Some of man's greatest historic feats of engineering involve our simple need for water! Are there any of these feats more impressive than the concrete arc dams built in recent history? Not only do these engineering marvels help solve water problems, but they are also massive sources of generation of hydroelectric power!

Photo: Flaming Gorge Dam in Utah

One such place is the awesome Flaming Gorge Dam and its 91 miles (146 km) long reservoir, in Northeastern Utah, with much of the reservoir in Southwestern Wyoming. This area is high desert country, with annual rainfall a paltry average of 1.2 inches (~ 3 cm) per year!

Both the history and natural beauty of this area have resulted in it being named the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. Here is a excellent description of it:

Flaming Gorge is the kind of place you'd think would be overrun, but it's not. Limitless recreation opportunities with a side of solitude.

[emphasis added mine]

On the "road less traveled" in life, this post covers another one of Hive account@roleerob's examples of a wonderfully out-of-the-way place you have to want to drive to and experience it. Why? It is not on the way to anywhere else! 😉

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Before taking a closer look, here are a couple of maps of the area visited:

Map of Area Covered in this Post

Here is a brief look at each of the highlight points illustrated above, with links to more information, if you are interested in learning more about it:

The Edge Of The Rim View Point and the Red Canyon Visitor Center provide "must see" views, as well as an informative nature trail.

Overlook of the area settled by the earliest homesteaders, including the Swett Ranch Historical Homestead.

Stopped to see the Cart Creek Bridge and its picturesque little arm of the reservoir.

Visited and took pictures around the closed (due to COVID-19) Flaming Gorge Dam Visitor Center.

Visited and took pictures from the access area provided below the dam.

Visited and took pictures from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir overlook just before the town of Dutch John.

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Let's take a closer look ... 🧐

Flaming Gorge of the Green River

In the largely arid western United States, by far the most important river is the Colorado River. The Green River is the major tributary of the Colorado, originating as the collection of all of the streams flowing down from the western slope of the incomparable Wind River Range of Wyoming.

As part of the Colorado River Storage Project, the Flaming Gorge Dam provides hydroelectric power, flood control and water storage.

_{Source: Wikipedia's Colorado River Storage Project webpage.}

Flowing down through the high desert of Wyoming, the Green River enters Red Canyon, just ahead of it cutting through the eastern edge of the highest mountain range in Utah - the Uintah Mountains. Here the conditions were excellent for putting in this amazing dam.

Photos: Red Canyon Info Signs

Reading the history of the men who originally navigated down through these canyons is fascinating, for those who enjoy true stories of adventure and man being pushed to his limits of endurance to survive.

In 1869, one of them, Major John Wesley Powell, named this portion of the Green River "Flaming Gorge" after describing it as:

"a flaring, brilliant, red gorge that may be seen from the north a score of miles away,”

Source: WyoHistory.org's Flaming Gorge Dam and Reservoir webpage

These canyons were deep and resulting underwater structures provide some incredible habitat for fish. Fishing on this lake has produced world-class catches, like this record 53-pound, 15-ounce lake trout (+ 24 kg) caught on August 5th!

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Continuing on with my visit here in August 2020, here are the highlights of getting to once again experience this spectacular part of the western United States. The following subsections correspond to the map above, if interested in locating it for your own visit in the future!

1 - Edge Of The Rim View Point

A short distance off the highway, one finds the Red Canyon Visitor Center with this wonderful overlook, along with an informative nature trail.

Photos: Up and Down the Gorge from the View Point

The views from this point are in the "must see" category, as even on a poor visibility day (like we experienced), they are still well worth it. They give you just a hint of the massive size of this reservoir on the Green River.

In the upper view, you see the ridge in the background of the highest mountains in Utah - the Uintah Mountains.

In the lower view, you can just make out the little speck of water in the upper center of the picture, which is where Flaming Gorge Dam is located. On a clearer day, with a good pair of binoculars, you can make it out easily.

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2 - Area Settled by Earliest Homesteaders

In the early 1900s, 3 hardy families settled in the mountains above Flaming Gorge, one of them being the Swett Ranch Homestead.

Photo: High Plateau of the Swett Ranch Homestead

In that era, these families were carving out a hard living at 7,000 to 8,000 feet (2,100 to 2,400 m) in elevation, on this north slope of the Uintah Mountains. Horses were their primary mode of transportation. And the nearest supplies were a long way off, as none of the highways today were in existence. And the gorge below this plateau was very deep, as noted above!

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3 - Cart Creek Bridge

A well-known bridge, not far from the dam is Cart Creek Bridge. It was one of the first parts of the dam site built, given how deep this canyon once was below it.

