Independence Day | Thursday – Friday, July 4-5, 2024
This year Diane was off from work over the Forth of July and following weekend, but since she was having a friend from out of town visit over the weekend she had to be home by Friday afternoon. Still, we wanted to at least get out on a short backpacking trip and decided to go on an overnight hike up into the Mandall Lakes Basin at the eastern end of the Flat Tops Wilderness. We left from home early on Thursday morning and followed the Colorado River up and over to ...
Flat Tops Wilderness | Saturday & Sunday, July 1-2, 2023
Now that Diane is finally finished with school and will hopefully be joining me on more of my weekend trips going forward, we planned to go backpacking into The Flat Tops together over this extended holiday weekend. Although we had originally set out to go on a loop through the Flat Tops Wilderness, for various reasons we ended up altering our plans and only doing an overnight trip up to the Marvine Lakes this time. In hindsight, that’s probably all we should have planned to do in the first place ...
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 ...
Chinese Wall Trail to Lost Lakes Peaks & Skinny Fish Basin
Friday – Sunday, June 18-20, 2021
After spending last weekend on the San Miguel River and then in the Lizard Head Wilderness, I was looking forward to spending some more time in the high country to get away from these 100 degree days in the Grand Valley. Originally, I was planning to hike in the La Sal Mountains this weekend, since that’s where I usually kick off my peak-bagging season, but with the Pack Creek Fire burning in the area I decided it would be best to stay clear ...
Headwaters of the White River | The Flat Tops Wilderness of the White River Plateau
Independence Day Weekend | Friday – Saturday, July 3-4, 2020
After spending the last couple of weekends on the river it was finally time to start heading up into Colorado’s high country for the short summer season! This weekend Diane and I decided to head up to visit the headwaters of the White River in the Flat Tops Wilderness, where I hoped we could find a little solitude over this popular and busy holiday weekend. Although I’ve gone on a few day hikes into the ...
A Long Overdue Return to The Flat Tops
Friday – Sunday, June 22-24, 2018
Earlier this year while planning our Memorial Day weekend trip to Dinosaur National Monument, I was scrolling around a map online and it took off on me in the wrong direction and stopped near a mountain called Sleepy Cat Peak (10,853) in the Flat Tops of Colorado. I had never heard of this peak before, but with a name like that I knew we would have to climb it this summer! After looking online for a little bit more information about the peak I found out ...
Saturday & Sunday, July 3-4, 2010
This weekend Amanda and I headed up into the Flat Tops to explore an area we hadn’t been to yet. We started in Dotsero and headed up Coffee Pot Road, following a number of side roads to see where they went. We made a large loop that brought us next to the Flat Tops Wilderness area and to Adam’s Lake, before making our way back to Heart Lake. We setup camp on the shore of Bison Lake for the night. The next morning we checked out the Grizzly Jeep Trail and then made our ...