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Colorado Trail: Carson Saddle & the Continental Divide

Friday – Sunday, September 6-8, 2024

With the mountain season coming to an end in just a few short weeks and a busy schedule for me later this month, I wanted to make sure that I got out for some more hiking above treeline in the high country this weekend before it was too late. I thought a good way to do that would be by hiking part of the Colorado Trail along the Continental Divide in the San Juan Mountains starting from the Carson Saddle above Wager Gulch, so that’s where I headed when I left work on Friday afternoon. I didn’t want to deal with the Middle Bridge over Blue Mesa on US 50, so instead I opted to go over Red Mountain Pass into Silverton and then took the Alpine Loop over Cinnamon Pass to the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River.

Rock Art of the Book Cliffs VII

Sunday, August 25, 2024

After spending Saturday morning on the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon, I left home early on Sunday so I could meet up with a friend in Green River later in the afternoon. Since I had plenty of time before we were supposed to meet I thought it would be a good idea to spend the morning searching for new rock art sites in the Book Cliffs as I slowly made my way to Green River. Unfortunately, the weather would not cooperate with those plans today thanks to the stormy weather we’ve been experiencing lately and just as soon as I neared the edge of the Book Cliffs it started to rain pretty hard which made the roads I wanted to drive slick and muddy, so I had to turn around and find some better roads. I did my best to get around in the wet conditions, but I ended up spending most of the day just revisiting sites I haven’t been to in a while. I guess I’ll have to come back to search out the new sites when it’s a bit drier out.

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Chepeta Lake: Eccentric Benchmark & Daggett Peak

Headwaters of the Whiterocks River | Friday – Sunday, August 9-11, 2024

After last week’s backpacking trip to the Red Castle Lakes in the High Uintas Wilderness I didn’t have any plans on returning to the Uinta Mountains anytime soon. However, after keeping an eye on the weather forecast around Colorado for the upcoming weekend, I couldn’t find a mountain range within a couple hundred miles of home that didn’t show stormy weather all day and night. It was going to be a wet and stormy weekend in the mountains of Colorado! I was originally hoping to spend the weekend hiking along the Continental Divide in the San Juan Mountains, but on Friday afternoon I made a last-minute decision to head up to the eastern end of the Uinta Mountains with hopes that I would be able to get some hiking in since the weather forecast for this area looked like the best around with only the typical afternoon storms. So for the second time in as many weeks I left from work and drove over Douglas Pass on my way to the Uinta Mountains. After a quick stop for fuel in Vernal I headed out across the Uinta Basin and then followed the Whiterocks River up to it’s headwaters at Chepeta Lake.

The High Plateaus of Utah: Northern Trek

The Plateau Provence: Peaks & Plateaus of the Colorado Plateau, Part III
Friday – Sunday, July 19-21, 2024

After spending two weekends exploring the High Plateaus of Utah last summer, I have been looking forward to getting back out into that high country again this year and thought this weekend would be a good time to do so. This time I decided to head up into the northern region of the High Plateaus and planned to start at the edge of the Tavaputs Plateau before making my way westward to the Gunnison Plateau (San Pitch Mountains) while driving some of the backroads in the area and visiting a couple new highpoints along the way. My timing for this trip couldn’t have been much better since the weather forecast was predicting very wet and stormy weather throughout the mountains of Colorado the entire weekend, while it seemed that Central Utah was going to be staying mostly dry, aside from the typical afternoon thunderstorms. Just like last year, I had a great time exploring this region and am hoping to get down to the Southern Plateaus later in the summer.

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Gunnison Gorge: Smith Mountain Jeep Road

After Work Adventures | Friday, June 14, 2024

This weekend I was going to be staying close to home so I could spend a little time on the Colorado River, but since a cold font had come through the area and dropped temperatures significantly for the day, I thought it would be a good idea to head over to the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area after work so I could go for a scenic drive on the Smith Mountain Jeep Road and hike to a couple of highpoints along the way. After leaving work on Friday afternoon I drove over to Delta, grabbed dinner in town and then headed over to the Smith Mountain Saddle Trailhead where I started driving up to the top of the ridge above the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. As I was making my way up the mountain a fast-moving storm storm moved across the valley from the Uncompahgre Plateau and quickly dropped the temperature another 15 degrees as the wind picked up.

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Colorado Trail: Carson Saddle & the Continental Divide

Rock Art of the Book Cliffs VII

Chepeta Lake: Eccentric Benchmark & Daggett Peak

The High Plateaus of Utah: Northern Trek

Gunnison Gorge: Smith Mountain Jeep Road