Trip Reports from the West End and Uncompahgre Plateau including the Dominguez-Escalante and McInnis Canyons National Conservation Areas.
Trip Reports from the Colorado National Monument can be found here: Colorado National Monument Trip Reports
After Work Adventures | Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Well, it’s been almost a full month since I went on my last After Work Adventure, delayed because of weather interruptions and extended weekend trips, so I was looking forward to getting back out to the Kokopelli Trails this afternoon. I’m getting very close to completing my project of hiking all of the trails in the system and the Hawkeye Trail is the only complete trail left that I have not hiked before, mainly because it wasn’t opened until April of 2017. I left straight from work and made my way over ...
After Work Adventures | Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Well, I was originally planning to go hiking after work yesterday, but the weather didn’t cooperate with those plans and today was looking no better, but as I was leaving work this afternoon the conditions seemed to be pretty nice for a short hike, so I took my chances and headed back over to the Kokopelli Trails near Loma. I returned to the Lions Trailhead so I could hike a four-mile loop of the upper and lower Moore Fun Trail. Although I have hiked the main Moore Fun Trail from both sides ...
After Work Adventures | Tuesday, January 30, 2024
After taking the winter off from my After Work Adventures it’s finally starting to feel like the days are getting a little bit longer, and since the temperature has been in the low 60’s for the past two days, which set a record high for todays date, I decided to head out after work for a little hike. I headed back over to the Kokopelli Trails near Mack so I could continue working on the project I had started in the fall of hiking the remainder of the trails in the area ...
After Work Adventures | Thursday & Tuesday, November 16 & 21, 2023
After hiking the Lion’s Loop Trail to its junction with the Troy Built Loop on Tuesday, I thought it might be a good idea to return to the Kokopelli Loops after work on Thursday afternoon so I could finish hiking the Troy Built Trail, especially since a storm had just moved through the area earlier in the day and left some nice clouds in the sky. I thought that there had been enough time for the road to the top of Mack Ridge to dry out, but as ...
After Work Adventures | Tuesday, November 14, 2023
After work this afternoon I returned for the third straight week in a row to the Kokopelli Loops on Mack Ridge so I could hike yet another section of the Kokopelli Trail. This time I started out from the Lions Trailhead between Loma and Mack and followed the Lion’s Loop Trail for about three miles to it’s junction with the Troy Built Trail and then returned the way I had come. This trail followed a bench above the Colorado River in Horsethief Canyon which offered some nice views along the way, especially ...
After Work Adventures | Tuesday, November 7, 2023
After hiking the western ends of Mary’s Loop and the Wrangler Trail last week on Halloween, I returned to the Kokopelli Loops right after work today so I could finish hiking the eastern ends of both of those trails. Even though we just had the Daylight Savings Time change over the weekend and afternoon sunlight would be limited, I figured that this loop would be short enough and I would be able to squeeze it in before sunset. I started my hike near the Kokopelli Trailhead and followed the Wrangler Loop to ...
After Work Adventures: Halloween Edition | Tuesday, October 31, 2023
With the Daylight Savings Time change coming up this weekend, I wanted to get out for one more longer hike after work this week before it really starts getting dark early and I thought it would be a good idea to head on over to the Kokopelli Loop Trails in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area located between Loma and Mack. Although I have hiked and mountain biked about half the trails in this system over the years, there are still some I have not been on before and I ...
After Work Adventures | Tuesday, September 5, 2023
This morning as I was leaving home on my way to work I noticed that there was a coolness to the air that I haven’t felt for a couple of months down in the Grand Valley. It certainly felt like fall is finally on the way! Since the temperature stayed nice throughout the rest of the day I thought it would be a great afternoon to go for a local hike when I got out of work. I stopped home at lunch to grab my hiking gear and then left from work ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness | Average CFS: 3,390
Sunday – Tuesday, August 13-15, 2023
After having a great season on the rivers this spring, I realized that I had not been on a float trip through Ruby – Horsethief since 2016 and was long overdue for a return, so Jackson and I planned a late summer trip down this local stretch of the Colorado River for late August and were able to secure camping permits for two nights. Besides inviting a couple of close friends along, Diane was also going to be joining us on this trip with ...
Dominguez Canyon Wilderness | Sunday, June 18, 2023
After spending Saturday floating through The Chute of Muddy Creek, I was originally planning to spend Sunday morning hiking in the Raggeds Wilderness of the Elk Mountains. However, once I realized that Colorado Highway 133 was still closed before Somerset and didn’t feel like driving the long way around, I cancelled those plans. Instead, I decided to stay closer to home and went for a morning hike to the summit of Triangle Mesa in the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness.
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Wednesday, April 26, 2023
This afternoon I headed out to the edge of Rabbit Valley on another After Work Adventure so I could hike hike around the rim of Rabbits Ear Mesa and enjoy the expansive views above the Colorado River and Ruby Canyon. I haven’t hiked the Rabbits Ear Trail since 2015 and was looking forward to returning since every time I drive by on I-70, which is pretty frequently, I think to myself that I should go back and hike it again. Of course, all throughout the day there were nice clouds in the sky, but as soon ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness | Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Well, just like last year it appears that I’ve been slacking on my After Work Adventures again this spring, but part of the reason for that is the wet weather we had been having around here for a while. To remedy this situation I decided to head out after work this afternoon for a repeat hike of the High Trail in the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness since it’s one I’ve been wanting to get back to for a while now. During the day I almost cancelled the hike since ...
