Slept in. Dinosaur Natl Mt isn’t more than 70-80- miles. I plan on taking my time and walking all the nature hikes and reading all the history/geological roadside signage on the way there. I’m starting on a 13 mile geological loop from Carmel CG.  Winds up the canyon thru the different layers and dumped me on UT40 down from Carmel. Paved the whole way. Nice views from the top.

It took me 5 hours to go 30 miles, I like the pace. Lots to see. Got to Vernal Utah. Fueled (11.38) and continued to Dinosaur NM. Two entrances to the monument within 15 miles of each other. I choose Canyon entrance, the second. A CG Echo Park that is 20 miles down a paved road and then 13 miles down a gravel road into the canyon to the CG on the Green River. Sounds doable. Ranger said 45 minutes of gravel. A bit steep in places but no concerns. A couple of stream (make that shallow) crossings and surprise, surprise traffic. There truly isn’t anywhere in the Western US that you won’t see another rig sometime that day. Today, 7 or 8.

Took a nice stroll down to the river and followed it a mile or two upstream. Pretty shadows on the canyon walls and the river flowing by. Nice. Of course, I could tell to the exact tenth of a mile plus the calories I burned if I had my phone by me, from superwatch.

I’m sitting at the picnic table using my laptop instead of my ipad. Bigger, lighted keyboard so I can type without a light. It’s 8:20, been dark for a hour so lighted keyboard is nice. Threw some heavy paper towels in the fire ring and lit them, damned if I didn’t get a fire going with some old stuff in the ring. I still had some wood  so figured the karma was right to use some of my stash. Small blaze for a short time, perfect.

Think I’ll stay here tomorrow and walk down stream. Good night.

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