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Scarp Ridge: Lake Irwin to the Red Lady

Friday & Saturday, July 11-12, 2025

This weekend I decided to return to the edge of the Elk Mountains near Kebler Pass and the Ruby Range so I could finally finish hiking the trail along Scarp Ridge all the way out to the Red Lady (Mount Emmons) since I was unable to reach the summit a few years ago when I was stopped by an impassable washout of the trail in Evans Basin. I left from work on Friday afternoon, topped off my gas tank in Delta and then made my way over to Kebler Pass and Ohio Pass for the evening. Along the way I took a short detour and stopped to hike the Three Lakes Trail Loop since the last time I had hiked in this area was during the fall of 2009 and I really can’t remember if we hiked the entire loop or just up to Lost Lake and back. It’s a short and easy trail that visits three small lakes and a nice little waterfall at the foot of East Beckwith Mountain.

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Fall Creek: An Overdue Return to the Uncompahgre

Uncompahgre Wilderness | Saturday, June 21, 2025

I can’t believe it’s been almost five years since I last set foot in the Uncompahgre Wilderness, especially since I have always considered it to be one of my favorite Wilderness areas that’s close to home and we used to come here frequently over past Labor Day weekends. I guess I’ve just been too busy concentrating on exploring other areas these past few years. Well, I wanted to change that this summer and get back, so I thought it would be a good idea to go on a short overnight backpacking trip with Diane along Fall Creek since our last visit to that drainage didn’t quite go as planned. Unfortunately, it turned out that we wouldn’t have much better luck this time around either!

Desolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green River

Splitting the Tavaputs Plateau in Two: Sand Wash to Swaseys Beach
Sunday – Saturday, May 11-17, 2025 | Average CFS: 6,665

After getting permits for Yampa Canyon and the Canyon of Lodore over the past two years, Jackson’s and my main goal for this year was to try and get a Spring Low-Use Season permit for the Green River through Desolation Canyon and Gray Canyon as we continue to work our way through more sections of the Colorado River and Green River across the Colorado Plateau. Although Jackson and I have still have never actually won a permit in any of the lotteries we have entered over the years we have been lucky enough to grab permits and cancellations during the general releases after the fact, and this time I managed to get us a permit for Desolation Canyon back in mid-March. Once we had the permit we quickly got started on the planning process since the launch date was only about two months away, but we quickly found out that many of our usual river friends were unable to make the trip this spring. Luckily, our friends Bob and Lisa were able to go and they had a few other friends that they were able to invite on the trip with us, two of whom were very familiar with Desolation Canyon and were a great addition to the trip! In the end I enjoyed rafting with everyone who was on this trip and would invite every single one of them back in a heartbeat!

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Deep Black: The Gunnison Route

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park | Saturday, May 10, 2025

After hiking all of the trails above the rim in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park I’ve been thinking about finally trying one of the Inner Canyon Wilderness routes down to the Gunnison River which have been on my to-do list for a very long time. Although Diane and I backpacked down Red Rock Canyon almost ten years ago, which is definitely the easiest route into the canyon, I’ve been apprehensive about trying the other routes into the canyon since I’m not really a big fan of steep and loose trails, so I have kept putting off trying them. However, when I noticed that the Park was moving the permit system for the South Rim routes onto Recreation.gov earlier this year, I figured it was finally time to grab a permit to try out the Gunnison Route, which is supposed to be the next easiest route into the canyon.

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Flume Creek Canyon Loop

Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness | Wednesday, May 7, 2025

While hiking over the Pollock Bench on my way to the West Fork of Pollock Canyon on Sunday morning I noticed a well-used trail below the rim on the west side of Flume Creek Canyon that I had never hiked before and which wasn’t on any of the maps I looked at. After waiting out some wet weather over the past two days I decided to return after work this afternoon so I could check this trail out. I left from the Pollock Bench Trailhead and followed the trail which contoured below the rim on the west side of Flume Creek Canyon until it joined back up with the Flume 1 Trail a couple of miles up the canyon. Then I followed the main trail back along the rim of the narrows until I was able to descend to the Inner Canyon Trail and follow that back to the trailhead. This turned out to make a nice little 5.5 mile loop that I completed in just under two hours before heading home.

Tag: wilderness

Scarp Ridge: Lake Irwin to the Red Lady

Fall Creek: An Overdue Return to the Uncompahgre

Desolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green River

Deep Black: The Gunnison Route

Flume Creek Canyon Loop