Tesla Model S - Flaming Gorge
Flaming Gorge Model S
Friday, August 10, 2018
Days Charging at
Destination   Supercharger
0 1
Vernal, Utah
After I retrieved the car from the Fossil Valley RV Park, we had breakfast, packed up, and headed out.

Fossil Valley RV Park

Springhill Vernal
Flaming Gorge

TimeEventRange Remaining
9:24 amDeparted Vernal238
10:19 amArrived Red Canyon Lodge179
Range/Distance ratio: 1.44
Conditions: 77°F

Red Canyon Visitors Center

Red Canyon Lodge

Flaming Gorge is a 200,000-acre National Recreation Area carved by the Green River through northeastern Utah. We stopped at the Red Canyon Visitors Center to take in the views of Flaming Gorge and shoot a few pictures on a hike along its ledge.

Cart Creek Bridge

Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway
Our drive north takes us on the Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway.

TimeEventRange Remaining
11:20 amDeparted Red Canyon Visitors Center176
11:40 amArrived Flaming Gorge Dam172
Range/Distance ratio: 0.333
Conditions: Downhill, curvy

Cart Creek Bridge

Family at Cliff Palace

The byway brought us over the Cart Creek Bridge and by the Flaming Gorge Dam.

At this point my son said, "They're just trying to copy Hoover Dam", which we visited five days ago, "but this isn't nearly as good. It's so small!"

Well, yes, it's not as big as Hoover Dam.

Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway

So we continue north on the byway. The scenery is fascinating with long rolling hills with lots of room for grazing by livestock. The road is enjoyably curvy in spots, with no guardrails to prevent your car from driving off into the grassy plain to graze with the cattle, making it exciting.

US Highway 191

Rock Springs Supercharger
TimeEventRange Remaining
1:01 pmArrived Rock Springs Supercharger94
Range/Distance ratio: 1.15
Conditions: Fast, 70 mph speed limit, 92°F

We crossed into Wyoming for the first time on our trip on the way to Rock Springs. Don't forget that the last time we saw a Supercharger was in New Mexico four days ago, and, between these two Superchargers, we drove 566 miles and through four states before arriving here. We ate lunch at the nearby Applebee's.

Cost to Charge: $0

Rock Springs Supercharger
Fossil Butte National Monument Fossil Butte National Monument

TimeEventRange Remaining
2:22 pmDeparted Rock Springs238
3:47 pmArrived Fossil Butte127
Range/Distance ratio: 1.15
Conditions: Fast

We arrived at Fossil Butte National Monument, another site of fascinating fossil discoveries dating from 52 million years ago found in lake sediments that became the rocks known as the Green River Formation. These fossils are amount the world's most perfectly preserved remains of ancient plant and animal life. The broad spectrum of species found here made possible the millions of specimens, with details like teeth, scales, and skin, found since the middle of the 19th century.

Like yesterday the children started work on their Junior Ranger activities. The Visitors Center here was full of fascinating exhibits featuring all the kinds of fossils discovered in the region. A ranger demonstrated how real fossils are revealed by washing away the extraneous sand.

We needed to leave Fossil Butte to make a rendezvous at Logan, so we finished up the childrens' Junior Ranger badges with a swearing in, then we drove west on highway 30 out of Wyoming.

Fossil Butte Visitors Center

Fossil Butte Junior Ranger

Bear Lake
TimeEventRange Remaining
5:17 pmDeparted Fossil Butte122
5:55 pmArrived Bear Lake88
Range/Distance ratio: 1.06
Conditions: Fast

After crossing into northern Utah, we quickly descended towards Bear Lake. The kids we impressed with how large Bear Lake was, not being able to see the other side at all.

Thus far we were debating what a "lake" really was because the Interstate Bingo shows a lake, and the kids wanted to count every stationary body of water bigger than a house as a lake. I kept telling them no. Well now, with Bear Lake, the kids have seen a real lake.

Bear Lake

After a short picture stop at Bear Lake, we continued west into the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.

Logan, Utah
TimeEventRange Remaining
6:52 pmArrived Logan, Utah51
Range/Distance ratio: 0.77
Conditions: Downhill, traffic, curvy roads

These roads made for some great driving, but I couldn't go too fast otherwise the kids would get carsick. This highway followed a river, in some places surrounded by steep cliffs covered in greenery small and large. I thought it was great driving.

Bear Lake

The transition out of the forest and until Logan was fast. The first site was the Utah State University. Soon we drove through downtown Logan and checked into the Springhill Suites there. This Springhill is on the Tesla Destination Network, so it was a simple matter to charge while we settled in for the night.

Cost to Charge: $0

Dean E. Dauger holds a Ph. D. in physics from UCLA, where his group created the first Mac cluster in 1998. Dr. Dauger is the award-winning author in multiple American Institute of Physics' Software Contests and co-authored the original, award-winning Kai's Power Tools image-processing package for Adobe Photoshop. After founding his company, Dauger Research, Inc., its debut product, Pooch, derived from Dr. Dauger's experience using clusters for his physics research, was soon awarded as "most innovative" by IEEE Cluster and continues to revolutionize parallel computing and clusters worldwide with its patented technology.



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