Saturday, May 7, 2022 | Average CFS: 2,635
This weekend I was looking to stay local and to get back on the river for the first time this season, so I made plans with my friend Jackson to float a section of the Gunnison River along the northeastern edge of the Uncompahgre Plateau from Escalante Creek to Bridgeport on Saturday morning- assuming the windy weather we’ve been having across the Southwest would cooperate! Although I have floated this section of the Gunnison River once before back in 2009, that time I tagged along with a friend in his raft and ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness | Tuesday, April 19, 2022
I’ve really been slacking on my After Work Adventures for a while now and had really hoped to change that this spring, but so far I haven’t got out for one hike during the week this year. Well, that finally changed today when I left after work and headed back up into the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness to search for the Edna Mine, which is an old Uranium mine found near the head of Devils Canyon that was active during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The temperature was into the ...
Easter Weekend | Sunday, April 17, 2022
This year on Easter morning Diane and I woke up before sunrise with plans to go on a longer hike together into the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness, but shortly after leaving home we changed our minds and decided take it easy and do something shorter and easier instead, which turned out to be a good decision since it was very humid out! Instead, we headed over to the Kodels Canyon Trailhead and hiked a couple of the short interconnecting front-country trails to an outcropping of colorful Entrada sandstone located on the bench between ...
The Edge of the Uncompahgre Plateau | Friday & Saturday, April 15-16, 2022
This weekend I needed to stay closer to home to get some work done on my Jeep and around the house, so I turned my attention to the Camel Back Wilderness Study Area at edge of the Uncompahgre Plateau between Delta and Montrose. Last spring I had planned to hike up Roubideau Creek after visiting the Devil’s Thumb, but the water was just too high at the time, so I thought I would give that hike another try on Saturday morning. After leaving work on Friday afternoon ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness: Bulwark Arch & Arete Arch
Saturday & Sunday, April 2-3, 2022
This weekend I needed to stay close to home since I’m going to be leaving on a trip to The Maze in a couple of days, so Diane and I decided to head out on a local overnight backpacking trip into the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness to visit a couple more arches located on the benches high above Mee Canyon. We slept in a bit late on Saturday morning, had a good breakfast, and then drove up through Glade Park to the Knowles ...
The Edge of the Uncompahgre Plateau: Dominguez Canyon Wilderness
Friday – Saturday, March 25-26, 2022
This weekend I needed to stay close to home since Diane and I had tickets to a pair of concerts in town, so I decided to do a little exploring in the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness at the edge of the Uncompahgre Plateau on Saturday morning. Since I wasn’t going to be travelling far, I stopped home for a little bit after work on Friday and then made my way over to Escalante Canyon to spend the night. After fording Escalante Creek I drove up the ...
San Miguel Canyon: Beaver Creek to the Piñon Green Truss Bridge
Saturday, June 12, 2021 | Average CFS: 608
Unfortunately, this is only the first river trip of the year for me, and it feels long overdue! I was really hoping to get in a few more river trips this spring, but thanks to the dismal snowpack and poor spring runoff, things just haven’t worked out for me this year. The smaller desert rivers that I wanted to float did not have enough water and I did not win any permits from the lotteries this year, so lately I have ...
Adobe Badlands Wilderness Study Area & Roubideau Creek
Friday & Saturday, May 7-8, 2021
Next week Diane actually has a full week off from school between semesters and we are planning on spending that time in northern Arizona and New Mexico so she can get away from studying for a little bit. Since I still have a lot to do around the house to prepare for that trip I didn’t want to stray too far away from home this weekend, so I decided I would just head out for a quick and easy overnight trip to explore the Adobe Badlands ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness
Sunday, June 7, 2020
This weekend I was hoping to get back on the river with a couple of friends again, but it seems that Mother Nature had other plans for us. Between severe thunderstorms on Saturday and very strong winds on Sunday, we decided it was best to cancel our river plans this weekend and try again another time. On Sunday afternoon I decided it was time to get out of the house for a little while and went on a short local hike to visit West Pollock Arch in the Black Ridge ...
Rivers of the West End | Uravan Ballpark to the Rimrocker Trail
Saturday, May 30, 2020 | Average CFS: 485
I had high hopes of floating more ephemeral desert rivers this spring like I did last year, but unfortunately this year hasn’t quite panned out as well as I had hoped it would. Many of the rivers that I wanted to float this year just haven’t had enough water in them and the snowpack is almost gone in most places, so it’s not looking very good. However, while keeping an eye on the local rivers of western Colorado earlier this ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness | Thursday, May 7, 2020
This evening I headed out after work again to continue my local arch hunting endeavors within the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness. I drove over Black Ridge for the second time this week, but this time I continued all the way to the Rattlesnake Arches Trailhead at the very end of the road. I had no intentions of visiting the popular arches in Rattlesnake Canyon this evening, instead, I was going to look for the lesser-known Lonesome Lips Arch which is located at the edge of a small mesa above ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge: Trailing the Ghosts and Gnomes of Goblin Gulch
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
When Will Minor started to hunt for a small band of strayed Angora goats he little dreamed he soon would have cause to forget them. As he entered a tiny canyon he suddenly came face to face with the weirdest collection of natural forms he ever had seen. The soft white sandstone of the canyon walls was covered with faces and figures—some animal, some human, some resembling modernistic sculpture and others like nightmarish creatures which only a writer of horror fiction could conceive.
