Canyonlands National Park in Utah is a huge expense divided into four districts. We’re dispersed camping in the Needles District for a couple weeks to ride, hike, and relax. The name “Needles” comes from the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that dominate the area. This park is remote and rugged. There aren’t hotels, restaurants or …
The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a 60 mile remote rolling landscape of badlands with some of the most unusual scenery found in the Four Corners Region. Time and natural elements have etched a fantasy world of strange rock formations made of interbedded sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal, and silt. We’ve seen this topography/geology several times in our …
Before the government shutdown, Derek and I hiked Spruce Canyon on a LOVELY day. It’s closed and you can’t hike it now, unfortunately. It’s not a terribly long hike but it gets down onto the canyon floor and never has more than a couple people on it. This time we didn’t see anyone. This weekend …
Derek and I did a short but rewarding hike in Mesa Verde National Park the other day. This loop takes you a short distance down into the canyon and then along the cliffs to see some petroglyphs. I highly recommend it if you’re in the park. This 3 mile hike is not a fast one …
This hike is the highest we’ve hiked this year. Our turnaround point was 11,945′ at Sharkstooth Pass in Mancos, Co. Phew! Just getting to this hike is an adventure. On a ride last week I mountain biked up to the trailhead on a different trail, this time we drove up. It’s a pretty good gravel …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Before much at Mesa Verde National Park opened, I hiked Prater Ridge. The weather was dicey looking but I dodged any rain that fell. It was remarkably peaceful having they entire day to myself! As far as I can find, Prater was an early homesteader in the area. This trail, named after him, starts from …