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Tag: i-70

Glenwood Canyon: Shoshone Rapids of the ColoradoGlenwood Canyon: Shoshone Rapids of the Colorado

Glenwood Canyon: Shoshone Rapids of the Colorado

The Colorado River: Shoshone Powerplant to Grizzly Creek | Average CFS: 1,440
Saturday, August 24, 2024

This weekend I needed to stay closer to home so I could meet up with a friend in Utah on Sunday afternoon, so Jackson and I had talked about maybe rafting the Shoshone section of the Colorado River on Saturday morning. However, last week on my way home from the Holy Cross Wilderness, I stopped at the Shoshone exit and walked the paved path next to the rapids to check them out since I had never really taken a good look at them before, and I wasn’t sure that I was ready to tackle these rapids in my ducky just yet. During the week I was able to talk Jackson into joining me on a commercial trip instead so we could get a feel for running these rapids with an experienced guide, so we signed up for a Double Shoshone trip with Defiance Rafting Company that would take us through the rapids twice.

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The Colorado River: Parachute to Beavertail MountainThe Colorado River: Parachute to Beavertail Mountain

The Colorado River: Parachute to Beavertail Mountain

Saturday & Sunday, June 29 & 30, 2024

This weekend Jackson and I set out to continue what we had started two weeks ago by floating two more sections of the Colorado River close to home as day trips. Last time we had started near New Castle and left off at Parachute, so this weekend we planned to float two more sections from Parachute down to Beavertail Mountain in De Beque Canyon, which is a section of just over 28 miles. Although there was a lot of storm activity in the area this weekend, we made sure to to get started early and off the river before noon so we had no issues with weather or wind and the mornings were actually perfect for floating the Colorado River!

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The Colorado River: Tibbetts to ParachuteThe Colorado River: Tibbetts to Parachute

The Colorado River: Tibbetts to Parachute

Saturday & Sunday, June 15 & 16, 2024

After our recent rafting trip through Cataract Canyon and with an upcoming trip into Westwater Canyon planned for July, Jackson and I are both getting closer to having floated all of the Colorado River from Glenwood Canyon to Lake Powell, but we were still missing a large segment of the river from New Castle to De Beque Canyon. We figured it was about time to start working on this section, especially while the water is still high and moving fast, so this weekend we made plans to float the Colorado River from Tibbetts, which is just upstream of New Castle, to Parachute, a length of just under 40 miles. Since this area is an easy drive from home for us, we decided to split it up into two sections and do each one as a short day trip.

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Kokopelli Loops: Troy Built Loop to Salt CreekKokopelli Loops: Troy Built Loop to Salt Creek

Kokopelli Loops: Troy Built Loop to Salt Creek

After Work Adventures | Thursday & Tuesday, November 16 & 21, 2023

After hiking the Lion’s Loop Trail to its junction with the Troy Built Loop on Tuesday, I thought it might be a good idea to return to the Kokopelli Loops after work on Thursday afternoon so I could finish hiking the Troy Built Trail, especially since a storm had just moved through the area earlier in the day and left some nice clouds in the sky. I thought that there had been enough time for the road to the top of Mack Ridge to dry out, but as I started driving up it I quickly found out that it was still muddy and slick in places, so I turned around and decided to hike a shorter section of the Troy Built Trail from its northern end near I-70. Thankfully, this northern portion of the trail had already dried out and wasn’t muddy, since hiking on muddy trails is not looked upon too kindly by the mountain bikers who mostly ride these trails.

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The High Plateaus of Utah: Proper Edge of the SkyThe High Plateaus of Utah: Proper Edge of the Sky

The High Plateaus of Utah: Proper Edge of the Sky

The Plateau Provence: Peaks & Plateaus of the Colorado Plateau
Wednesday – Friday, August 30 – September 1, 2023

The High Plateaus of Utah are a group of elevated tablelands that form the boundary between the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin in Central Utah and are what Wallace Stegner once described as “those remarkable mountains that are not mountains at all but greatly elevated rolling plains.” Although I have driven around and between the High Plateaus many times over the years, I have not spent very much time up on top of any of them and I wanted to change that this summer so I could see what they were all about. And what better way is there to get to know a new place than by driving the backroads and visiting the highpoints along the way! I figured that I would start at the northern end of the Wasatch Plateau and then work my way south, looping back around to finish up on Thousand Lake Mountain, where I could hop back on I-70 and head back home after a nice introduction to the area. That was the plan, and I thought it was a pretty good one, but as you will see, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

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