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Bangs Canyon Recreation Area
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
This evening after work Diane and I went on a short hike into the narrows of Ribbon Canyon in the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area. Even though I had just hiked into this canyon about two weeks ago, Diane was not with me that day and I wanted to bring her back to visit this nice little canyon that’s close to home. The temperature out was in the mid-80’s this afternoon and the sky was clear, so the sun was blazing! It was a pretty warm hike along the trail until we reached ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
The ledge varies in width, 10 to 20 feet at the wider places, less than 30 inches at the narrowest. Yet this precarious shelf is a well-traveled road… Over the High Trail, great bands of sheep, herds of white-faced cattle, packers and camp movers, with their strings of loaded pack horses, pass on their migrations between the Black Ridge country and the lowlands along the Colorado River.
-Will C. Minor
This evening after work I headed back into the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness in search of a historic route ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness | 1,000th Trip Report
Saturday & Sunday, April 25-26, 2020
Before I get started, I just wanted to note that this Trip Report marks an important milestone in the history of ADVENTR.co. This is the 1,000th Trip Report that I have posted to this blog! As much as I would have loved to have gone somewhere further from home for this special occasion, it is what it is, and with the current restrictions in place for the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to stay close to home this time. When this year began, I had ...
Between the Forks of Pollock Canyon
Thursday, April 23, 2020
If the current COVID-19 pandemic had not completely changed everyone’s lives these past few weeks, then Diane and I would have left right after work today for another three day backpacking trip into The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. But since that is obviously not happening anymore, I decided instead to head out after work on another local adventure so that I could finally visit The Windows of Pollock Canyon in the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness. This is another one of those hikes that has been on my to-do ...
McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
This evening Diane and I headed over to the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area near Rabbit Valley so we could spend the evening hiking a short section of the Kokopelli Trail. Although I have driven, hiked and even biked much of the Kokopelli Trail over the years, there are still a few sections of singletrack that I have missed. Today I thought it would be fun to hike one of those sections which descends down to Salt Creek from near the end of the Sidewinder Road on the west side. The ...
Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness: West Fork of Jones Canyon
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Hiking to Perseverance Arch in the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness area has been on my to-do list for a long time. I’ve always thought that I would do it as an overnight backpacking trip since it’s a pretty long hike, which is part of the reason why I kept putting it off. Now that I’ve been having to stay closer to home during the quarantine, I’ve been going through my list of local hikes that I never made time for in the past, and I decided that ...
McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area
Friday, April 17, 2020
This evening after work I drove up to the Visitor Center in the Colorado National Monument so I could try to hike to the top of a distinctive high point located above Kodels Canyon. I’ve looked upon this prominent sandstone outcrop many times as I have driven west on I-70 through Fruita and always wondered if it would be possible for me to climb to the top of it. This point sits on a narrow strip of land within the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area that is sandwiched between the Colorado ...
Bangs Canyon Recreation Area
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
This evening after work I headed out to explore a local canyon that’s found near The Ribbon Trail in the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area, just outside of the Colorado National Monument. Earlier this year I had come across a recent canyoneering trip report for this canyon, which they called Ribbon Canyon, and I thought it looked like it would be a nice place to visit after work one day. Well, now that I have to stay closer to home, I figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to check out this ...
Canyons of the Black Ridge Wilderness
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Ever since Diane and I spent a nice weekend exploring the upper reaches of Knowles Canyon within the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness area a couple of years ago, I have wanted to get back to explore the lower parts of the canyon. Now that I am stuck staying closer to home for the time being, I thought this would be a great time to finally get there to check it out, especially since I figured it would be a good place to practice social distancing, too!
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Silveys Pocket to the Dolores River, Petroglyphs in Paradox & La Sal Creek
Friday – Sunday, April 3-5, 2020
With all of southern Utah essentially shut down to non-locals right now, this weekend I tried to pick one of the more remote areas in western Colorado that wasn’t too far from home to go explore. Ever since I floated through Slick Rock Canyon on the Dolores River last year I have wanted to get back to hike some of the side canyons that we were unable to visit on that trip, so I thought the Dolores River Canyon Wilderness Study ...
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
This evening after work I headed out on a short hike to visit Juanita Arch in Maverick Canyon, which is located near Gateway, Colorado. This is a hike that has been on my to-do list for over ten years, and now that I’m stuck staying closer to home for the foreseeable future, I though it was finally time to cross it off the list! After arriving at the trailhead, I scoped out the crossing of the Dolores River to figure out how I wanted to tackle it. I had brought along my packraft in case I ...
Sunday, March 22, 2020
This weekend we were originally supposed to go to a concert in Salt Lake City, but that obviously didn’t happen because of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Then I figured that I would be able to spend the weekend in the San Rafael Swell or Robbers Roost areas to socially distance myself and get in some hiking and exploring, but then the Southeast Utah Health Department cancelled those plans for me. No big deal I thought, I’ll just stay closer to home and hike some canyons near the state line. Well, then the weather intervened with snow ...
Saturday, February 22, 2020
After spending last week in Arizona and New Mexico, I decided to keep things local this weekend with a short morning hike to Wombat Arch near the Tabeguache Trail in the Bangs Canyon Special Recreation Management Area.
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Arborglyphs on the Uncompahgre Plateau
Saturday, October 12, 2019
After spending last week hiking through the Canyons of the Escalante I decided to take it easy this weekend and stay close to home. Since I skipped out on photographing fall colors this year, I wanted to see if there were still any left up on the Uncompahgre Plateau and get a little hiking in while I was up there, so I decided to head that way on Saturday morning. It’s been a while since I headed out my door on a weekend without an itinerary in place, but that’s what ...
