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Category: Exploring

Fremont Indian State Park in Clear Creek CanyonFremont Indian State Park in Clear Creek Canyon

Fremont Indian State Park in Clear Creek Canyon

Friday – Sunday, February 11-13, 2022

It’s been over ten years since I last visited Fremont Indian State Park (not counting speeding through on I-70 a couple times each year) and Diane had never stopped there before, so I thought we were overdue for a visit and decided to spend my birthday weekend there this year. It’s funny since the last time I spent a weekend at the park was also over my birthday weekend! Established in 1987, Fremont Indian State Park encompasses 1,200 acres of land within Clear Creek Canyon at the juncture of the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin and is nestled between the Tushar Mountains to the south and the Pahvant Range to the north. While planning the trip late last year I noticed that the park now has two cabins that are available to reserve in the Sam Stowe Campground, so I booked one of them so we could spend the weekend in a little more comfort than usual. We were looking forward to checking it out as we explored the rock art in the park for the weekend!

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The White Rim to Monument BasinThe White Rim to Monument Basin

The White Rim to Monument Basin

Friday – Sunday, February 4-6, 2022

For the past two years I have spent the first weekend in February exploring the White Rim in Canyonlands National Park. You can find those two Trip Reports here: White Crack Trail to The Confluence & Airport Tower to Monument Basin. I’ve had good weather and great views on each of those trips so I decided to do it one more time this year and grabbed a camping permit for Gooseberry and Airport back in November before the prices of backcountry permits were raised, so this was going to be my last trip at the old price. I’ve spent a lot of time exploring from the White Rim Trail over the years and am actually running out of places I want to check out, but one place I’ve really wanted to hike down to for a long time is Monument Basin, so I figured this trip would be the perfect opportunity to finally give it a try. I knew Jared would be very interested in this hike, so I made sure to invite him along, too.

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Bluejohn Canyon: Rambling Around Robbers Roost IIIBluejohn Canyon: Rambling Around Robbers Roost III

Bluejohn Canyon: Rambling Around Robbers Roost III

Friday & Saturday, January 21-22, 2022

After spending last weekend Around The Needles, I decided to head over to the other side of the Green River this weekend to finally explore Bluejohn Canyon, which is a slot canyon I’ve wanted to get into for years. I actually had plans to hike into Bluejohn Canyon twice last year, but the first time I got snowed out and then the second time there were just too many people camped around the trailheads, so I never made it. I figured my best time to get the canyon to myself would be in the middle of the winter, so this weekend seemed like a good opportunity to try. Of course, when it started snowing in Grand Junction on Friday morning I was a little concerned that my plans were going to be thwarted again, but after keeping an eye on the weather all day it looked like much of the snow had most likely missed the Robbers Roost area, so I decided to still give it a go.

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The Land In-Between: Around The NeedlesThe Land In-Between: Around The Needles

The Land In-Between: Around The Needles

Friday – Monday, January 14-17, 2022

Well here it is, my first Trip Report of 2022! This wasn’t originally supposed to be my first trip of 2022, but we ended up cancelling our plans over New Years Day weekend because of the weather and then I decided to take last weekend off, too. So now it’s time to get back at it again, and what better way to start off the year then by spending a three-day weekend exploring one of my absolute favorite places on the Colorado Plateau– The Needles! As usual, I left after work on Friday afternoon and made my way down to The Needles and found a place to camp along the Lockhart Basin Road. Then I spent the rest of the weekend exploring the Land In Between the more popular trails in the park to see what I could find along the way and ended up hiking over 36 miles. It felt good to put in some higher miles this weekend since I’ve been taking it easier after my incident in November.

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Moab Winter Weekend 2021Moab Winter Weekend 2021

Moab Winter Weekend 2021

Moab Area Rock Art XXXVIII | Friday & Sunday, December 24 & 26, 2021

It feels like it’s been a while since the last time I spent much time around Moab, especially with it getting busier and busier all the time. Lately it feels like I’m just passing through on my way elsewhere and usually try to avoid the area entirely if I can. However, since it was time to return to Arches National Park for our annual Christmas in Arches visit, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get a hotel room in Moab for the holiday weekend and spend some time hiking closer to town. The weather forecast was calling for a pretty wet weekend, and it was raining when we left home early on Friday morning, and had been for most of the night already. There was light on and off rain during the drive, but thankfully the temperature stayed above freezing so there was no ice to deal with. It was actually over 50 degrees out when we reached Moab.

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