Sunday, April 6, 2025

Flaming Gorge Dam, Utah (The Lake Extends into Wyoming)

The Flaming Gorge dam was completed by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1964.  It holds back two years worth of water and makes a very formidable lake.  It has changed the habitat from fish that prefer warmer, muddy type waters to those that like cold fresh water, namely trout.   The dam provides storage for downstream commitments.  It also provides hydroelectric power.  It is also used for flood control.  I remember as a youth touring the dam and going inside to see the generators.  Now they do not even let you walk on the dam.  It was cool to be on the dam and look over the edge.  It is 502 feet above its foundation (bedrock) and 448 feet above the Green River.  It is 1285 feet long.  There is a walkway to get above the dam on the west side close to the visitor's center.  There is also a pull out on the east side of the dam.

  






5 comments:

  1. Betsy Collins Shafer
    As the daughter of a civil engineer i saw insides of dams a lot as a child . . . when we traveled . . . i don't think Flaming Gorge was one of them . . . Grand Coulee is one i remember . . .

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    Billy Wardle
    I was born close to Grand Coulee as my dad farmed from the diverted water. We visited there when I was very young, and returned a few years ago during Covid so the visitor center was closed.

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  2. Debbie Pirrone
    Flaming Gorge is a beautiful area. Didn’t do the dam tour though.

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  3. Jeff Kemp
    I was able to tour the dam, sometime in the 70s.

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  4. Scott Alvey
    Yes...I took the 'DAM" tour several times till 9/11 put the skids on that.

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  5. Jeff Kemp
    I was able to tour the dam, sometime in the 70s.

    Margit Scott
    Jeff Kemp wow, my family wasn't even born at that time, so I don't know much about this place, but it looks like a good place for fishing. Do you know much about inside the dam?

    Jeff Kemp
    I was only in elementary school or junior high at the time, but I remember the huge stainless steel shafts inside the dam that we could see spinning.

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