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The Needles: Wandering a Wilderness of Stone

Canyonlands National Park | Friday – Sunday, March 6-8, 2026

Since I’ve already spent some time in both the Island in the Sky and The Maze districts of Canyonlands National Park this year, I figured this weekend would be the perfect opportunity for me to get back into The Needles so I could knock out all three districts by early March. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been an entire year since I was last in The Needles when Diane and I went backpacking into Chesler Park last March, so I was itching to get back! This time I didn’t really have any set destinations in mind when I left from work on Friday afternoon, I just knew that I wanted to wander off trail across some sandstone benches and through some canyons to see what I could find along the way. I was wanting to make it to the park before sunset since there had been winter storms across the Colorado Plateau all day and I was hoping to catch the storm clearing out at sunset.

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Standing Up Country: Chimney Rock & The Maze

Lost in The Maze IV | Thursday – Sunday, February 26 – March 1, 2026

After taking Jackson on his first trip into The Maze about two years ago he told me that he was interested in hiking to the Harvest Scene at some point and we started thinking about plans for a future trip into the area. Although I have hiked to the Harvest Scene quite a few times before, I was interested in revisiting the loop from Chimney Rock again since that was my very first hike in The Maze and I didn’t remember it very well- plus, I wanted to hike it in the opposite direction so we would be on the Petes Mesa Route in the early morning. Last year after Jackson bought a new 4Runner Trailhunter we tentatively started making plans to drive out to Chimney Rock in late February so he could see what his new vehicle could do. At the time we initially started planning the trip I still had my Jeep and figured we could just head out there together over a long weekend since I have driven that road many times before, but then I ended up trading in my Rubicon for a 4Runner and figured that this would now be a good opportunity to see how my new vehicle would handle the road out to the Land of Standing Rocks, too.

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Roaming The Reef: Ernie Point to Eardley Canyon

Canyons of the San Rafael Reef IV | Saturday & Sunday, January 24-25, 2026

While I was initially just planning on just returning to the landscape surrounding Moab again this weekend like I typically do at this time of the year, as I was watching the winter storm unfold on Friday afternoon I saw that Moab was getting some rain and snow while the weather seemed to be completely missing the area around the San Rafael Reef, so I changed gears and decided to head over that way early on Saturday morning instead. Since I was looking to get in some decent elevation gain this weekend, I thought I might try hiking up to the Ernie Benchmark which is one of the highest points along the top of the San Rafael Reef. The drive to Green River early on Saturday morning was a bit slow with plenty of fog, snow and ice- but shortly after passing through Crescent Junction the snow and fog disappeared and the roads were dry for the remainder of the way. After topping off my gas tank in Green River I continued on to the base of the San Rafael Reef near the mouth of Ernie Canyon and prepared to start the hike. I had planned to start hiking from near the old drilling derrick, but apparently that road has now been closed since I was here last January and I would now need to hike a little further than I was expecting.

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From the Colorado River to the Gold Bar Rim

Moab Meanderings | Saturday & Sunday, January 10-11, 2026

This weekend I returned to the sandstone landscape surrounding Moab so I could explore some of the area between the Colorado River and the Gold Bar Rim centered around Culvert Canyon, which is also known as Cameltoe Canyon. I wanted to get in some decent elevation gain during my hike on Saturday since I am hopefully going to be hiking into a very deep canyon again in just a couple of weeks, so I thought it might be interesting to hike from the Colorado River all the way to the top of the Gold Bar Rim by following the Jeep Arch Trail and then some other rugged 4X4 routes found in the vicinity. I left home bright and early on Saturday morning and made my way over to the Culvert Canyon Trailhead to start the hike!

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Knocking Around Kane Springs Canyon

Moab Meanderings in the Fog | Saturday & Sunday, January 3-4, 2026

For the first weekend in 2026 I returned to Moab so I could spend a little time hiking and exploring around Kane Springs Canyon. Of course, similarly to last weekend I was stuck with overcast conditions again, except this time I was mostly in or under a layer of low clouds and fog. After leaving home early on Saturday morning it was a slower than usual drive to Moab since I had to drive through a thick layer of fog pretty much the entire way with the temperatures hovering around freezing. It was still foggy out when I reached the mouth of Kane Spring Canyon, so instead of going on my first hike right away I decided to continue up the canyon to Hurrah Pass to see if I could get above the fog for some photos at sunrise. This turned out to be a really good choice since I was able to get out of the fog for a little bit, until it finally enveloped the pass. Then I returned to the Amasa Back Trailhead and started hiking with hopes that the fog would burn off soon.

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Tag: 4runner

The Needles: Wandering a Wilderness of Stone

Standing Up Country: Chimney Rock & The Maze

Roaming The Reef: Ernie Point to Eardley Canyon

From the Colorado River to the Gold Bar Rim

Knocking Around Kane Springs Canyon