Trip Reports from the Book Cliffs, Roan Plateau and Cañon Pintado areas in Colorado.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Even though I needed to spend part of today finishing up getting packed and prepared for a week-long river trip down the Canyon of Lodore that I would be leaving for early on Monday, I still wanted to get outside for a couple hours this morning and thought that this would be a good opportunity to return to the Book Cliffs for some further exploring as I checked out a few rock art sites. I had actually tried to explore this part of the Book Cliffs late last month, but was turned back by wet weather ...
Book Cliffs Rock Art VIII | Friday, August 30, 2024
After spending most of Monday hiking with a friend in the San Rafael Swell, we met up again on Friday morning in the Book Cliffs so we could spend a few hours visiting rock art sites along the Old Trappers’ Trail, which was a historic route in eastern Utah that travelled through the Book Cliffs to the Uinta Basin. While much of this rock art is located on private property and some of it is visible from the public road, my friend had secured us permission from the ranch to ...
Saturday & Sunday, June 29 & 30, 2024
This weekend Jackson and I set out to continue what we had started two weeks ago by floating two more sections of the Colorado River close to home as day trips. Last time we had started near New Castle and left off at Parachute, so this weekend we planned to float two more sections from Parachute down to Beavertail Mountain in De Beque Canyon, which is a section of just over 28 miles. Although there was a lot of storm activity in the area this weekend, we made sure to to get ...
Saturday & Sunday, June 15 & 16, 2024
After our recent rafting trip through Cataract Canyon and with an upcoming trip into Westwater Canyon planned for July, Jackson and I are both getting closer to having floated all of the Colorado River from Glenwood Canyon to Lake Powell, but we were still missing a large segment of the river from New Castle to De Beque Canyon. We figured it was about time to start working on this section, especially while the water is still high and moving fast, so this weekend we made plans to float the Colorado River from ...
After Work Adventures | Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Today after work I hopped into my Jeep so I could spend a couple hours in the Book Cliffs on a little After Work Adventure before heading home for the rest of the evening. After leaving work I drove over to Fruita and then followed 16 Road north to the foot of the Book Cliffs where I headed up the road through Coal Gulch and onto Garfield Mesa and Ross Ridge. While I was up there I hiked over to the highpoints of each of them. It’s been over 15 years since ...
Labor Day Weekend | Sunday, September 3, 2023
Last week, after cutting my trip into the High Plateaus of Utah short, I came home on Friday with the intention of heading up into the San Juan Mountains over the weekend, but instead I ended up being lazy and staying home all day Saturday. I didn’t want to stay at home the entire weekend, so on Sunday morning I got up early and headed over to the Little Book Cliffs so I could hike up Main Canyon to it’s junction with Cottonwood Canyon. I had hiked a couple miles up Main ...
Flat Top Mountain, Blair Mountain and the Roan Plateau
Friday – Sunday, June 24-26, 2022
This weekend I planned to spend my time hiking and driving to a couple highpoints of the high mesas and plateaus of Western Colorado, starting with a hike I’ve been looking forward to for a while into the Flat Tops Wilderness on Saturday morning. I left after work on Friday afternoon, grabbed a quick dinner in Glenwood Springs and then followed the Colorado River to Dotsero and McCoy and then took Highway 131 north to Yampa. There were storms in the area this afternoon and ...
Memorial Day Weekend | Friday – Monday, May 28-31, 2021
Book Cliffs Rock Art VI
Last year Diane and I completely skipped going anywhere over the Memorial Day weekend because we didn’t want to deal with the massive COVID-crowds that were out and about at the time, but this year I wanted to get out somewhere close to home while still avoiding the crowds. After poring over maps I decided that the best place for me to go this year would be up into the Book Cliffs. Not only are the Book Cliffs close to home, but I don’t ...
Friday – Sunday, April 30 – May 2, 2021
After spending last weekend backpacking in Salt Creek Canyon I was looking to take it a little easier this weekend, especially since that trip didn’t start out so great. I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to go, but I did know that I was done with driving through Moab this season and didn’t want to deal with that traffic again for a while. Late in the week I made a last minute decision to head north to Dinosaur National Monument and planned to spend my time in the eastern portion ...
Sunday, November 4, 2018
For a change, Diane and I actually stayed home this weekend! It seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve done that! We went for a bike ride along the Colorado River on a new section of the Riverfront Trail on Saturday and then went on a hike on the Hoodoo Trail in the Little Book Cliffs on Sunday morning. Since rain was predicted for the early afternoon we got an early start so we would hopefully be finished with the hike by the time it arrived. I had hoped the nice clouds in the ...
Friday & Sunday, September 15 & 17, 2017
After hiking to the summit of Corcoran Point from the Tellerico Trail in the Book Cliffs two years ago, I got a nice view of Corcoran Peak (8,076) and thought it would be a good peak close to home to try climbing another time. Since we were staying around home this weekend to go to a concert on Saturday, I thought it would be a good idea to head out to the Little Book Cliffs after work on Friday, catch the sunset, spend the night and then climb Corcoran Peak on Saturday ...
