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Tag: billings canyon

Third Flats Road & Art Cook’s View

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Just like last week, I headed over to the Third Flats area after work this afternoon so I could hike a new trail to a highpoint on Horse Mesa, and also just like last week, I ended up changing those plans because of threatening storms in the area. After leaving work and driving up Little Park Road into the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area, I drove down the Third Flats Road all the way to the Gunnison River near the mouth of Billings Canyon and was hoping to hike up to the top of Horse Point from there. However, there were rainstorms in the area and the final section of the road down to the Gunnison River was cut through clay and I didn’t want to chance getting stuck down there if it rained, so I drove back up the road a little ways and hiked the Art Cook’s View Trail instead. I’ll have to come back for Horse Point another time.

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Third Flats: Saddle Up & Pony Tail to Horse Mesa

After Work Adventures | Tuesday & Wednesday, May 14 & 15, 2024

On Tuesday afternoon I left work with the intention of hiking a pair of trails in the Third Flats area to the highpoint of Horse Mesa. Although there were storms in the area, it seemed like they were going to miss the Grand Valley so I didn’t worry too much about them at the time. I drove up Little Park Road into the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area and then followed the Billings Canyon Road to the start of the Saddle Up Trail and started hiking. However, as soon as I made it a short distance up the trail the storm I wasn’t initially worried about moved into the area with strong gusts of wind and rain, so after looking at the weather radar map again I decided it would be best to turn around and come back the following day. Normally, a little rain wouldn’t scare me off from a hike, but I had driven across a lot of clay areas on the road to reach the trailhead and was a little worried about how slick those sections could get if they got wet.

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Third Flats: Cedar Point Road to Haystack 3 Point

After Work Adventures | Monday, April 1, 2024

When I left work this afternoon, I headed up into the Third Flats section of the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area so I could get in a short hike to a local highpoint before going home. Since I have pretty much completed hiking all of the Kokopelli Trails near Loma now, I figured this area would be a good place to focus my attention to for my next local trails project, especially since it’s close to town and I have not been on any of the trails in this area before, aside from the one time I drove up the Billings Canyon Jeep Trail back in 2006. I decided to start out by hiking up the Cedar Point Road to Haystack 3 Point while also hiking parts of the Quad Rocker, Easy Rider and Canyon View Trails along the way. There was a lot of stormy weather around the Grand Valley this afternoon which made for some dynamic and dramatic conditions along the way. Here are a couple photos from my short afternoon hike.

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The Gunnison River: Whitewater to Redlands Dam

Saturday, June 11, 2022 | Average CFS: 2,040

After spending much of the last two weeks out and about, it was time for me to stay closer to home for a weekend before heading up into the mountains to begin the summer season. I thought another local river trip was in order, so Jackson and I planned to float a new section of the Gunnison River from Whitewater to the Redlands Dam in Grand Junction. There’s not too much information out there about this stretch of the river, so we were looking forward to checking it out!

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Grand Junction Exploring

IntrepidXpedition 2007 | Day 7 & 8
Wednesday & Thursday, July 25-26, 2007

Most of my day on Wednesday was spent at the UFWDA Annual Convention. However when we finished for the day, the only thing on my mind was heading out and exploring the area just outside of town. Right near the hotel that the convention was held at is an OHV area at the base of the Book Cliffs called The Grand Junction Desert. I started out by following 27.25 Road north. Eventually the pavement turned to gravel and then to a bumpier trail.

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