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Tag: plateau creek

Vega State Park & Park Creek to Leon CreekVega State Park & Park Creek to Leon Creek

Vega State Park & Park Creek to Leon Creek

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, September 29, 2026

This afternoon I left from work and headed up to Vega State Park for a second chance to to see if I could find some nice fall colors on the Grand Mesa this season. You know, it’s kind of funny that I’d never actually been to Vega State Park until I passed through while following the route of the Dominguez – Escalante Expedition earlier this month, and now I’ve been here twice in the last two weeks! I planned to hike the Aspen Nature Trail along the southern end of Vega Reservoir since there was still a lot of green in the trees when I was here about a week and a half ago and I was hoping that they might have started to change color by now…

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Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa 2026Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa 2026

Fall Colors on the Grand Mesa 2026

After Work Adventures | Wednesday, September 23, 2026

I headed up onto the Grand Mesa this afternoon to spend a few hours seeing how the fall colors were coming along like I try do each year around this time. As I was driving up the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway I found that there was still a lot of green lower down around the Mesa Creek area, but there were a few patches of nice colors here and there, including some oranges. Unfortunately, my favorite overlook at Skyway Point was already past it’s prime, so it was kind of a mixed bag this year and didn’t seem to be a great year for fall colors on the Mesa, which isn’t too surprising with how hot and dry it has been this past summer. Although the fall colors weren’t the greatest this time around, it was still nice to get up onto the Mesa for a few hours after work this afternoon.

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The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition: 250 Years LaterThe Dominguez-Escalante Expedition: 250 Years Later

The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition: 250 Years Later

Pageant in the Wilderness: Following in the Footsteps of Friars Dominguez & Escalante
Saturday – Monday, September 19-21, 2026  (August 27 – September 17, 1776)

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the 1776 Dominguez-Escalante Expedition through the southwest and I wanted to do a little something special to celebrate the semiquincentennial of this monumental undertaking in my own little way. Although I would have liked to have been able to follow in the footsteps of Dominguez & Escalante (D&E) for the entirety of their route through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona, I just don’t have that kind of free time available to me right now and decided it would be nice to just concentrate on the section of their route that is closest to my home. I planned to pick up their route at the Uncompahgre River in Montrose and then follow in their footsteps as closely as I could over the Grand Mesa and Roan Plateau to the White River, and then finally to the Green River in the Uinta Basin in Utah. I figured that I should be able to cover this part of their route in a weekend, but still, even with this shorter route a weekend would probably be too short for me to see it all and I would be limited on the amount of hiking I would be able to do along the way, sticking mostly to roads that roughly follow their original route.

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Plateau Creek: Spring Runoff from the Grand MesaPlateau Creek: Spring Runoff from the Grand Mesa

Plateau Creek: Spring Runoff from the Grand Mesa

Fleming Point to Big Wash | Average CFS: 1,385
After Work Adventures | Tuesday, May 23, 2023

While Jackson and I were floating through Little Yampa Canyon a few days ago we were talking about where we wanted to go next and decided that it was finally time for us to paddle down Plateau Creek after work this week. This is a creek that is very close to home that we have wanted to check out for quite a long time, but some years it’s hard to catch enough water to make it happen during the short spring runoff window. This year happens to be one of those rare years where there is enough water up on the Grand Mesa to get on Plateau Creek for an extended period of time and we wanted to take advantage of that opportunity. We left from work, dropped off a car at the mouth of Big Wash, where we planned to take-out, and then drove up the canyon a couple more miles to a put-in just below Fleming Point.

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Big WashBig Wash

Big Wash

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Recently I’ve been trying to get out on more hikes in the evening after work before the days start getting too short for that. Today I was looking for something close to home without too much elevation gain and settled on hiking up Big Wash which is located a short distance up Plateau Creek from I-70 along the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway. Big Wash drains part of the west side of the Grand Mesa starting up near Chalk Mountain and joins Plateau Creek just upstream from the Colorado River. It turned out to be a nice easy canyon hike with a trickle of water flowing through the canyon. While the water was nice to listen to as I hiked, it made for some very slick mud. I had to hop across rocks through many parts of the canyon to avoid the slippery mud. There were a couple of easy obstacles to scramble up and bypass, I just had to make sure to avoid the poison ivy at one of the bypasses. The hike ended at an overhanging waterfall inside a large wet alcove. I didn’t see a way around it so I turned around and headed back down. Here are a few photos from the short hike.

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