By Scott Buehler, Moving UtahThe trackway walk
Trackway trailhead · 1.5 miles · Somewhat strenuous · Directions
Utah State Parks rates the trackway trail at 1.5 miles with multiple elevation changes and calls it somewhat strenuous, which is honest; it undulates over slickrock and there is nothing you could reasonably call shade. At the end of it a bedding plane of sandstone carries three toed tracks made by two legged dinosaurs, and the park's own description puts them at more than 200 million years old.
They run from about three inches across to about seventeen, which is a considerable spread and probably more than one animal. A second site nearby carries roughly forty smaller prints of four to five inches from something else again that nobody has identified. Standing where a dinosaur walked more than 200 million years ago, ten miles from a supermarket, is a strange and very good feeling.
Go when the sun is low or do not go at all
A track is a shallow depression and it only reads when light rakes across it at an angle. Arrive at noon in June and you will stand on the site wondering whether you are in the right place. Arrive within an hour or two of sunrise or sunset and they appear as if somebody switched them on. Utah State Parks says this in its own material and it is the single most useful sentence anybody can give you about this walk.
Nobody official has named the animal, and that matters
You will find pages that confidently attribute these tracks to Dilophosaurus, and the attribution is repeated often enough to look settled. The park's own description does not make it. It says three toed, two legged and more than 200 million years old, and leaves the rest alone. Take the park's version, treat the species name as somebody's identification rather than a label, and enjoy the fact that a footprint tells you far less than a bone does.
The details
Getting there
North on US-191 about 10 miles, then east on the signed park road. Follow signs for the trail rather than for the boat ramp; the trackway trailhead is a separate parking area.
Before you go
- Early morning or late afternoon. Midday light makes the tracks almost invisible.
- No shade and no water on the route. Carry more than the distance suggests.
- Do not chalk, wet, trace or stand in the tracks. That is exactly how they wear away.
- Slickrock is genuinely slick when wet or iced. Take the conditions into account.
- Fire restrictions come and go with the season. Check the current stage with Utah State Parks before you go.
The red fins and the water below them
Red Fleet Reservoir · Day use fee · Roughly May to September · Directions
The park is named for the formation rather than for anything nautical. Three long fins of red Navajo sandstone stand out of the ground above the water and read, from the right angle, like ships under sail. The reservoir sits underneath them, green against the red, and the effect is the reason people who have driven past the turnoff for years eventually stop.
It is a working recreation reservoir: swimming from the beach, paddling, water skiing, a boat ramp and fishing. The park publishes a current conditions readout covering water temperature, reservoir level, algae status and any boat ramp advisory, and the level swings enough through the year to change how the ramp behaves. That readout is the thing to check on the day rather than assume, because a reservoir running low behaves differently at a ramp than a full one does.
Check the level before you tow anything up here
Utah State Parks publishes a current conditions readout for this park showing water temperature, reservoir percentage, algae status and any ramp advisory, and it is updated far more often than any article about the place. A trailer, a ramp and a reservoir at low level is a combination that turns a good morning into a bad one quickly. Look at the readout, and ring the Steinaker office on 435-789-4432 if the ramp advisory is unclear.
Paddling is the underrated way to use it
The fins are best seen from the water and the reservoir is small enough that a kayak or a paddleboard gets you along the base of them without much effort. Rentals are not something to count on here, so plan on bringing your own. On a weekday in June it is possible to have most of the shoreline to yourself, which is not a claim that could be made about many pieces of water in Utah.
The details
Getting there
North on US-191 about 10 miles and east on the signed park road. The day use area, beach and boat ramp are at the end of it.
Before you go
- Check the park's current conditions readout for level and ramp advisories before towing.
- Bring your own paddle craft. Do not plan a day around finding a rental here.
- Walk in and cycling entry carries a lower rate than a private vehicle.
- Fire restrictions vary through the season. Check the current stage before you go.
- A current Utah fishing license is required, and the rules are water specific.
Steinaker, three and a half miles from town
Steinaker State Park · Day use fee · Dark skies all year · Directions
Red Fleet's older sibling sits much closer in. Steinaker Reservoir is an off stream reservoir about three and a half miles north of Vernal, behind a dam begun in May 1959 and completed in 1962 as the Vernal Unit of the Central Utah Project, holding somewhere between 37,000 and 38,000 acre feet depending on which source you read.
What makes it worth a page mention rather than a passing one is what happens after dark. Steinaker State Park was certified an International Dark Sky Park in 2018, and it is three and a half miles from a town of about 10,700 people, which is an unusually short drive to a certified dark sky. On a moonless night you can be out of the car and under the Milky Way twenty minutes after leaving Main Street.
The dam has a repair history worth knowing about
Steinaker ran under restricted operations from 2014, when a slope failure appeared on the upstream face of the right abutment, until Reclamation completed a safety modification and returned the reservoir to normal operations. The work flattened the abutment slope, extended the outlet works intake to suit and recoated and rehydraulicked the gates. It was carried out under a 17.68 million dollar contract by Weeminuche Construction Authority, a company wholly owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
Two reservoirs, and they are not interchangeable
Steinaker is closer, shallower in feel and the one most locals use for a quick evening. Red Fleet is seven miles further, holds the red fins and the trackway, and feels more like a destination. Both charge a state park day use fee, both are managed from the same office on 435-789-4432, and the choice between them on any given day usually comes down to whether you want twenty minutes of driving or forty.
