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Red Rock to Black Canyon

Backpacking Red Rock Canyon
Saturday & Sunday, June 7-8, 2014

Deep, Steep and Narrow. That’s how the National Park Service describes the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and it’s pretty accurate. The Black Canyon is comprised of some of the steepest cliffs, oldest rock, and craggiest spires in North America. I’ve wanted to hike down into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison for quite a while now and thought I would try Red Rock Canyon, the easiest route, for my first time. This trail is about 3.5 miles in length and only drops 1330 feet to the river. Compared to the other routes down to the Gunnison, this one is definitely the least steep.

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Monument East Entrance

Friday, May 30, 2014

On Friday evening the sky looked like it could be nice for a great sunset, so I made a quick drive up through the east entrance of the Colorado National Monument and stopped for a few photos along the way. I did a little exploring of a new area that gave me a nice view of the Rim Rock Drive switchbacks climbing up to the tunnel and a nice overview of the Serpent’s Trail from above. Here’s a few photos from the short evening drive.

Maze Memorial Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend | Friday – Monday, May 23-26, 2014

It’s been over three years since I have been to the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park and I have been wanting to get back. Earlier this year I decided to try out Canyonlands’ new online permit system and got a permit for a few campsites in The Maze over Memorial Day weekend. The last time I was in The Maze we camped in the Land of Standing Rocks, but this time I wanted to make sure we spent a night at the Maze Overlook. I also wanted to check out the Millard Campsite along the Green River since it seems like a pretty remote area of the park and I haven’t heard about too many people driving out to it.

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Professor Creek

Mary Jane Canyon
Saturday, May 17, 2014

The hike up Professor Creek through Mary Jane Canyon has been on my to-do list for a few years now. It’s not that far from home for me, but every time I thought about hiking it things never seemed to work out. Either something else came up or it was too cold to hike through the water since I wanted to go on a warm day. Everything finally came together this weekend. Diane and I wanted to stay close to home and the temperatures looked great for a wet hike through a canyon. We left home early in the morning and were the first vehicle in the trailhead parking lot. It was a little cool when we started hiking up the canyon in the morning, but not too cold that I didn’t mind getting my feet wet. As the day grew on and the temperature rose, walking through the water felt great. I stopped quite a few times along the creek for photos of the flowing water and we took our time with this hike.

San Juan Canyon

The San Juan River | Sand Island to Mexican Hat
Sunday – Wednesday, May 11-14, 2014

We didn’t have any luck in the San Juan River lottery again this year, but I managed to grab an open date on the calendar for a time my friends and I would be able to go during the month of May. Like last year, I was only able to secure a permit from Sand Island to Mexican Hat. It was probably a good thing because I really didn’t want to take too much more time off from work in May since I had already taken a few days for my backpacking trip in Salt Creek Canyon and I have a few other days scheduled off for later in the month.

Category: Exploring

Red Rock to Black Canyon

Monument East Entrance

Maze Memorial Weekend

Professor Creek

San Juan Canyon