Photos: Cart Creek Bridge Arm of Flaming Gorge Reservoir

It was vital for good transportation to and from the dam construction site. Today, it provides some nice recreational activities, including great fishing!

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4 - Flaming Gorge Dam Visitor Center

Although tours were closed due to COVID-19, the Flaming Gorge Dam Visitor Center is normally well worth a visit.

Photos: Flaming Gorge Dam and Visitor Center

Due to it being closed, I could not get past all of the fencing with sober warnings about constant surveillance of anyone who might think of trying to get over it anyway. My objective? To take photos of looking down over the side of the dam to the river below. While I have done that many times, it was not to be on this trip ... 😌

The primary memory I had hoped to relive was going down into the interior of the dam to see the hydroelectric generators and powerplant at work. The dam's three Francis turbine generators, powered by water dropping down over 400 feet (~ 122 m) through three 10-foot (3.0 m) diameter penstocks, have a nameplate annual generating capacity of ...

+ 500,000,000 kilowatt-hours
enough to power over
50,000
households!

Fortunately I have experienced it before, although it was many years ago. Sad that I couldn't see it again, but ... Perhaps another time ...

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5 - Access Below the Dam

Once crossing the dam on State Highway 191, a short distance later, there is a nice access road switch-backing down the side of the mountain to the base of the dam and to its release of water into the Green River below it.

Photos: Flaming Gorge Dam and Access to Green River Below

For scale, the first photo shows a vehicle parked down by the fence where visitors can see into the remarkably clear pool below the dam. On a previous visit, we saw some of the largest trout we'd ever seen in there. Our guide calmly told us their "secret." Some of their "cousins" did not fare so well making it through the penstocks, so ... They were eating the remains of them! 😲

In no prior visit to this area, do I recall seeing any reference to what you see above - dam movement! What? 😳 1,000,000 cubic yards (750,000 cubic meters) of concrete anchored to the canyon walls and bedrock can move?! Who knew? 🤷‍♂

Well, apparently someone who wrote a journal paper about it entitled - Deformation Measurements of Flaming Gorge Dam! This paper references a "downstream movement of 0.86 in. (2.2 cm)" Yeah, well, "color me" skeptical ... 🤷‍♂ 😉

The beautiful river flowing out of the bottom of the dam is one of the finest stretches of river for trout fishing in the western United States. Boating (non-motorized ...) and rafting is also very popular, as we can see. There are some very rugged sections of this river further on downstream from this photo.

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6 - Flaming Gorge Reservoir Overlook

The last opportunity to see the dam and reservoir, if heading out and on in to Wyoming on State Highway 191, is this nice overlook, just a short distance from the little town of Dutch John.

Photos: Flaming Gorge Reservoir Overlook

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The combination of the impressive history of this area, the engineering prowess behind building this dam, and the natural beauty around this remarkable dam and reservoir make it a very desirable place to visit. I hope my brief introduction to it, dear reader, has raised your interest in some day experiencing it for yourself! 🙂

Beautiful Photos of Others

As I mention in closing (below), the conditions for this visit were far from ideal. So ... Up until now, you have seen my own pictures. Here are a couple of photos from others, to give you more perspective on the great natural beauty of this area:

_{Source 1: Photo Gallery of Utah.com's Flaming Gorge webpage.

Source 2: Photo on Wikipedia's Flaming Gorge webpage.

Source 3: Photo on Travel Wyoming's Flaming Gorge webpage.}

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Good lighting makes a world of difference! 🙂

Closing

This area is an "old friend," as I have traveled through here off and on since I was a child. Sadly, seeing it for the first time in many years, this visit was marred by - 1) Smoke from the fires in California (seriously ...) and rarely seen rain obscuring the spectacular views and 2) The Visitor Center dam tour being closed "temporarily" due to COVID-19.

Other than that, it was perfect ... 😏

If your interest has (hopefully!) still been piqued, in addition to the ones I have already provided for you, dear reader, I would highly recommend looking up links to the many web sites providing more information, pictures, and videos. The variety of the sightseeing and recreational opportunities around this lake and in the nearby mountains are hard to beat!

I’d love to hear any feedback you may be inspired to provide.

Until "next time," all the best to you for a better tomorrow, as we all work together to build up our Hive Communities and add increasing value to our Hive blockchain! 👍 😊

Respectfully,
Blogger Hive account@roleerob
Hive "Dolphin" 🐬, Man Cave "Dragon" 🐉, & LeoFinance "Whale" 🐋

🐝 🍯 🐝

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P.S. Unless otherwise noted, all images are pictures taken by my smartphone - a Samsung Galaxy S9+.

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Posted using PeakD and “immutably enshrined” in the Hive blockchain on Saturday, 29 August 2020!
🌲 No trees were harmed in the publishing of this post! 🌲

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