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Vega State Park & Park Creek to Leon CreekVega State Park & Park Creek to Leon Creek

Vega State Park & Park Creek to Leon Creek

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, September 29, 2026

This afternoon I left from work and headed up to Vega State Park for a second chance to to see if I could find some nice fall colors on the Grand Mesa this season. You know, it’s kind of funny that I’d never actually been to Vega State Park until I passed through while following the route of the Dominguez – Escalante Expedition earlier this month, and now I’ve been here twice in the last two weeks! I planned to hike the Aspen Nature Trail along the southern end of Vega Reservoir since there was still a lot of green in the trees when I was here about a week and a half ago and I was hoping that they might have started to change color by now…

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The Palisade Rim: Lower Loop & Upper Loop TrailsThe Palisade Rim: Lower Loop & Upper Loop Trails

The Palisade Rim: Lower Loop & Upper Loop Trails

After Work Adventures | Friday, September 25, 2026

I was originally planning to head on over to the Gunnison Gorge for a hike after work today, but shortly before leaving work I checked the weather and saw that there was a storm right over the area I wanted to hike in, and since the road to the trailhead goes through a lot of clay I thought it would be a good idea to skip that for today and stay a little closer to home. While I have hiked the lower Palisade Rim Trail a few times before, I have never actually hiked the upper loop before and have been meaning to do that for quite a while, so I decided to drive over to Palisade to where the Book Cliffs collide with the Grand Mesa and hike both of those loops instead.

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Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa 2026Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa 2026

Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa 2026

After Work Adventures | Wednesday, September 23, 2026

I headed up onto the Grand Mesa this afternoon to spend a few hours seeing how the fall colors were coming along like I try do each year around this time. As I was driving up the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway I found that there was still a lot of green lower down around the Mesa Creek area, but there were a few patches of nice colors here and there, including some oranges. Unfortunately, my favorite overlook at Skyway Point was already past it’s prime, so it was kind of a mixed bag this year and didn’t seem to be a great year for fall colors on the Mesa, which isn’t too surprising with how hot and dry it has been this past summer. Although the fall colors weren’t the greatest this time around, it was still nice to get up onto the Mesa for a few hours after work this afternoon.

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The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition: 250 Years LaterThe Dominguez-Escalante Expedition: 250 Years Later

The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition: 250 Years Later

Pageant in the Wilderness: Following in the Footsteps of Friars Dominguez & Escalante
Saturday – Monday, September 19-21, 2026  (August 27 – September 17, 1776)

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the 1776 Dominguez-Escalante Expedition through the southwest and I wanted to do a little something special to celebrate the semiquincentennial of this monumental undertaking in my own little way. Although I would have liked to have been able to follow in the footsteps of Dominguez & Escalante (D&E) for the entirety of their route through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona, I just don’t have that kind of free time available to me right now and decided it would be nice to just concentrate on the section of their route that is closest to my home. I planned to pick up their route at the Uncompahgre River in Montrose and then follow in their footsteps as closely as I could over the Grand Mesa and Roan Plateau to the White River, and then finally to the Green River in the Uinta Basin in Utah. I figured that I should be able to cover this part of their route in a weekend, but still, even with this shorter route a weekend would probably be too short for me to see it all and I would be limited on the amount of hiking I would be able to do along the way, sticking mostly to roads that roughly follow their original route.

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Howard Fork: Blixt Trail to Oscars PassHoward Fork: Blixt Trail to Oscars Pass

Howard Fork: Blixt Trail to Oscars Pass

Telluride Trails | Friday – Saturday, September 18-19, 2026

I was originally planning to spend this entire weekend celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Dominguez – Escalante Expedition, but when the weather forecast for Saturday was looking too wet for some of the backcountry roads I would need to drive, I decided at the last minute to delay my journey by a day and took Monday off from work. Surprisingly, the weather forecast was looking drier on Saturday morning in the San Juan Mountains, so I decided to squeeze in another high-country hike this season while I still could and planned to hike up the Blixt Trail from the Howard Fork to Oscars Pass and a little beyond. I left from work on Friday afternoon and made my way over the Dallas Divide and up the San Miguel River to the Ophir Pass Road in the Howard Fork where I found a campsite for the night.

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