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Birthday Weekend in Capitol Reef

President’s Day Weekend | Saturday – Monday, February 13-15, 2016

This year I decided to head down to Capitol Reef National Park for my birthday weekend. It’s always nice that my birthday is near President’s Day so I usually have a three day weekend to enjoy. While I’ve spent some time in Capitol Reef before, it’s typically been to the backcountry areas of the park. This trip I was planning on spending most of our time in the area surrounding Fruita and the Fremont River. This part of the park is usually the busiest, especially in the spring and fall, and I was hoping the crowds would still be small this time of the year, even on a fee-free holiday weekend.

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No Thoroughfare Canyon Snow

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Late this morning Diane and I headed over to No Thoroughfare Canyon in the Colorado National Monument for a short hike. I didn’t take many photos today, but I did want to share a couple since there was the most snow on the ground that I’ve seen in this canyon. We hiked to the base of the First Waterfall where we ate lunch and watched a lone ice climber. There was a packed trail the entire way but we did find our microspikes helpful on a couple of steep sections of the trail and on some of the ice we encountered.

Ouray Ice Festival 2016

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Even though we didn’t make it to the Ouray Ice Festival last year or yesterday, we did finally get back there this morning. We left home shortly before sunrise and arrived at the Ice Park just in time to catch the start of the Speed Competition. It was snowing pretty good when the competition first started, but the snow eventually stopped and the sun even made a few appearances throughout the morning.

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Kodels Canyon Trail System

Saturday, January 16, 2016

We were originally planning to drive down to Ouray this morning for the annual Ice Festival, but Diane wasn’t feeling very well when we got up so we stayed home. Instead, I headed out this afternoon to get a little local hiking in at the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area trails near Fruita. I have hiked a few of the “K” trails near the mouth of Kodels Canyon in the past but had not been on all of them, so I decided to try and check out the rest. I started from the Kodels Canyon Trailhead along the highway and ended up hiking all of the remaining “K” trails that I had not been on before. The length of the hike ended up being just under 5.5 miles. The temperature outside was a little bit above freezing and I was glad that most of the trails were still covered with a layer of packed snow or I probably would have had to deal with hiking in the mud. Much of the day was overcast and a little gloomy but the sun did show up for a little while and brought a little blue sky, too. I didn’t take many photos on this hike because of the overcast conditions, but I did take a few snapshots along the way when the sun was out.

Wedding Canyon Loop

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Our original plan for New Year’s Day was for Diane and I to hike the Wedding Canyon Loop in the Colorado National Monument to celebrate our very first hike together exactly two years ago. However, I was sick all weekend and had to cancel those plans. Now that I am finally feeling better we rescheduled the hike for this afternoon. When we started the hike shortly before noon the sky was pretty overcast and dreary, but after a little while the clouds broke up and let some light through while we were in Wedding Canyon. It turned out to be a nice afternoon for a local hike.

Tag: ice

Birthday Weekend in Capitol Reef

No Thoroughfare Canyon Snow

Ouray Ice Festival 2016

Kodels Canyon Trail System

Wedding Canyon Loop