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Short Walks from Rim Rock Drive

Heart of the World | Wednesday, February 26, 2025

When I left from work this afternoon the clouds over the Grand Valley were looking nice so I made a last minute decision to head up into the Colorado National Monument so I could take some photos from the overlooks and continue working on my Heart of the World project. After driving to Fruita I looped back to Grand Junction via Rim Rock Drive through the park and went for a few walks on short trails from the road including Otto’s Trail, the Coke Ovens Trail and the Ute Garden Interpretive Trail. It was a nice way to spend a couple hours after work as the days continue to get longer.

A Drive through the Colorado National Monument

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, September 10, 2024

So, this post isn’t really going to be much of a Trip Report, I just wanted to share a few photos I took during a quick drive through the Colorado National Monument this evening. I just bought a new compact camera that arrived yesterday and I wanted to put it through it’s paces right away in order to make sure that I really wanted to keep it, and I figured that stopping at a few of the overlooks along Rim Rock Drive would be a quick and easy place for me to do that. Plus, it’s been quite a while since I drove though the Monument and I was long overdue for another visit. Anyway, here are a couple of the test shots I took this evening, and so far I am pretty impressed with this little camera and am going to keep it.

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La Sal Mountains: Warner Lake to Gold Knob

Juneteenth | Tuesday – Wednesday, June 18-19, 2024

Surprisingly, it’s been almost three years since my last visit to the La Sal Mountains near Moab and I’ve definitely been overdue for a return since I still have a couple of peaks left in the range to hike. Since I had Wednesday off for Juneteenth, I left from work on Tuesday afternoon and headed up to the Warner Lake Campground so I could start getting my lungs and legs ready for the mountain hiking season with an easier hike up to the summit of Gold Knob in the morning. After arriving at the campground I went for a short loop hike nearby and then returned to watch the sunset from Warner Lake before getting to bed early.

La Sal Mountains: Horse Mountain & Grand View

La Sal Mountains Peak Bagging | Friday & Saturday, July 9-10, 2021

This weekend I was finally going to my first concert in over a year on Saturday evening so I needed to stay close to home, but I still hoped to squeeze in a hike to the summit of a peak or two on Saturday morning. Since the Pack Creek Fire near Moab was finally contained and the La Sal Mountains were opening back up, I thought this would be a good time for me to head that direction for a quick overnight trip. When I left from work on Friday afternoon it was a blistering 106 degrees out and I would later find out that Grand Junction had set the all-time high temperature record of 107 degrees while I was driving into Utah. The thermometer on my Jeep registered 112 degrees as I passed by the Fisher Towers– it’s certainly been a hot week on the Colorado Plateau! After driving through Castle Valley to the La Sal Mountains Loop Road I followed the narrow and bumpy road up into Miners Basin and spent the rest of the evening around the small lake near the trailhead. It was still a bit warm up in Miners Basin when I arrived, but it cooled off nicely as the sun went down for the night.

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The Highest Point in Grand County: Mount Waas

La Sal Mountains Peak Bagging | Pilot Mountain, Green Mountain & Mineral Mountain
Friday – Saturday, July 5-6, 2019

After spending the last month on the river it was finally time for me to start getting back into the mountains again! Like last year around this same time, I decided that this would be a good weekend to continue my peak-bagging pursuit in the La Sal Mountains near Moab. Since I’d already climbed the San Juan County High Point a couple years ago, I thought it was about time that I finally got to the summit of the Grand County High Point. Originally, Diane was supposed to come with me on this trip and we were going to spend the full weekend in the area, but at the last minute she decided to take a shift at work on Saturday, so I ended up going by myself. I’m not going to lie, I was very worried about this hike. Since I’ve been on the river every weekend for the last month I felt that I was quite a bit out of shape since I haven’t been hiking much lately. It feels like I haven’t put on my hiking boots in forever; not to mention that I haven’t been up in the high country since late September of last year! I was really concerned that I wasn’t going to make it to the summit this time, but still, I knew that I needed to try…