I joined a small group to hike Box Canyon, West Mancos, and Rim Trail with a local historian, Andrew Gulliford. I’ve done the hike before in a past year and we’ve ridden this as well. This time though, I was treated to all sorts of local history and fascinating stories. Box Canyon was originally one …
McPhee Reservoir in Dolores, Colorado is a magnificent lake fed by Dolores River, with a headwater high up on Lizard Head Pass in Telluride. The singletrack loop we rode starts in downtown Dolores, climbs up onto the mesa via a newish trail called Black Goat, and circles along the reservoir before dropping back down. Fantastic …
Mesa Verde National Park is one of the lesser visited parks in the country and we are fortunate to be able to spend time here. However, I did this hike into Spruce Canyon solo and I was a bit nervous of the bear encounter potential since I only came across a couple other people. I …
I really like the Boggy Draw trail system in Dolores, Colorado. There are several options for different rides depending on how long you want to ride. We’ve ridden here are a few times over our years on the road and it’s always just as fun. The other evening I joined some mountain bike folks for …
There are a lot of dirt or gravel forest roads and unpaved country roads in the Mancos Valley to explore. Derek and I rode this a few years ago when we were in the area and enjoyed it so I rode it again the other day. What I like about this ride is that the …
I call this the Chicken Creek Gravel Loop but part of it is paved. We have ridden this loop before and it’s always so beautiful and fun. No different this time. I did roll the dice with the weather and ehhh, you win some and lose some. I got sprinkled on. The climbing on this …
The Aquaduct trail network in Mancos, CO isn’t very big but it’s a fun and nontechnical ride that you can do in under two hours, or double up for a longer ride. This is a new network as of 2023, built on BLM land with lots of sage, juniper, and pinyon pine. It’s very convenient …
Our friends Melanie and Lawrence came through the area and met up with us for this hike to Petroglyph Point in Mesa Verde National Park. The loop is somewhere around 2.7 miles and follows a foot-worn trail of the Ancestral Pueblo people into the forested Spruce Canyon landscape and along a sometimes steep, rocky path. …
Some friends from when we lived in Bend came through the area and one of the days we booked a cliff dwelling tour in Mesa Verde National Park. Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America with 150 rooms and 23 kivas. The structures were built by the Ancestral Puebloans. Tree ring data indicates the construction took …
Phil’s World is a magnificent trail network in Cortez, Colorado! We have ridden here quite a few times and it’s always fun. I like that there are different trailheads to start from and this time we started from Cash Canyon TH which is further into the network. Most of the trails out here are one …