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Woodruff Canyon: The Canyons of Trachyte Creek V

Friday & Saturday, March 1-2, 2024

Over the past four years I have been spending one weekend in early March at the foot of the Henry Mountains exploring the Canyons of Trachyte Creek, so this weekend I headed out to hike down Woodruff Canyon, which is the final named tributary canyon on the west side of Trachyte Creek that I had not hiked yet. Although the weather forecast was calling for very strong winds this weekend, with gusts up to 65MPH, I was hoping that conditions might be a little bit better down in the canyon and decided to take my chances. I left from work on Friday afternoon and headed west into Utah. The wind wasn’t too bad until I passed through Green River and was driving across the San Rafael Desert, where I found blowing sand across the road in a couple of places, but nothing that was unusual for springtime on the Colorado Plateau. I topped off my gas tank in Hanksville and then made my way further south to search for a campsite for the night.

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Horseshoe Canyon & Burr Point

Rambling Around Robbers Roost IV | Saturday, March 25, 2023

After a rough ending to a backpacking trip earlier in the week, I thought it might be a good idea for me to stay a little closer to home and take it a bit easier this weekend. I left home early on Saturday morning and headed west to Robbers Roost country in Utah so I could hike into another section of upper Horseshoe Canyon that I had not been to before. I parked near an old corral at the end of a short spur road and then followed an old closed road to Trail Spring where I was able to get down into the canyon and follow it to it’s juncture with Horseshoe Canyon. I wandered down the main canyon for a few miles and then returned the way I had come. I ended up hiking about 13 miles with almost 1,800 feet of elevation gain, so I guess I didn’t take it as easy as I thought I was going to, but I was still feeling pretty good at the end of the hike.

Swett Creek: The Canyons of Trachyte Creek IV

Saturday & Sunday, March 4-5, 2023

This weekend Diane and I headed down to the Trachyte Creek area just north of Mount Holmes and the Little Rockies to go on an easy overnight backpacking trip into Swett Canyon. This is now the fourth year in a row that I have explored the tributaries of Trachyte Creek in early March, and it’s an area that I have enjoyed getting to know a little more intimately over these past couple of years. Since I did not get to do as much backpacking last year as I would have liked, I am hoping to change that this year starting with this hike- and I’ve already got plans for plenty more!

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Exploring the Cane Spring Desert & Ticaboo Mesa

Hiking Smith Fork and a South Fork of Ticaboo Creek
Friday – Sunday, November 18-20, 2022

Last week I was having some rare troubles deciding where to go this weekend. I was going back and forth between heading over to the San Rafael Swell or the Labyrinth Rims, but when I couldn’t make up my mind I decided it was time to go somewhere completely new to me and see what I could find. Although I have driven through the small community of Ticaboo only a handful of times, including once earlier this year, I have never actually stopped to hike or explore this area before and thought that this would be a great place to finally check out, especially since I’ve already been exploring the canyons of Trachyte Creek on the other side of the Little Rockies these past couple of years. After work on Friday I headed west into Utah with a quick stop for gas in Hanksville and then drove through the Henry Mountains and found a campsite in the Cane Spring Desert in the dark.

The Summertime Blues: Hiking the Abajo Mountains

Three Directions in the Blue Mountains | Friday – Sunday, August 5-7, 2022

This past week I had been struggling to decide where I wanted to go this weekend as I continually watched the weather forecasts for the mountains since all of them were calling for a large monsoonal surge to enter Colorado which was supposed to create a lot of rain and thunderstorms throughout the high country of the state. On Thursday I decided to look outside of Colorado to the Abajo Mountains, locally known as the Blue Mountains, which had a much milder weather outlook for the weekend, so that’s where I decided to go. As luck would have it, on Friday all the weather forecasters changed their tune about the stormy weather in Colorado for the weekend, but by then I had already set my mind on heading up into the Abajos, plus it has been a while since I did any hiking in this small laccolithic range, so now I was looking forward to getting back!