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Upper No Thoroughfare Canyon

Heart of the World | Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Well, here it is! This is my last hike in the Colorado National Monument for my Heart of the World project and I managed to finish them all up before the end of the year! To be honest, I did have some time when I could have completed this final hike in November, but I purposely waited until December so I could get in a hike during each month of the year, which wasn’t a goal when I initially started this project back on New Years Day, but it just kind of happened naturally and I decided to stick with it about halfway through the year. I guess that waiting until December was a little too late for this particular hike since the trail was covered with some snow in the shaded areas by now, but I figured that might be the case and brought along my microspikes. As much as I would have liked to have hiked the entire length of No Thoroughfare Canyon for this project, the days are just too short at this time of the year for me to squeeze that kind of hike in after work, plus the only section of an ‘official’ trail in Upper No Thoroughfare Canyon are the switchbacks at the very top, so I figured I would be good just hiking down the trail a few miles and then returning the same way.

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Third Flats: Twist-N-Shout & Rocky Stumble

After Work Adventures | Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Since we’ve had a bit of a warm spell this week with temperatures reaching into the mid and upper 60’s I thought this would be a good day to head out on my first local hike after work of the year. After leaving work I drove up to the Third Flats Road in the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area to hike a loop consisting of the Nut-N-2-It, Twist-N-Shout and Rocky Stumble trails with a little detour onto the Short Shot trail. Once I reached the end of Rocky Stumble I followed the Third Flats Road back to my Jeep to make a nice little four mile loop. I’m looking forward to more After Work Adventures this year as the days continue to get longer. Here are a few photos from the short hike.

Little Park: Good Vibes, Snakeskin & Gunny Loop

After Work Adventures | Monday & Tuesday, August 19 & 20, 2024

I’m planning on getting out into the desert this upcoming weekend, so I thought it might be a good idea to go for a hike or two in the afternoon this week to try to get used to the heat, so I headed out to check out some of the trails near the Little Park Trailhead in the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area after work on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday I made a short loop combining the Good Vibes Trail, Snakeskin Trail and the First Flats Trail and then on Tuesday I hiked part of the Gunny Loop and the Gunnector Trail in the same area. The temperature was in the upper 80’s on Monday and the mid 90’s on Tuesday, so it was pretty warm out both afternoons, especially in the sun, but thankfully there were some clouds in the sky that blocked the direct sunlight on occasion and helped it to feel a bit more comfortable out. Here are a couple photos I took during the two hikes.

Third Flats: Twist-N-Shout & Second Thoughts

After Work Adventures | Monday, July 1, 2024

I was originally planning to head up Lands End Road onto the Grand Mesa after work today so I could hike a section of the Palisade Plunge Trail, but as I was driving southeast on US 50 I saw some lightning in the direction I was headed and thought it would be best to turn around and come back another time when the weather was better. Instead, I returned to town and headed over to the Third Flats area of the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area where I hiked a short loop combining the Twist-N-Shout and Second Thoughts trails together. The temperature was in the low 90’s today, but it was cloudy enough with a nice breeze which helped keep the temperature comfortable enough for me. There were even a couple sprinkles of rain at times. Here are a couple photos from the short hike.

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Bangs Canyon: Rough Canyon Loop

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, April 23, 2024

As I’ve been trying to hike more local trails during the week, I realized that I had not hiked much of Rough Canyon within the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area and thought it was finally time to remedy that oversight after work today. So this afternoon I drove up to the Bangs Canyon Trailhead and started hiking down Rough Canyon from where it splits off from the more popular Mica Mine Trail. I mistakenly thought this was going to be an easy hike along a good trail the entire way, but there turned out to be a bit more scrambling and route-finding along the way than I was expecting. It was nothing too difficult, but I had just assumed there would be a well-used trail down the canyon since it’s in a popular area close to town. I followed the the canyon downstream until it opened up near the mouth of Cross Canyon and then met up with the Tabeguache Trail which I followed back up to the trailhead to complete a loop. It turned out to be a nice loop through a rugged canyon that’s pretty close to home.