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Knocking Around Kane Springs Canyon

Moab Meanderings in the Fog | Saturday & Sunday, January 3-4, 2026

For the first weekend in 2026 I returned to Moab so I could spend a little time hiking and exploring around Kane Springs Canyon. Of course, similarly to last weekend I was stuck with overcast conditions again, except this time I was mostly in or under a layer of low clouds and fog. After leaving home early on Saturday morning it was a slower than usual drive to Moab since I had to drive through a thick layer of fog pretty much the entire way with the temperatures hovering around freezing. It was still foggy out when I reached the mouth of Kane Spring Canyon, so instead of going on my first hike right away I decided to continue up the canyon to Hurrah Pass to see if I could get above the fog for some photos at sunrise. This turned out to be a really good choice since I was able to get out of the fog for a little bit, until it finally enveloped the pass. Then I returned to the Amasa Back Trailhead and started hiking with hopes that the fog would burn off soon.

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Moab Meanderings: Moab Area Rock Art XLIV

Saturday & Sunday, December 14-15, 2024

Well, it’s that time of the year when the crowds have finally started to thin and I am ready to begin spending more time exploring the lands surrounding Moab until they start to return again later in February. This weekend I headed over toward Moab early on Saturday morning so I could hike with a friend and visit a bunch of rock art sites that were all new to me before returning home on Sunday afternoon. These are some photos of what we saw.

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Valley of Fires and the Salinas Pueblo Missions

Lost in the Land of Enchantment | Friday – Saturday, November 15-16, 2024

After leaving the Three Rivers Petroglyphs Site, we made a quick stop at Pistachioland for Diane and then headed over to Carrizozo to visit the family of one of her friends who live there. When we were packing for this trip we decided to bring along a tent that we had not used for a while and accidentally forgot to bring the stakes for it. While this wasn’t a problem when we were camped at Gleatherland in Texas because it was a very calm evening, it had been very windy all day while we were searching for petroglyphs at Three Rivers and it was supposed to stay pretty windy all night, so we were a bit concerned. Thankfully, we were able to borrow some tent stakes from Diane’s friends while we were visiting which would help us out quite a bit. After our visit we ate dinner in town and then drove just a few miles northeast to the Valley of Fires Recreation Area where I had reserved a campsite next to the lava flow for the night. We got our tent set up shortly before sunset and then read for a while before going to bed early.

The High Plateaus of Utah: Northern Trek

The Plateau Provence: Peaks & Plateaus of the Colorado Plateau, Part III
Friday – Sunday, July 19-21, 2024

After spending two weekends exploring the High Plateaus of Utah last summer, I have been looking forward to getting back out into that high country again this year and thought this weekend would be a good time to do so. This time I decided to head up into the northern region of the High Plateaus and planned to start at the edge of the Tavaputs Plateau before making my way westward to the Gunnison Plateau (San Pitch Mountains) while driving some of the backroads in the area and visiting a couple new highpoints along the way. My timing for this trip couldn’t have been much better since the weather forecast was predicting very wet and stormy weather throughout the mountains of Colorado the entire weekend, while it seemed that Central Utah was going to be staying mostly dry, aside from the typical afternoon thunderstorms. Just like last year, I had a great time exploring this region and am hoping to get down to the Southern Plateaus later in the summer.

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Exploring Desert Stone: Harts Draw to Indian Creek

Tracing the Historic Route of the 1859 Macomb Expedition, Part II
Friday – Sunday, October 27-29, 2023

It’s now been almost an entire year since I started my quest to follow and explore the historic route of the 1859 Macomb Expedition, also known as the San Juan Exploring Expedition, which contained a small detachment of men who were quite possibly the first non-native Americans to view and describe what is now Canyonlands National Park. During that trip I followed the Old Spanish Trail across Dry Valley from Cañon Pintado (East Canyon) to Casa Colorado and then steadily climbed up Hatch Point until I was at the edge of the rim overlooking Cañon Colorado (Harts Draw) and the greater Canyonlands region. That point was roughly in the same area where Captain Macomb and his men would have had their first view of the region that would later become known as The Needles and where they would most likely have begun their descent to the canyons below in search of The Confluence of the Green and Grand Rivers. This weekend I set out to continue following their historic route as it descended from the rim of Hatch Point into Harts Draw and then I would continue downstream into Labyrinth Cañon (Indian Creek Canyon). Although I had hoped to follow the route segments in order, except that I had planned to start hiking from the bottom of Harts Draw up to the rim since I thought route-finding would be easier in that direction, but stormy weather on Saturday altered my plans a bit and I ended up hiking the segments out of order.

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Tag: full moon

Knocking Around Kane Springs Canyon

Moab Meanderings: Moab Area Rock Art XLIV

Valley of Fires and the Salinas Pueblo Missions

The High Plateaus of Utah: Northern Trek

Exploring Desert Stone: Harts Draw to Indian Creek