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Fall On The Grand Mesa 2017Fall On The Grand Mesa 2017

Fall On The Grand Mesa 2017

Fall Colors 2017 | Monday, September 25, 2017

This evening I headed up onto the Grand Mesa after work for a couple of hours so I could try to catch a few fall colors this season with my camera. Unfortunately, the colors didn’t seem to be as good as they usually are with plenty of stripped trees and unhealthy looking leaves, but I managed to find a couple nice areas and used my long lens to help isolate the best colors. There was even a little snow still sticking around on the top of the mesa from the winter storm that came through over the weekend. I pretty much stuck to the highway and stayed around until sunset before heading back home. Here are a few photos from the evening…

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Grand Mesa Fall ColorsGrand Mesa Fall Colors

Grand Mesa Fall Colors

Fall Colors | Wednesday, September 21, 2016

I made a last minute decision after work today and went for a drive up onto the Grand Mesa to check on the fall colors this evening. It turned out to be a good call since the colors were looking pretty good. I slowly made my way up the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway to Skyway Point and then explored the old Grand Mesa Road and a few other backroads in the area while I was up there until after sunset. There’s not really much else to say about this short evening excursion, so here’s a few photos that tell the story for me.

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Big WashBig Wash

Big Wash

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Recently I’ve been trying to get out on more hikes in the evening after work before the days start getting too short for that. Today I was looking for something close to home without too much elevation gain and settled on hiking up Big Wash which is located a short distance up Plateau Creek from I-70 along the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway. Big Wash drains part of the west side of the Grand Mesa starting up near Chalk Mountain and joins Plateau Creek just upstream from the Colorado River. It turned out to be a nice easy canyon hike with a trickle of water flowing through the canyon. While the water was nice to listen to as I hiked, it made for some very slick mud. I had to hop across rocks through many parts of the canyon to avoid the slippery mud. There were a couple of easy obstacles to scramble up and bypass, I just had to make sure to avoid the poison ivy at one of the bypasses. The hike ended at an overhanging waterfall inside a large wet alcove. I didn’t see a way around it so I turned around and headed back down. Here are a few photos from the short hike.

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Grand Mesa ColorsGrand Mesa Colors

Grand Mesa Colors

Fall Colors 2015
Color Sunday | Sunday, September 27, 2015

Since I had only spent the day in the San Juan Mountains on Saturday, Diane and I decided to drive up onto the Grand Mesa for a few hours to check out the fall colors up there on Sunday afternoon. We took the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway via Plateau Creek to the Land O Lakes Trail where we stopped and went on the short hike to the overlook.

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Mesa Lakes SnowshoeingMesa Lakes Snowshoeing

Mesa Lakes Snowshoeing

Sunday, January 4, 2015

After our trip to northern Arizona earlier in the week, we were looking forward to spending a lazy weekend relaxing at home, but we still felt the need to get outside for some snowshoeing on Sunday. We decided to drive up to Mesa Lakes on the Grand Mesa for a short loop on packed trails. We started following the West Bench Trail past Sunset Lake, then followed Mesa Creek back past the Ranger Station and circled around Sunset Lake to Beaver Lake before returning to the trailhead on the other side of Jumbo Reservoir. It was a nice short loop that got us outside into the snow for a little while.

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