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Category: Hiking

The Wave Weekend

Friday-Sunday, November 4-6, 2011

The Wave, located just south of the Utah-Arizona state line in the Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, is one of those places that every photographer and hiker wants to visit. It’s hard to blame them because it is such a unique and amazing area. Unfortunately, because of it’s popularity, the BLM has a permit system in place that allows only twenty people per day the chance to experience this remarkable area. If you’ve read my blog for any length of time you might know that I am averse towards any kind of permit when I go out exploring, so in the past I have usually avoided those places. This year I have made an effort to finally visit some of those places that require a permit, including The Maze and the White Rim. A few months ago I decided that I would try to get a permit so that I could hopefully visit The Wave this year, too. Since there are only 20 permits per day, it can be difficult to obtain one. For anyone not familiar with the Coyote Buttes North permit system, ten of the permits for each day are awarded in a lottery three months in advance and the other ten are distributed in person the day before. I guess I was pretty lucky since I managed to snag two permits in advance on my first try. Once I had my permits, Amanda and I decided to make a long three day weekend out of the trip.

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Ivie Creek and the Molen Seep

San Rafael Swell Rock Art VII
Sunday, October 30, 2011

After spending Saturday hiking to the Dragonfly Panel, I decided to head over to the San Rafael Swell to visit some new rock art sites. The first site I visited is actually just a little bit west of the Swell along Ivie Creek at the edge of the Wasatch Plateau. It was a little tricky finding the way up to this panel, but I did manage to make it up there.

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Dragonfly Panel & Blue-Eyed Moqui Queen

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Today I spent an awesome day hiking in a beautiful secluded canyon to some seldom-seen and exquisite rock art panels. I have been wanting to visit the Dragonfly Panel pictographs for quite a while and they did not disappoint. It’s not a large panel, but the details and uniqueness of the figures found here are just amazing!

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Return to the Great Gallery

Saturday, October 22, 2011

I’ve wanted to return to Horseshoe Canyon and the Great Gallery all year, but I decided to put it off until October when I knew the weather would be nice and the cottonwoods would be changing colors. When I found out that my friend Lisa was trying to put together a trip there for the Flickr Rock Art Group this weekend, I marked it on my calendar. This was also the last weekend of the year that there would be a ranger guided hike into the canyon which I wanted to attend so that I could get closer to the Great Gallery.

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Mount Garfield

Monday, October 17, 2011

Living in Grand Junction, I see Mount Garfield towering above the Grand Valley almost every day. Every now and then I think to myself that I should finally hike up to the summit, but since I usually seem to spend most of my time exploring Southern Utah, I always put it off. Finally, I decided to stop putting it off and set a date to hike it before the days got too short this year. My friend Jackson was supposed to join me on this hike, but he got sick and ended up not going, so I did the hike alone. Right after work I headed straight to the trailhead and got started on the climb. I managed to summit just before sunset and made it back down to the Jeep just before I would have needed to get out my headlamp. It certainly was a climb, but it was also a nice hike that’s close to home.

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