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White Rim Trail: Queen Anne Bottom to Taylor Canyon

Friday – Sunday, December 10-12, 2021

Back in October, before the prices of backcountry permits in Canyonlands National Park were set to increase, I decided to grab a couple more permits over the winter for campsites along the White Rim Trail. The first permit I got was for mid-December along the western end of the White Rim Trail at the Hardscrabble Bottom and Taylor Canyon campsites. Both were campsites that I had not stayed at yet. I actually had a permit to stay at the Taylor Canyon campsite two years ago when I was working on completing all of the hiking trails in the Island in the Sky District, but a weather system moving through the area that weekend made me change those plans, so I was looking forward to another opportunity. There were also some short hikes along this section of the White Rim Trail that I wanted to check out last year while Diane and Jared were riding the White Rim, but I ended up not having time for them.

The Orange Cliffs: North Trail & Millard Canyon Rim

Friday – Sunday, November 5-7, 2021

This weekend I decided to spend a little time hiking and exploring along the Orange Cliffs in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which are the tall Wingate Sandstone cliffs located to the east of Robbers Roost and to the west of The Maze. Since I have already hiked all of the official trails that descend from the Island in the Sky and the Canyon Rims Recreation Area, I thought it was finally time to check out the North Trail which descends from North Point to Elaterite Basin. Most people that hike this trail use it to access The Maze when they don’t have a vehicle that can be driven down the Flint Trail, but since I’ve never had that problem I never really had a reason to hike it before, so I was looking forward to finally checking it out.

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Southern Sawatch Saweekend

Friday – Sunday, September 10-12, 2021

This weekend was going to be the last opportunity for me to hike a 14er this summer, and since I have climbed at least one 14er each summer since 2010 I was originally planning to. However, as I started figuring out my weekend plans I just wasn’t feeling like hiking on a busy trail and was looking for a little more solitude, so I decided to skip the 14ers this year and headed to the southern Sawatch Range to hike a few peaks along the Continental Divide instead. I left from work on Friday afternoon and headed to Gunnison, taking the route through Hotchkiss and Crawford since Highway 50 is still closed until 5:30pm on weekdays and I wasn’t sure how quickly I would get to that point. I topped off my fuel tank in Gunnison and then made my way over to Pitkin and started up the road to Hancock Pass. Unfortunately, the road near the top of the pass was much rougher than I remember it being and I wasn’t comfortable driving a section of it in the dark, so I returned all the way back to Highway 50 and drove over Monarch Pass to the Middle Fork of the South Arkansas River and found a place to spend the night shortly before the end of that road. It was pretty late by the time I arrived, so I went right to bed.

Mountains of Minerals: The San Juan Triangle

Friday – Sunday, August 27-29, 2021

This weekend it was time for me to head back down to the San Juan Mountains near Silverton so I could hike to the summit of a couple new peaks in the area. The San Juan Triangle, which is roughly defined as the area between Ouray, Silverton and Telluride, is one of my absolute favorite places in the state to explore the high country, and over the years I have been working to hike as many of the peaks in the area that I can. This time I was planning to hike Eureka Mountain and California Mountain on Saturday morning since they are both right by each other and pretty much surrounded by other peaks that I have already hiked. I had actually planned to do these hikes a couple of weeks ago, but that trip was cancelled when I was stopped by a mudslide on my way up to Red Mountain Pass, so I was happy to return this weekend.

Spencer Basin to Sugarloaf

Friday & Saturday, July 23-24, 2021

This weekend I needed to stay closer to home since Diane and I had another concert to go to on Saturday night and I wanted to be home early enough in the afternoon so I could rest for a little bit first. I was originally trying to find an easier summit close to Ouray since I was a little worried about all the mudslides we’ve been having in the mountains lately, and I really didn’t want to get stuck anywhere and miss out on the concert, but in the end I decided to head over Red Mountain Pass to Silverton so I could hike to the summit of Sugarloaf from Spencer Basin. Here’s a fun fact: There are at least 28 different Sugarloafs in Colorado (including peaks, mountains, rocks, etc…), but the one located above Spencer Basin along the edge of the Weminuche Wilderness is the highest one in the state at 12,754 feet.