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Celebrating 25 Years: Ouray Ice Festival 2020

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Last year I wasn’t able to make it to the annual Ouray Ice Festival since I was busy exploring the Paria Plateau that weekend instead, but this year I made sure to spend a few hours at the festival on Saturday morning since it’s the 25th Anniversary of the event! I left home early on Saturday morning, grabbed a quick breakfast on my way out of town and arrived at the Ouray Ice Park just in time to watch the beginning of the Elite Mixed Climbing Competition. After watching a few of the ice climbers on the competition route from the bridge, I wandered around the vendor booths and then watched and photographed other climbers on the ice in the Uncompahgre Gorge. I left in the early afternoon and grabbed a Mocha Shake from Mouse’s before heading west into Utah for the remainder of the weekend.

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Snow Day at The Monument

Sunday, January 6, 2019

This weekend Diane and I stayed home and took it easy, but we did take some time on Sunday afternoon to visit the west side of the Colorado National Monument for a couple of hours during a snowstorm. We drove a snow-packed Rim Rock Drive to its closure gate at the Independence Monument Viewpoint and stopped to take a few photos along the way. We only saw a handful of other vehicles up there braving the winter road conditions. I was hoping to hike a few of the shorter trails along the rim of Wedding Canyon near the Visitor Center in the snow, but once we got up into the Monument we found that the clouds were low and there was no view into the canyons. I didn’t want to hike those trails with no views, so we decided to skip them and only hiked the Alcove Nature Trail this time. I think the last time I hiked this short trail was almost ten years ago, so it was nice to finally revisit it.

Ouray Ice Festival 2018

Saturday, January 20, 2018

On Saturday I headed down to Ouray, located at the edge of the San Juan Mountains, to attend the 23rd Annual Ouray Ice Festival. Even though I am not an ice climber, or any other kind of climber for that matter, I have been going to this event for a number of years because it’s fun to watch and photograph the ice climbers, plus it’s not too far from home. According to a member of the Board of Directors for the Ouray Ice Park, this year had the highest attendance of any Ouray Ice Festival to date!

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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.

Clearing Storm at the Colorado National Monument

Sunday, January 27, 2013

By now I’m sure many of my regular readers are tired of seeing photos from the Colorado National Monument. For those of you who might feel that way, I’m sorry to say I have another trip report of photos taken there. Better stop reading now! After spending over five hours photographing the inversion layer in the Monument on Saturday I had no plans to return on Sunday. However, in the afternoon I noticed the clouds that had been hovering over the Grand Valley all day were finally beginning to break up. I couldn’t resist, so I grabbed my camera and drove back up there. I’m glad that I did!

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Tag: winter

Celebrating 25 Years: Ouray Ice Festival 2020

Snow Day at The Monument

Ouray Ice Festival 2018

Christmas in Arches 2013

Clearing Storm at the Colorado National Monument