Not having a trail map for the immediate area where we were camped, we decided to trailer the horses to the trail I thought would be most interesting, the Canyon Rim Trail, which starts right at the Visitor Center and goes to a roadside overlook. We went inside to get a better trail map than what we had, but theirs was worse than the one I got off the internet. The two people running the place claimed they had never seen horses on that trail, and when asked, they told us it wasn’t very rocky, just "a few big rocks here and there." Well, I don’t know what they consider rocky, but the only trail that I’ve ever seen that was more rocky was a creek bed! Fortunately, we had our Easy Boots with us, so we stopped and put those on before going very far. Fantastic, incomparable views of Flaming Gorge from this trail. This is an incredible geological anomaly, a huge rift in the earth, exposing a bright red soil that, rumor has it, the pioneers crossing the continent could see more than 50 miles away. Then, of course, we decided to dam off a river and fill it with water. Well not, fill it, but fill the bottom of it, as the canyon walls are very high. Though they had told us in the Visitor Center that is was 9 miles to the overlook at the end of the trail, it was actually only 4.5, so we decided to do the whole thing. Once we got past the views of the gorge, we were on a pretty ordinary trail, other than the rocks, which slowed us down. It started to rain lightly at one point, so out came the ponchos. We reached the overlook just before a thunderstorm brought in some heavier rain, so we put the horses under the covered picnic area (they barely fit), and enjoyed our respective lunches dodging stray raindrops that were being blown in by the strong cold wind. Fortunately, the whole thing only lasted for about 15 minutes, and the wind changed directions and went from cold to warm to just a breeze. We headed back, took an optional loop toward Red Canyon Lodge (where they rent horses, so I REALLY don’t know how those folks at the Visitor Center couldn’t have ever seen horses on that trail), arrived back at the parking area at 5:00, then headed back to the RV for a relaxing evening.
