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Saddlehorn Trails at the Colorado National Monument

Heart of the World | Wednesday, January 1, 2025

This year for New Year’s Day I actually decided to go in to work instead of heading out to the local backcountry for just a day trip in the middle of the week since I have a busy spring coming up and need to conserve some of my PTO for then. But after spending a day alone in the office and getting a lot done I still wanted to get out for my first hike of 2025, so after leaving work I headed up into the Colorado National Monument to start working on my Heart of the World project by hiking some of the shorter trails located around Saddlehorn and the Visitor Center. Once I arrived at the parking lot for the Visitor Center I followed the Canyon Rim Trail to the Book Cliffs Shelter and then continued on the Window Rock Trail to the campground. I then made a short detour to the top of Saddlehorn before returning to the trailhead and hiking the Alcove Nature Trail. It was a nice way to spend a couple hours after work and get in my first hike of the year!

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Oak Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park

Monday, October 21, 2024

After spending a great day on Chapin Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park last year, I kept an eye on all of the backcountry tours offered this summer to see if the park would have anything new we hadn’t seen yet. I was about to give up hope when late in the season they started offering a tour to Oak Tree House that was only available from Friday through Monday for a few weeks at the very end of the season. The only date we were available to go was going to be on the very last tour of the season which happened to line up perfectly with our drive home from a weekend visiting the ruins and rock art at Wupatki National Monument and Mystery Valley in northern Arizona. Luckily, I was able to secure two tickets for this tour and we were able to spend a couple hours on Monday morning visiting these interesting ruins in Fewkes Canyon. It was certainly a great place to finish up our three-day weekend in the Four Corners region!

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Canyon of Lodore: The Green River in Dinosaurland

Floating Across Dinosaur National Monument: Gates of Lodore to Split Mountain
Monday – Friday, September 23-27, 2024 | High CFS: 1,800 – Low CFS: 911

After finally getting the opportunity to float through Yampa Canyon at very high water last spring in Dinosaur National Monument, Jackson and I turned our attention to the Canyon of Lodore this year as we continue to work our way through more sections of the Green and Colorado Rivers on the Colorado Plateau. Although I initially had some issues getting us a permit earlier in the year, Jackson managed to come through and secured us a Low-Use Season permit for late September, which was the time of the year we had hoped to take on this trip down the Green River. While many parties seem to raft this stretch of the river in four days, we scheduled a five-day trip so we could take our time and really enjoy getting to know the canyon. After inviting our usual river friends along, we ended up with most of the same people who were with us on the Yampa River last year with just a few additions and subtractions, which would be perfect since we had such a great time together on that trip.

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The Zirkel Circle in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness

Friday – Saturday, September 20-21, 2024

This weekend I headed up into the Mount Zirkel Wilderness of the Park Range for what will most likely be my last trip into the mountains of the season. Since I’m leaving for a week-long river trip early on Monday morning and need to finish prepping and packing for that, I was hoping to stay closer to home on Saturday by heading up into either the San Juan Mountains or The Flat Tops, but the weather forecast was not looking good for any of the ranges nearby this weekend, so I had to start looking for alternate options. After looking at the forecasts for other areas throughout Colorado and Utah, the only place that looked like it might have decent weather on Saturday was the Park Range, so I decided to drive a little further east so I could hike the Zirkel Circle, which has been on my to-do list for a long time anyways. I left from work on Friday afternoon, grabbed a quick dinner in Rifle and then headed north where I started following the Yampa River and Elk River into the heart of the Park Range. I found a campsite on the ridge above the South Fork of the Elk River shortly before sunset and then went for a short walk until dusk.

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Early Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa 2024

After Work Adventures | Thursday, September 19, 2024

I’ve got a very busy couple of weeks coming up with a Canyon of Lodore river trip schedule for next week and right afterwards I will be leaving to spend a week along the Arizona Strip at the beginning of October, so I’m not really going to have any time to chase fall colors in Colorado this year. Even though I know it’s too early for peak fall colors, I thought it would be a good idea to head up onto the Grand Mesa after work this afternoon to see how the colors were coming along since it’s going to be my only chance this season. As I suspected, it was still mostly green out, but there were some scattered patches of nice colors to be found, so it’s wasn’t a total waste of my time. Here are a few photos from my short trip up onto the Grand Mesa this evening.

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Tag: colorado

Saddlehorn Trails at the Colorado National Monument

Oak Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park

Canyon of Lodore: The Green River in Dinosaurland

The Zirkel Circle in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness

Early Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa 2024