// Adventures and Photography from the Colorado Plateau, Rocky Mountains & Beyond
Colorado National Monument | Friday, October 23, 2015
After a few days of rainy weather in the Grand Valley the storms finally started to clear out of the area today, so I decided to drive up into the Colorado National Monument after work to take some photos around sunset. It’s always a great way to spend a couple of hours.
1 CommentSunday, October 18, 2015
For most of the day we had an overcast sky with the occasional light rain shower here in the Grand Valley, but as it got later in the afternoon the clouds started to break up a bit and the chances of a nice sunset were looking good. I decided to head out with my camera and take a drive through the Colorado National Monument on Rim Rock Drive so I could take a few photos from the overlooks until sunset. The late afternoon light breaking through the clouds turned out to be pretty nice at times. When I reached the Book Cliffs View near the Visitor’s Center and campground I decided to finally climb to the summit of Saddlehorn (5,770) nearby. It was a short and easy climb, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and am happy that I can finally cross it off my list. Here are a few photos from my evening along Rim Rock Drive.
2 CommentsSaturday, December 6, 2014
In a recent conversation with a Facebook friend, he mentioned to me that there might be some rock art located along the Little Dolores River between two parcels of private property. After doing some research on the property boundaries and finding that access would probably be possible by hiking down Toms Canyon, I mapped a possible route on Google Earth that avoided all private property and stayed on BLM land to the area. The only concern I had left was finding an access point down into Toms Canyon from the rim. I had found a spot on Google Earth that looked good, but would not know for sure until I was there and checked it out for myself. On Saturday morning I decided to head up and give this hike a shot. After stopping at the Visitor Center in the Colorado National Monument to pick up a calendar that features one of my photos, I continued up through Glade Park to the Little Dolores Road and took it almost to it’s end at the private property. I turned off on a side road that lead to a campsite and started hiking from there. First, I had to climb to a short pass on a faint trail that gave me a nice view down into Toms Canyon. The faint trail I followed up to the pass pretty much ended there and I had to bushwhack through the steep and rocky wash on the way down into Toms Canyon. There was one rocky ledge that I thought was going to stop me and prevent me from going further, but after a little searching I managed to find a way down. It turns out that the route I had planned in Google Earth worked out perfectly. Once I was down in Toms Canyon the hiking was much easier and I followed some well-used cow trails.
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