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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 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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South San Juan Sojourn: Conejos Peak & Summit Peak

South San Juans: Conejos Peak & Summit Peak

South San Juan Sojourn: Conejos Peak & Summit Peak

South San Juan Wilderness | Thursday – Saturday, August 20-22, 2026

It’s been just over three years since my last visit to the South San Juan Mountains and I’ve been wanting to get back there for quite a while. Initially, I was going to attend the annual GIS Colorado Summer Meetup this week, which was supposed to be held at the Big Meadows Campground along the western edge of the Weminuche Wilderness, and then I was planning to spend the remainder of the weekend hiking in the South San Juans, but that event was recently cancelled. Since I had really been looking forward to returning to the South San Juans, I decided to carry on with my plans and started driving that way early on Thursday morning. I took the scenic route along the Silver Thread Scenic Byway through Lake City and Creede to South Fork and then followed the Lake Fork of the Rio Grande to the Big Meadows Reservoir and Shaw Lake so I could at least check them out, even though I wouldn’t be spending any time in that area now.

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Calico Peak in the Rico Mountains

Friday – Saturday, August 14-15, 2026

This weekend Diane and I were going to be spending most of our time visiting her friends who live along the Dolores River near Dolores and I was hoping that we would be able to squeeze in a short hike in the Rico Mountains on our way there. Although I typically try to avoid doing very many repeat hikes, back when I summited a few 12ers along the Calico Trail in 2020 I knew that I would someday want to come back to Calico Peak again with Diane and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to do that. It would also be a nice hike in remembrance of Tellico, our calico cat that passed away over three years ago who was known as Rico.

Garfield Basin: Center Park Trail to Tungsten Pass

High Uintas Wilderness | Saturday – Monday, August 1-3, 2026

After spending Friday evening at a concert in Salt Lake City, I was up early on Saturday morning to meet up with Jared so we could head over to the Uinta Mountains and go on a two night backpacking trip into the High Uintas Wilderness. We had tried backpacking along the western end of the Highline Trail last summer from Hayden Pass, but that trip didn’t work out as planned because there was a brand new wildfire that altered our initial plans and then we encountered plenty of deadfall across the trail from an older fire that made the hiking difficult. We were hoping not to repeat that kind of trip again this year. After looking over maps I thought Garfield Basin looked like it would be a relatively easy hike to a large basin that is mostly above treeline and wouldn’t be too busy or impacted by previous wildfires, so that’s where we decided to go. As an added bonus, we would be able to briefly connect up with the Highline Trail near the top of the basin and visit a pass or two while we were up there.

Category: Camping

The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition: 250 Years Later

Howard Fork: Blixt Trail to Oscars Pass

South San Juan Sojourn: Conejos Peak & Summit Peak

Calico Peak in the Rico Mountains

Garfield Basin: Center Park Trail to Tungsten Pass