Manila is a very small town at a very big view. It sits on the Utah side of the state line, only a few hundred metres south of the Wyoming border, on the western rim of Flaming Gorge Reservoir, and if you blink on the highway you might miss it. A few hundred people live here, a handful of motels and cafés serve the visitors, and the real attraction lies just beyond the last building, where the land drops into a long blue arm of water between red cliffs.
The dam that made the lake was built across the Green River in the early 1960s, and the reservoir backs up for about ninety miles. John Wesley Powell passed through here in 1869 and gave the canyon its name for the flaming red of its walls. The rock is part of the Uinta Mountain uplift, and the layers get older and redder as you go south. The Sheep Creek Geological Loop a short distance away reveals tilted layers in a deep canyon, and in late summer the kokanee salmon spawn in the creeks nearby, which draws bears and bird-watchers alike. The viewpoint at Red Canyon is the one to remember.
The ride here is the best part of the day. Highway 191 climbs from the desert with long, flowing bends through juniper and sagebrush and then into pine and aspen as you reach altitude. The surface is generally good, the grades are steady rather than steep, and the views over the water come in sudden, generous flashes. Wildlife is common: mule deer, pronghorn, bighorn sheep on the cliffs and the occasional moose. Snow can arrive early and linger, so the season is roughly late May to early October. Temperatures swing widely, so pack layers.
Services in a town of this size are limited, so arrive with a decent tank. The larger places are Green River and Rock Springs to the north and Vernal to the south, and it is wise to top up before leaving either. Manila itself is for a coffee, a photograph and a long look at the water.