Heart of the World | Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Well, here it is! This is my last hike in the Colorado National Monument for my Heart of the World project and I managed to finish them all up before the end of the year! To be honest, I did have some time when I could have completed this final hike in November, but I purposely waited until December so I could get in a hike during each month of the year, which wasn’t a goal when I initially started this project back on New Years Day, but it just kind ...
Colorado National Monument | Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Last week when I was hiking up the Fruita Dugway in the Colorado National Monument, I noticed a bench just above Kodels Canyon and below Kodels Point that looked like it might be an interesting place to hike, and since I’m always looking for new places to explore close to home I decided to check it out after work today. I started out by hiking up the Fruita Dugway from the Historic Trails Viewpoint along Rim Rock Drive and then left the trail to make my way around the head of Kodels ...
Heart of the World | Wednesday, November 19, 2025
I was hoping to get out hiking at least once between storm systems this week and finally made a last minute decision to head out to hike up the Fruita Dugway right after work today. Although this may not be an ‘official’ trail within the Colorado National Monument, I still wanted to include it in my Heart of the World project because not only is it a historic route through the area, it’s also probably my favorite hike in all of the Monument. I started the hike from the Kodels Canyon ...
Colorado National Monument | Tuesday, November 11, 2025
After returning home from Bryce Canyon National Park earlier in the afternoon I went outside to warm up and relax in our hot tub after dark when I looked up and noticed that the sky was looking a bit reddish with a little green coloring just above the horizon. I remembered reading something online earlier in the day about there being a chance to see the Northern Lights in Colorado this evening, but we are bombarded by so many of those stories these days that turn out to be false, I thought ...
Heart of the World | Thursday, November 6, 2025
As it’s getting closer to the end of the year and I’m getting very close to completing all of the trails for my Heart of the World project in the Colorado National Monument, I thought today would be a good day to hike the Old Gordon Trail right after work. While this has never really been one of my favorite trails in the Monument, which is probably why I haven’t hiked the entire trail since 2011, that’s part of the reason I started this project and I was a little interested ...
Heart of the World | Sunday, October 26, 2025
After spending Saturday morning hiking a big loop in the Colorado National Monument that combined Ute Canyon and Monument Mesa, I returned again early on Sunday morning to hike a shorter loop near Gold Star Canyon from the White Rocks Trailhead. This time I would combine the Mushroom Rock Trail, Gold Star Canyon Trail, Bench Trail and Fenceline Trail to create a nice little 6-7 mile loop and end up back at the White Rocks. I started hiking up onto the Precambrian Bench at dawn and was able to make it ...
Heart of the World | Saturday, October 25, 2025
Even though I had to skip my annual Southern Utah Wanderings with Jared for the first time in about fourteen years, I am hoping to get back to my regular schedule of weekend adventures in the near future, but before I do I need to make sure that Diane is back to 100%, so in the meantime I will try to get out on some local hikes when I can. This weekend I had some time on Saturday to go on a local hike and decided to continue working on my ...
Colorado National Monument | Sunday, September 14, 2025
This weekend Diane wanted to hike the Wedding Canyon Loop in the Colorado National Monument with me on Sunday morning since we might not be able to hike together again for a little while, so I planned to stay close to home so we could do that. Although I was originally planning to spend Saturday morning hiking in the mountains near Ouray, the weather forecast wasn’t looking good and I changed my mind after work on Friday and decided to just stay home and work on my 4Runner instead. This was probably ...
Heart of the World | Wednesday, September 10, 2025
I had some time to continue working on my Heart of the World project after work today and decided it was time to cross the Serpents Trail off the list. It’s been a long time since I hiked the Serpents Trail in the Colorado National Monument and I honestly don’t even remember when the last time was, but I would guess it’s been at least eight to ten years now? It’s interesting to think about because there was a time when I hiked this trail pretty regularly to stay in shape, ...
Heart of the World | Monday, August 18, 2025
Although I was running short on time as we prepared to spend the latter part of this week up in Wyoming, this afternoon was probably going to be my only opportunity to squeeze in an August hike in the Colorado National Monument for my Heart of the World project that I’ve been working on completing this year. So after work I waited until about 5:00pm in the evening, hoping the temperature would start to cool off a little, and then headed off to the Devils Kitchen Trailhead just inside the East ...
