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Thanksgiving Weekend with The Ancients

Friday – Sunday, November 27-29, 2015

This year Diane and I spent Black Friday and rest of the Thanksgiving Weekend hiking and searching for ancient ruins and rock art in southeast Utah. Instead of camping at Natural Bridges National Monument like we did last year, this time we based out of a hotel in Blanding. I think it was a good decision since temperatures were a bit colder than I would have preferred, although we were lucky enough not to get any snow over the weekend like they did back home in Grand Junction. We ended up spending time in Montezuma Canyon, Cedar Mesa and along Comb Ridge throughout the weekend. We got to explore new areas and find a few new sites, plus we also revisited some old ones. It was a nice holiday weekend.

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Crack Canyon

Saturday, November 7, 2015

On Saturday morning Diane and I left home early and drove west into Utah to go hiking in the desert. Our destination was Crack Canyon in the San Rafael Reef which is not too far away from the much more popular Little Wild Horse Canyon and Goblin Valley State Park. After getting off the highway and following Temple Mountain Road through the reef, we took the Behind the Reef Road to Crack Canyon and drove down the wash to the Wilderness Study Area boundary. We parked here and started hiking down the canyon. It was a beautiful canyon with interesting tafoni everywhere and a few short sections of narrows. There was nice reflected light bouncing off the canyon walls so I took my time taking plenty of photos along the way. We hiked through the reef until we reached the intersection with the Chute Canyon Trail where we turned around and returned the way we had come. We didn’t see anyone else all afternoon until we were on our way back to the trailhead, and even then we only ran into a family of four and another solo hiker. The high temperature was probably in the low 50’s and it turned out to be a great day for hiking in the canyon!

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McDonald Creek

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Our original plan for today was to visit my geocache on Winter Camp Ridge just outside of Arches National Park and then explore a little more of Lost Spring Canyon. We left home later in the morning and made our way into Utah to the Yellow Cat Road, however we were quickly stopped by slippery mud, quicksand and large cutbanks at a crossing of Pinto Wash from the recent heavy rain. Without a good place to winch from in the area, we decided it was best to turn around and come back another time after the area had more time to dry out. It was time to find something else to do.

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Flash Floods & Fall Colors

Flash Floods & Fall Colors

Southern Utah Wanderings 2015
Monday, October 5, 2015

After a night filled with thunderstorms, I woke up shortly after sunrise on Monday morning to more rain! While I stayed in my tent waiting for a break in the rain, I realized that the rainfly on my tent cot was no longer waterproof. Water had leaked in on both sides of the tent and got a few things wet inside. It looks like I’m going to have to do something about that before using this tent in the rain again. Laying in my tent I was able to hear the sound of rushing water coming from the nearby wash and I could tell that it was flash flooding. As soon as Jared was out of his tent we hopped into my Jeep and went to check out the flash flooding nearby. While many of the drainages around us were flowing, the wash that flows through Horse Canyon was flooding pretty good.

Red Canyon & Wolverine Canyon

Southern Utah Wanderings 2015
Sunday, October 4, 2015

After sleeping in until the sun came up on Sunday morning we had a little breakfast and then decided to hike the Red Canyon Trail since the trailhead was located right in the campground. We weren’t sure how long the trail was, but we knew it couldn’t be too long since we could see where the canyon ended. It turned out to be a pretty easy hike that followed an old road then dropped into the wash that emerged from the mouth of Red Canyon. The trail eventually ended in a large amphitheater caved out of the Waterpocket Fold. When we returned to the trailhead we had hiked a bit over six miles according to my GPS. It was a nice morning hike to get warmed up for the day.

Tag: utah

Thanksgiving Weekend with The Ancients

Crack Canyon

McDonald Creek

Flash Floods & Fall Colors

Red Canyon & Wolverine Canyon