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Walnut Canyon National Monument & Keyhole Sink

An Easy Day Around Flagstaff | Thursday, April 10, 2025

After spending the last five days on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and then hiking out via the Bright Angel Trail yesterday, it was time for a rest day out of the record heat that had arrived in the southwest. When I first booked this river trip I had originally planned to drive home today so we could get back to work on Friday, but earlier this year I managed to get us signed up for another Crack-In-Rock Pueblo hike at Wupatki National Monument on Saturday, so we needed to stick around Flagstaff for a couple more days instead. Although we mainly wanted to rest and relax today, we had a few hours in the afternoon while we were between check-out and check-in times at different hotels, so we headed out on a few easy local hikes to pass the time.

The Grand Canyon: Lees Ferry to the Bright Angel Trail

Saturday – Wednesday, April 5-9, 2025 | Low CFS: 9,500 – High CFS: 12,000

While rafting through the Grand Canyon has long been a dream of mine and an eventual necessity to complete my goal of floating all the sections of the Colorado River, Green River and their major tributaries across the Colorado Plateau, I figured that a private trip through the canyon is probably unlikely for me anytime soon and knew I would have to go on a commercial trip if I wanted to experience the canyon from the river. Last summer I went on my first commercial rafting trip through Cataract Canyon as a trial run to see how I would be able to handle a trip like this since it was shorter and closer to home. I ended up having a great time on that trip so I immediately booked a trip into the Grand Canyon for Diane and myself.

Paria Canyon: White House to Lees Ferry

Canyons of the Paria | Tuesday – Sunday, March 18-23, 2025

Backpacking along the Paria River through the tight narrows and massive gorge of the lower Paria Canyon across the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument has been on my to-do list for well over a decade now, and even though I’ve tried to schedule this hike a number of times in the past it seems that something has always come up causing a change of plans- most notably on our last attempt about two years ago when cold temperatures, flash flooding and multiple deaths in the canyon made us change our minds about the hike at the very last minute. This year I wanted to take another gamble on the weather in middle-to-late March and grabbed a permit back on December 1st while Diane and I were driving home from a long weekend in the Bears Ears for Thanksgiving and hoped that I would be able to use it this time.

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Tapamveni: Rock Art of the Petrified Forest & Beyond

Presidents Day Weekend | Thursday – Monday, February 13-17, 2025

This year for the extended Presidents Day weekend I took an extra day off from work so I could spend four days in and around Petrified Forest National Park hiking and searching for petroglyphs. As I was driving across the Navajo Nation through a storm on Thursday evening I was a little bit worried that the rain would muddy up the roads I needed to drive and alter my plans, but I lucked out and all the roads were somehow completely dry during the remainder of the weekend. The only weather I would only have to deal with was a constant and brutal wind on Friday that made holding my binoculars and camera steady a real challenge at times. Aside from hiking to new places and finding many new petroglyphs along the way, I also revisited a couple of sites that I wanted to search more thoroughly. These are some photos from my holiday weekend in the Palavayu.

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Mystery Valley at the Monument Valley Tribal Park

Sunday, October 20, 2024

After spending Saturday at Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monuments, we stayed at a hotel in Kayenta for the night and then got up early on Sunday so we could spend the morning going on a private tour of Mystery Valley near Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation, which I had arranged a few weeks prior with Navajo Spirit Tours. It’s been over a decade since I last visited Monument Valley (aside from just driving through on the highway) and I’ve long wanted to see the ruins and rock art of Mystery Valley, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to finally go on a tour while we were in the area. We arrived at the Navajo Welcome Center shortly before 8:00am to meet up with our guide and then we hopped into his vehicle and took off to spend a few hours learning about the secrets of Mystery Valley!

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Walnut Canyon National Monument & Keyhole Sink

The Grand Canyon: Lees Ferry to the Bright Angel Trail

Paria Canyon: White House to Lees Ferry

Tapamveni: Rock Art of the Petrified Forest & Beyond

Mystery Valley at the Monument Valley Tribal Park