Paonia River Park to the Gunnison Forks Recreation Site
Independence Day | Thursday, July 4, 2019
This year for the Fourth of July I was looking to go on one last river trip before I started heading into the mountains for the summer season. Since I only had one day off from work for the holiday I wanted to go somewhere close to home and on a river that was still not running too high, which was hard to find this year! On Wednesday afternoon Jackson, Chris and I decided that we would give the North Fork of the Gunnison ...
Slick Rock Canyon | Big Gypsum Valley to Bedrock
Friday – Saturday, June 14-15, 2019
Early Spanish explorers called it El Rio de Nuestra Señora de Dolores, or the River of Our Lady of Sorrows translated into English. Today it’s known as the Dolores River, which begins as snowmelt high up in the San Juan Mountains near Bolam Pass and empties into the Colorado River in Utah after traveling through the canyon country of western Colorado. For a long time I have wanted to float the Dolores River through Slick Rock Canyon, which begins at Big Gypsum Valley and ends ...
Saturday & Sunday, May 18-19, 2019
This weekend we had some stuff to get done around the house but we still wanted to try and squeeze in a backpacking trip this month, so we decided to head over to the Dominguez – Escalante National Conservation Area for a quick overnighter into Big Dominguez Canyon. While I have hiked into lower Big Dominguez Canyon many times over the years, Diane had never been in this canyon before and wanted to finally check it out. We planned to do a repeat of my very first backpacking trip by starting out in Cactus ...
Dominguez Canyon Wilderness | Ten Year Anniversary
Saturday, March 30, 2019
I spent the last two weekends hiking in the Needles District of Canyonlands and will be going back again in another week and a half, plus we had a concert to go to on Sunday evening, so this weekend we planned to stay close to home and take a little bit of a break from driving. Saturday was also the ten year anniversary of the designation of the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area through the passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, so we decided to celebrate ...
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
After work on Tuesday, Diane and I loaded up our bikes and headed up to Piñon Mesa above Glade Park so we could go for a ride on the Turkey Flats Trail and beat the heat in the valley. It was 105 degrees down in the Grand Valley when we left home, but when we reached the Fruita Picnic Area to unload our bikes it was a more comfortable 83 degrees out. This evening we were going to combine the Turkey Flats Trail with 16 1/2 Road and the road that goes to Fruita Reservoir #1 ...
New Year’s Eve | Sunday, December 31, 2017
Well this is it! My last hike and trip report for 2017. It was another great year for getting out and exploring and I’m already making plans to make 2018 even better! For my last hike of the year I decided to stay closer to home and go for a hike into the Dominguez – Escalante National Conservation Area. Last summer while we were going for a drive through Escalante Canyon Diane spotted a trailhead sign along the road for the McCarty Trail which I had not noticed or heard of before, ...
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Over a month ago I planned a river trip with Jackson and Chris so we could check out a new section of the lower Gunnison River starting at Confluence Park in Delta to the takeout at Escalante Canyon. We had originally planned on going Saturday, but because of a late-season winter storm that came through the area at the end of the week, which really brought down the temperature, we pushed it back to Sunday and hoped it would warm up a little. With the change of plans, Diane and I went hiking in the Gunnison ...
Saturday, April 15, 2017
With all the traveling we’ve been doing lately, we decided to stay closer to home today and went on a moderate hike in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area. We hadn’t been back out this way since our overnight trip into Knowles Canyon last October so it was nice to get back. We had never been out around Jones Canyon before and thought that hiking the Jones Canyon Overlook Trail would be a nice introduction to the area since I hope to do more exploring out this way later in the year.
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Sunday, January 29, 2017
After spending Saturday around Moab, Diane wanted to stay home on Sunday so I went on a new local hike in the Dominguez – Escalante National Conservation Area. While I have hiked up and down Dominguez Canyon many times in the past, I had never been up Little Dominguez Canyon before.
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New Year’s Eve | Saturday, December 31, 2016
Diane and I headed out to the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area early this morning for our final hike of 2016. We started our hike from the Rattlesnake Canyon Trailhead near Fruita and hiked up to the top of the Pollock Bench before dropping down a steep trail into Upper Pollock Canyon so we could visit Liberty Bell Arch (Pollock Arch). After checking out the arch from a few different vantage points we decided to continue down Pollock Canyon instead of returning the way had come to create a ten mile loop ...
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Back at the end of September I hiked part of the Jouflas Horse Trail to an overlook of Ruby Canyon after hiking to the nearby summit of PT 5239, but I was short on time that day and was unable to complete the entire loop. This afternoon Diane and I headed back to Rabbit Valley to finish hiking the Jouflas Horse Trail from the other side. We started at the McDonald Creek Trailhead and followed the trail to the Black Rocks Overlook (which is where I stopped in September) and then returned back the way we ...
Saturday & Sunday, October 29-30, 2016
After taking last weekend off to stay home and relax a little, this weekend Diane and I headed deep into the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness on an overnight backpacking trip into Knowles Canyon. We were in search of a few rock art sites thought to be hidden in the canyon, but unfortunately we would come up empty handed locating any of those on this trip. Instead, we would find a beautiful canyon with plenty of solitude only 20 miles from home. It’s nice to know that this kind of solitude can easily be found ...
