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Tag: waterfalls

Beating the Heat in the San Juan Mountains

Saturday & Sunday, June 23-24, 2012

After spending a few hours in the morning at the Shavano Valley Petroglyph Park near Montrose, we continued driving into the San Juan Mountains to get out of the heat for the weekend. Shortly after crossing over Red Mountain Pass we turned down the road along the South Fork of Mineral Creek and found a campsite for the weekend. After setting up our camp we drove through Silverton and made our way up Cunningham Gulch to the trailhead for the Highland Mary Lakes. As soon as we passed through Silverton the valley started filling up with smoke, and by the time we reached the Cunningham Trailhead the smoke had become pretty thick and there was even a little ash falling from the sky. We would later learn this smoke was from a wildfire that had started near Mancos.

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Gray Copper Gulch

Saturday & Sunday, June 16-17, 2012

Amanda has been wanting to get back into the mountains for a while, so that’s where we went this weekend. Saturday morning we left the heat of the Grand Valley behind and drove up into the San Juan Mountains. Back in 2009 I visited an area called Gray Copper Gulch situated between the Red Mountains and Brown Mountain. I have wanted to get back up there again to take some new photos and figured this weekend would be a great time. After driving through Ouray we drove over Corkscrew Pass and then into Gray Copper Gulch. We found a nice campsite between a few of the ponds that I wanted to photograph.

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The Needles & Indian Creek

Sunday, May 6, 2012

After a nice night sleeping along Indian Creek, I was awake again the break of dawn and having some breakfast. I packed up camp and then headed back into The Needles for another day of exploring. I was soon driving the rough road over Elephant Hill into the heart of the Needles. I ended up doing a little hiking and searching for some new rock art sites as I explored this beautiful area once again.

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Backpacking Big Dominguez Canyon

Saturday & Sunday, April 28-29, 2012

I’m proud to say that I have finally gone on my very first backpacking trip. I’ve been collecting gear for the past few months and finally scheduled a trip with my friend Jackson and his dad. Since this was my first time, I wanted to keep the trip shorter and closer to home…kind of like a trial run to see how it all went. I’m happy to report that everything went well, and I’m looking forward to my next backpacking trip in the future.

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Rifle Falls State Park

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Since Amanda was off this weekend, I let her decide where we would be going on Saturday. She chose Rifle Falls State Park since neither of us had been there before and it’s a place we have both wanted to visit. We have driven past the park before, but always avoided it because it just seemed so busy. It’s a pretty small park located along Rifle Creek which flows down from the Flat Tops, but it has a nice waterfall, a few short hiking trails, and a small campground.

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