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Tag: big canyon

Into the Ponderosa Gorge of the Dolores RiverInto the Ponderosa Gorge of the Dolores River

Into the Ponderosa Gorge of the Dolores River

Dolores Canyon: Bradfield Bridge to Mountain Sheep Point
Friday & Saturday, May 26-27, 2023 | Average CFS: 2,400

After spending the last couple of weekends on the river, Jackson and I wanted to keep the streak going with three different day trips planned over this extended Memorial Day weekend. For our first destination on Saturday we were going to float a section of the Dolores River below the McPhee Reservoir from Bradfield Bridge to Mountain Sheep Point that is known as the Ponderosa Gorge. This nineteen-mile section of the Dolores River is known for it’s quick pace, spectacular campsites, soaring cliffs of red sandstone and of course the tall stands of ponderosa pines. Diane and I had visited the Dolores Canyon Overlook on our way to Mesa Verde last year which looks down into this portion of the Dolores Canyon, so I was really looking forward to seeing the canyon from the river this time!

CONTINUE READINGInto the Ponderosa Gorge of the Dolores River
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A Morning in the Northern Snake RangeA Morning in the Northern Snake Range

A Morning in the Northern Snake Range

Saturday & Sunday, July 16-17, 2022

After hiking Telescope Peak and leaving Death Valley National Park earlier in the day, I stopped for a quick dinner in Tonopah and then continued driving east across the Great Basin of Nevada as I made my way back home. I made another quick stop for fuel and food in Ely and then continued on into the northern portion of Snake Range to find a place to spend the night at a higher elevation where it would be cooler out. After leaving the paved highway and driving across the bottom of Spring Valley, I followed the steep switchbacks of a narrow dirt road into the Humboldt National Forest in the dark and then stopped at the first decent campsite I found along the way. It was about 9:30pm when I finally stopped for the night and I was pretty tired since it had been a long day, so I quickly got into my sleeping bag and went to bed.

CONTINUE READINGA Morning in the Northern Snake Range
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Bears Ears to Hovenweep and Canyons of the AncientsBears Ears to Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients

Bears Ears to Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients

Alternate Plans: Back on the Four Corners Circuit | Cedar Mesa Chronicles: Chapter 6
Friday & Saturday, May 20-21, 2022

This upcoming week Diane was going to be out of school and was looking forward to getting away for her Spring Break, so for the past few months I had been planning a week-long trip for us to visit the Jemez Mountains and Bandelier National Monument near Santa Fe. Unfortunately, the large Cerro Pelado Wildfire ended up closing both Bandelier National Monument and the Santa Fe National Forest before our trip, so I was forced to come up with Alternate Plans for the week and decided to return to the Four Corners area. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule a trip to the Jemez Mountains another time in the future since we were both looking forward to it!

CONTINUE READINGBears Ears to Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients
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Blue Mountain Shadows: Beef Basin to Cedar MesaBlue Mountain Shadows: Beef Basin to Cedar Mesa

Blue Mountain Shadows: Beef Basin to Cedar Mesa

Southern Utah Wanderings | Friday – Friday, October 1-8, 2021

This year for our annual week-long trek into Southern Utah, Jared and I started out in the Beef Basin area and then we explored our way over to Cedar Mesa. It has been a while since either of us had spent much time around Beef Basin and I was also really hoping that we would be able to spend some quality time around the Dark Canyon Plateau and Elk Ridge areas along the way. The trip started out great and we found plenty of new rock art and ruin sites, but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us on the second half of this trip and we had to change our plans multiple times because of storms and slick muddy roads. At one point we even stopped to help winch a truck back onto the road that was sliding off. One of the unexpected benefits of the poor weather was that it chased us closer to the Abajo Mountains than we were originally planning to go, and they were in peak falls colors at the time! At the end of the week we found out that President Biden was restoring the original boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument, which was fitting since we were sitting in camp within the newly restored boundary. I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty details of this trip, so please enjoy plenty of photos from our journey below.

CONTINUE READINGBlue Mountain Shadows: Beef Basin to Cedar Mesa
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Thanksgiving Under the Bears EarsThanksgiving Under the Bears Ears

Thanksgiving Under the Bears Ears

Thanksgiving Weekend | Thursday – Sunday, November 22-25, 2018

This year Diane and I kept our annual tradition of spending the long Thanksgiving weekend searching for ruins and rock art on Cedar Mesa alive. (Not counting that one year we went to New Mexico instead, of course.) Although the mountains of Colorado got a lot of much-needed snow over the holiday weekend, the precipitation mostly missed the Four Corners region and we had very pleasant hiking weather just about every day. The higher elevations of Cedar Mesa and Elk Ridge did receive a little snow on Thursday evening, but it had pretty much all melted off by Friday afternoon. As usual, we found some new sites and revisited some of our favorites, too. It wasn’t planned, but we ended up visiting three different kivas that were all pretty well-preserved and had a great weekend exploring one of my favorite areas in the southwest! Check out all the photos from our Thanksgiving adventure below!

CONTINUE READINGThanksgiving Under the Bears Ears
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