Hiking // ADVENTR.co

Otto’s Staircase

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

After work I decided to get a little hike in and explore a new area of the Colorado National Monument. I wanted to check out Otto’s Staircase above Gold Star Canyon and try to reach the top of Monument Mesa via this route. Please excuse my poor pictures in this trip report, when I set out after work to explore this new trail I didn’t really plan on taking any photos or even creating a trip report so I didn’t carry my camera with me. All of these photos were taken and processed on my iPhone. I ended up really enjoying this climb and taking a few photos with my iPhone so I wanted to share a them. I’m sure I will return to hike this trail again to do even more exploring on Monument Mesa. I will be sure to bring my better camera next time!

Fisher Towers & The Dolores River Overlook

Saturday, April 5, 2014

A few weeks ago Diane surprised me by signing us up for a horseback ride at the Hauer Ranch in Professor Valley along the Colorado River. I had casually mentioned to her that it was something I wanted to try but never seemed to get around to, so I’m glad she finally helped me get it set up. Our two-hour ride was scheduled on Saturday morning at 9:00am, so we left early from home and made it with plenty of time to spare. After filling out the required paperwork and then getting on the horses our ride took us east across the highway and followed a shallow wash towards the Fisher Towers. The trail then turned south and climbed a divide between the wash we were in and Onion Creek. Then we followed Onion Creek back towards the Colorado River and ended up at the ranch again. It was a nice ride with great scenery but my knees were really killing me when we made it back to the ranch from being slightly bent the whole time.

2 Comments

Tour de Swell

Tour de Swell

Saturday & Sunday, March 29-30, 2014

I recently realized that I hadn’t been out to the San Rafael Swell in quite some time and felt it was time to get back again. Diane had never been to the Swell before so I thought it would be nice to give her an overview tour of the northern Swell this weekend. She would get to see some new sights and I would get to revisit and rephotograph some sites I have been to in the past. We left Grand Junction early on Saturday morning and made our way west through Green River before passing through the San Rafael Reef and climbing onto the San Rafael Swell.

Gold Star Canyon Loop

Thursday, March 27, 2014

After work this evening, Diane and I met up for another short hike in the Colorado National Monument. We started from the White Rocks trailhead and then hiked the steep trail beside Gold Star Canyon up onto the Precambrian Bench. We followed the trail towards Monument Canyon and then turned around when we reached Mushroom Rock. Next we followed a wash down into Monument Canyon and hiked back to White Rocks by circling around the Little Island. It was a nice evening hike. I don’t usually carry my camera on these short after-work hikes but the clouds in the sky were pretty nice from the passing storms so I decided to bring it with me. I’m glad I did!

Ute Canyon Trail

Sunday, March 23, 2014

After a rainy Saturday, Diane and I headed up to the Colorado National Monument on Sunday to get in a little hiking close to home. It’s been a few years since I’ve hiked down Ute Canyon so we decided to make that our destination for the day. Since I wanted to hike the whole trail from top to bottom we left my Jeep at the lower trailhead and then drove up to the upper trailhead in Diane’s car. When we dropped off my Jeep at the Wildwood Trailhead we found the parking lot full and had to park along the road. There were a lot of people hiking up to Liberty Cap today and I’m glad we weren’t one of them. We didn’t see anyone else in Ute Canyon all afternoon, which was nice.

2 Comments

Category: Hiking

Otto’s Staircase

Fisher Towers & The Dolores River Overlook

Tour de Swell

Gold Star Canyon Loop

Ute Canyon Trail