This morning I headed to the Colorado National Monument to hike down Monument Canyon. Here’s a few photos I took along the way.
Making my way down into the canyon
Looking over the Coke Ovens from the side trip to the overlook
Continuing on down the trail
The Coke Ovens from below
At the bottom of the canyon
Since our original plans for the weekend were to go rafting near Glenwood Springs on Sunday, I ended up heading to Davis Canyon on Saturday to do some hiking and exploring. Unfortunately, because of the wind, our rafting trip on Sunday never happened 
After driving up Davis Canyon to the Canyonlands National Park boundary, I parked my Jeep and hiked in. My first destination would be the Five Faces Pictographs. These pictographs are in amazing condition.
All five faces.
Below the pictographs on two sandstone slabs were ten large depressions.
After leaving the Five Faces, I backtracked a little ways down the canyon to check out this small, but well-preserved granary.
This last weekend Amanda and I headed south to Hovenweep National Monument and the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. This is an area we have been close to many times before, but had not been to yet. I’m not sure why it took so long, but it was definitely well worth the visit, and I’m looking forward to heading back to explore more in the future!
After setting up camp at the Hovenweep campground, we started out by making our way over to the Holly Group of ruins a few miles away. Hovenweep is a bit different from other National Parks and Monuments as it is not one large area. Hovenweep is actually comprised of six separate villages spread over a twenty-mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons along the Utah-Colorado border.
Holly Tower and Holly House
Holly House
After visiting Holly, we backtracked to the hiking trail for both the Horseshoe and Hackberry ruins. After a nice half mile hike, we reached Horseshoe.
Round Tower perched on the canyon rim (Shiprock on the horizon).
Horseshoe House
This last Thursday was Amanda’s birthday, so she got to choose where we went last weekend. After getting a taste of The Great Sand Dunes last August, she wanted to head back while Medano Creek was flowing. Since she ended up having Friday off from work, I ended up taking the day off as well, and we made our way down to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
We took the scenic route through Lake City and Creede via Colorado 149. Along the way we stopped at the North Clear Creek Falls. We were greeted with a closed seasonal gate, so we parked the Jeep and hiked to the falls.
Before reaching Creede, we spotted a few Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep along the road. I’ve never managed to get a photo of one before, so I had to stop.
Soon we reached Alamosa and checked into our hotel and grabbed an early dinner. We were glad we got a hotel this trip as the weather was not the best and we were glad not to be camping in the cold. After dinner we headed out to the dunes to catch the sunset.
Medano Creek was flowing
Yesterday Amanda and I headed to Arches National Park for the sole purpose of hiking to Delicate Arch. We left home early and ended up staring the hike to the arch shortly after 9:00am. When we reached the arch, we were lucky enough to have it to ourselves for a little while. It seems that the last few times I have headed to Arches, the skies have been nice and overcast for me, and yesterday was no exception. It wasn’t until we were heading back down from the arch that the clouds finally started to clear out. Here’s some photos from our hike.
Arrived at Delicate Arch and had it to ourselves.
Me, under the arch.
Amanda and I.
Amanda next to the arch.
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
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
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
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
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