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Rock Art of the San Juan RiverRock Art of the San Juan River

Rock Art of the San Juan River

New Years Weekend | Saturday – Monday, December 31 – January 2, 2023

This year for the extended New Years Weekend Diane and I had hoped to do some hiking and exploring along the Comb Ridge and San Juan River, but thanks to the ‘atmospheric river’ that was impacting the weather across the western United States, those plans had to change since the Butler Wash Road was a muddy mess from all access points and I decided to avoid it. That meant we’d be skipping the Comb Ridge this time and instead would be spending our holiday weekend searching for rock art closer to the San Juan River. Luckily, we were also able to avoid most of the rain and snow on Saturday and Sunday and only encountered a couple light sprinkles while we were out hiking. While I had seen many of these sites before, this was Diane’s first time seeing most of them and we found plenty of new stuff along the way, too! Below are photos of just some of the many petroglyphs we saw this weekend.

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The Summertime Blues: Hiking the Abajo MountainsThe Summertime Blues: Hiking the Abajo Mountains

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!

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Thanksgiving Weekend on Cedar MesaThanksgiving Weekend on Cedar Mesa

Thanksgiving Weekend on Cedar Mesa

Thanksgiving Weekend | Thursday – Sunday, November 28 – December 1, 2019

This year for Thanksgiving Diane and I planned to spend the long holiday weekend searching for ruins and rock art on Cedar Mesa like we usually do at this time of the year. However, this year we had to deal with a winter storm that impacted the area and required us to change our plans on the fly. Although I wasn’t able to hike in the canyons I had originally planned for this trip, we managed to avoid most of the weather and find things to do throughout the weekend. Here are some photos from the weekend in no particular order…

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The Abajo MountainsThe Abajo Mountains

The Abajo Mountains

Southern Utah Wanderings | Fall Colors 2017
Monday, October 2, 2017

After spending the weekend in the northern section of Bears Ears National Monument and Canyonlands National Park, we moved a little further south into the Abajo Mountains (Blue Mountains) so we could get a little peak-bagging in on our trip. Since I’ve hiked the highest peaks in the La Sal Mountains and Henry Mountains, I thought it would be nice to complete the trifecta by reaching the summit of Abajo Peak (11,360), the highest point in the Abajo Mountains. This one is a little easier than the others though, since there is a good road all the way up to the top because of all the towers and antennas up there. Shortly after sunrise we broke down our camp located at the base of the Abajo Mountains and drove up the road to the summit. There were some nice views along the way.

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Sand Canyon to Cedar MesaSand Canyon to Cedar Mesa

Sand Canyon to Cedar Mesa

Monday, October 3, 2016

Even though the weather forecast had predicted a 100% chance of rain for my current location overnight, there were only a few sprinkles that didn’t even manage to get anything wet. I didn’t have any plans for photographing the sunrise this morning, so I woke up when it started to get light out and headed into Cortez for a quick breakfast on my way to the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. I have long wanted to hike up Sand Canyon to checkout the ruins there and figured it was finally time to do so before I continued my journey into Utah.

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