IntrepidXJ's Adventure Weblog

This morning Amanda and I set off to do some hiking at the Colorado National Monument. Our first destination was the Liberty Cap trail. This is a trail we had not been on before. We started at the bottom and planned to head up to the Liberty Cap before heading back down, however after climbing about 500 feet on the trail, the ice and mud got too slick, so we ended up turning around.

Since we didn’t complete that trail, we decided to head over and check out Echo Canyon, since we haven’t been back there for a while.

View up No Thoroughfare Canyon

This way to Echo Canyon

We hiked about halfway6 up Echo Canyon until we stopped at a slickrock area that had water running through it and a few small waterfalls. We just sat down and relaxed here and listened to the running water. It was very relaxing.

My shadow over a pothole full of water

Continue reading

February 15, 2010

My goal for President’s Day was to head out to Moab and to find some geocaches. However, there was more snow and ice around Moab than I had hoped for, which killed that idea, as I was not about to go digging in ice and snow looking for geocaches. I had started out on the Cotter Mine Road hoping to find some caches near the Monitor & Merrimac Buttes, but when I reached the turnoff, I quickly found out that it had not been traveled.

Along the Cotter Mine Road

Instead of breaking through the icy snow, I decided to loop around back to the highway and head to Arches National Park. When I arrived at the park, I made my way towards The Organ, where I parked my Jeep and started hiking up the Park Avenue trail.

Three Gossips and Baby Arch

Three Gossips

The Organ

Park Avenue

Continue reading

February 13 – 14, 2010

For the weekend following my birthday, I wanted to head back to Capitol Reef National Park. When I was there back in October, I noted a couple of hikes I wanted to check out and figured this would be a good time.

After driving through some thick fog early Saturday morning, we arrived at Capitol Reef and started on our first short hike up to Hickman Bridge.

After climbing above the Fremont River looking back at Capitol Dome with the road below.

Hickman Bridge

On our way back from the Hickman Bridge, we stopped at the Nels Johnson Bridge

Continue reading

Here’s a few iPhone pictures from our quick trip to the Colorado National Monument today. It was pretty foggy up there

Heading to Arches National Park on the weekend closest to Christmas seems to be a tradition that Amanda and I are starting. Hopefully we can keep it up in the future

On Sunday, we got up early and made our way to Arches. The sun started to rise as we neared the park, and it appeared that it was going to be a nice clear day. Unfortunately, by the time we reached Devils Garden, the clouds had rolled in. We quickly made the hike to Landscape Arch and took a few photos.

We had wanted to head over to Double O Arch, but with about a foot of snow on the ground in the park, the trail was very slick and difficult. Since I didn’t want to fall and break my camera gear, I decided it would be best if we headed back when the snow melts off. Instead we headed back to Tunnel Arch and Pine Tree Arch before heading back to our car.

The sky did get a little more interesting on our way back

Tunnel Arch

Near Pine Tree Arch

Sky through Pine Tree Arch

Continue reading

It was a great morning for a hike. I wanted to get out of the house for a little while this morning and try out my new Merrell Snowmotion boots. When we were at the Colorado National Monument last Sunday, I remembered noticing that the Alcove Nature Trail near the Visitor’s Center was covered with snow and no one had been on it yet. Since I have never hiked that short trail yet, I figured it would be a good place to test them out.

Tracks in the snow

My new boots performed great

Dead end in the alcove at the end of the trail

Self portrait

I was a good way to start the day. I’m hoping to get out tomorrow and get a little snowshoeing in

Since I was home all day yesterday, I needed to get outside for at least a little while today. We headed to the Colorado National Monument and hiked the Canyon Rim and Window Rock trails near the visitor’s center. Here’s a few pictures Amanda and I took along the way.

Continue reading

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Today Amanda and I headed out to hike the popular Serpent’s Trail within the Colorado National Monument. The original vehicle entrance to the Monument, this route was once called the “Crookedest Road in the World” and is now on the National Register of Historic Structures.

According to my GPS, the trail was just under 2 miles one way and there were about 14 switch-backs. From the parking area at the bottom of the trail, it climbed steadily all the way to the top with an elevation gain of about 830 feet. Coming back down was much easier for us Here’s a little more info on the trail:

Constructed between 1912 and 1921, Serpents Trail provided the only automobile access to Colorado National Monument until 1937 when the Fruita Canyon portion of Rim Rock Drive opened. Serpents Trail reflects engineering techniques used in the construction of early automobile roads in difficult terrain and was specifically designed to optimize the scenery of the park. John Otto, the original booster of the park’s scenic wonders and the custodian of Colorado National Monument from 1911 to 1927, designed the original route and was involved in its sporadic construction. The project also provided access to the Glade Park region, and local engineers and citizens contributed to its construction and funding.

Continue reading

Saturday, November 21, 2009

This past weekend Amanda and I headed south for our annual November Cedar Mesa weekend trip. We left right after work on Friday and made our way to Blanding where we had some hotel reservations for the weekend (we’re not into cold weather camping).

Saturday morning we headed to our first destination of the weekend: The Citadel. I have wanted to check out these ruins for a while, and am glad we finally did. This was a fun hike with some minor scrambling required to reach the ruins.

After taking the short spur trail from the Cigarette Springs Road, we reached the rim of Road Canyon.

View over Road Canyon

After hiking along the rim of Road Canyon for about a mile and a half, we soon got our first view of the peninsula that the ruins are located on.

From this point we had to make our way down some steeper slickrock to reach the peninsula.

Amanda headed down

About to make our way across

Continue reading

After exploring in my Jeep today, I took a short hike up Courthouse Wash. I didn’t feel like pulling my DSLR out of my backpack, so I only took a few pictures with my iPhone.