Saturday, September 24, 2016
I was originally planning this hike for Thursday after work, but the weather made me change my plans that day. Since we ended up staying close to home this weekend because of the weather, I decided to head back out to Rabbit Valley after the rain stopped late in the morning and hiked up to the summit of PT 5239. I’ve been trying to explore more of Rabbit Valley lately and this short summit away from the more popular trails looked like a good place to check out.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2016
I drove out to Rabbit Valley near the Utah state line after work this evening to spend a few hours exploring some of the area. I ended up driving a few backroads in the area I had not been on before and visiting a couple of overlooks and then I hiked down into Ruby Canyon from the rim on an old cattle trail. I also visited a few small petroglyphs and pictographs that were found in a shallow alcove that contained some lithic scatter nearby. It was a nice way to spend the evening and I ...
Friday – Sunday, August 19-21, 2016
After spending a few days on the San Juan River for the past few years it was beginning to look like I wouldn’t be getting on the river at all this year after some possible plans had fallen through. I really wanted to get at least one river trip in this year, so a couple of month ago Jackson and I planned a weekend trip with our friend Chris on the Colorado River through Ruby and Horsethief Canyons since it’s a great float and very close to home.
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Sunday, June 26, 2016
It’s been many years since the last time I visited Escalante Canyon and I figured it was time to go back for another drive through the canyon. The last time I was there it wasn’t yet designated as part of the Dominguez – Escalante National Conservation Area and I was curious what changes, if any, had taken place since that occurred. I also just wanted to go for a nice scenic drive not far from home, and this loop fit the bill.
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Sunday, April 10, 2016
A hike into Devil’s Canyon is always a good way to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. Since it rained for much of the weekend and I was able to get some work done on my Jeep on Saturday, Diane and I decided to go hiking in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area late on Sunday morning since it looked like the rain was done for a while. We hiked to the old cabin in Devil’s Canyon on the D3 Trail and then completed the loop back to the trailhead. As we started the ...
Monday, March 14, 2016
After hiking the west side of the Moore Fun trail last week, I headed back to the Kokopelli Trailhead after work this evening to hike the east side of the trail to it’s high point. While the trailhead was actually closer to the high point on this side, the trail was full of switchbacks and the length was a bit longer. With a storm moving across the valley it was very windy the entire hike but I did manage to miss the rain and I wouldn’t see the first raindrops of the incoming storm until I ...
Thursday, March 10, 2016
This evening I drove back out to the Kokopelli Trail System after work so I could squeeze in another hike before it got dark out (this should become easier next week after we change our clocks for Daylight Savings Time over the weekend). I returned to the Mack Ridge trailhead and followed the Moore Fun trail from the west to it’s high point above the Horsethief Bench and then returned the same way I had come. I would have preferred to have completed the entire loop but I wouldn’t have had enough daylight and didn’t really ...
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
After hiking Mack Ridge on Sunday I’ve been motivated to continue hiking the rest of the trails in the Kokopelli Trail System near Loma that I have not been on before. With the weather being nice this week and days getting longer I decided to try and squeeze in a short loop after work today. After looking at a map I settled on Steve’s Loop since it looked like it would offer great views over the Colorado River near sunset and would be short enough to complete before it got dark out.
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Sunday, February 28, 2016
After spending Saturday at Arches National Park I decided to stay close to home on Sunday and just go on a short local hike in the morning. I was originally thinking about hiking in the Book Cliffs, but thought it still might be a bit too muddy there with the recent melting snow so instead I headed west to Mack to hike something in the Kokopelli Trail System. While I have ridden the Rustler’s Loop and Horsethief Bench trails on my mountain bike before, I have neglected hiking the other trails that are out there, especially ...
Saturday, February 6, 2016
After visiting the Shavano Valley Petroglyph Park near Montrose a few years ago I didn’t have any plans on returning. However, after Carol Patterson offered to guide me on a private tour of the park I couldn’t turn down the offer. Diane and Marty joined me on the tour this morning as we learned about these Ute petroglyphs from one of the leading experts in the field of rock art. Not only did we learn some interesting things about the Ute rock art in this location, Carol also showed us a few things I had missed ...
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Late this morning Diane and I headed back to the mouth of Devil’s Canyon just outside of Fruita so I could finish hiking a few of the trail segments that I had not been on before. We ended up making a big loop that was about 6.5 miles in length with a stop at a nice overlook into Devil’s Canyon. While most of the trails were still snow-covered, especially higher and on the north side of the cliffs, there were other sections that had melted off entirely. Early in our hike those sections were frozen, but ...
Saturday, January 16, 2016
We were originally planning to drive down to Ouray this morning for the annual Ice Festival, but Diane wasn’t feeling very well when we got up so we stayed home. Instead, I headed out this afternoon to get a little local hiking in at the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area trails near Fruita. I have hiked a few of the “K” trails near the mouth of Kodels Canyon in the past but had not been on all of them, so I decided to try and check out the rest. I started from the Kodels Canyon Trailhead ...
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Since I haven’t been travelling much lately (and I hope to fix that next weekend with a Christmas weekend trip to Moab), I have been trying to get out to hike more of the local trails we have here in the Grand Valley the past couple of weeks. This morning Diane and I headed back to the Devil’s Canyon trail system in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and hiked another five mile loop. Here are a couple of pictures I snapped along the way.
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Saturday, December 19, 2015
This morning I went for a short hike in the Devil’s Canyon section of the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area just outside of Fruita and snapped a couple of photos that I will share below. The temperature was cold and the ground was frozen but there was less snow on the trails than I thought there would be.
