myXJ.net Archive

November was another great month! I know I'm running about a month behind with this post, but I just finished going through my photos from November. The Wave At the beginning of November I was finally able to visit Coyote Buttes North and The Wave for the first time. I

Here's a photo of the lunar eclipse I took on Saturday morning. This was taken just before the moon was completely eclipsed. I had wanted to get a photo with the moon closer to the Book Cliffs, but shortly after this photo was taken the sun started to brighten the

October was an awesome month! I took many photos this month and just finished going through them all. I took many photos that I really like, but this one really stands out as one of my best. Toroweap Sunset West This one was taken from Toroweap at sunset over the

Another awesome month with many adventures, so now it's time to post my favorite photos from September. There were a lot of good ones to choose from this month.... Under the Dipper I visited the Moab Maiden again this month to try and get a better star trail photo with

I've been thinking about updating this blog for a while to highlight my trip reports, but I never found a solution that I was going to be totally happy with, so I decided to copy my trip reports off to a new site....where I will only post trip reports. That

Sunday, September 25, 2011 After my float down the Colorado River in the afternoon, I came home and relaxed for a little while. About an hour before sunset I decided to head out and do a little mountain biking near home. Not too far away is a part of the

Sunday, September 25, 2011 After spending Saturday at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and getting home later than normal again, Amanda and I woke just before sunrise so that we could watch the sun come up over the Grand Mesa from our hot tub. Once it was up,

Saturday, September 24, 2011 After staying up late on Friday night, Amanda and I slept in on Saturday morning. When we finally woke up (between 8am-9am- which is sleeping in for us), we had some breakfast and then headed down to the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the

Friday, September 23, 2011 After work on Friday, Amanda and I headed down to Moab to meet a few friends at the Moab Brewery for a birthday party and some burgers. After dinner we hiked up to the Moab Maiden in the dark so that I could attempt some night

September 17-18, 2011 This past weekend I met up with Jim from the Rock Art group on Flickr since he was spending a week or two in Moab. Of course we went out and visited some rock art sites that he had not been to before, and he even brought

Saturday, August 27, 2011 When I chose my photo for the month of August earlier this week, I realized that I never posted a trip report from our day driving over Imogene Pass. Even though it really wasn't much of a 'trip' I did take a couple of photos on

September 10-11, 2011 The White Rim Trail seems to be the one I just can't complete. I've been wanting to for years, but it just never seems to happen. The first big issue for me is getting a permit to camp along the trail (yes, I know I could probably

Another month gone by and many new photos. Here's my favorite photo of the month for July. Richmond Falls After visiting the Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride we headed over Imogene Pass and stopped at these falls near Richmond Basin along the way. Here here are the runners up... Waving

Over the Labor Day weekend I decided to head down to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park to revisit some rock art and to find some new panels. I explored a lot of the park in my Jeep and on foot. I drove over Elephant Hill a few times

Sunday, August 28, 2011 On Sunday I met up with my friend Jackson and his wife Sarah to float a section of the Gunnison River from the North Fork to Colorado Highway 65 near Delta. It's a pretty easy stretch of the river, which is a good thing since this

Sunday, August 21, 2011 I've been falling behind on my trip reports again, so I need to try and catch up! Here's some photos I took on a local day-trip into McDonald Creek and the Book Cliffs. Of course I was searching for rock art 😉 First up was the

August 8-10, 2011 Last Sunday I headed out to the Front Range area so I could do a little exploring. After getting caught in traffic on I-70 that turned the 4 hour drive into a 7 hour drive, I met up with Amanda and her family at the hotel they

Saturday, August 6, 2011 This morning I set out with my friend Jackson to climb my second 14er (after climbing Handies Peak last year). We got a very early start and drove to the upper trailhead in Yankee Boy Basin. Unfortunately, about halfway up, Jackson started not feeling so well

Here's my favorite photo of the month for July. Cowboy's Secret A very unique petroglyph in a very unique setting in the San Rafael Swell. Here here are the runners up... Out the Window Black Dragon Creature

Saturday, July 30, 2011 On Saturday I met up with my friend Kevin so that we could do some hiking in the San Rafael Swell and hopefully find a few rock art panels. We did find the panels we were looking for, so here's a few photos... Barnes Panel Details

