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Ring Around The Island: Fog in Wedding Canyon

Colorado National Monument | Sunday, September 14, 2025

This weekend Diane wanted to hike the Wedding Canyon Loop in the Colorado National Monument with me on Sunday morning since we might not be able to hike together again for a little while, so I planned to stay close to home so we could do that. Although I was originally planning to spend Saturday morning hiking in the mountains near Ouray, the weather forecast wasn’t looking good and I changed my mind after work on Friday and decided to just stay home and work on my 4Runner instead. This was probably the right call since there was a lot of rain, flash-flooding and even a few rare tornadoes in the Four Corners region and Western Colorado on Saturday! On Sunday morning we got up early, left home at dawn and started hiking from the Lower Monument Canyon Trailhead just before sunrise. To our surprise, as we crossed over the low divide between Monument Canyon and Wedding Canyon we found that the valley on the other side was filled with fog which made for some amazing and beautiful conditions as we hiked into Wedding Canyon.

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Serpents Trail: The Crookedest Road In the World

Heart of the World | Wednesday, September 10, 2025

I had some time to continue working on my Heart of the World project after work today and decided it was time to cross the Serpents Trail off the list. It’s been a long time since I hiked the Serpents Trail in the Colorado National Monument and I honestly don’t even remember when the last time was, but I would guess it’s been at least eight to ten years now? It’s interesting to think about because there was a time when I hiked this trail pretty regularly to stay in shape, but I guess that’s the main reason why I started this whole project in the first place- so I could return to some of the trails in the Monument that I have not been back to in a long time. Although it was still over 90 degrees out this afternoon when I started hiking up the historic route, there was a strong wind that helped keep it feeling a bit cooler out, plus there were plenty of clouds that helped block the sunlight and made for some nicer photos.

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Lower No Thoroughfare Canyon

Heart of the World | Monday, August 18, 2025

Although I was running short on time as we prepared to spend the latter part of this week up in Wyoming, this afternoon was probably going to be my only opportunity to squeeze in an August hike in the Colorado National Monument for my Heart of the World project that I’ve been working on completing this year. So after work I waited until about 5:00pm in the evening, hoping the temperature would start to cool off a little, and then headed off to the Devils Kitchen Trailhead just inside the East Entrance so I could hike into Lower No Thoroughfare Canyon to the First Waterfall. It was still almost 100 degrees out as I started the hike, but there was an occasional strong breeze that helped cool me off, plus the parts of the canyon that were already in the shade felt pretty nice.

Upper Monument Canyon to Independence Monument

Heart of the World | Sunday, July 6, 2025

Since I ended up cancelling my planned backpacking trip this weekend and headed home early, I spent Saturday working on the new 4Runner and then decided to continue my Heart of the World project in the Colorado National Monument early on Sunday morning with a hike into upper Monument Canyon. Although I have hiked into and through Monument Canyon many times over the years, I don’t recall ever hiking up the upper portion of the trail before so I thought it would be fun to hike down the upper trail to Independence Monument and then return the same way, especially since I’ve already hiked the lower trail earlier this year. So after getting up early on Sunday morning I drove up to the Upper Monument Canyon Trailhead and started hiking down the trail shortly before sunrise.

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Kokopelli Loops: Steve’s Loop & Mary’s Loop

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, June 3, 2025

This afternoon I returned to the Kokopelli Trails right after work since I hadn’t been back to this area since March of last year and there are only a few short trail segments remaining that I haven’t hiked yet. This time I was going to hike Steve’s Loop because the west end of the loop has been rerouted sometime since my last hike on the trail back in 2016, plus I had never hiked the connector trail from Steve’s to Mary’s Loop. Thankfully it wasn’t quite as warm out today as it has been the last few days and there was a strong wind blowing during most of the hike, especially when I was closer to the river, which helped keep me feeling cool. At the end it turned out to be a nice 6-mile loop that took me about two hours to complete and I didn’t see anyone else on the trails. Here are a few photos I took during the short hike.

Tag: grand valley

Ring Around The Island: Fog in Wedding Canyon

Serpents Trail: The Crookedest Road In the World

Lower No Thoroughfare Canyon

Upper Monument Canyon to Independence Monument

Kokopelli Loops: Steve’s Loop & Mary’s Loop