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Category: Exploring

Wildcat Trail: Unaweep Divide to the Gill Creek DivideWildcat Trail: Unaweep Divide to the Gill Creek Divide

Wildcat Trail: Unaweep Divide to the Gill Creek Divide

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Well, this weekend certainly didn’t go as planned. I was supposed to spend the weekend hiking and camping in the La Sal Mountains with my friend Jackson and his family, but after driving up into Beaver Basin on Saturday afternoon I started to have issues with my Jeep that made us reconsider those plans and turn around to head back home instead. Thankfully, before meeting up with Jackson I had gone on a short hike up the Wildcat Trail in Unaweep Canyon- so the entire weekend wasn’t a complete waste. Since I wasn’t going to be meeting up with Jackson until later in the morning on Saturday, I got up early and drove up to the Unaweep Divide so I could get started on the hike just after sunrise and finish it before the temperature started to warm up.

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Coal Creek Basin: Switchback Trail to Shirttail PointCoal Creek Basin: Switchback Trail to Shirttail Point

Coal Creek Basin: Switchback Trail to Shirttail Point

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Although we didn’t get to go backpacking on the Grand Mesa late last month like we had hoped, now that the Lands End Road is open I figured I’d head up after work this afternoon to hike a short loop above Coal Creek Basin from the Switchback Trail to Shirttail Point. Last summer I had hiked down the Palisade Plunge Trail to Otto’s Wall from Shirttail Point but was turned back by an incoming storm, so I was looking forward to returning to this part of the Grand Mesa. This hike turned out to be a nice little 5.5 mile loop with about 900 feet of elevation loss and gain that was perfect for when the temperature in the valley below is just too hot for hiking after work.

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Bookin’ It to the Book Cliffs & Uinta BasinBookin’ It to the Book Cliffs & Uinta Basin

Bookin’ It to the Book Cliffs & Uinta Basin

Rock Art of the Book Cliffs XI | Friday – Sunday, May 23-25, 2025

After floating through Desolation Canyon last week I’ve become very interested in spending more time within the canyons of the Tavaputs Plateau from the crest of the Book Cliffs to the depression of the Uinta Basin, and I thought this would be the perfect place to spend this busy holiday weekend away from the more popular areas of southern Utah, just like I had done four years ago. I met up with a friend late on Friday afternoon so we could spend the remainder of the weekend camping, hiking and searching the canyons for rock art. Throughout the weekend we found quite a few petroglyphs and pictographs left by a number of different cultures and time periods from Barrier Canyon Style to Fremont and Historic Ute. We ended up driving a lot of dusty miles on rough roads, saw a lot of wildlife including wild horses and elk, plus we saw a lot of dead cows for some reason. These are some photos of what else we saw along the way…

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Desolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green RiverDesolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green River

Desolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green River

Splitting the Tavaputs Plateau in Two: Sand Wash to Swaseys Beach
Sunday – Saturday, May 11-17, 2025 | Average CFS: 6,665

After getting permits for Yampa Canyon and the Canyon of Lodore over the past two years, Jackson’s and my main goal for this year was to try and get a Spring Low-Use Season permit for the Green River through Desolation Canyon and Gray Canyon as we continue to work our way through more sections of the Colorado River and Green River across the Colorado Plateau. Although Jackson and I have still have never actually won a permit in any of the lotteries we have entered over the years we have been lucky enough to grab permits and cancellations during the general releases after the fact, and this time I managed to get us a permit for Desolation Canyon back in mid-March. Once we had the permit we quickly got started on the planning process since the launch date was only about two months away, but we quickly found out that many of our usual river friends were unable to make the trip this spring. Luckily, our friends Bob and Lisa were able to go and they had a few other friends that they were able to invite on the trip with us, two of whom were very familiar with Desolation Canyon and were a great addition to the trip! In the end I enjoyed rafting with everyone who was on this trip and would invite every single one of them back in a heartbeat!

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Deep Black: The Gunnison RouteDeep Black: The Gunnison Route

Deep Black: The Gunnison Route

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park | Saturday, May 10, 2025

After hiking all of the trails above the rim in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park I’ve been thinking about finally trying one of the Inner Canyon Wilderness routes down to the Gunnison River which have been on my to-do list for a very long time. Although Diane and I backpacked down Red Rock Canyon almost ten years ago, which is definitely the easiest route into the canyon, I’ve been apprehensive about trying the other routes into the canyon since I’m not really a big fan of steep and loose trails, so I have kept putting off trying them. However, when I noticed that the Park was moving the permit system for the South Rim routes onto Recreation.gov earlier this year, I figured it was finally time to grab a permit to try out the Gunnison Route, which is supposed to be the next easiest route into the canyon.

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