Earlier today I found some info that helped lead me to some rock art located in the Colorado National Monument, so after work I went home and changed before heading out in search of them. Luckily, they were easier to find than I though they would be, but unfortunately the

Saturday, July 23, 2011 I spent Saturday in the Swell visiting some new and old rock art sites...it was pretty hot out and the bugs were out in force during my first hike......but it was still a great day! I'll let the photos do the speaking... Rainbow & Dotted Anthropomorph

Saturday & Sunday, July 16-17, 2011 This past weekend Amanda and I headed down to the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument to visit some ruins and rock art that I have wanted to get to for a while. The weather was pretty nice all weekend, in the upper 80's

Here we have my photo of the month for June. There were a couple of good ones this month, but in the end I just had to go with the photo that I worked the hardest for this year. Solstice Snake I'd been anticipating the Solstice this year so that

Amanda had to work on the Fourth of July Weekend so I was on my own to find something to do. It was getting pretty hot in the desert, so I decided to take a break from searching for rock art and head up into the mountains. There weren't too

Saturday, June 25, 2011 On Saturday I was hoping to spend around half the day with Amanda exploring the area around Rangely, Colorado. We were planning on revisiting a few rock art sites and maybe a couple of new ones, too. Unfortunately, we ended up cutting the trip a bit

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 Summer Solstice Edition I’ve been anticipating the Solstice this year so that I could visit the Solstice Snake petroglyph to watch and photograph the arrowhead of light that appear on the snake's head. For about two minutes on the Summer Solstice a dagger of light shaped

Sunday, June 19, 2011 Sunlight & Shadow | Unexpected Panel This hiking trip in the San Rafael Swell turned out to be a very unique experience for me. I was tagging along with Phillipe on a hike he had planned for his long Southwest trip. I knew what general area

Saturday, June 18, 2011 This Saturday I was going to meet my friend Philippe from France at Goblin Valley in the evening before sunset. That gave me all day to do some exploring on my own along the San Rafael Reef. I started out driving south along the Reef to

Sunday, June 12, 2011 On Sunday morning I slept in just a bit later than on Saturday.....not because I wanted to, but because I was planning on photographing through the doorways of Pueblo Bonito during the early morning sunlight, and the park would not be opening the gates until 7am.....so

Saturday, June 11, 2011 On Saturday morning I got up a little earlier than Amanda and headed out to try and get a photo of Fajada Butte at sunrise (since they don't open the gates to the main park until 7am). When I arrived there were some nice clouds behind

Friday, June 10, 2011 Amanda found out pretty last minute that she was going to have a three day weekend from work and she wanted to go somewhere new. I gave her a couple of suggestions for places I wanted to get to this year that we had not been

Solstice Snake I've been anticipating the Solstice this year so that I could visit the Solstice Snake (aka Solar Snake or Hyper Viper) and watch the arrowhead appear on the snakes head. For about 2 minutes on the solstice a dagger of light shaped like an arrowhead appears on the

I received word from my friend Philippe this weekend that the Robidoux Panel in the Book Cliffs was broken when he visited it at the beginning of his Southwest trip recently, so I just had to go see it for myself. On my way home from Moab this afternoon, I

Sunday, May 29, 2011 Stearns Wash On my way home from the Comb Ridge area I decided to make an unplanned stop and hike up Stearns Wash in search of some petroglyphs. I had read that there were petroglyphs somewhere along Stearns Wash but I had no idea where. I

Late again this month, but I just finished going through all my photos from May. Another tough decision this month, but here's my pick for May. Big Crane Over Memorial Day Weekend I managed to find the Big Crane petroglyph and it was pretty amazing. I really like this photo

Memorial Day Weekend, Sunday, May 29, 2011 After a very windy night, I was up early and on my way south down the Comb Wash Road. I crossed through the Comb on US 163 and drove to the trailhead for Lower Butler Wash. I descended down the old wagon road

Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday, May 28, 2011 Amanda and I have a little tradition of heading down to Comb Ridge and Cedar Mesa for the Memorial Day weekend. In the past she has had no trouble getting the weekend off from work, but unfortunately she was unable to get it

Sunday, May 22, 2011 After leaving Hovenweep National Monument I started heading north towards home again. On the way I took a detour down Utah 211 to try and find some more rock art along the Indian Creek Corridor. I took the road into the Needles District of Canyonlands so