, part of the trail and around the campground for a total of 3.25 miles. Then I finished my  26,000 steps at the Minnie. The internet is slow so I don't know where I came in my group but I know I was over my goal for the week.

We had a long day but we saw a lot of beautiful scenery and wildlife. We got a gorgeous site by Palisades Creek.