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White Rock Canyon of the Rio Grande & Pecos NHPWhite Rock Canyon of the Rio Grande

White Rock Canyon of the Rio Grande & Pecos NHP

Lost in the Land of Enchantment | Sunday & Monday, November 10-11, 2024

After spending most of the weekend hiking around a snow-covered Bandelier National Monument, we left Tsankawi late on Sunday morning and headed over to White Rock Canyon so we could spend the rest of the day exploring the Red Dot Trail along the Rio Grande. Although I knew there were some petroglyphs in this area, I didn’t know where they were and how many we would be able to find, but we were pleasantly surprised to find quite a few along the way which kept us busy until shortly before sunset. Afterwards, we drove up to Los Alamos and had a nice dinner at the Pajarito Brewpub & Grill. Then on Monday morning we returned to Overlook Park in White Rock at sunrise and hiked a short way down the Blue Dot Trail before we left the Pajarito Plateau and started heading further south into New Mexico where we hoped it would be a bit warmer for the rest of the week. Here are a few photos from our time in White Rock Canyon.

CONTINUE READINGWhite Rock Canyon of the Rio Grande & Pecos NHP
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Bandelier National Monument and the Pajarito PlateauBandelier National Monument and the Pajarito Plateau

Bandelier National Monument and the Pajarito Plateau

Lost in the Land of Enchantment | Saturday – Sunday, November 9-10, 2024

We don’t seem to have very good luck when it comes to planning a trip to visit Bandelier National Monument. We have been trying to make it down to Bandelier for the past couple of years and have made plans to go there on at least three separate occasions, but each and every time something has prevented us from making the trip, including park closures due to flash flooding and a wildfire. This year I decided to plan a trip to Bandelier in early November thinking it would be a good time to avoid some of those previous issues, but apparently I was wrong since an early and unusually strong winter storm impacted Bandelier, along with the rest of eastern Colorado and New Mexico, on the day that we were supposed to arrive which closed the park yet again! Talk about bad luck!

CONTINUE READINGBandelier National Monument and the Pajarito Plateau
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Oak Tree House at Mesa Verde National ParkOak Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park

Oak Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park

Monday, October 21, 2024

After spending a great day on Chapin Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park last year, I kept an eye on all of the backcountry tours offered this summer to see if the park would have anything new we hadn’t seen yet. I was about to give up hope when late in the season they started offering a tour to Oak Tree House that was only available from Friday through Monday for a few weeks at the very end of the season. The only date we were available to go was going to be on the very last tour of the season which happened to line up perfectly with our drive home from a weekend visiting the ruins and rock art at Wupatki National Monument and Mystery Valley in northern Arizona. Luckily, I was able to secure two tickets for this tour and we were able to spend a couple hours on Monday morning visiting these interesting ruins in Fewkes Canyon. It was certainly a great place to finish up our three-day weekend in the Four Corners region!

CONTINUE READINGOak Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park
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The Twists and Turns of Salt Creek CanyonThe Twists and Turns of Salt Creek Canyon

The Twists and Turns of Salt Creek Canyon

Canyonlands National Park | Thursday – Monday, April 4-8, 2024

After a rugged hike around Navajo Mountain last year, Dave, Jared and I decided to return to a very familiar place in Canyonlands National Park for our annual spring backpacking trip this year as we started making plans to continue exploring the twists and turns of Salt Creek Canyon a few months ago. Although we have all hiked into Salt Creek many times over the years, I hadn’t been back to the middle section of the canyon since our first hike down the length of the canyon just about ten years ago, and I was looking forward to returning! I left from work on Thursday afternoon and made my way to Indian Creek Country for the evening where I found a campsite and watched a colorful sunset on the surrounding cliffs while waiting for Dave and Jared to arrive.

CONTINUE READINGThe Twists and Turns of Salt Creek Canyon
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The Grandest of Gulches: Back Into Lower Grand GulchThe Grandest of Gulches: Back Into Lower Grand Gulch

The Grandest of Gulches: Back Into Lower Grand Gulch

Cedar Mesa Chronicles: Chapter 11 | Thursday – Sunday, March 21-24, 2024

This week Diane and I took Thursday and Friday off from work so we could meet up with our friend Jared and spend a couple of days backpacking into lower Grand Gulch within the Bears Ears National Monument. While this would be Diane’s first time hiking into this part of Grand Gulch, Jared and I had hiked here about nine years ago and I was really looking forward to the return visit. From the very start of the hike we could tell there was a lot of water in the canyon from recent storms and that it might have even flash flooded recently, but all that water also created a lot of quicksand and mud in the wash that significantly slowed down our progress and forced us to follow brushy deer trails across the benches in many places. The weather during the first three days of our hike was great and the nights even stayed pretty warm, we only encountered wet weather during our final night in the canyon and during the hike back out of Collins Canyon. Here are some photos taken during our four days in Grand Gulch.

CONTINUE READINGThe Grandest of Gulches: Back Into Lower Grand Gulch
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