haze // ADVENTR.co

Plateau of Fire: Yellowstone National Park

Tuesday – Saturday, August 19-23, 2025

Up until about a week ago Diane and I were planning to spend the latter part of this week backpacking in the Wind River Range in Wyoming, however some things came up that prevented us from going on a longer backpacking trip at this time, so we decided to change course and throw together a last minute trip to Yellowstone National Park instead. Neither of us had ever been to Yellowstone before and I’ve certainly always avoided the park because of the massive crowds it attracts, but I guess it was finally time to give the world’s first National Park a shot. So late last week I reserved a site at the Bridge Bay Campground for three nights and then came up with a rough itinerary that focused on visiting some of the areas around the lower Grand Loop Road, entering the park via Cody and the East Entrance and then leaving through the South Entrance into Jackson Hole. I had never even thought about planning a trip to Yellowstone before last week or been this far north in Wyoming before, and I had to consult a lot of maps and guidebooks to help me figure out the layout of the park rather quickly so our itinerary would make some sense.

3 Comments

Red Mountain Creek: Ironton Park to Peters Pass

Mountains of Minerals | Friday – Sunday, August 1-3, 2025

This weekend I headed up into the San Juan Mountains near Ouray so I could hike a few new trails and explore some of the old mining ruins that are found along the upper reaches of Red Mountain Creek from Ironton Park up to Peters Pass. The weather forecast for the weekend was looking pretty dry, but there was bound to be some smoke in the air from all the wildfires currently burning in the southwest this summer. As usual, I left from work on Friday afternoon, stopped for a quick dinner in Delta and then continued up the Million Dollar Highway to the Red Mountain Mining District for my first hike which would take me to the Corkscrew Gulch Turntable and American Girl Mine.

4 Comments

Scarp Ridge: Lake Irwin to the Red Lady

Friday & Saturday, July 11-12, 2025

This weekend I decided to return to the edge of the Elk Mountains near Kebler Pass and the Ruby Range so I could finally finish hiking the trail along Scarp Ridge all the way out to the Red Lady (Mount Emmons) since I was unable to reach the summit a few years ago when I was stopped by an impassable washout of the trail in Evans Basin. I left from work on Friday afternoon, topped off my gas tank in Delta and then made my way over to Kebler Pass and Ohio Pass for the evening. Along the way I took a short detour and stopped to hike the Three Lakes Trail Loop since the last time I had hiked in this area was during the fall of 2009 and I really can’t remember if we hiked the entire loop or just up to Lost Lake and back. It’s a short and easy trail that visits three small lakes and a nice little waterfall at the foot of East Beckwith Mountain.

2 Comments

O’Leary Lookout in the San Francisco Volcanic Field

Friday, April 11, 2025

After spending an easy day around Flagstaff on Thursday, we still had one more day to wait until our Crack-In-Rock Pueblo hike which was scheduled for Saturday and I was wanting to go on a longer hike early this morning to help pass the time. Last October while Diane and I were hiking the trails in Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument I had noticed a road switchbacking up O’Leary Peak to a fire lookout tower on top and thought to myself that I should hike up there the next time I am in the area and have a little extra time, so that’s what I decided to do this morning before it started getting too warm out. Diane wasn’t interested in hiking another 2,000 feet of elevation today, so she stayed back at the hotel while I headed out to visit the fire lookout on the summit of O’Leary Peak.

Rambling Around Robbers Roost VI

Friday & Saturday, October 11-12, 2024

After spending a very warm week along the Arizona Strip with Jared, it was time for me to get back out exploring parts of the Colorado Plateau that are a little bit closer to home. So even though I needed to be home on Sunday, I still wanted to get outside on Saturday and decided to head over into the Robbers Roost area to get in a little canyon hiking and exploring this weekend. I left from work on Friday afternoon, grabbed dinner in town and then headed west into Utah. After topping off my gas tank in Green River I continued driving across the San Rafael Desert until I found a place to camp not far from Hans Flats shortly before sunset. Once it was dark out I finished reading a book and went to bed early so I could get an early start in the morning to beat the afternoon heat.