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Tag: book cliffs

Point 5750 (Eagle’s Wing)

Sunday, March 26, 2017

After spending Saturday hiking in the backcountry of Arches National Park we spent most of Sunday at home getting stuff done around the house and resting after a couple of busy weeks. Throughout the day I noticed that the clouds in the sky were looking pretty nice so we decided to go out for a short evening hike for sunset. I figured we could visit Point 5750 which is a high point in Mesa County located just outside of the Colorado National Monument that I have wanted to visit for a while. It’s easy to access this high point since it’s just a short distance off of the Eagle’s Wing Trail, one of the many Tabeguache (Lunch Loop) trails in the area.

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Ute Canyon to White Rocks

Colorado National Monument Traverse IV
Saturday, February 25, 2017

This year I decided to plan our annual Colorado National Monument Traverse hike a little earlier than usual since our upcoming wedding and honeymoon are going to be taking over much of the month of March, and I wasn’t sure if we’d have time to fit it into our busy schedule later this spring. I also wanted to keep the hike a little shorter than usual since it would only be a day hike and we would be going to a concert in the evening.

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Dinosaur Stomping Ground

Sunday, January 15, 2017

I guess I’m not having much luck in Utah this year since both day trips I’ve been on so far have been shrouded in fog. When I checked the weather forecast for this weekend, it seemed that Sunday was going to be the nicer of two days, so I planned to stay home on Saturday and then go hiking on Sunday. It actually turned out that Saturday was the better of the two days since Sunday was foggy and cooler with some light rain and snow. It was pretty much opposite of what was predicted. We left home later than usual on Sunday morning since the fog and chance of rain was supposed to dissipate by 11:00am. However, the fog and low clouds were still around at the end of our hike later in the afternoon.

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San Rafael Desert

Monday, January 2, 2017

Since I stayed close to home the past two days, I decided that wanted to venture over the state line into Utah today, but I still didn’t want to travel too far. It’s a pretty short and easy drive from Grand Junction to Green River, so I thought I’d head south from there on the Green River Road to revisit some sites I haven’t been to in many years and also try to stop at a few new ones. I contacted Marty on Saturday evening to see if he was free, and then we made plans to meet in Green River at 7:30 this morning. As I was getting close to Green River on I-70 I could see that the Gunnison Valley was filled with a thick fog and I thought that this might make things interesting for us. After meeting up with Marty and topping off my fuel tank we headed south into the fog on the Green River Road.

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Circling The Island

New Year’s Day | Sunday, January 1, 2017
Wedding Canyon Loop 2017

On New Year’s Day Diane and I were up before sunrise to go on our first hike of 2017 in the Colorado National Monument. As usual, we returned to the Wedding Canyon Loop which makes a complete loop around The Island. We went to bed early on New Year’s Eve so we would have no problems getting up for the hike, although we were awoken by fireworks at midnight, and made it to the Monument Canyon Trailhead just before sunrise. We typically hike this loop in a counter-clockwise direction because I prefer to climb the steeper trail in Wedding Canyon and then descend the more gradual trail in Monument Canyon. There was plenty of snow and ice on the trail in Wedding Canyon, but we never had to put on our microspikes this time. As we ascended Wedding Canyon we were treated to a very nice sunrise, but as soon as we reached Independence Monument at the middle of the loop more clouds moved in and blocked the sun for the remainder of the hike back down. We completed the five mile loop in just over two hours and were off the trail before the ground could thaw out and turn into mud.

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