Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: snow

Upper Pollock Canyon

Liberty Bell Arch
Sunday, May 10, 2015

After spending the last two weekends backpacking in Grand Gulch I needed to spend a more relaxing weekend at home so I could start preparing for an upcoming trip on the San Juan River later this week. It had rained on and off all day on Saturday, but it looked like things might start finally clearing up on Sunday morning and I wanted to get out for at least one local hike this weekend. A few weeks back when I had hiked into the East Fork of Pollock Canyon I had run into Steve Obser, another local hiker, who had mentioned a nice arch in the upper section of the canyon that is known as Liberty Bell Arch (I have recently seen this same arch called Pollock Arch and Picture Window Arch). I thought that this arch might make for a nice destination this morning, so I decided to hike into the upper Pollock Canyon for a little exploring. After looking at my maps, it looked like hiking up the trail through Flume Creek Canyon and then crossing over the saddle at the far end of the Pollock Bench would be the shortest route into the upper canyon, so that’s the way I went. It was a pretty straight-forward hike and got me where I wanted to go, though I’m not really sure if it saved me much distance or elevation gain. I ended up hiking about 9.3 miles round trip this morning.

4 Comments

Foggy Morning at the Monument

Saturday, April 18, 2015

After a storm moved through western Colorado and left a lot of precipitation behind the past few days it looked like it was going to finally clear this morning, so I woke up early and drove up to the Colorado National Monument shortly before sunrise to take a few photos. I never did get the sunrise that I was hoping for, but the valley below was filled with low clouds and fog which is always fun to watch and photograph.

3 Comments

President’s Day Weekend on Cedar Mesa

Saturday – Monday, February 14-16, 2015

Diane and I spent Valentine’s Day and the long President’s Day weekend on Cedar Mesa for our very first camping trip of the year. We setup our base-camp at the Natural Bridges National Monument campground and enjoyed the beautiful spring-like weather all weekend. The temperature never dropped below freezing at night and was a very comfortable mid-sixties during the day. It was nice hiking weather in the middle of February and a great time to get outside to explore the Colorado Plateau! We spent the weekend revisiting a few ruins and searching remote canyons for new ones. Here are plenty of photos from our weekend adventure!

10 Comments

Mesa Lakes Snowshoeing

Sunday, January 4, 2015

After our trip to northern Arizona earlier in the week, we were looking forward to spending a lazy weekend relaxing at home, but we still felt the need to get outside for some snowshoeing on Sunday. We decided to drive up to Mesa Lakes on the Grand Mesa for a short loop on packed trails. We started following the West Bench Trail past Sunset Lake, then followed Mesa Creek back past the Ranger Station and circled around Sunset Lake to Beaver Lake before returning to the trailhead on the other side of Jumbo Reservoir. It was a nice short loop that got us outside into the snow for a little while.

Leave a Comment

Wave Winter Wonderland

New Year’s Day | Thursday, January 1, 2015

Welcome to my first trip report of 2015, and what an adventure it was! This was a fun trip report to write, not because the photos are necessarily great, but because it was a fun day in unique conditions. This may have been my tenth visit to Coyote Buttes North, but all the snow on the ground made this familiar area feel new and exciting. It’s amazing what difference a couple of days can make. Plus, we were the very first visitors to The Wave in 2015!

14 Comments