Flaming Gorge Dam

[click to enlarge] One of the things we learned on this trip is that it's more fun to camp with a destination. In the past the camping has been the point -- set up a tent, smoke your clothes and roll around in the dirt. Here there was more to do than we could pack in (especially with all of the great eating we were doing -- we camped with experienced foodies and we ate well). Day three of our adventure we drove down and went on the tour of the Flaming Gorge Dam.

Looking down from the top. (I kept thinking of Queen Latifah in Last Holiday when she went base jumping off a dam. I'm not to that point yet.)

Looking back across the reservoir. It was pretty fun, and the kids got to feed all the trout waiting for us at the bottom. And we saw more marmots -- little ones almost like squirrels. 

We returned to the campsite and walked next door to the Red Canyon Lodge where we rented two paddle boats and a canoe for an hour.

The boys' boat

The girls' boat

Maddie and Abby took me out and showed me their mad hot canoeing skillz.

The preschoolers hopped around in their lifejackets, waiting their turn. 

Rob, Sebi and Joss

N, N, Z, and Z. The dads have the little ones barricaded in the middle so they wouldn't escape. We broke camp and drove our separate ways and I think we had the kids and camping supplies packed to bursting. 

As we rounded one of the hairpin turns out of the high desert, we saw a truck lose a dozen or so bales of hay, with another truck piled high right behind it. We stopped and Rob went up to help clear the road and even re-stack the bales on the truck. I warned people who were driving up the hill. We stayed for probably half an hour and the real heroes in the situation were the kids, who sat stuck in the packed, hot car the whole time. They were truly tired and sore by 9:00pm when we finally pulled in. We rewarded them with sundaes from McDonalds (we are strictly an In-N-Out family since 2004). And watching videos certainly makes life easier -- I checked out Atlantis, Ella Enchanted, and The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged and every mouth was open in deep concentration.