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Tag: ekker butte

Standing Up Country: Chimney Rock & The Maze

Lost in The Maze IV | Thursday – Sunday, February 26 – March 1, 2026

After taking Jackson on his first trip into The Maze about two years ago he told me that he was interested in hiking to the Harvest Scene at some point and we started thinking about plans for a future trip into the area. Although I have hiked to the Harvest Scene quite a few times before, I was interested in revisiting the loop from Chimney Rock again since that was my very first hike in The Maze and I didn’t remember it very well- plus, I wanted to hike it in the opposite direction so we would be on the Petes Mesa Route in the early morning. Last year after Jackson bought a new 4Runner Trailhunter we tentatively started making plans to drive out to Chimney Rock in late February so he could see what his new vehicle could do. At the time we initially started planning the trip I still had my Jeep and figured we could just head out there together over a long weekend since I have driven that road many times before, but then I ended up trading in my Rubicon for a 4Runner and figured that this would now be a good opportunity to see how my new vehicle would handle the road out to the Land of Standing Rocks, too.

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Above the Clouds on the Island in the Sky

Island in the Sky | Sunday, January 4, 2026

After finishing up my hike in Hunter Canyon early on Sunday morning and then driving back out of Kane Springs Canyon I was just about ready to head back home, but then I thought it might be interesting to drive up onto the Island in the Sky to see if I could get above the clouds that I had been hiking beneath all weekend, so that’s where I headed instead. When I first made it into Canyonlands National Park it seemed like the low clouds on the Colorado River side of the park had mostly subsided already, except closer to Moab where I had just been hiking, but thankfully there were still plenty to be found on the Green River side! These are a few photos I took along the way as I stopped at many of the overlooks this afternoon.

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White Rim Trail: Mineral Bottom to Candlestick Camp

Island in the Sky | Friday – Sunday, December 5-7, 2025

Although it’s been over three years since the last time I visited the Island in the Sky District within Canyonlands National Park, it certainly has not been for a lack of trying. Over the past few years I have booked the Candlestick Camp on the White Rim at least two or three different times since it’s the only campsite along the White Rim Trail that I have not stayed at before, but each time the weather or ice on the switchbacks of the Mineral Bottom Road made me change those plans. Over the summer I decided to try again and booked the campsite for the first weekend in December with hopes that the weather would cooperate this time, and then I invited my friend Jackson along so he could get his first taste of the White Rim with his new 4Runner. As the weekend neared there was a winter storm system that impacted the areas around Grand Junction and Moab so we weren’t sure what the road situation was going to be like when we reached the top of the switchbacks above Mineral Bottom, but after leaving work on Friday and making our way out there we were happy to find that this area had not been impacted and the switchbacks were clear and dry- so down we went!

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The Sculptured Earth: End of Trails in The Maze

Lost in The Maze III | Friday – Monday, March 31 – April 3, 2023

After spending the past couple years working to hike all of the trails in Canyonlands National Park and completing the ones in The Needles and Island in the Sky districts in 2018 and 2019, I turned my attention to my remaining trails in The Maze, but it’s taken me a bit longer to hike them all since it’s not quite as easy to get over there for a quick weekend trip. Last spring I had hiked most of the remaining trails from the Land of Standing Rocks with my friends Dave and Jared, but we did not have the time to make it down into lower Horse Canyon on that trip, which was now my only trail left on this official map that I’ve been using to keep track, and also my final trail left in all of Canyonlands! After that trip I made it my goal to hike into lower Horse Canyon this spring, so I booked a backpacking permit back in November and invited my friend Jackson to come along.

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Realm of Rock: Elephant Hill to The Grabens

A Last Minute Trip into The Needles | Friday – Sunday, October 14-16, 2022

This weekend Jackson and I had made plans to go camping and hiking together but we were having trouble deciding where to go and running out of time, especially during this busy Fall Break weekend in southern Utah. On a whim Thursday afternoon we looked to see what campsites were still available in Canyonlands National Park and found that the New Bates Wilson site was open, so I booked it and quickly made last minute plans for us to head into The Needles. To get to the New Bates Wilson campsite we would have to drive over Elephant Hill, so this would also be a great opportunity for me to finally get my new Jeep on a real trail.

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