Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Exploring

The Red Deer Site & Four Cairn Site

The Red Deer Site & Four Cairn Site

Friday – Sunday, October 14-16, 2016

A few weeks ago Alan contacted me and invited me on a backpacking trip to visit a few Grand Canyon Polychrome (Esplanade Style) rock art sites near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have been wanting to find and visit more of these amazing locations since my first visit to the Shamans Gallery a few years back, so I took him up on the offer. Luckily, I didn’t have anything planned for this particular weekend that couldn’t easily be moved to another. While driving all the way down to the Arizona Strip from Grand Junction is longer than I prefer to go for just a weekend trip, I thought it was worth it to visit these great rock art sites and to meet up with some new friends. Enjoy a few photos from the weekend…

CONTINUE READINGThe Red Deer Site & Four Cairn Site
Leave a Comment
Coyote Gulch RepeatCoyote Gulch Repeat

Coyote Gulch Repeat

Friday & Saturday, October 7-8, 2016

Earlier this year Diane asked me about wanting to go on a backpacking trip into Coyote Gulch after she saw some photos of the area, so we planned to do a repeat of a trip that I did with Jared a few years ago, except we would go for two nights instead of just one. We left home very early on Friday morning and drove straight to the trailhead only stopping to fill up my gas tank in Torrey. Since we left in the morning instead of the previous night like we had originally wanted to, we got a little bit later start on the hike than I would have liked, but we still had plenty of time on the first day.

CONTINUE READINGCoyote Gulch Repeat
Leave a Comment
Mount PealeMount Peale

Mount Peale

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Since Jared and I had cancelled our plans to hike to the summit of Mount Peale (12,721) at the end of the previous day, we didn’t bother waking up until the sun was up this morning. I asked him if he had any suggestions for hikes near Moab and after some thought he suggested that we give Mount Peale a chance since we were right near it. I was feeling better after a good night’s sleep so I figured it was worth a try, though I kind of had a feeling that we would probably bail partway up and not make it to the summit.

CONTINUE READINGMount Peale
Leave a Comment
Step Canyon & Pine Canyon LoopStep Canyon & Pine Canyon Loop

Step Canyon & Pine Canyon Loop

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

On Wednesday morning Jared and I woke up with the sun, broke down camp and then hopped into my Jeep so we could drive a little further down the Mormon Trail to begin our hike. Today we would be hiking a loop starting in Step Canyon and following it down to the confluence with Pine Canyon which we then planned to hike up to complete the loop. Hiking down through Step Canyon was pretty easy with only a few obstacles that we had to get around, but as soon as we reached Pine Canyon we found that much of the canyon bottom was either full of water or slick mud and in order to get around those sections we had to deal with bushwhacking through thick vegetation. I’m sure if the canyon were dry it would have been an easy hike, but it was not too much fun today.

CONTINUE READINGStep Canyon & Pine Canyon Loop
10 Comments
North Fork of Mule CanyonNorth Fork of Mule Canyon

North Fork of Mule Canyon

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

I woke up on Tuesday morning to the coldest temperature on the trip so far (my Jeep said it was 34 degrees out). I woke up shortly before sunrise and decided to head down to Blanding for breakfast. I was planning on taking things pretty easy today and having more of a rest day, so I was in no hurry to get anywhere. While I was in town picking up some supplies I ran into my friend Rick, whom I hadn’t seen in a while and it was nice to catch up with him for a few minutes. When I was done in town I drove back up onto Cedar Mesa for an easy day hike in the North Fork of Mule Canyon. The South Fork of Mule Canyon is a pretty popular hike that I’ve done a few times before, but I had never been up into the North Fork. Even though the South Fork is usually pretty busy, I never hear of many people going to the North Fork so I had hoped it wouldn’t be near as busy. It turns out that it wasn’t, and I only ran into one small group of people during the hike. It was a leisurely hike with a few nice ruins to explore along the way.

CONTINUE READINGNorth Fork of Mule Canyon
Leave a Comment