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Thanksgiving | Thursday, November 26, 2015
For Thanksgiving Diane and I had originally planned to hike a seven mile loop through Devil’s Canyon in the morning. However, since Diane had forgotten her rain jacket at home and there were rain and snow storms scattered throughout the valley, we decided to just stick to the frontcountry trails near the mouth of Devil’s Canyon in case we needed to make a quick retreat back to my Jeep at the trailhead. We would encounter a few snowstorms throughout the morning, but they didn’t get us very wet. Since the clouds and light were ...
Saturday, November 21, 2015
On Saturday morning Diane and I left home early to drive to Paradox Valley in search of some new rock art. Early on during our drive through Unaweep Canyon before the sun came up we saw quite a few large elk crossing the road and had to slow down to avoid hitting any. One almost ran right into the side of my Jeep as we were stopping to let a group cross the road, but luckily she stopped and turned at the last second. It was a pretty close call!
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Veteran’s Day | Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Since I had Veteran’s Day off from work but Diane still had to go to work and school, I contacted Marty over the weekend to see if he was up for some hiking. He was, so we planned to stay close to home and explore the lower reaches of Bangs Canyon just outside of Grand Junction this morning. After a night of rain and snow we knew it was going to be a wet hike. I met Marty at the trailhead just outside of Whitewater along East Creek at the mouth of Unaweep ...
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Our original plan for today was to visit my geocache on Winter Camp Ridge just outside of Arches National Park and then explore a little more of Lost Spring Canyon. We left home later in the morning and made our way into Utah to the Yellow Cat Road, however we were quickly stopped by slippery mud, quicksand and large cutbanks at a crossing of Pinto Wash from the recent heavy rain. Without a good place to winch from in the area, we decided it was best to turn around and come back another time after the ...
Fall Colors 2015
Thursday, October 15, 2015
I decided to head up onto the Uncompahgre Plateau after work this evening to see if there were any fall colors left. I ended up taking Divide Road all the way to Uncompahgre Butte (9,679), which I quickly summited while I was there, before turning around and driving back home for the night. While most of the aspen trees had dropped their leaves, there were still a few small groves left that were holding on to their color for a little bit longer. It was a nice way to spend a few hours ...
Liberty Bell Arch
Sunday, May 10, 2015
After spending the last two weekends backpacking in Grand Gulch I needed to spend a more relaxing weekend at home so I could start preparing for an upcoming trip on the San Juan River later this week. It had rained on and off all day on Saturday, but it looked like things might start finally clearing up on Sunday morning and I wanted to get out for at least one local hike this weekend. A few weeks back when I had hiked into the East Fork of Pollock Canyon I had run into ...
Sunday, April 19, 2015
This morning I decided to sleep in a little later since I was up early on Saturday morning to photograph the sunrise at the Colorado National Monument. After breakfast, Diane and I drove over to Rabbit Valley near the state line for an afternoon hike on the Rabbit’s Ear Trail. This is a nice trail that climbs to the top of Rabbit’s Ear Mesa and then loops around the rim with expansive views over Ruby Canyon of the Colorado River and the rest of the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area. Since we were out hiking under ...
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Diane and I ended up having a rare lazy weekend at home, but we managed to get outside for a short hike on Sunday afternoon. Diane had never been to the Rattlesnake Canyon Arches before and since the upper Black Ridge Road had just opened for the season we decided to visit them. We started from the upper trailhead and followed it down to the main Rattlesnake Canyon Trail until we reached the arches. After reaching Cedar Tree Arch (the end of the trail), we climbed through the arch to the rim of the canyon to ...
Saturday, March 14, 2015
I stayed home this weekend so I could work on a large photo project that I need to get done soon, but when Saturday afternoon rolled around I was tired of staring at a computer screen and had to get out hiking somewhere. It’s a good thing that I live close to a lot of trails and amazing scenery here in the Grand Valley! I had no plans, so I decided to explore the East Fork of Pollock Canyon since I had looked down into it from the Pollock Bench a few weekends ago and thought ...
Sunday, March 1, 2015
I didn’t get out hiking yesterday like planned, so I had to make sure that I got outside today! I decided to head over to the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness near Fruita this afternoon and hiked the Pollock Bench Loop which follows the edge of the higher bench between Flume Creek Canyon and the East Fork of Pollock Canyon. While I really dislike having to post photos that really aren’t that great on my blog, I can’t always hike in great photographic conditions all the time and today was one of those days. With another winter ...
Saturday, December 6, 2014
In a recent conversation with a Facebook friend, he mentioned to me that there might be some rock art located along the Little Dolores River between two parcels of private property. After doing some research on the property boundaries and finding that access would probably be possible by hiking down Toms Canyon, I mapped a possible route on Google Earth that avoided all private property and stayed on BLM land to the area. The only concern I had left was finding an access point down into Toms Canyon from the rim. I had found a spot ...
Saturday, November 22, 2014
I’ve known about petroglyphs hidden in Sieber Canyon for quite a few years now, but have always seemed to put off a trip in search of them, instead choosing to travel elsewhere throughout the Southwest each weekend. That seems to be the way it works with me- always wanting to travel somewhere new away from home! A few years back I even found the route down into the canyon but I didn’t have enough time go down that day. Earlier this year I tried to hike into the canyon on Easter, but I was turned around ...
