Don’t let anyone say that we don’t go to the farthest corner of Utah for this blog! To get to John Jarvie Historic Ranch, you actually have to go through Wyoming. In fact, “3 Corners” where Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado meet is just down the road (we passed the sign, but didn’t want to do the 10 miles on a washed-out road to get there).
John Jarvie was a rancher who picked a beautiful spot on a wide bend in the Green River to build a ranch, a store, and a ferry station for river crossings. He lived on the ranch in the late 1800s and was eventually murdered by robbers. His body was set afloat and recovered 25 miles down river a week later.
The ranch is beautiful. There are several existing buildings including a blacksmith area, store building, a corral, and a water wheel. You can even see the posts where Jarvie strung a wire to ferry the boats or wagons across the river. When we visited, despite it being during their open hours, no one was there and nothing open. Still, we enjoyed a nice picnic on the property, and toured the river bank and the cemetery.
One of the most interesting things that we could see was the rock garden around the flagpole. There were many different kinds of rocks including petrified wood, obsidian, and Native American grinding stones called metates.
The one drawback to visiting John Jarvie Historic Ranch is the trip there. First, the only thing within many miles is Flaming Gorge Dam. Second, even if you drive the 10 miles up the road from the dam into Wyoming, you turn on a road that alternates between gravel, dirt, and pavement and travel another 22 miles to the ranch. We saw deer and rabbits along the road, and a lot of sagebrush. It is honestly in the middle of nowhere. But we love visiting everything we can in Utah. If you are in the Flaming Gorge area, check out John Jarvie Ranch, if you don’t mind the long drive. You can check their current hours here. Here are some other ideas near Flaming Gorge.
How are the roads for a sedan? On google maps some of the roads look questionable…I always like to make sure roads are accessible by sedan without 4WD after having almost gotten stuck in some precarious situations 😉
We drove this road in our minivan, but that was 12 years ago, so we aren’t sure what the road conditions are like now. Back then we made it just fine, it was just a long way on the dirt road. But we can’t verify what they are like now.