After Work Adventures | Monday & Tuesday, August 19 & 20, 2024
I’m planning on getting out into the desert this upcoming weekend, so I thought it might be a good idea to go for a hike or two in the afternoon this week to try to get used to the heat, so I headed out to check out some of the trails near the Little Park Trailhead in the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area after work on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday I made a short loop combining the Good Vibes Trail, Snakeskin Trail and the First Flats Trail and ...
After Work Adventures | Monday, July 15, 2024
Today I spent all day up on the Grand Mesa for work as we inspected three of the City’s largest dams with a drone. The project took us most of the day and since we finished around the time I would usually be heading home form work, I decided to stick around for a while to get a little hiking in on a segment of the Palisade Plunge Trail before I headed home for the evening.
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After Work Adventures | Tuesday, July 9, 2024 | Average CFS: 3,860
This afternoon Jackson and I headed out after work to go for a short float with our packrafts on the Colorado River from the Palisade Rim Trailhead to the Riverbend Park in Palisade. As we get very close to floating all of the Colorado River from Glenwood Canyon to Lake Powell, this was one of the few remaining sections of the river left for both of us. The water level of the river has dropped quickly and significantly over the past week, so it was moving a little ...
After Work Adventures | Monday, July 1, 2024
I was originally planning to head up Lands End Road onto the Grand Mesa after work today so I could hike a section of the Palisade Plunge Trail, but as I was driving southeast on US 50 I saw some lightning in the direction I was headed and thought it would be best to turn around and come back another time when the weather was better. Instead, I returned to town and headed over to the Third Flats area of the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area where I hiked a short loop combining ...
After Work Adventures | Friday, June 14, 2024
This weekend I was going to be staying close to home so I could spend a little time on the Colorado River, but since a cold font had come through the area and dropped temperatures significantly for the day, I thought it would be a good idea to head over to the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area after work so I could go for a scenic drive on the Smith Mountain Jeep Road and hike to a couple of highpoints along the way. After leaving work on Friday afternoon I drove over ...
After Work Adventures | Friday, June 7, 2024
After finishing my last hike at the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park two weekends ago, that left me with only one short trail in the entire park that I had not hiked yet, along with maybe a couple of other short walks to overlooks that I could not remember if I had ever been out to before, though I most likely had a long time ago. Since I was going to be in the area to start driving the Rimrocker Trail from Montrose to Moab on ...
After Work Adventures | Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Just like last week, I headed over to the Third Flats area after work this afternoon so I could hike a new trail to a highpoint on Horse Mesa, and also just like last week, I ended up changing those plans because of threatening storms in the area. After leaving work and driving up Little Park Road into the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area, I drove down the Third Flats Road all the way to the Gunnison River near the mouth of Billings Canyon and was hoping to hike up to the top ...
After Work Adventures | Tuesday & Wednesday, May 14 & 15, 2024
On Tuesday afternoon I left work with the intention of hiking a pair of trails in the Third Flats area to the highpoint of Horse Mesa. Although there were storms in the area, it seemed like they were going to miss the Grand Valley so I didn’t worry too much about them at the time. I drove up Little Park Road into the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area and then followed the Billings Canyon Road to the start of the Saddle Up Trail and started hiking. However, as soon ...
After Work Adventures | Tuesday, April 23, 2024
As I’ve been trying to hike more local trails during the week, I realized that I had not hiked much of Rough Canyon within the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area and thought it was finally time to remedy that oversight after work today. So this afternoon I drove up to the Bangs Canyon Trailhead and started hiking down Rough Canyon from where it splits off from the more popular Mica Mine Trail. I mistakenly thought this was going to be an easy hike along a good trail the entire way, but there turned ...
After Work Adventures | Friday, April 19, 2024
Since I was going to be staying closer to home this weekend so Diane and I could go to a concert on Saturday night, I decided to head out after work on Friday for a late afternoon hike on part of the Zion Curtain Trail to a highpoint in the Utah Rims area just west of the state line and Rabbit Valley. After driving west into Utah on the old 6 & 50 Highway, I headed south on a narrow Jeep track to the rim of the mesa above McDonald Creek and ...
