Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: blanding

Step Canyon & Pine Canyon LoopStep Canyon & Pine Canyon Loop

Step Canyon & Pine Canyon Loop

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

On Wednesday morning Jared and I woke up with the sun, broke down camp and then hopped into my Jeep so we could drive a little further down the Mormon Trail to begin our hike. Today we would be hiking a loop starting in Step Canyon and following it down to the confluence with Pine Canyon which we then planned to hike up to complete the loop. Hiking down through Step Canyon was pretty easy with only a few obstacles that we had to get around, but as soon as we reached Pine Canyon we found that much of the canyon bottom was either full of water or slick mud and in order to get around those sections we had to deal with bushwhacking through thick vegetation. I’m sure if the canyon were dry it would have been an easy hike, but it was not too much fun today.

CONTINUE READINGStep Canyon & Pine Canyon Loop
10 Comments
North Fork of Mule CanyonNorth Fork of Mule Canyon

North Fork of Mule Canyon

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

I woke up on Tuesday morning to the coldest temperature on the trip so far (my Jeep said it was 34 degrees out). I woke up shortly before sunrise and decided to head down to Blanding for breakfast. I was planning on taking things pretty easy today and having more of a rest day, so I was in no hurry to get anywhere. While I was in town picking up some supplies I ran into my friend Rick, whom I hadn’t seen in a while and it was nice to catch up with him for a few minutes. When I was done in town I drove back up onto Cedar Mesa for an easy day hike in the North Fork of Mule Canyon. The South Fork of Mule Canyon is a pretty popular hike that I’ve done a few times before, but I had never been up into the North Fork. Even though the South Fork is usually pretty busy, I never hear of many people going to the North Fork so I had hoped it wouldn’t be near as busy. It turns out that it wasn’t, and I only ran into one small group of people during the hike. It was a leisurely hike with a few nice ruins to explore along the way.

CONTINUE READINGNorth Fork of Mule Canyon
Leave a Comment
Sand Canyon to Cedar MesaSand Canyon to Cedar Mesa

Sand Canyon to Cedar Mesa

Monday, October 3, 2016

Even though the weather forecast had predicted a 100% chance of rain for my current location overnight, there were only a few sprinkles that didn’t even manage to get anything wet. I didn’t have any plans for photographing the sunrise this morning, so I woke up when it started to get light out and headed into Cortez for a quick breakfast on my way to the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. I have long wanted to hike up Sand Canyon to checkout the ruins there and figured it was finally time to do so before I continued my journey into Utah.

CONTINUE READINGSand Canyon to Cedar Mesa
Leave a Comment
Owl & Fish Creek CanyonsOwl & Fish Creek Canyons

Owl & Fish Creek Canyons

Friday – Sunday, April 29 – May 1, 2016

This weekend Diane and I had taken Friday off work so we could head down to Cedar Mesa on a three-day backpacking trip into Fish Creek Canyon and Owl Creek Canyon. We had originally planned on driving down Thursday evening after work, but with rainy weather in the forecast we decided to stay home Thursday night and left very early on Friday morning. We passed through Moab just in time to stop for breakfast at the Moab Diner and then continued on to the Kane Gulch Ranger Station to pick up our permits. After watching the video and grabbing our permits we finished the short drive to the trailhead and got ready to start the hike.

CONTINUE READINGOwl & Fish Creek Canyons
1 Comment
Thanksgiving Weekend with The AncientsThanksgiving Weekend with The Ancients

Thanksgiving Weekend with The Ancients

Friday – Sunday, November 27-29, 2015

This year Diane and I spent Black Friday and rest of the Thanksgiving Weekend hiking and searching for ancient ruins and rock art in southeast Utah. Instead of camping at Natural Bridges National Monument like we did last year, this time we based out of a hotel in Blanding. I think it was a good decision since temperatures were a bit colder than I would have preferred, although we were lucky enough not to get any snow over the weekend like they did back home in Grand Junction. We ended up spending time in Montezuma Canyon, Cedar Mesa and along Comb Ridge throughout the weekend. We got to explore new areas and find a few new sites, plus we also revisited some old ones. It was a nice holiday weekend.

CONTINUE READINGThanksgiving Weekend with The Ancients
5 Comments