On our way back through town, we decide drive over to Howelsen Hill to look at the ski jump. Howelsen Hill, which opened in 1913, is the oldest ski area in Colorado. We parked by the river and went into an outdoor store, which is our habit when we see one. We talked to the owner for a bit. He asked us if we saw the skiers practicing on the hill earlier. We hadn't, so we asked him how they practiced with no snow. He said that they have artificial turf on the landing area and wet it down to make it slick. He told us that we could walk over to get a closer look, so we did. We walked around the landing area of the jump and into the Olympics training lodge. We read that Steamboat has produced more Olympians than any other US city, 79 to be exact.The ski lift was running, so we bought tickets to ride to the top. At the top, we walked over to the top of the jump. It was dizzying to look down to the bottom. I can't believe people have actually learned to jump without killing themselves. It's almost a vertical drop.
We left Steamboat around noon and headed west to Dinosaur National Monument. There wasn't much in between. I think the only excitement was a herd of sheep that had wandered onto the road. The kids thought it was funny to watch the poor cowboy trying to herd them up.We arrived in Dinosaur National Monument around 3:30, and it is hot! We stopped in the visitor center to see what the park had to offer since we hadn't really planned to come here. The tour book that I was reading said that the building that housed the fossils was closed due to dangerous conditions and no plans were in place to repair it. We were told that we had to catch a shuttle to the quarry. We sunscreened up and grabbed some water, thinking that the quarry would probably be out in the middle of the hot sun. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up to this beautiful, air conditioned building. The fossil wall was amazing. It was absolutely full of dinosaur bones. This wall was left intact when the area was excavated to take fossils to the Carnegie Museum in the early 1900s.
We decided we would camp in Flaming Gorge tonight. We drove for awhile and stopped to have a picnic supper in Red Fleet State Park along the way. We turned into the park and drove to the picnic area. It was absolutely beautiful!We drove for a couple more hours and decided to find somewhere to camp before it got too dark. We weren't quite to Flaming Gorge yet, but we didn't want to drive through after dark and miss it. We turned into Red Canyon Campground and drove over to the visitor center. It sure didn't look like we were coming to a canyon, but when we walked over to the visitor center, we were met with a spectacular view. This place rivaled the Grand Canyon. The sun was setting, and the canyon walls were gorgeous red against the Green River below.
The campground was right on the rim of the canyon with the same spectacular views. There was only one other tent in the campground, plus the campground hosts. We had a hard time deciding which site to choose because they were all bumpy and rough. We stopped to talk to the campground hosts for a minute, and Hunter was fascinated to learn that he did a little panning for gold. He showed Hunter this tiny vial with a couple of flakes in it that he said was worth about $400. We finally chose one and started setting up the tent. We heard some really strange sounds behind our tent, and we couldn't figure out what it was. By now, it was completely dark, so we couldn't see very far.We finished the tent, and Hunter and I were walking down to the entrance to deposit our fee when the campground host drove up in his truck. He told us that a camper in a neighboring campground had seen a bear in the field behind our tent. We debated whether to pack up and leave. It was late, the kids were exhausted, and we were several miles from any other campground. We decided to stay, but I don't think I slept all night. Around sunrise, we heard a small bird. After listening to the bird for a few minutes, we heard this loud grunt. I was certain that the bird had awakened the bear. Of course, we couldn't see out of the tent without unzipping the rain fly, so we lay there and listened for a few more minutes. We heard the grunting several more times. Eventually we heard this huge bird fly over. I have no idea what kind of bird makes such a noise, but I was completely relieved. Since I'm already wide awake, Michael and I decided to walk over to the canyon rim to watch the sunrise.
