Welcome to a 10-acre Utah State Park with unbelievable views. The issue today is the wind. It is blowing steady at 25-35 mph with gusts over 50 mph. Since this park known for “standing on edges,” hold onto your hat and anything else that is study and solid.
First of all, what does DNR stand for? Department of Natural Resources, one of Utah’s largest state agencies protecting the state’s natural resources in conjunction with other state agencies, local organizations, and federal agencies. You can find out more here.
Utah’s 46 State Parks’ entrance fees are so reasonable I almost feel guilty not paying more. As the Ranger at the toll booth collected my $8 fee, he started to share some information about Goosenecks. He seemed very anxious to share (with anyone) fun and interesting information that is bottled up in him. A park this small only has one Ranger and no Visitor Center, and most people just pay their fee and move on. I’ll listen, I’m in no rush, and here’s a fascinating fact I never found online. Ah the wonderful insights and knowledge of Park Rangers!
He told me that this section of the San Juan River is actually 12 miles of river across only 5 miles of land. Wow!
The San Juan is a meandering river that cut through the Colorado Plateau rock as it was rising, now exposing 300 million years of erosion. This is one of the simplest yet thorough explanations (and only 3 minutes) of meandering waterways, so I’ll let Nick explain it to you. In his narrative below the short video, he mentions:
In addition to the Yakima River Canyon in Washington, the San Juan River also
features excellent entrenched meanders at Goosenecks State Park in Utah.
Now that’s meandering!
The wind is blowing so hard I can hardly stand against it. We are in wide-open space up here at 4,500 feet. The river is just over 1,000 feet below. This not a fall I want to take and thank goodness for good, solid railings AND for high winds that are blowing us away from the edge rather than toward it!
While walking back and forth to the overview areas, I noticed some dots on the river below. Oh, you know what they are.
I wonder if they have wind 1,000 feet down?
Apparently a rafting trip through Goosenecks takes a minimum of four days. I strongly recommend a guided tour for this adventure. Why? Because guides know the river conditions well, know how to handle the rafts through the whitewater adventures along the way, as well as the locations of side canyon hikes to secret pools and more. Not to mention they set up camp each day and prepare our food. Sound like fun?
Did you notice the sky in the first few pictures above? Yes, areas are red. Whats up?
It’s the wind, blowing so strong lots of the very fine sand is filling the sky–not to mention our lungs. It has been getting worse all morning. At this point, about 1 pm, I decided to head to my cabin and call it a day. On the way back to Bluff, this picture tells the story. That’s not fog, mist, or heat haze–it is sand!
P.S. The wind slowed significantly overnight and was just a 5-10 mph breeze by morning. The air cleared by noon, so watch for the next adventure my friend.
I surely missed a lot when I went to USU in Logan. That 4 day rafting trip sounds awsome.
Hope you had face masks to wear for the dust and sand.
I have loved my explorations of Utah over the last 5+ years, but have explored little north of I-70 except the visit to Logan and east to Bear Lake. Always an adventure! About the sand? I was doing short road trips, no hiking thankfully. To be honest it took me a while to even realize is was sand–novice at desert travels. Staying inside all afternoon solved the problem.