Starvation Reservoir

We headed to Starvation Reservoir July 24th through the 30th.  This was our first time camping there and we were hoping for new adventures.  This place is on the way to Vernal, about 2 hours east from Salt Lake City.  First, we had to clean out the boat and get it up and running.  Scott took the reins for this.

We arrived Sunday afternoon and set up camp and relaxed for a bit.

We looked at the water and pretty scenery.

We brought crawdad nets to see if we could catch some 'little lobsters.' You put chicken or old fish in the cages and they come.

We caught some!

Pretty night!

It was bedtime and Sterling's jammies and clothes were nowhere to be found!  Turns out, I had mistakenly left them at home all folded and ready to go.  So Monday morning, we headed to the one store in Duchesne that might have something; Family Dollar.  Sterling got some early school shopping done. Mom's fault, but at least we found some clean clothes for him. And I did have his socks, undies, and swimming suit: the important stuff.

(The clothes I left at home.)  That was the first and last time I hopefully do that.

The next morning, we tried to put the boat in the water, but the engine would not turn.  The steering column was frozen and the motor was locked up.  The boat needed work to loosen up, or it was unusable.

We ended up at a salvage yard in the middle of nowhere and asked the boss to help us lube the motor.

A few guys worked on it and squeezed in grease with a tool.  Next, we asked how much we owed them and their response was like straight out of a movie.  "How much you got?" the greased up head guy replied.  Scott opened up his wallet and said, "There's 50 dollars here."  And then Scott dug around a little more and added, "Oh, here's 20 more dollars. I guess I have 70."  The grease monkey responded, "Give me 40."  And with a sigh of relief, we paid them 40 dollars.  Not too shabby after all.

And with that, we were on our way into the lake.  We were thrilled to take a spin on the boat!

We dropped crawfish nets in random coves, and the little red floating balls signaled where they were for pickup later.

Boatride and fishing time.

Found some crawfish in our traps.

Tuesday was splashing in the water day.

For a new adventure, we brought a tube to play on. This was fun!

Wednesday, we took a day trip to Vernal.

First, we located the Skinwalker Ranch, a hotspot for alien activity.

We toured the Dinosaur Fieldhouse Museum in Vernal.

Lincoln got his favorite souvenir, a smashed coin.

Then we were off to find Dinosaur National Monument.  I had assumed it was in Dinosaur, Colorado.

Boy, was I wrong!  There was nothing in this little town but a few abandoned buildings.  We explored one property.

Then, headed back to Utah for the real dinosaur monument.

We found the right bus to ride on.

This was worth visiting.  Several dinosaur bones fossilized right into the mountain!

We found some Indian rock art.

And explored more of the monument.

We found an old cabin with a cool hiking trail behind it.

And took a perfect hike as a family.  Beautiful, and the right level for us.

We drove past the Vernal Temple on our way back to camp.

 Thursday was a fishing day again.

And we caught more crawdads.

Then I lost this lure in the lake.

We did catch a lot of crawdads!

And the expert chef knew how to cook them.

These guys waited patiently.

The girls braved holding them!

My birthday feast was one of a kind!  And even had dutch oven cake to finish it off.

Friday, we played in the lake again.

We had an excellent boat driver.

We swam and had a picnic in a quiet cove.

On Saturday we headed back to reality.  What a good adventure!