Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: twilight

Golden Cathedral

Southern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
Monday, October 6, 2014

After spending the weekend in The Gulch and then spending Sunday night camped up on the Egypt Bench, we got started hiking in the faint dawn light before sunrise Monday morning from the Egypt trailhead on our way down to Neon Canyon on the other side of the Escalante River. Our main destination for today would be the impressive alcove known as the Golden Cathedral and a few nearby petroglyph panels. From the trailhead we descended the steep sandstone ramp and then hiked cross-country while watching the sun rise before descending into the Escalante River Canyon down a large sand dune.

4 Comments

The Gulch

Southern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
Saturday & Sunday, October 4-5, 2014

On Saturday morning I left for my annual week-long trip into southern Utah. This year I planned to spend the whole week along the canyons of the Escalante River in the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument. I met Jared, who would be joining me for the entire trip, in Boulder and we took off down the Burr Trail to the trailhead for The Gulch. Our plan was to start out with an overnight backpack trip into The Gulch so I could visit a few rock art sites that had been on my radar for a few years.

1 Comment

Fisher Towers & The Dolores River Overlook

Saturday, April 5, 2014

A few weeks ago Diane surprised me by signing us up for a horseback ride at the Hauer Ranch in Professor Valley along the Colorado River. I had casually mentioned to her that it was something I wanted to try but never seemed to get around to, so I’m glad she finally helped me get it set up. Our two-hour ride was scheduled on Saturday morning at 9:00am, so we left early from home and made it with plenty of time to spare. After filling out the required paperwork and then getting on the horses our ride took us east across the highway and followed a shallow wash towards the Fisher Towers. The trail then turned south and climbed a divide between the wash we were in and Onion Creek. Then we followed Onion Creek back towards the Colorado River and ended up at the ranch again. It was a nice ride with great scenery but my knees were really killing me when we made it back to the ranch from being slightly bent the whole time.

2 Comments

Sand Cove & Yellow Rock

Friday – Sunday, January 31 – February 2, 2014

I had another permit to Coyote Buttes North this Saturday, so I decided to spend the weekend down around the Paria. The weather looked like it was going to be pretty nice so I was looking forward to getting in my first camping trip of the year. I only worked a half-day on Friday and then started driving through a snowstorm as I headed south through Utah. I finally got out of the snow shortly after passing through Monticello. I stopped for a quick dinner in Page and then hurried to make it up to the Paria Canyon Overlook in time for sunset. Unfortunately, I didn’t leave myself enough time and made it to the overlook just after the sun had set. I was a little disappointed at first, but soon realized that the canyon looked pretty good in the early twilight. I had originally planned on camping up at the overlook for the night, but it was much windier and colder up here than I had anticipated, so I decided to drive back down to the Stateline Campground for the night. That way I would also be much closer to the Wire Pass trailhead for an early start in the morning.

1 Comment

Christmas in Arches 2013

Christmas Day | Wednesday, December 25, 2013

It’s been a tradition of mine to head down to Arches National Park around Christmas time each year so I can visit the park in the winter. This year I had no holiday plans, so I decided to visit on Christmas Day. I was originally planning on going by myself, but a few weeks before the trip I found out that my friend Yvonne was going to be in Moab over the same time, so we made plans to meet up and do some hiking together.

Leave a Comment