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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.

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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Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Hard to believe, but I recently realized that it’s been five years since I last headed up onto the Grand Mesa to check out the Fall Colors, which was something I used to do almost every year at the end of September. With that in mind, even though I knew the autumn colors seemed to be running a bit behind this year, I decided to head up onto the Grand Mesa after work today for a short evening visit since it would be my only opportunity this week. Unfortunately, there was also a prescribed burn happening on the Uncompahgre Plateau near Gateway today, so there was a lot of smoke in the air and conditions weren’t ideal for photography, but here are a few of the photos I took this evening.

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Million Dollar Highway Fall Colors

Fall Colors 2022 | Friday – Saturday, September 30 – October 1, 2022

Normally, I would have left from work on Friday afternoon and headed west into Utah to spend the entire week exploring new canyons of the Colorado Plateau, but this year there was a concert on Sunday evening that delayed the start of my trip by a couple days, so I thought I would try to get up into the high country near Silverton one last time until next summer. Unfortunately, the weather would have other plans for me this weekend and I would end up just taking some photos of the fall colors along the Million Dollar Highway on Saturday morning instead.

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Little Giant Basin Peaks

Fall Colors 2020 | King Solomon Mountain & Little Giant Peak
Friday & Saturday, September 25-26, 2020

After spending a few days last week on a relaxing river trip through Meander Canyon in Canyonlands National Park, it was time for me to squeeze in one last visit to the mountains before I start heading back into the desert until next summer. Earlier this year I had set a personal goal to try to hike at least 30 summits this summer and I was at 29 as of Friday, so I needed to get in at least one more peak to meet that goal. Since I also needed to start preparing for another long trip starting next weekend, I wanted to stay closer to home and decided to try to climb a pair of peaks from Little Giant Basin near Silverton on Saturday morning. As usual, I left right after work on Friday and took the Million Dollar Highway from Ouray to Silverton. The fall colors were looking very nice this weekend, so I stopped for a couple of photos along the way…

Tag: colorado fall colors

The Zirkel Circle in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness

Early Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa 2024

Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa

Million Dollar Highway Fall Colors

Little Giant Basin Peaks