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Sandstone Sojourn: Ladder Canyon & Milagro Passage

Canyons of the Escalante | Tuesday, October 13, 2026

We woke up on Tuesday morning with high hopes of driving down towards the far end of the Hole-in-the-Rock Road, but then we checked the latest weather forecast and saw that there was yet another full day of rain in store for us, so we made the reluctant decision to stay closer to town for one more day. All this rain was really beginning to put a damper on our trip and I was getting anxious to get back to our regularly scheduled program! The weather for the rest of the week was looking dry, so we were pretty sure that we would be heading out first thing on Wednesday morning. Until then we needed to find another hike for today. We wanted to do something a little longer this time, so we went on another sandstone sojourn- this time from the end of the Old Sheffield Road to the Escalante River following the rim of Spencer Canyon to Ladder Canyon. Then we were thinking about hiking up and through the Milagro Passage, depending on how our legs were feeling by then…

Sandstone Sojourn: Concretion Wash to the Zebra Slot

Canyons of the Escalante | Friday – Saturday, October 9-10, 2026

Aside from a brief visit in November of 2024 so I could drive The V Road before it was supposed to be closed by the BLM, I have been wanting to get back to the Canyons of the Escalante since 2022 when that year’s trip with Jared was cut short after I got sick and headed home early. I finally made plans to go back last October, but then Diane’s brain surgery prevented me from going on our annual Southern Utah Wanderings trip for the first time in 14 years, and even though we tried to squeeze in an abbreviated trip later in the year a few times, we were never able to pull it off. After all of these delays, I suppose you could say I was very anxious to get back this year and had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time. Unfortunately, our timing couldn’t have been worse since we would be arriving at about the same time that the remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel would also be getting to the area which meant we would need to change our plans to work around the excessive rainfall and stay out of narrow canyons to avoid possible flash flooding.

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Howard Fork: Blixt Trail to Oscars Pass

Telluride Trails | Friday – Saturday, September 18-19, 2026

I was originally planning to spend this entire weekend celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Dominguez – Escalante Expedition, but when the weather forecast for Saturday was looking too wet for some of the backcountry roads I would need to drive, I decided at the last minute to delay my journey by a day and took Monday off from work. Surprisingly, the weather forecast was looking drier on Saturday morning in the San Juan Mountains, so I decided to squeeze in another high-country hike this season while I still could and planned to hike up the Blixt Trail from the Howard Fork to Oscars Pass and a little beyond. I left from work on Friday afternoon and made my way over the Dallas Divide and up the San Miguel River to the Ophir Pass Road in the Howard Fork where I found a campsite for the night.

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Ice Lake Basin: Island Lake Loop to Fuller Lake

San Juan Triangle | Saturday, September 12, 2026

I didn’t have anything planned in advance for this weekend since Diane was going to be having her second brain surgery earlier this month and we didn’t know how long we were going to be in Wisconsin. Thankfully, things went a lot better this time than they did last year and we made it back home less than a week after her surgery, so I thought it would be nice to get out for a day hike into the San Juan Mountains on Saturday before the mountain season comes to an end. While I had hiked up into Ice Lake Basin over 14 years ago on my very first solo backpacking trip, I didn’t make it to Island Lake and Fuller Lake on that trip and this area has become so ridiculously popular and busy since then that I thought I might never return, but I decided to take my chances and give it another try, hoping that it wouldn’t be quite as busy after Labor Day.

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West Maroon Creek: Maroon Lake & Crater Lake

Maroon Bells – Snowmass Wilderness | Saturday & Sunday, July 25-26, 2026

I can’t believe that it has finally happened! Just like with the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Maroon Bells Scenic Area was one of those places I thought I would probably never visit because of how popular and busy it can be there- plus there’s also the additional logistics of getting there and being able to park. As I have been working my way through the trails of the Maroon Bells – Snowmass Wilderness these past few years, I figured it was finally time to give this area a shot and hike up the West Maroon Creek drainage since I had already booked permits at all of the other areas in the Wilderness with designated campsites except for at Crater Lake. Back in February I was able to secure a camping permit at Crater Lake along with an overnight parking reservation, so this trip was actually going to happen this year! Although I initially hoped that Diane would be able to go with me, she was unavailable this weekend, so I invited Jackson and his wife Amy who both wanted to come along.

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Sandstone Sojourn: Ladder Canyon & Milagro Passage

Sandstone Sojourn: Concretion Wash to the Zebra Slot

Howard Fork: Blixt Trail to Oscars Pass

Ice Lake Basin: Island Lake Loop to Fuller Lake

West Maroon Creek: Maroon Lake & Crater Lake