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Rock Art of Nine Mile Canyon 2025Nine Mile Canyon 2025

Rock Art of Nine Mile Canyon 2025

Saturday & Sunday, February 8-9, 2025

Although we were hoping to make it back into Nine Mile Canyon late last year, that never ended up happening so I figured it would be nice to get back into the canyon early this year and made plans for a weekend visit just a couple of days before my birthday. At least we didn’t wait another five years to return like the last time! Even though the week leading up to this trip had been unseasonably warm across the Colorado Plateau, a cold front had finally passed through the region on Friday night and dropped temperatures back to normal for this time of the year, and we saw early morning temperatures get down into the teens and single digits, but daytime temperatures were comfortable in the 40’s. Diane and I left home early on Saturday morning and then we spent most of the weekend searching for new petroglyphs in Nine Mile Canyon while also stopping to revisit sites we’ve been to before along the way. Here are some photos from our weekend exploring the world’s longest art gallery.

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The Face of The MonumentThe Face of The Monument

The Face of The Monument

Colorado National Monument Traverse VI | Grand Junction to Fruita
Sunday, March 10, 2019

After a couple weekends off from adventures because of wet weather and travelling for concerts, it was finally time to get back outside! Although the weather forecast for this weekend wasn’t looking the best, it was certainly looking better than it had over the past couple of weeks, so I planned for us to do our sixth annual Colorado National Monument Traverse on Sunday. This year we were planning to do a repeat of our very first traverse across the face of the Monument that we did back in 2014, except this time we would be hiking it in the opposite direction from the East Entrance near Grand Junction to the West Entrance near Fruita. Since it had been over five years since the last time we hiked this entire route, we were looking forward to it!

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Nine Mile Canyon 2018Nine Mile Canyon 2018

Nine Mile Canyon 2018

Diane’s Birthday Weekend | Saturday & Sunday, October 20-21, 2018

Since it was Diane’s birthday was on Saturday and she wanted to spend the weekend in Nine Mile Canyon, that’s what we did! It actually worked out great since neither of us had been there yet this year and I like to try to get there at least once each year. We left home early on Saturday morning, stopped at the gas station in Wellington and then headed right into the canyon to see what we could find. There was nothing in particular that I was looking for on this trip, so we just drove slowly through the canyon and kept an eye out to see what we could find. It’s really amazing that no matter how many times I have driven through this canyon we were still able to find quite a few new petroglyphs and pictographs, and even a couple ruins. We spent all day in the canyon and then returned to Wellington where we took a little break from camping and spent the night in a hotel. Then on Sunday morning we were back in the canyon for a few more hours before heading back home. It was a great time! Here are plenty of photos from the weekend.

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San Juan CanyonSan Juan Canyon

San Juan Canyon

The San Juan River | Sand Island to Mexican Hat
Sunday – Wednesday, May 11-14, 2014

We didn’t have any luck in the San Juan River lottery again this year, but I managed to grab an open date on the calendar for a time my friends and I would be able to go during the month of May. Like last year, I was only able to secure a permit from Sand Island to Mexican Hat. It was probably a good thing because I really didn’t want to take too much more time off from work in May since I had already taken a few days for my backpacking trip in Salt Creek Canyon and I have a few other days scheduled off for later in the month.

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Black Canyon SnowshoeingBlack Canyon Snowshoeing

Black Canyon Snowshoeing

Sunday, December 30, 2012

For my final trip of the year I had the urge to get out snowshoeing again, except I didn’t want to just head up onto the Grand Mesa again. I wanted to try somewhere new that still wasn’t too far away from home. I realized that I hadn’t made it to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park all year and I know they have some snowshoe trails near the Visitor’s Center, so I thought it would be a great place to check out.

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