Fall Colors 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
After work, Diane and I headed up to Piñon Mesa near Glade Park to see how the fall colors were coming along up there. I had actually only been up to this area once before, many years ago, so I wasn’t too familiar with the area. I have heard that it might be a good spot for fall colors close to home and have wanted to get up there in the fall for many years, so it was time to finally do it. While there was still quite a bit of green around, ...
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Since Diane and I were home today and had no other plans elsewhere, we decided to wake up early and hike The Ribbon Trail before it got too hot out. This is a trail that has been on my to-do list for a while and I was glad to finally be able to check it out. This is a popular mountain biking trail that starts up on Little Park Road and follows large expanses of slickrock along canyon rims and is mostly downhill the whole way. We brought both our vehicles and left one at the ...
Sunday, June 1, 2014
I’ve always wanted to try running the Ruby – Horsethief section of the Colorado River between Loma and Westwater in a day. With the Colorado River running over 35,000cfs this weekend, Jackson and I thought it would be a good time to try it. Unfortunately, it really wasn’t as fun of a day trip as we had hoped. We learned a valuable lesson today; for us, this stretch of river is more enjoyable in an inflatable kayak as an overnight trip at lower water levels than as a day trip in fast water. While we didn’t ...
Saturday, May 10, 2014
This morning Diane and I woke up early and drove up through the Colorado National Monument to reach the Black Ridge Road which we took to the Mee Canyon trailhead. I have wanted to hike to the very large Mee Canyon Alcove for a few years now and it was finally time to do it. The weather forecast was calling for storms in the afternoon, so we got an early start in order to get out of there before the rain moved in since the clay that makes up part of the road can get a ...
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Since I never made it to Flume Creek Canyon yesterday, Diane and I decided to hike it this afternoon together. I wasn’t expecting too much from this hike, but it turned out to be a really beautiful and fun hike. Had we only stayed on the main trail it would have been just another desert hike, but since we decided to get off the main trail and hike in the bottom of the canyon it was much more enjoyable. Getting off the main trail and into the bottom of the wash was a great choice because ...
Monday, February 24, 2014
Here’s a mini trip report from a quick hike Diane and I took after work to visit the Cowboy Hat Tower near Fruita in the Devil’s Canyon Area. The temperatures have been pretty warm here lately so we wanted to get in a short local hike before the sun went down. I can’t wait for longer days to arrive so I can get some longer hikes in after work! These are just a few snapshots I took with my little Canon S110 as the sun was going down for the day.
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Sunday, December 22, 2013
It has been a little while since I’d gone hiking with Marty, so we made plans to do a local hike on Sunday morning. It has been about a year since I last hiked up Big Dominguez Canyon, so I thought it would be a good time to return. I always seem to hike this trail around Christmas each year…maybe it will become a tradition? Marty had never been up this canyon and was looking forward to checking it out. The temperature was pretty cold when we started our hike from Bridgeport around 9:00am, but as ...
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Since the weather was bad all over the Colorado Plateau on Saturday I decided to stick around home this weekend. I did manage to get outside on Sunday after the weather cleared up for a hike on the Pollock Bench trail to the Window Rock Tower. This is the main trail that leads to the Rattlesnake Canyon arches, if you don’t have a high clearance vehicle to reach the upper trailhead. Since I have always visited the arches from the upper trailhead, I thought it would be nice to check out this alternate route that I ...
Sunday, October 28, 2012
It was one of those days that I just needed to get out hiking and exploring by myself, so that’s what I set out to do. Last year around Christmas I had planned to hike along the Dolores River near Bedrock but got a severe headache on the drive there and had to turn around and head back home. I hadn’t made it back that way yet, so I thought it would be a good time to try again. After leaving home and driving through Unaweep Canyon to Gateway, I then followed the Dolores River to ...
Sunday & Monday, October 21-22, 2012
Very, very early on Sunday morning Amanda and I headed up to Glade Park to watch the Orionid Meteor Shower from Miracle Rock. Even though we both saw plenty of meteors, I didn’t end up catching any with my camera like I had hoped. Since this was my first real attempt at photographing a meteor shower it’s not a surprise that I came away empty handed, but I’m hopeful that I will do better next time. We both still had a nice time laying on the sandstone watching the sky for meteors until the ...
Friday – Sunday, August 24-26, 2012
After work on Friday I met Jackson at the Westwater exit on I-70, after the slower than usual drive through two construction zones, so that we could drop his car off at the Westwater takeout along the Colorado River. Our plan this weekend was to float through the Ruby – Horsethief Canyons section of the Colorado River from Loma to Westwater. This was going to be my very first overnight river trip and I had been looking forward to it for a while. Thanks to all my new backpacking gear bought earlier this year, ...
Saturday, June 23, 2012
On Saturday I was invited by my friend Greg to visit the Shavano Valley Petroglyph Park near Montrose. I’ve been wanting to visit this site for quite a while, but never got around to getting permission to go, so I jumped at the opportunity. Amanda and I planned to head back up into the San Juan Mountains again this weekend, so it worked out perfectly since we would be driving through Montrose on our way. We left Grand Junction very early so we could meet Greg at the park around sunrise. We ended up spending a ...
Saturday & Sunday, April 28-29, 2012
I’m proud to say that I have finally gone on my very first backpacking trip. I’ve been collecting gear for the past few months and finally scheduled a trip with my friend Jackson and his dad. Since this was my first time, I wanted to keep the trip shorter and closer to home…kind of like a trial run to see how it all went. I’m happy to report that everything went well, and I’m looking forward to my next backpacking trip in the future.
