colorado

Saturday & Sunday, August 29-30, 2015 Mount Sopris during a spectacular sunrise last fall. Even though it's less than fifty feet shy of registering as one of Colorado's 13,000 foot peaks, Mount Sopris (12,953) dominates the skyline over Carbondale and the lower Roaring Fork Valley and stands...

Saturday & Sunday, August 22-23, 2015 Over the years I have spent a lot of time in and around the Uncompahgre Wilderness of the San Juan Mountains, and every time I do I usually see the massive Uncompahgre Peak looming above all the other mountains along with it's shorter but more rugged...

Saturday, August 8, 2015 It's not too often that one of my weekend adventures doesn't go according to plan, but unfortunately this is one of those trips. I had planned to climb Castle and Conundrum Peaks in the Elk Mountains on Sunday morning but ended up cancelling those plans when I...

8/17-19/2015 Back in June I had driven through Rocky Mountain National Park and been far more amazed than I had anticipated. It made me yearn for more. Some odd scheduling allowed me a four day weekend and finding ROMO’s backcountry webpage very user friendly, I secured a permit to backpack...

Friday & Saturday, August 14-15, 2015 I had originally planned to climb Castle and Conundrum Peaks last Sunday, but after getting a taste of altitude sickness for the first time on Saturday evening I had to cancel those plans and head home. Hoping that it was a one time thing, I decided to go...

Saturday & Sunday, July 25-26, 2015 The Dragon's Back at sunset with Wetterhorn Peak and Uncompahgre Peak on the horizon. This weekend Diane and I went on an overnight backpacking trip into the Uncompahgre Wilderness of the San Juan Mountains to explore and photograph the area around Unnamed...

Friday & Saturday, July 17-18, 2015 This weekend Diane had to stay home so I set out on my own into the San Juan Mountains to finally climb my first 14ers of the year. I planned to hike to the top of Redcloud Peak and Sunshine Peak bright and early on Saturday morning. I left work early on...

Friday - Sunday, July 10-12, 2015 June was a busy month for me that prevented me from spending much time outside and then I got sick over the long Independence Day weekend, so it's been quite a while since I've been out hiking and camping and I really needed to get back into the mountains this...

6/26-6/28 After a month of fairly unexciting times work wise (hard to believe as a wilderness ranger) I had a long weekend to fill. Considering I prefer to play away from where I do my business, I wanted to get away from the Bighorns. A month before I had driven through northern Colorado and...

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...

I had hoped to have three days here, it has been a year and I needed to go. I did not really want to go by myself, but everyone dropped out, and then I found myself not wanting to go. That's nuts. I cherish my trips. It was going to be perfect, warm, mid 80's, should be lot's of water, probably...

It's been unutterably gorgeous around here lately, and I've been slowly amassing gear and hiking time; this weekend, I decided, it was finally time for me to try my first "real" backpacking trip. I'm still pretty new to this activity and haven't been the most active person in the past, so in...

The Monument from Top to Bottom | Black Ridge Loop Saturday & Sunday, March 28-29, 2015 After completing a traverse across the face of the Colorado National Monument last year I decided that I wanted to put together a longer loop through the Monument to hike this year. The route I strung...

Several of my friends and I have started a weekly adventure we lovingly call the "Tandoori Hike Club", where we journey to a local hiking trail, have an adventure, and follow it with lunch or dinner at a local Nepalese restaurant that is very delicious. So far we've done Echo Canyon in the...

Monday, March 23, 2015 After work on Monday I headed up to the west side of the Colorado National Monument so I could scout a few sections of trail for a longer hike I have planned for this weekend. After hiking parts of the Fruita Dugway and Black Ridge Trail I stopped at Grand View to catch...

Sunday, March 15, 2015 On Sunday morning Diane and I headed into the Colorado National Monument for a short and steep sunrise hike. Recently Diane had mentioned to me that she wanted to climb to the top of The Island which is between Monument Canyon and Wedding Canyon. It had been a few years...

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...

Sunday, March 8, 2015 Since I've been busy moving these past couple of weeks, we didn't stray far from home again this weekend. On Sunday morning we woke up early (even after losing an hour of sleep to daylight savings time) and made our way over to the Colorado National Monument to hike a new...

I took a trip to Utah & Colorado with my family in September 2014. This was a trip my wife and i planned after our daughter was born in early 2013. The plan was to spend a week hiking, photographing places around moab and then a week photographing fall colors in Colorado. During our trip we...

Well, it's January and the itch to go camping has hit me pretty hard. It always seems to spring up at the more inconvenient times of the year, but I decided to persevere, test some of my new gear, and hit up a local favorite location of mine for a winter overnight. I work Tues-Sat, so on Sunday...