Kayaking in the Gorgeous Flaming Gorge

We had been looking longingly at the water far below us in the Flaming Gorge here in Utah, so it was time to get out the kayak and experience that water for ourselves. On the rainy evening that we arrived, we drove over the bridge near the dam. Through the raindrops we looked down the neck of the reservoir under the bridge, and we couldn't help but think what a great kayak trip that would make.

So a couple days later we inflated our Sea Eagle tandem kayak, and launched near the dam to explore the gorge under that bridge.

This is a great fishing area for an osprey, and we soon found one perched on a tree stump right beside the water.

Denisa was snapping pictures as we glided right below him. That's when we realized that he was clutching in his talons the fish he had just caught.

We are kayaking on the reservoir, and this bridge led us to a narrow inlet that is part of the Flaming Gorge.

Power boats can get to the deepest part of the gorge where we hiked yesterday. But we are limited to our paddling power, and we couldn't travel that many miles on the lake. So we are very content to be in this section of the gorge with its tall red walls around us.

The water here is perfectly clear, so we can see that the dry pink rocks turn a flaming red under the water where they are wet.

We weren't alone in our tranquil canyon this afternoon. A boat load of fishermen reported that the fish were biting today. You can barely see their boat beside that tall red rock wall.

We found another resident fisherman in this gorge, as we saw it swoop onto a ledge on one of the gorge walls.

If we zoom in, we see that the part of the wall that sticks over the water has a curious layer of sticks and brush on top of it.

If we zoom even further, we can see the single osprey guarding the nest. Mark was sure that the camera was going to melt from all the pictures Denisa was taking, but she never did get a shot with any baby osprey sticking their heads up in that nest.

What we did see was a curious pole situated on the far right of the nest, and a solar panel on the side of the gorge. What could that be?

We are assuming that at one time an "osprey-cam" was watching the residents in that nest. We are also assuming that the solar panel powered the camera that now seems to be missing from the pole overlooking the nest.

It was great weather for a kayak trip on the water, as we went as far as we could down the gorge until the water got too shallow. Then we slowly headed back down the gorge towards the bridge.

We packed up the boat, and headed back to our no-hook-up camping spot at Firefighter's Memorial Campground. A beautiful sunset was flirting over the Uinta Mountains that encircle the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. It was a good last day of wandering God's wonders of the Flaming Gorge, but we'll be heading down the road to more wonders tomorrow.