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Rock Art of Canyon del Muerto & Chinle Wash

A Return to Canyon de Chelly National Monument: Back on the Four Corners Circuit
Monday, May 23, 2022

After spending most of Sunday in Mesa Verde National Park it was time to spend some quality time looking at rock art and ruins in Canyon de Chelly National Monument. About six years ago Diane and I had stopped to check out all of the overlooks along the rim of the canyons in the Monument and also hiked down to the White House Ruins, so this time we wanted to get into the canyons for a closer look. That meant we would have to book a tour with a Navajo guide. About a week before the trip I set up a five hour tour with Beauty Way Jeep Tours for 8:00am that would mostly focus on Canyon del Muerto and we were looking forward to finally getting into the canyon!

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Wetherill Mesa at Mesa Verde National Park

Sunday, May 22, 2022 | Alternate Plans: Back on the Four Corners Circuit

While making our original plans to Bandelier National Monument for this week, before they got cancelled, I had hoped that we would be able to stop by the Ute Mountain Tribal Park again on our way down to New Mexico. But even though we had to change those plans and stick around the Four Corners area, I was still hoping we would be able to go on another tour there. I spent the past two months trying to get ahold of someone at the park to schedule a tour, but was unsuccessful in getting anyone to call or email me back to make the arrangements, so I finally gave up on that idea. Instead, I decided that we were long overdue for another visit to Mesa Verde National Park and thought it would be a good idea to spend a full day on Wetherill Mesa since neither of us had been to that part of the park before. Thankfully, I was able to secure tickets to tours of Mug House and Long House in the weeks leading up to our trip, so we were all set for a great day on Wetherill Mesa!

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Bears Ears to Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients

Alternate Plans: Back on the Four Corners Circuit | Cedar Mesa Chronicles: Chapter 6
Friday & Saturday, May 20-21, 2022

This upcoming week Diane was going to be out of school and was looking forward to getting away for her Spring Break, so for the past few months I had been planning a week-long trip for us to visit the Jemez Mountains and Bandelier National Monument near Santa Fe. Unfortunately, the large Cerro Pelado Wildfire ended up closing both Bandelier National Monument and the Santa Fe National Forest before our trip, so I was forced to come up with Alternate Plans for the week and decided to return to the Four Corners area. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule a trip to the Jemez Mountains another time in the future since we were both looking forward to it!

Final Trails in Dinosaur National Monument

Friday – Sunday, April 29 – May 1, 2022

It has been almost exactly one year since I started working towards my goal of finishing all of the ‘official trails‘ within Dinosaur National Monument that I had not hiked yet, and this weekend I planned to head back so I could finally complete it. Although the two trails left on my list probably wouldn’t be considered official trails by most people, I guess I’m a completist when it comes to hiking and thought they were important enough to be included. Plus, they would bring me into new parts of the park I had not explored yet, which is always an added bonus. However, they each also happened to be located on completely opposite ends of the park, so I’d have to cover a lot of ground this weekend! I left a little early from work on Friday afternoon and drove over Douglas Pass as I made my way to Island Park on the Utah side of Dinosaurland to get my weekend started.

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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!