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Tag: la sal mountains

Salt Wash: Lost Spring Canyon to Cordova CanyonSalt Wash: Lost Spring Canyon to Cordova Canyon

Salt Wash: Lost Spring Canyon to Cordova Canyon

Arches National Park | Saturday, April 23, 2022

Recently I realized that it’s been a while since I last explored the backcountry of Arches National Park and I was definitely overdue for a return. After a winter hike down Lower Salt Wash Canyon a couple years ago I’ve been interested in exploring the upper reaches of Salt Wash and a recent Trip Report from Dennis finally gave me the motivation I needed to get back out to that area. I was all set to leave after work on Friday afternoon like I usually do, but a storm system was moving through the area with very strong winds and rain, so I decided to stay home overnight and then leave early in the morning since I wasn’t travelling far from home this weekend. After a good night of sleep I woke up early on Saturday morning, grabbed a quick breakfast and headed west into Utah.

CONTINUE READINGSalt Wash: Lost Spring Canyon to Cordova Canyon
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Under The Ledge: Trails in the Land of Standing RocksUnder The Ledge: Trails in the Land of Standing Rocks

Under The Ledge: Trails in the Land of Standing Rocks

Lost In The Maze II | Wednesday – Sunday, April 6-10, 2022

I can hardly believe it’s been just over four years since my last visit to the Land of Standing Rocks in Canyonlands National Park. It feels like it was just yesterday when Diane and I were heading out to The Maze over the long Memorial Day weekend each spring, and I’ve recently had a strong desire to return. After completing all the trails in The Needles and the Island in the Sky in 2018 and 2019, The Maze is the only remaining district of Canyonlands where I have not hiked every official trail on the map, so I figured it was time to head back and continue working on completing that personal goal. That’s part of the reason I hiked down the North Trail late last year. So back in early November I got on Rec.gov and booked couple campsites in the Land of Standing Rocks, two nights at Chimney Rock and two nights at The Wall, which seemed like a good place to basecamp for the trails that I wanted to hike this time. My friend Jerry, Jared and Dave were going to be joining me on this trip, but unfortunately Jerry got sick just before the trip started and was unable to make it this time.

CONTINUE READINGUnder The Ledge: Trails in the Land of Standing Rocks
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The White Rim to Monument BasinThe White Rim to Monument Basin

The White Rim to Monument Basin

Friday – Sunday, February 4-6, 2022

For the past two years I have spent the first weekend in February exploring the White Rim in Canyonlands National Park. You can find those two Trip Reports here: White Crack Trail to The Confluence & Airport Tower to Monument Basin. I’ve had good weather and great views on each of those trips so I decided to do it one more time this year and grabbed a camping permit for Gooseberry and Airport back in November before the prices of backcountry permits were raised, so this was going to be my last trip at the old price. I’ve spent a lot of time exploring from the White Rim Trail over the years and am actually running out of places I want to check out, but one place I’ve really wanted to hike down to for a long time is Monument Basin, so I figured this trip would be the perfect opportunity to finally give it a try. I knew Jared would be very interested in this hike, so I made sure to invite him along, too.

CONTINUE READINGThe White Rim to Monument Basin
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The Land In-Between: Around The NeedlesThe Land In-Between: Around The Needles

The Land In-Between: Around The Needles

Friday – Monday, January 14-17, 2022

Well here it is, my first Trip Report of 2022! This wasn’t originally supposed to be my first trip of 2022, but we ended up cancelling our plans over New Years Day weekend because of the weather and then I decided to take last weekend off, too. So now it’s time to get back at it again, and what better way to start off the year then by spending a three-day weekend exploring one of my absolute favorite places on the Colorado Plateau– The Needles! As usual, I left after work on Friday afternoon and made my way down to The Needles and found a place to camp along the Lockhart Basin Road. Then I spent the rest of the weekend exploring the Land In Between the more popular trails in the park to see what I could find along the way and ended up hiking over 36 miles. It felt good to put in some higher miles this weekend since I’ve been taking it easier after my incident in November.

CONTINUE READINGThe Land In-Between: Around The Needles
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Christmas in Arches 2021Christmas in Arches 2021

Christmas in Arches 2021

Christmas Day | Saturday, December 25, 2021

It’s Christmastime again, which means that it’s also time for our annual Christmas in Arches visit! This year we were already staying at a hotel in Moab on Friday and Saturday nights since the holiday fell on a weekend, so I thought it would be a good idea to get up early on Saturday morning for our traditional hike to Landscape Arch. This way we could watch the first light of the day strike the arch at sunrise while we made sure it was still standing after another year. Afterwards I planed to do a little backcountry hiking and exploring around Courthouse Wash and Willow Spring for the rest of the morning and afternoon. Here are some photo from our day in Arches National Park!

CONTINUE READINGChristmas in Arches 2021
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