IntrepidXpedition 2007 | Day 7 & 8
Wednesday & Thursday, July 25-26, 2007
Most of my day on Wednesday was spent at the UFWDA Annual Convention. However when we finished for the day, the only thing on my mind was heading out and exploring the area just outside of town. Right near the hotel that the convention was held at is an OHV area at the base of the Book Cliffs called The Grand Junction Desert. I started out by following 27.25 Road north. Eventually the pavement turned to gravel and then to a bumpier trail.
Headed towards the base of the Book Cliffs
On my way, dark clouds started rolling in and the wind started picking up.
Here’s where 27.25 Road ended.
On my way back to Grand Junction, there was a minor dust storm off in the distance.
On Thursday I also spent most of the day in meetings. As soon as they were adjourned for the day, I was out to do some more exploring before the sun set for the night. My first destination was Bangs Canyon. After a quick drive up Little Park Road I soon found myself at the Bangs Canyon staging area. Little did I know at the time, that I had taken a wrong turn right away and was actually not headed into Bangs Canyon.
Eventually, I ran into the trailhead for Billings Canyon. I then was certain that I had headed the wrong way. I had run Billings Canyon in 2006 in my other Jeep, and knew that it certainly wasn’t a trail I would be running in my current Jeep.
Now that I had my directions straightened out, I turned around and finally made it to Bangs Canyon. Headed down the sandstone ridge into Rough Canyon.
Climbing back out of Rough Canyon on the other side
At the top of the canyon, I found this big ramped rock to take a picture on. This is also where I stopped and turned around to head back out.
Good view of the ridge I came down on from here
On my way back out, I was greeting by some more dark storm clouds that were rolling in
At this point, I had an itch to do a little rock crawling. Back in 2006 I had run 21 Road in my other Jeep, but we had bypassed the easier section at the beginning, so I thought I’d head over there and play around in the section I bypassed before.
Playing in some rocks on 21 Road
After getting my fill of crawling, I turned around and headed back to Grand Junction for the night as the sun was setting.