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Tag: battlement mesa

Rifle ArchRifle Arch

Rifle Arch

Saturday, December 3, 2016

To be honest, our goal for the day was not really to hike to Rifle Arch. Recently, I had learned about a pizza place in New Castle called Hogback Pizza that was supposed to have a good Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza. Since I left the Chicago area I have not been able to find a good stuffed pizza in Colorado and I wanted to see just how good theirs really was. (It turned out to be the best stuffed pizza I have found outside of the Chicago area.) However, I did not want to drive to New Castle just to try some pizza, so I figured we’d find a short hike we could do on our way there and we settled on hiking to Rifle Arch. It was a short 3 mile round-trip hike to the arch but it was much colder outside than we expected it to be and there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. Even though the sky was overcast and I wasn’t able to get any decent photos, it still was a large and impressive arch. I will definitely have to return another day with better photographic conditions.

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Fallen Rock Fall ColorsFallen Rock Fall Colors

Fallen Rock Fall Colors

Monday, November 2, 2015

After returning home from Denver this afternoon, I decided to drive up to the Colorado National Monument about an hour before sunset to see if the cottonwoods in upper Ute Canyon had changed colors yet. I had checked on them a few times over the past two weeks and found them to be mostly green, but this time many of them had changed to a nice golden yellow. After taking a quick hike over to Suction Point, I watched the sun set from near the Fallen Rock Overlook and took a few photos after the sun was down. On my way back down from the overlook I also stopped for a quick photo over Red Canyon towards the city lights of Grand Junction in the distance.

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Crag Crest

Crag Crest

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

After work on Wednesday, Diane and I drove up onto the Grand Mesa for an evening hike on the Crag Crest Trail. We started from the West Trailhead and hiked up to the highest point on the Crag Crest ridge (11,189), which is also the second highest point in Mesa County (after Leon Peak) and about 4 miles from the trailhead. It had rained earlier in the afternoon and much of the trail was wet and muddy, plus the mosquitoes were out in force when we started.

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