The details
Getting there
North on US-191 barely out of town, then east on the signed park road. It is the first of the two reservoirs you reach.
Before you go
- It is a certified International Dark Sky Park. Bring a red torch rather than a white one.
- Confirm current fees and hours with Utah State Parks before an after dark visit.
- The same office covers both parks on 435-789-4432.
- Fire restrictions apply here as at Red Fleet. Check the current stage.
- At 5,500 feet the nights cool sharply even in July. Take a layer for stargazing.
Camping at the reservoir
Red Fleet campground · Reserved through the state system · Spring to autumn · Directions
Red Fleet takes campers as well as day visitors, and the appeal is straightforward: you are ten miles from a full service town with a hospital and a supermarket, and you are also on a reservoir in a bowl of red sandstone with a dinosaur trackway on the far side of it. Very few campgrounds anywhere hold both of those at once.
Bookings for Utah state park campgrounds run through the state's reservation system rather than the park gate, so check availability there before driving out on a summer weekend. The campground sells firewood and ice and rents hammock stands, small touches that tell you something pleasant about how the place is run, with current prices listed at booking.
Fire restrictions are the thing to check, not the weather
Utah State Parks tightens fire rules in dry spells and can bar open fires entirely, allowing only properly shielded gas or liquid fuelled portable stoves, and the Ashley National Forest twenty minutes north does not always run the same rule on the same weekend. Two agencies, two rules, and the one that applies is the one for the ground you are camped on. Check the current stage before you pack a stove or plan a fire.
The trackway is a morning walk from a tent
Camping here solves the light problem for free. The tracks read best within an hour or two of sunrise, which from Vernal means leaving town in the dark. From a tent at the reservoir it means getting up, walking out and being on the site while the sun is still low. If the trackway is the reason you came to Vernal at all, one night here is the most efficient thing you can do about it.
The details
Getting there
Same approach as the day use area: north on US-191 about 10 miles, then east on the park road. Check in at the park.
Before you go
- Book through the Utah State Parks reservation system, not at the gate.
- Check the current fire restriction stage before packing a stove or planning a fire.
- Firewood and ice are sold at the campground; current prices are listed with booking.
- Vernal is ten miles away for anything you forgot, which is a genuine luxury out here.
- Nights cool hard at this elevation even in midsummer. Pack for the temperature drop.
Fishing the two reservoirs
Red Fleet and Steinaker · Utah license required · Year round
Both reservoirs are stocked and fished, and both are the kind of water where an afternoon from the bank is a reasonable proposition rather than an expedition. This is not the Green River below Flaming Gorge and nobody local pretends it is; it is a pair of accessible reservoirs inside fifteen minutes of a town, which is a different and perfectly good thing.
What they offer that the tailwater does not is proximity and simplicity. No shuttle, no drift boat, no forty mile drive over a mountain. The trade is that the fishing is ordinary rather than remarkable, and anybody who has come to Vernal for the fishing specifically should be spending the day on the Green River instead.
Read the current rules for the specific water
Utah publishes its fishing rules by water rather than by county, and limits, seasons and any special regulations can differ between two reservoirs seven miles apart. A current Utah license is required for anybody of fishing age. Check the current guidebook entry for the specific reservoir before you go rather than assuming the general state rule applies, because on stocked water it often does not.
Ice is not something to assume in a basin winter
Both reservoirs sit above 5,000 feet in a cold high desert and both ice over in a normal winter, which draws ice anglers. Ice thickness in a place with big daily temperature swings and low snowfall is not uniform and not predictable from a photograph or from last week. Ask at the park, look for other people already out, and treat any ice you have not tested yourself as unknown rather than as safe.
The details
Getting there
North on US-191 from Vernal. Steinaker is first at about three and a half miles and Red Fleet is about ten, both signed east off the highway.
Before you go
- A current Utah fishing license is required. Read the rules for the specific water.
- Both parks charge a day use fee on top of the license.
- Do not assume winter ice is safe. Ask at the park rather than guessing.
- The serious fishing in this county is the Green River tailwater, not these two.
- The park office covers both waters on 435-789-4432.
Choosing between them
Steinaker or Red Fleet, on the same road out of town
They are seven miles apart, cost about the same, and do genuinely different jobs, yet both are the work of the same federal water project, the newer one finished eighteen years after the older. This is the comparison worth having before you turn off the highway.
| Steinaker | Red Fleet | |
|---|---|---|
| Distance from Vernal | About 3.5 miles, under ten minutes | About 10 miles, roughly fifteen minutes |
| Built | Vernal Unit, begun 1959 and completed 1962 | Jensen Unit, begun 1977 and completed 1980 |
| Storage | Roughly 37,000 to 38,000 acre feet | About 26,000 acre feet, around 24,000 of it active |
| The draw | A certified dark sky park ten minutes from Main Street | Red sandstone fins and a dinosaur trackway |
| Walking | Shoreline and park paths | A 1.5 mile trail to the tracks, rated somewhat strenuous |
| Best used for | An evening after work, and stargazing | A half day or a night, with the trail in the morning |
Both are Utah State Parks charging a day use fee and both are run from the same office on 435-789-4432. Fees, seasons and ramp advisories move, so confirm the current position with Utah State Parks for the specific park before you plan around anything in this table.