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Moab Meanderings: Moab Area Rock Art XLVIIMoab Meanderings: Moab Area Rock Art XLVII

Moab Meanderings: Moab Area Rock Art XLVII

Saturday – Sunday, December 28-29, 2024

For the final weekend of 2024 I returned to the sandstone landscape surrounding Moab and met up with a friend so we could spend another weekend exploring, hiking, camping and searching for some petroglyphs that I have been trying to find for a while, and we ended up having a lot of luck this time! We were also treated to the sight of fog filling up some of the valleys on both mornings which made for some photogenic conditions, even if it did slow down my drive to Moab quite significantly on Saturday morning. I’ll start off this Trip Report with a few photos from the sunrise I watched at Arches National Park on Sunday morning since it was a great way to close out the year. I hope you all have a great 2025!

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La Sal Mountains: Warner Lake to Gold KnobLa Sal Mountains: Warner Lake to Gold Knob

La Sal Mountains: Warner Lake to Gold Knob

Juneteenth | Tuesday – Wednesday, June 18-19, 2024

Surprisingly, it’s been almost three years since my last visit to the La Sal Mountains near Moab and I’ve definitely been overdue for a return since I still have a couple of peaks left in the range to hike. Since I had Wednesday off for Juneteenth, I left from work on Tuesday afternoon and headed up to the Warner Lake Campground so I could start getting my lungs and legs ready for the mountain hiking season with an easier hike up to the summit of Gold Knob in the morning. After arriving at the campground I went for a short loop hike nearby and then returned to watch the sunset from Warner Lake before getting to bed early.

CONTINUE READINGLa Sal Mountains: Warner Lake to Gold Knob
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Beyond The Swell: Last Chance to the South DesertBeyond The Swell: Last Chance to the South Desert

Beyond The Swell: Last Chance to the South Desert

Friday – Sunday, April 12-14, 2024

A few months ago I finally did something that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time when I signed up for a Swiftwater Rescue Training class that would be taking place on Monday and Tuesday along the Green River near Swaseys Beach at the mouth of Gray Canyon. Since I needed to be in Green River on Sunday night for the class, I figured this would be a good weekend to spend some quality time wandering around the fringes at the southwestern edge of the San Rafael Swell and into the adjacent Cathedral Valley District of Capitol Reef National Park. It feels like it’s been quite a while since I’ve spent much time out in this desolate area and I was looking forward to returning since there are plenty of new places I’ve wanted to explore with my Jeep and on foot, plus a few others that I’ve wanted to return to.

CONTINUE READINGBeyond The Swell: Last Chance to the South Desert
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Trails of the Richardson AmphitheaterTrails of the Richardson Amphitheater

Trails of the Richardson Amphitheater

Castleton Tower to Professor Valley | Sunday, March 17, 2024

I was originally planning to spend this weekend south of Green River in the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness, but apparently the weather had other plans for me. While I was at work on Friday I kept a close eye on the forecast and hoped that there might be a change, but by the time I was ready to leave the forecast was still calling for a very wet Saturday across the Colorado Plateau, so I cancelled those plans and headed home instead, hoping that I would be able to get out hiking on Sunday, at the very least. So when Sunday rolled around I left home early headed over to the Richardson Amphitheater to hike a couple of trails since I didn’t feel like driving too far from home. It turned out to be a good decision since there were low-hanging clouds surrounding the valley when I arrived shortly before sunrise. I made my way to the western end of the amphitheater to hike the Sylvester Trail at sunrise and enjoyed taking photos along the way while the spires, buttes and mesas played hide-and-seek in the clouds.

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Moab Meanderings: Sand Flats Recreation AreaMoab Meanderings: Sand Flats Recreation Area

Moab Meanderings: Sand Flats Recreation Area

Saturday & Sunday, December 16-17, 2023

Since the winter season has arrived in Moab, I decided to return to the Sand Flats Recreation Area this weekend so I could finish hiking the popular Slickrock Bike Trail just outside of town. After watching one of the most amazing sunsets I’ve seen from the Needles Overlook in early 2020, I had hiked about half of the Slickrock Trail’s eastern side but I wasn’t able to complete the full loop that day because there was just too much snow on the steep slopes of the undulating trail that made it dangerous and hard to follow. I figured this would also be a good opportunity to just spend the entire weekend within Sand Flats so I could continue hiking some of the trails in the area that I had not been on before and spend the night in one of the camp loops. It sounded like a good enough plan to me, so I left home early on Saturday morning and made my way over to Moab.

CONTINUE READINGMoab Meanderings: Sand Flats Recreation Area
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