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Tag: rock art

Upper – Lower Muley Twist Canyon

Upper – Lower Muley Twist Canyon

Canyons of the Waterpocket Fold | Sunday, February 28, 2021

I guess I didn’t get enough of the Waterpocket Fold two weeks ago when I spent my birthday weekend in Capitol Reef National Park, so on Sunday morning I stopped to hike through another canyon carved into the sandstone monocline on my way home since I happened to be driving right past the trailhead along the Burr Trail. After spending Saturday around the King Bench with Dennis and Chris, I left early from camp so I could hike into the upper end of Lower Muley Twist Canyon before driving home. Diane and I had missed this section of the canyon last year since we started at The Post Cutoff Trail to make a loop. I wasn’t expecting this section of the canyon to be as nice as the lower end, and it wasn’t, but it was still much nicer than I thought it was going to be and I ended up taking a lot of photos along the way since the light was nice.

CONTINUE READINGUpper – Lower Muley Twist Canyon
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Across the King Bench: Horse Canyon to The Gulch

Across the King Bench: Horse Canyon to The Gulch

Canyons of the Escalante | Friday – Saturday, February 26-27, 2021

This weekend I met up with my friends Dennis and Chris inside of the Circle Cliffs west of the Waterpocket Fold so we could explore a few more Canyons of the Escalante. Over the winter Dennis and I had spoken about getting together for a hike sometime this spring since it had been a while, and he told me about his plans to hike over into The Gulch from Horse Canyon using an old stock trail to get up onto the King Bench. This sounded like a great idea to me, especially since I had never driven the road into Horse Canyon before since it used to be an ‘Administrative Road’ in the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument, so we made plans to meet up the last weekend of February for the hike.

CONTINUE READINGAcross the King Bench: Horse Canyon to The Gulch
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Lower Courthouse Wash Loop

Lower Courthouse Wash Loop

Arches National Park | Friday & Saturday, February 19-20, 2021

This weekend I wanted to take it a little easier and to be home on Sunday since I’ve been out in the backcountry every weekend this year, and there were a few things I needed to get done around the house. Since I needed to stay closer to home I thought that this would be a good opportunity to finally hike through Lower Courthouse Wash in Arches National Park before the park really starts to get busy in a couple of weeks. Although I’ve hiked into Upper Courthouse Wash a couple of times before, the lower stretch of the canyon had eluded me on two occasions I tried to hike it in the past, which were both about ten years ago now! Both of those times I was turned back by deep water crossings when I was not prepared to get my feet wet, so this time I made sure I came prepared to get wet if I needed to.

CONTINUE READINGLower Courthouse Wash Loop
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Weekend Wandering Along the Waterpocket Fold

Weekend Wandering Along the Waterpocket Fold

Canyons of the Waterpocket Fold | Another Birthday Weekend in Capitol Reef National Park
President’s Day Weekend | Friday – Monday, February 12-15, 2021

I guess you could say I have a love for exploring the long sandstone monoclines that are found on the Colorado Plateau. I’ve already spent some quality time along Comb Ridge and the San Rafael Reef this year, so I figured it was about time I got back to the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef National Park. Aside from last year, I typically spend the three-day holiday weekend after my birthday in Capitol Reef, so this seemed like the perfect time to get back again this year! I left straight from work on Friday afternoon and headed west into Utah. The sunset was looking like it was going to be good shortly after I passed through Green River, so I turned off onto the Old Highway 24 between the San Rafael River and Green River to take a few photos.

CONTINUE READINGWeekend Wandering Along the Waterpocket Fold
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Canyons of the San Rafael Reef

Canyons of the San Rafael Reef

Black Dragon Wash to Ernie Canyon
Friday – Sunday, January 29-31, 2021

Over the past couple of years I’ve spent a weekend in January exploring the canyons of the San Rafael Reef at the edge of the San Rafael Swell just west of Green River. I guess I’ve continued to do this each year because it’s an easy drive from home and it doesn’t really matter if there is snow on the ground or not. Plus, it’s just a great place to explore anytime! With this weekend being the last one in January and the weather looking good, I thought that it would be nice to keep up the tradition and headed back to the San Rafael Reef! As usual, I left right from work on Friday afternoon and drove west on I-70 until I reached the San Rafael Reef. Just before driving through Spotted Wolf Canyon on the interstate, I took a side road to the north and found a place to camp near the mouth of Black Dragon Canyon. For a brief time there was a little light snow that fell, but it didn’t stick and stopped just as quickly as it had started. As soon as the clouds dissipated the light from the Wolf Moon filled the canyon.

CONTINUE READINGCanyons of the San Rafael Reef
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