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Tag: ruins

A Needles Tour

Friday – Sunday, October 24-26, 2014

Since Diane and I had a great long weekend in The Maze over Memorial Day weekend I wanted to show her some of my favorite places in The Needles district this weekend so she could experience more of Canyonlands National Park. Plus, I’ve been having a great year in Canyonlands by finally completing the White Rim and backpacking Salt Creek Canyon, so I wanted to keep the momentum going!

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Mesa Verde National Park

Saturday & Sunday, October 18-19, 2014

While Diane usually likes me to plan our weekend adventures, I made her decide where we would be going this weekend since Monday was her birthday. She ended up choosing Mesa Verde National Park because it’s a place she has wanted to visit since she moved here. Her choice worked out well for me because it’s also a place I really haven’t spent much time at before but have wanted to. I have typically avoided Mesa Verde in the past because of the large crowds this popular National Park attracts in the summer, but thought that this might be a good time of the year to try and finally go there. It also worked out perfectly that Saturday was the last day of the season for the guided Balcony House tour, so we would be able to visit that ruin on the last day of the season and not miss out.

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Coyote Gulch

Southern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
Wednesday & Thursday, October 8-9, 2014

Wednesday morning arrived with another beautiful sunrise from our campsite on Fortymile Ridge. Today we would be starting an overnight backpacking trip into Coyote Gulch. This is a popular backpacking destination in the area, and for good reason since it’s a beautiful hike. I had planned to do this hike in the middle of the week so it hopefully wouldn’t be as crowded as a weekend, and I think it ended up working well for us.

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Lower Calf Creek Falls

Southern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
Tuesday, October 7, 2014

After our long hot hike back from the Golden Cathedral on Monday, we decided to make today an easy day and drove back out to the highway so we could hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls. This hike has been on my list for many years, yet I always passed it up for other opportunities because of how crowded this popular trails seems to be. I was determined to finally make it to this classic southern Utah location this week.

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The White Rim

Canyonlands National Park’s 50th Birthday
Friday – Sunday, September 12-14, 2014

So far I’ve had a great year exploring many new areas of Canyonlands National Park. I was finally able to backpack through Salt Creek Canyon in The Needles, which had been a longtime goal of mine and one of the main reasons I started backpacking in the first place. Then I spent a nice weekend in The Maze with Diane and made it to the Maze Overlook and also discovered what a wonderful place Millard Canyon is. We even made it to The Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon on that trip so that Diane was able to view some of the magnificent rock art there for the first time. With all these great trips this year I thought I would try my luck again at completing the White Rim Road in the Island in the Sky, too.

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