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Al Look Hill: Fruita Paleo Area to Flume Creek

Fruita Frontcountry | Wednesday, October 29, 2025

I was originally hoping to leave after work today and head over into the Canyons of the Escalante for four days to try and salvage part of my annual Southern Utah Wanderings trip that I missed earlier in the month, but Diane was still having some possible concerning issues with her recovery and I thought it would be best to stay close to home for now. Instead, I ended up going on a hike after work on a few different segments of trails surrounding Al Look Hill within the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area between the Fruita Paleo Area and Flume Creek Canyon. The total hike turned out to be about six miles and consisted mostly of trail segments that I had never hiked before.

White Rocks: Gold Star Canyon & The Bench

Heart of the World | Sunday, October 26, 2025

After spending Saturday morning hiking a big loop in the Colorado National Monument that combined Ute Canyon and Monument Mesa, I returned again early on Sunday morning to hike a shorter loop near Gold Star Canyon from the White Rocks Trailhead. This time I would combine the Mushroom Rock Trail, Gold Star Canyon Trail, Bench Trail and Fenceline Trail to create a nice little 6-7 mile loop and end up back at the White Rocks. I started hiking up onto the Precambrian Bench at dawn and was able to make it to an overlook of Monument Canyon below Mushroom Rock just in time to watch the sunrise.

Ute Canyon & Monument Mesa Loop

Heart of the World | Saturday, October 25, 2025

Even though I had to skip my annual Southern Utah Wanderings with Jared for the first time in about fourteen years, I am hoping to get back to my regular schedule of weekend adventures in the near future, but before I do I need to make sure that Diane is back to 100%, so in the meantime I will try to get out on some local hikes when I can. This weekend I had some time on Saturday to go on a local hike and decided to continue working on my Heart of the World project within the Colorado National Monument by putting together a loop consisting of the Ute Canyon Trail and Liberty Cap Trail that I had never hiked together before. I was a little worried about hiking over 13 miles after not hiking at all for the past month, but figured I would just jump right back in and hope for the best!

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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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Tag: grand valley

Al Look Hill: Fruita Paleo Area to Flume Creek

White Rocks: Gold Star Canyon & The Bench

Ute Canyon & Monument Mesa Loop

Ring Around The Island: Fog in Wedding Canyon

Serpents Trail: The Crookedest Road In the World