Saturday, December 3, 2016
To be honest, our goal for the day was not really to hike to Rifle Arch. Recently, I had learned about a pizza place in New Castle called Hogback Pizza that was supposed to have a good Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza. Since I left the Chicago area I have not been able to find a good stuffed pizza in Colorado and I wanted to see just how good theirs really was. (It turned out to be the best stuffed pizza I have found outside of the Chicago area.) However, I did not want to drive to ...
North Soda Trail
Sunday, November 20, 2016
This afternoon I headed back into the Book Cliffs to hike to the summit of an unnamed peak above the Grand Valley. I’ve been trying to spend more time in the Book Cliffs this year (Mount Lincoln, Main Canyon, Tellerico Trail) and wanted to try and get back there one last time before the winter weather really sets in for the season. While the trail I hiked is most commonly referred to as the North Soda Trail (it eventually connects to the North Soda Road on top), I’m going to refer to it ...
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
I was originally planning to hike to another summit in the Book Cliffs after work this evening, but based on the weather forecast I decided to change my plans and went hiking through Main Canyon within the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Area instead. This turned out to be a good choice since I got caught in a couple of fast-moving storms that produced plenty of lightning while I was in the canyon. I ended up hiking almost 4 miles up Main Canyon from the trailhead and then returned the same way, making it back to ...
Labor Day | Monday, September 5, 2016
Since we ended up cutting our backpacking trip in the Uncompahgre Wilderness short by a day, I was free to go on an evening hike on the Tellerico Trail in the Book Cliffs for the Labor Day holiday. This trail has long been on my to-do list of local hikes and it was finally time to get out and do it. I figured that since the trail came very near to Corcoran Point (7,352) at the top, it would make a good destination to turn around at. Part of the reason I chose ...
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
I see Mount Lincoln (No, not that Mount Lincoln!) almost every day since it stands above the Little Book Cliffs at the east end of the Grand Valley between Mount Garfield (6,765) and the Grand Mesa. It’s not very far from home and I have wanted to climb it for years, but for some reason I never seemed to get around to it. Last week I finally decided to give it a shot from the Stagecoach Trail in Palisade, but ended up changing my plans based on the weather that evening.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2016
To be honest, I didn’t really plan on hiking the Stagecoach Trail today. When I left my house after work this afternoon to go on a hike I had my sights set on visiting the summit of Mount Lincoln using a short section of the Stagecoach Trail for access. However, as I climbed the trail towards the top of the Little Book Cliffs, dark clouds developed and moved in over the Grand Valley along with a little rain and a few distant rumbles of thunder, so I decided it would probably be best to skip the ...
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
It’s been a few years since I’ve hiked to the summit of Mount Garfield in the Little Book Cliffs, so I thought it would be a good idea to head up there after work today and revisit for sunset. Unfortunately, as I reached the second bench before the final climb to the top, a big storm came across the valley and I decided it was time to head back down. Not only was there a lot of lightning, I was also concerned about hiking back down the steep clay if it got wet since that stuff ...
Friday the 13th | Friday, March 13, 2015
This evening it looked like there might be a really nice sunset over the Grand Valley so I hopped into my Jeep and took a quick drive into the North Desert at the base of the Little Book Cliffs to take a few photos. It was a good decision since there were nice clouds over Mount Garfield and the Grand Mesa when the sun set.
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Monday, October 17, 2011
Living in Grand Junction, I see Mount Garfield towering above the Grand Valley almost every day. Every now and then I think to myself that I should finally hike up to the summit, but since I usually seem to spend most of my time exploring Southern Utah, I always put it off. Finally, I decided to stop putting it off and set a date to hike it before the days got too short this year. My friend Jackson was supposed to join me on this hike, but he got sick and ended up not going, so ...
Monday, August 1, 2011
I made a last minute decision this evening to head on over to the Book Cliffs to try and photograph the sunset. Shortly before sunset I hopped in my Jeep and drove north to the base of the Book Cliffs until I found a spot I liked. Then I hiked up the foothills a short distance to get a higher vantage point. Finally, I waited for the sun to take care of the rest. Here’s three photos I took before heading home in the dark.
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Saturday, June 25, 2011
On Saturday I was hoping to spend around half the day with Amanda exploring the area around Rangely, Colorado. We were planning on revisiting a few rock art sites and maybe trying to find a few new ones, too. Unfortunately, we ended up cutting the trip short because the biting gnats were just unbearable. Once we got out of the Jeep we would have a few minutes (if we were lucky) until they found us and swarmed around us. We were wearing bug spray, but it didn’t help at all. After our first stop at the ...
Sunday, December 5, 2010
On Sunday I decided to stay close to home and re-visit some of the rock art in the Canyon Pintado National Historic District. Here’s a few photos from my day…
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Sunday, June 20, 2010
On Sunday we headed up near the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Area to visit a small area known as The Goblins.
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Sunday, July 19, 2009
After our short trip over Baxter Pass, we spent some time visiting a few rock art sites in the Canyon Pintado National Historic District before driving back home. The first site we stopped at was the Waving Hands site.
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Sunday, July 19, 2009
Since we were busy yesterday morning and too lazy to head out the rest of the day, we decided to drive over Baxter Pass today for a few hours. Here’s a few photos from our morning.
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