The route this day took us from Price to Evanston, via a lot of GeoTour caches, and also some virtual caches. The weather was a bit crazy today, with both heavy rain, heavy winds, hail and a lot of sun in between.
Approximate time on road/out caching: 12 hours, 10 minutes
Total miles driven: 353.7 mi / 569,22 km
Total cahes found: 29
Total DNF: 4
States visited: Utah, Wyoming
Famous places visited: Flaming Gorge Dam
Most memorable cache: GC7EB7 Red White & Blue View
Biggest surprise: The crazy weather
Weather: Royal straight flush (sun, heavy rain, hail, heavy winds, double rainbow)
Highest temperature: 24,4°C / 76°F
Lowest temperature: 8,3°C / 47°F
A couple earthcaches for breakfast
The first cache of the day was GC3YM54 Clinkers And More Clinkers, and not long after, we stopped at GC3YM5K Nonconforming Whatsit? (after a couple other caches).
The fastest way to Flaming Gorge
After finding some caches along the road, we started driving longer stretches between. We had a long way to drive, and wanted to get a bit further north before we started finding more caches again. We did stop at a few along the way to Vernal, but not many.
We did however take the time to stop at the Flaming Gorge Dam visitor center, which was closed the last time we were here.
Nope, not this one
We finally got to find GC5HDZC Utah GeoTour-Daggett – It’s Getting Ducky, which we DNFed on our previous visit here. There was a lot of roadwork in the area, but luckily for us, the machinery was parked far enough away for the cache to be safe.
On our way to GC5HDZK Utah GeoTour-Daggett – Little Hole: Raft On we started noticing some dark clouds. Very dark clouds. We got out of the car, and started on the hike out to the cache. But then it started raining, and it wasn’t light rain… We barely made it back to the car in time, before the cloud opened, and it was pouring down. Yeah, we’re not doing this one today…
Is it winter already?
The next one, GC5HDZY Utah GeoTour-Daggett – Red Canyon Rim, took us to the canyon rim. And we managed to escape the weather by the time we got there. Great view, and a nice bonus cache. Another nice bonus, was the stamp at the visitor center (we love collecting those in our national park book, geocaching stamp book and on our trip plan). We could hear the thunder in the distance.
It started raining again, right before we got back to the car. But this time it quickly turned from rain to hail. Heavy hail! Our rental car already had a lot of smal dents in it, probably due to a hail storm. It also looked like they even had to replace the back window. Luckily for us, this one wasn’t strong enough to cause any new damage. But it was still a bit unpleasant, so we had to park and wait for it to pass.
Wait, where is it??!!
The next cache, GC7EB7 Red White & Blue View, took us 4-5 miles out on a dirt road. We were a bit afraid that the condition of the road would be bad due to the storm, but the storm hadn’t made it this far yet. The road was nice and dry.
And the view, the view was amazing!
The view was so amazing, that we forgot our trip plan on the plaque here… We left the whole ting. Didn’t notice until we got halfway to the next cache. We remembered the wind out there on the edge, and was afraid that it could have taken our plan – and the answers to the earthcaches we had found.
We had to drive all the way back out there. And the plan was still there. Exactly where we had left it. You can even see it in the picture below. It had moved a bit, but not enough to fall down. We learned our lesson. This was the only time this happened…
No fires to report
After rescuing our plan/notes, we continued back towards GCGCAF Ute’s on Fire!. An old fire tower, apparently the only remaining in the state. We could not see any fires, but the view was amazing!
So was the view from the next cache, GCGCAB Sheep Creek Overlook!
GeoTour detour
A very nice bonus, was that we got even more stamps in our passport at the Manila Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area Office – just before closing time 😀 Since we gave up hiking to the GeoTour cache in the heavy rain, we had to detour to find GC5HE08 Utah GeoTour-Daggett – Lucerne Marina – since we needed one more for Daggett county.
And we’re glad we did! Wasn’t really that much two legged muggles around here, but the area was crawling with four legged muggles! So we spent a lot more time taking photos, than we did finding the cache.
Nice to see you again, Wyoming
We had to go through Wyoming to get to the Lucerne Marina, but after a quick drive through Manila, we crossed the border to Wyoming for real. The weather was nice, and it seemed like we might get to enjoy it for the remainder of the day. The landscape shifted from the woods of Northern Utah, to the open and empty Wyoming – just as we remember it.
It’s a double rainbow…
…the weather. It didn’t last. We did get to enjoy the first miles on the interstate. But then we started seeing the dark clouds. The very dark clouds. Until we couldn’t see them anymore. Due to the heavy rain, and the low sun. The combination of the sun shining directly in our eyes and the heavy rain, made it almost impossible to see. So we, like so many other, had to take the first exit and just sit there and wait.
The storm passed, and we got to see the nice rainbow.
Just one more
Since we arrived in Evanston before sunset, we (okay, mostly me) just had to find one more. So after checking in, we went back out to find a cache (and some food). You know how this works, it’s never just “one more”. So after DNFing GC3C0XT Kinda Old, we continued to GC3ATKT Back of the Blythe.
We were both kinda hungry, and almost gave up on that one too. But we (okay, me again) hate giving up, so we continued. And after reading a lot of old logs, looking at pictures etc, we finally found it 😀 After that we were both so hungry, that this just had to be the last find of the day.
Pictures
