Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Exploring

Ruins of Cedar MesaRuins of Cedar Mesa

Ruins of Cedar Mesa

President’s Day Weekend | Saturday – Monday, February 17 – 19, 2018

This year for President’s Day Weekend Diane and I decided to head back down to Cedar Mesa for our first visit to Bears Ears National Monument of the year. We ended up spending most of the weekend exploring canyons carved into Cedar Mesa and visiting ruins that I hadn’t been to in a number of years, plus a few new ones. We also made a detour over to Montezuma Canyon on Monday morning before a strong winter storm moved into the area and chased us back home in the early afternoon.

CONTINUE READINGRuins of Cedar Mesa
4 Comments
The Island In The SkyThe Island In The Sky

The Island In The Sky

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Since I already have plans and permits to spend time in The Needles and The Maze districts of Canyonlands National Park this spring, I thought it would be nice to spend a little quality time on the Island In The Sky, too. I recently realized that I haven’t done very much hiking in this part of the park yet and I really want to start changing that. This time I was not looking to hike all the way down to the White Rim and then climb back up, so I decided to start with the Neck Spring Trail and a few other shorter trails. I’ll definitely be coming back for some longer hikes later this year!

CONTINUE READINGThe Island In The Sky
4 Comments
Revisiting The Owl PictographRevisiting The Owl Pictograph

Revisiting The Owl Pictograph

Book Cliffs Rock Art V | Saturday, February 3, 2018

After spending the previous weekend exploring the Coyote Buttes in Arizona, it was time for me to stay a little closer to home and take things easy for a change. When Diane and I had visited the San Rafael Reef a few weekends ago we were hoping to stop by a very cool pictograph of an owl in the Book Cliffs on our way home, but we ran out of time and daylight and didn’t get the chance. I guess we spent too much time in Chute Canyon! I had visited this owl pictograph back in 2011 and have wanted to return for a while and Diane was very interested in seeing it for the first time, so I figured that checking it out and exploring the surrounding canyon would make for a nice half-day adventure.

CONTINUE READINGRevisiting The Owl Pictograph
6 Comments
Coyote Buttes NorthCoyote Buttes North

Coyote Buttes North

Vermilion Cliffs National Monument
Sunday, January 28, 2018

After spending an amazing day in Coyote Buttes South on Saturday, I slept well overnight in the Stateline Campground along House Rock Valley Road and woke up early to start hiking into Coyote Buttes North on Sunday morning. I didn’t have any specific location planned to photograph at sunrise, so I just started hiking about an hour before sunrise and figured that I would just take photos wherever I was when the sun finally came over the distant horizon. Nautical dawn was just beginning as I left the Wire Pass Trailhead and I wouldn’t need to use my headlamp for very long.

CONTINUE READINGCoyote Buttes North
5 Comments