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The Kaibab Plateau: Cape Final to Point Sublime

Fall Colors along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Saturday – Monday, September 28-30, 2024

After spending the preceding week on an amazing rafting trip through the Canyon of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument, our group got off the river in the early afternoon on Friday and I made it home a few hours after that. Then I spent the rest of the evening unloading all my river gear and packing up my car-camping gear into the Jeep so I could leave on Saturday morning to spend a full week along the Arizona Strip and North Rim of the Grand Canyon with my friend Jared. Although we typically spend this first week in October wandering around Southern Utah, every so often we like to change it up and venture a little further south into Arizona. Thankfully we decided to begin our trip with a couple days on the Kaibab Plateau because it happened to be very warm all over the southwest this week and at least it was a little bit cooler up at these higher elevations. Plus, we got really lucky with the timing of our trip and managed to see the peak of the fall colors on display while we were up on the Kaibab Plateau, too!

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Stories on Stone: Rock Art from the Pahranagat Trail

Presidents Day Weekend | Thursday – Monday, February 15-19, 2024

This year for the Presidents Day holiday weekend I decided to take Friday off from work so I could spend four days exploring and searching for rock art along the Pahranagat Trail, which straddles the Mojave Desert and Great Basin Desert in southern Nevada. Just like last year, I invited my friend Jared along and he was up for joining me again. Unfortunately, he was unable to get Friday off from work so we planned to meet up later that night, which meant that I was on my own for Friday. I left from work on Thursday afternoon, headed to St. George where I grabbed a late dinner and then found a spot to camp just over the state line in Arizona. On Friday morning I was up early and on my way into Nevada.

Rim to River: The Grand Canyon & Phantom Ranch

Grand Canyon National Park | Tuesday – Saturday, January 16-20, 2024

After spending a the first part of the week in Petrified Forest National Park we stayed at a hotel in Flagstaff for one night and then drove over to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on Tuesday morning by way of Williams and Tusayan. Since this was my very first time to the South Rim we headed straight to Mather Point for my first view of the canyon from this side. Then we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon visiting all of the overlooks along Desert View Drive as we made our way out to the Desert View Watchtower and then back again.

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The Painted Desert: Land of Light and Shadow

Homolovi State Park & Petrified Forest National Park
Saturday – Monday, January 13-15, 2024

For about a year now, Diane and I have been making pretty solid plans to spend most of the upcoming week in Grand Canyon National Park. Since we would be passing right through the Painted Desert on our way there, we were also looking forward to spending a couple of days in the Petrified Forest along the way. We certainly could never have predicted that after our first visit to Petrified Forest National Park in 2020 we would fall in love with exploring this amazing place and have now returned each year for the past five years. With so many places still left to explore in the park, we are hoping to keep the trend going well into the future!

Rainbow Bridge: Circumnavigation of Navajo Mountain

The Canyons of Navajo Mountain & Rainbow Bridge National Monument
Wednesday – Monday, March 15-20, 2023

This year for our annual spring backpacking trip, Jared, Dave and I were planning to spend an easy four days and three nights hiking down Paria Canyon from the White House Trailhead to Lees Ferry. It’s a trip we have all wanted to do for a long time and were looking forward to, but back in December when I reserved the permit we had no idea what the atmospheric river would have in store for us this winter! A couple of days before our trip was set to begin there was a large flash flood in Buckskin Gulch and the Paria River that unfortunately killed two hikers and resulted in the rescue of about a dozen more. With reports of deep cold water crossings and continued precipitation and cold air temperatures in the forecast, we decided that this was probably not the right time for this hike and started considering different options. Since I try to be prepared, I already had a backup plan to hike around Navajo Mountain to Rainbow Bridge ready to go in case the weather did not cooperate with us on this Paria Canyon hike, so we decided to try that one instead.

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Tag: arizona

The Kaibab Plateau: Cape Final to Point Sublime

Stories on Stone: Rock Art from the Pahranagat Trail

Rim to River: The Grand Canyon & Phantom Ranch

The Painted Desert: Land of Light and Shadow

Rainbow Bridge: Circumnavigation of Navajo Mountain