Flaming Gorge Wyoming Tourism

With 201,000 acres in southwestern Wyoming crossing into eastern Utah, Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area makes for a breathtaking stop.

Flaming Gorge Lake stretches 92 miles and offers visitors 375 miles of shoreline, ranging from flat and welcoming to rough and foreboding. Alive with both ever changing color and texture, this recreation area requires at least a full day to completely discover the history, beauty and fun it offers.

There are over 600 camping and picnic areas (including boat-in and floating camps), two visitors’ centers, over a hundred miles of trails and many other visitor facilities offering you a wide range of recreational opportunities.

Manila, UT serves as home to the Forest Service headquarters for Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. It sits in the transition area from Wyoming’s vast deserts to Utah’s High Uinta Mountains. Manila is the closest community serving the area. Vernal, UT is dinosaur country! Only twenty miles to the east is Dinosaur National Monument, home to one of the largest fossil bone quarries in the world. Over 2,000 bones have been left in place for visitors to see.

Forty million years ago, much of Wyoming was covered with a giant freshwater sea. This sea created the sedimentary rock which thousands of years of wind and water sculpted into the cliffs common to the Wyoming area of Flaming Gorge.

Jutting up to 1,500 feet high in some places, these formation’s colorful layering lends to the area’s awe-inspiring beauty, also the ancient American Indian petroglyphs, and perchance fossils, which a patient, sharp-eyed visitor may discover.

Of course, this area is called a recreational area for a reason. Bring your camping gear and visit with Mother Nature for a few days. Or bring your boat, Flaming Gorge Lake is dotted with boat ramps.

If you don’t have your own boat, Buckboard Crossing can fix you up with a rental so you can soak up the sun and scenery from a different perspective. Or, you can do some serious fishing. Nationally known as the hot spot for trout fishing, Flaming Gorge offers year-round fishing with the required Wyoming or Utah fishing license. (If you plan to fish from both states, a special-use stamp is required).

Be sure to stop by the Red Canyon Vista and Visitor Center and get directions to Firehole Canyon (north of Black’s Fork).

With rock chimneys and pinnacles reflecting on Flaming Gorge Lake’s sheer waters, this is one of the area’s most talked about attractions. Pick up a map of the area’s loop road which lets you view the area’s many colors and textures from the comfort of your own car.

Come relax and unwind, or set off on a grand exploration of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. Just remember to stop every once in awhile and notice how the area’s colors seem to be alive, changing in step with the sun as it runs its course across the sky. Be prepared. One visit to Flaming Gorge and the experience will be permanently etched into your memory.