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D1 & D5 Loop
Sunday, December 4, 2011
After spending Saturday in Moab, I decided to stick close to home on Sunday and go for a hike in the Devils Canyon area near Fruita. I’ve hiked here a couple of times before, but still haven’t checked out all the trails in the area.
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
After spending the last two days exploring Utah, I decided to stay close to home on Sunday. I have wanted to revisit the petroglyph panels in Big Dominguez Canyon, so I headed over to Bridgeport in the morning and started hiking. I had a later start than usual and was surprised to find that no one else was parked at the trailhead when I arrived.
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Sunday, October 9, 2011
Since I returned home from my Arizona Strip and Southern Utah trip a day early, I thought it might be a good idea to take a drive up on the Uncompahgre Plateau to see if there were any fall colors left to photograph. Unfortunately, what I found was either the aspen trees were still green, or they had changed colors and the leaves had already fallen off. It seemed like there was no in-between up there. It was a very strange fall season this year, so it appears that I am not going to be taking ...
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
This is just a quick and short report from my after-work excursion today. Earlier in the day I learned about the location of a new petroglyph panel, known as the Deer Creek Petroglyphs, which happens to be located near my house, so I set out this evening to visit it and get a few photos. I tried to time my visit so that it would be close to sunset in hopes that the late sunlight would be shining right on the panel, but apparently I was too late since it was completely in the shadows when ...
Sunday, January 9, 2011
On Sunday, Amanda and I took a short trip to Escalante Canyon near Delta to locate some new petroglyphs and to revisit some ones I’ve been to before. The new panels we found were along the Gunnison River.
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Friday, December 24, 2010 | Christmas Eve
On Friday I picked up my friend Jackson and we headed to Bridgeport to hike into Lower Dominguez Canyon. There are some petroglyphs a few miles into the canyon which were my main goal for the day, but it was a very nice and scenic canyon with a few waterfalls as well. It was a great way to spend Christmas Eve.
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Sunday, July 25, 2010
Since Amanda had to work today, it was up to me to figure out what I was going to do. While having breakfast this morning, I figured I would head up on the Uncompahgre Plateau to explore a few roads I haven’t been on yet. I started out on Divide Road and made a large loop all the way back home. Here’s a few pictures from my day.
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Sunday, May 9, 2010
I have wanted to check out the arches of Rattlesnake Canyon for quite a while. Today we finally had a chance to head out and hike the trail through Rattlesnake Canyon since we didn’t head out of town this weekend.
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Sunday, April 25, 2010
Since I wasn’t planning on going anywhere with the Jeep today, I decided to get up early and head over to the Kokopelli bike trails near Loma to check out a popular trail named Rustler’s Loop. It was a great 3.5 mile loop with excellent views over Horsethief Canyon and the Colorado River. Here’s a few pictures from along the way….
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Friday, July 3, 2009
Yeah, I ended up spending some more time on the Uncompahgre Plateau today since I wanted to stick close to home.
I started out on Delta and made my way to Escalante Canyon on the Escalante Rim trail. From there I took the Dry Mesa trail up onto the Uncompahgre. When I reached Divide Road my plans were to explore some spur trails off of the main road, but it seems there has been a lot of rain up on the plateau lately because all of the trails were very muddy and slick. I decided to ...
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Amanda had to go into work today so I decided to head up onto the Uncompahgre and finish some trails I have started before and to check out a few new ones. I made a big loop by starting out in Escalante Canyon and following it up onto Love Mesa where I eventually joined Divide Road. I headed down the other side of the plateau through Casto Draw and made my way to Gateway. After fueling up, I headed up Sheep Creek and onto the Dolores Triangle. After looping around through Granite Creek, I headed back ...
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Another 12 hour day in the books. This time with Amanda. I figured that since I have now driven the Kokopelli and the Tabeguache, I would just finish off the Grand Loop and find a 4×4 route of the Paradox Trail. We got an early start this morning and headed towards Gateway, CO where I topped off my tank before heading up John Brown Canyon and the Gateway-Castleton Road to the start of the Paradox Trail.
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Sunday, June 7, 2009
My trip on the Tabeguache Trail yesterday ended when I reached Highway 141 in Unaweep Canyon, even though the actual trail continues on to Monument Road. The reason for this is that there is no motorized access to the trail on the north side of the highway. However, the section on the other side can be driven, but only as an out and back ride from Little Park Road. I have driven part of this section of trail before, but not all of it. It is more commonly referred to as Bangs Canyon in the 4×4 ...
Saturday, June 6, 2009
After finally running the full Kokopelli Trail last month, I decided I wanted to finish off the ‘Grand Loop’ trails. Today I tackled the second trail; the Tabeguache Trail. The Tabeguache (pronounced ‘tab-a-watch’) Trail is mountain bike trail that starts out near Montrose, CO and ends up near Grand Junction. Like the Kokopelli Trail, it is made up mostly of 4-wheel drive roads with a few sections of single-track mixed in. However, unlike the Kokopelli, there is not a lot of information about the Tabeguache available…especially for someone wanting to take a Jeep along as much ...
Sunday, May 31, 2009
What a great day! Amanda and I woke up early this morning and headed over to McDonald Creek for a little hiking. This is a nice easy hike that starts out near Castle Rocks and then heads down to the Colorado River.
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Saturday, June 28, 2008
Today Amanda and I went up on the Uncompahgre Plateau to do a little exploring. Last year I had driven across the plateau on it’s main road (Divide Road), so this time we started checking out some of the 4WD roads on the northeast corner of the plateau.
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