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The High Plateaus of Utah: Proper Edge of the Sky

The Plateau Provence: Peaks & Plateaus of the Colorado Plateau
Wednesday – Friday, August 30 – September 1, 2023

The High Plateaus of Utah are a group of elevated tablelands that form the boundary between the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin in Central Utah and are what Wallace Stegner once described as “those remarkable mountains that are not mountains at all but greatly elevated rolling plains.” Although I have driven around and between the High Plateaus many times over the years, I have not spent very much time up on top of any of them and I wanted to change that this summer so I could see what they were all about. And what better way is there to get to know a new place than by driving the backroads and visiting the highpoints along the way! I figured that I would start at the northern end of the Wasatch Plateau and then work my way south, looping back around to finish up on Thousand Lake Mountain, where I could hop back on I-70 and head back home after a nice introduction to the area. That was the plan, and I thought it was a pretty good one, but as you will see, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

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Elk Mountains: Capitol Creek Trail to Capitol Lake

Maroon Bells – Snowmass Wilderness | Saturday & Sunday, July 22-23, 2023

Almost nine years ago now, Diane was with me while I was photographing Fall Colors in the Elk Mountains near the Capitol Creek Trailhead, and while we were there she mentioned to me that she would like to backpack to Capitol Lake sometime, and I never forgot about it. However, we had never got around to doing that hike yet because it’s such a popular location and I’ve always been worried about hiking in and not finding a campsite near the lake on a weekend. But earlier this year when the White River National Forest finally implemented a permit system for the designated campsites around Capitol Lake, I hopped onto Recreation.gov the day they became available and booked a site for us on this weekend in late July. On Saturday morning we woke up extra early and made our way over to the Capitol Creek Trailhead to start our hike up to Capitol Lake.

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Rabbit Ears Range: Parkview Mountain Fire Lookout

Fire Lookouts Extravaganza | Thursday, September 1, 2022

After visiting a couple Fire Lookouts in the morning, I made my way back to North Park in the afternoon via the Cache La Poudre River and Cameron Pass and then headed south over Willow Creek Pass. Just on the other side of the pass I drove up the switchbacks of an old mining road that joined up with the Continental Divide Trail on the southern flank of Parkview Mountain, which at 12,296 feet is the highest point in the Rabbit Ears Range. On top of Parkview Mountain is the final Fire Lookout that I planned to visit on this trip and it’s also the second highest lookout in the United States after the one on top of Fairview Peak in the Sawatch Range. I was originally planning to camp near the end of the road and then hike to the summit in the morning, but since there were still three hours until sunset and the weather was looking good, I decided to hike up this evening.

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Middle La Sal Peak: Mount Mellenthin

La Sal Mountains Peak Bagging | South Mountain from Medicine Lakes
Friday – Sunday, July 10-12, 2020

This weekend I continued my annual tradition of spending an early summer weekend peak-bagging in the La Sal Mountains near Moab. Usually I try to make this my first peak-bagging trip of the season, but this year that honor goes to Trappers Peak in the Flat Tops. Since I have now hiked all of the popular peaks in the La Sal Mountains, it is time to get started on the more obscure ones, and this trip I thought it was finally time I went for Mount Mellenthin, also known as Middle La Sal Peak, which is the second tallest peak in the La Sals after Mount Peale. I was originally planning to hike Mount Mellenthin after floating the Moab Daily a couple of weeks ago, but I had to cancel those plans when I came down with some sort of allergic reaction after getting off the river. I was looking forward to getting back into the La Sals this weekend, especially since there was a heat wave in the area and I hoped to stay cool at higher elevations!

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The Wind Rivers: Cirque of the Towers

Wednesday – Saturday, August 21-24, 2019

After our first backpacking trip into the Wind River Range for The Great American Eclipse two years ago it was time that we finally headed back for a another one. Since we had some pretty good conditions on that last trip (weather and mosquitoes) we planned to go at the same time of the year. Of course, since we had already visited Titcomb Basin and Island Lake on that previous trip, this time I really wanted to check out the Cirque of the Towers. I had originally planned this trip to be a four day loop that would take us past Big Sandy Lake into the Cirque of the Towers and then over Texas Pass to Shadow Lake, but things didn’t quite go as planned and we ended up not completing the loop. It was still an amazing trip and we both really enjoyed our time spent in the Cirque of the Towers!

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