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The Palisade Rim: Lower Loop & Upper Loop Trails

After Work Adventures | Friday, September 25, 2026

I was originally planning to head on over to the Gunnison Gorge for a hike after work today, but shortly before leaving work I checked the weather and saw that there was a storm right over the area I wanted to hike in, and since the road to the trailhead goes through a lot of clay I thought it would be a good idea to skip that for today and stay a little closer to home. While I have hiked the lower Palisade Rim Trail a few times before, I have never actually hiked the upper loop before and have been meaning to do that for quite a while, so I decided to drive over to Palisade to where the Book Cliffs collide with the Grand Mesa and hike both of those loops instead.

Fruita Frontcountry: Snooks Bottom & Opal Hill Loop

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, April 28, 2026

After leaving work this afternoon I stopped home to pick up Diane and then we headed over to Snooks Bottom along the Colorado River near Fruita so we could go on a short loop hike around the little lake found there and Opal Hill on trails that neither of us had ever been on before. It was quite a bit windier out than we were expecting it to be, but it turned out to be a nice little three mile loop. It’s kind of hard to believe, but this is actually my very first After Work Adventure of the year. I guess I have been really slacking this year! Here are a few photos from our short hike.

The Ribbon Trail to the Tabeguache Trail

Sunday, March 29, 2026

Although I was initially hoping to get more hiking in this weekend, I wasn’t feeling very well on Friday evening and decided to stay home to get some long overdue work done to my 4Runner on Saturday instead. Then on Sunday morning I thought I was feeling better, so Diane and I headed out early to hike the Ribbon Trail from the top to the bottom and finish up by following Andy’s Loop to the Tabeguache Trailhead. We chose this hike to get in as much elevation descent as we could near home to help us prepare for a hike into the Grand Canyon via the Bright Angel Trail that’s coming up in just over a week. It’s been a while since I last hiked the Ribbon Trail and usually I hike up to Little Park Road at the end, so this was a nice change of pace.

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Upper No Thoroughfare Canyon

Heart of the World | Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Well, here it is! This is my last hike in the Colorado National Monument for my Heart of the World project and I managed to finish them all up before the end of the year! To be honest, I did have some time when I could have completed this final hike in November, but I purposely waited until December so I could get in a hike during each month of the year, which wasn’t a goal when I initially started this project back on New Years Day, but it just kind of happened naturally and I decided to stick with it about halfway through the year. I guess that waiting until December was a little too late for this particular hike since the trail was covered with some snow in the shaded areas by now, but I figured that might be the case and brought along my microspikes. As much as I would have liked to have hiked the entire length of No Thoroughfare Canyon for this project, the days are just too short at this time of the year for me to squeeze that kind of hike in after work, plus the only section of an ‘official’ trail in Upper No Thoroughfare Canyon are the switchbacks at the very top, so I figured I would be good just hiking down the trail a few miles and then returning the same way.

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Kodels Canyon & Devils Canyon Rims

Colorado National Monument | Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Last week when I was hiking up the Fruita Dugway in the Colorado National Monument, I noticed a bench just above Kodels Canyon and below Kodels Point that looked like it might be an interesting place to hike, and since I’m always looking for new places to explore close to home I decided to check it out after work today. I started out by hiking up the Fruita Dugway from the Historic Trails Viewpoint along Rim Rock Drive and then left the trail to make my way around the head of Kodels Canyon and across the bench to the rim of Devils Canyon where there was a pretty nice view. All in all, this turned out to be a fun off-trail hike through new terrain and was a good way to spend a few hours after work today.