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Month: November 2017

Thanksgiving In The Bears Ears

Thanksgiving Weekend | Thursday – Sunday, November 23-26, 2017

Except for last year, it has been kind of a tradition for Diane and I to spend the long Thanksgiving Weekend exploring southern Utah around Cedar Mesa, Comb Ridge and Montezuma Canyon. This year was our first Thanksgiving in the area since it was officially designated as Bears Ears National Monument late last year. Of course, at this point it’s not certain how much longer this Monument will be around in its current form…

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A Quick Nine Mile Canyon Visit

Monday, November 20, 2017

A few years ago while we were exploring Nine Mile Canyon with our friend Dennis, Diane had spotted some nice petroglyphs high above the road that none of us had seen before. We didn’t have time that day to climb up to them for a closer look, so I marked them on my GPS and we planned to return another day. On our way back home from Salt Lake City this weekend we spent a few hours in Nine Mile Canyon to break up the drive and decided to finally climb up to those petroglyphs we had seen from below. We also visited a few other locations in the canyon before continuing our drive back home and we found some other nice petroglyph panels, too. Here are a couple of photos from our quick visit to Nine Mile Canyon.

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Grand Canyon Polychrome Pictographs

The Panther Gallery, Shaman’s Gallery & Turret Site
Veterans Day Weekend | Thursday – Monday, November 9-13, 2017

This year for the extended Veterans Day weekend Diane and I headed down to the Arizona Strip where we met up with our friend Jerry to backpack and hike along the Esplanade in search of Grand Canyon Polychrome pictographs. By the end of the weekend we would visit The Panther Gallery, Shaman’s Gallery and Turret Site. We also made stops at Toroweap and Paiute Cave since we were in the area. The weather was pretty nice for the entire weekend with highs in the low 70’s and the lows at night in the 40’s. Unfortunately, the Esplanade was pretty dry this time around and we had to carry all the water we would need which added quite a bit of weight to our packs. I’ve wanted to see The Panther Gallery (Cat Site) for a long time and was happy to finally get a chance to see it up close and personal. Enjoy some photos from the weekend!

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West Rim of No Thoroughfare Canyon

Friday, November 3, 2017

This evening I wanted to squeeze in one more hike after work before the Daylight Savings Time change occurs this weekend and it will start getting dark too early for after-work hikes. I decided to head up to the Colorado National Monument so I could explore the West Rim of No Thoroughfare Canyon. Since I had hiked part of the East Rim last weekend, I wanted to see if a trail that is shown on the National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map of the area actually exists on the West Rim. I’ve looked into this trail before and never seen any mention of it on other maps, so I was curious to finally get on the ground in the area and see what I could find.

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