canyonlands

As the first snow falls here in Moab on this November evening I am relieved Sonja and I made it out of the Maze yesterday after exploring Ernie's country and the Fins Trail. The three days we were gone also marks the first time our teenage son was alone at home, managing school, his sustenance...

Friday - Sunday, October 24-26, 2014 Since Diane and I had a great long weekend in The Maze over Memorial Day weekend I wanted to show her some of my favorite places in The Needles district this weekend so she could experience more of Canyonlands National Park. Plus, I've been having a great...

Managed to squeeze in an overnight trip with my kid this weekend. We started by leaving the car at the top of the Mineral Bottom switchbacks and pedaling down to the White Rim. After a while we stashed the bikes and paddled our packrafts down to Millard Bottom. This took most of the morning, as...

Canyonlands National Park's 50th Birthday Friday - Sunday, September 12-14, 2014 So far I've had a great year exploring many new areas of Canyonlands National Park. I was finally able to backpack through Salt Creek Canyon in The Needles, which had been a longtime goal of mine and one of the...

Here is a report from a solo trip I did in early May, 2014. I backpacked into the Maze starting from (and finishing) at the North Point Road, near the Hans Flat Ranger station. The most memorable part of this trip (although not at that moment) was a 24 hours span of rain during which I witnesses...

I had a hell roarin' good time on Friday northwest of Moab. There's some rock art in Hell Roaring Canyon that I've wanted to see for more than a year and I finally got around to doing so. There are two routes into the canyon within easy hiking distance of the rock art: an old constructed stock...

The Preface Robber’s Roost is an area of Utah due south of the town of Green River and on the western side of the actual Green River. The area is extremely remote and rugged which made it an ideal hideout for outlaws and cattle rustlers in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. Most notably Butch...

Memorial Day Weekend | Friday - Monday, May 23-26, 2014 It's been over three years since I have been to the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park and I have been wanting to get back. Earlier this year I decided to try out Canyonlands' new online permit system and got a permit for a few...

Wednesday - Sunday, April 30 - May 4, 2014 Salt Creek Canyon. This is a place I have wanted to visit for quite a long time. It's actually one of the main reasons I decided to get started backpacking a few years ago. I was very excited to finally experience this amazing canyon, and it...

Wait. Don't read this trip report yet. Just like any trip to the maze, this TR requires a fair amount of time to soak it all in. Find a time when you have 10 minutes and come back to enjoy this trip report then; it'll be worth it. I am more comfortable telling my stories through video than...

Inspired by Udink's successful hunt for the hard to reach geocache on top of Bowknot Bend Mesa on the Green River, I launched my own expedition last Tuesday. My wife had forbidden me to drive the family van down Spring Canyon with its exposed, narrow and somewhat rugged jeep road. Therefore I...

After a day of canyoneering Hogwarts twice and visiting Angel Cove, I headed to the Roost. My plan, visit Moonshine Wash. The road was in worse shape than a month ago, I'm not sure why. I just knew I could only drive 40 instead of 60mph. Then I got behind a caravan of vehicles going 30 and...

Spring break, april 2014. I dropped my family and our packs off near the Needles visitor center then drove the car to Elephant Hill and biked back. After hiding the bike we walked down to the Colorado river via the 'Kelsey Cattrack Route', ending at the little beach called Box Elder Camp. Here...

I've been so busy lately that I haven't posted a trip report in forever. I'm still busy, so I'm going to try to keep this one short, but I thought I would get a trip report posted. The last week in March 2014, two friends from Tennessee flew out and we spent a week in the desert. We spent a...

First trip report! Hopefully many more to come. We decided to make a trip down to Canyonlands (a new park to us) at the end of March, hoping for warm weather, clear skies and some fantastic hiking. We got all of that, with only a few minor hitches! On Friday morning we headed out from SLC and...

On the third and final day of my trip in the southern Horseshoe Canyon area, four of the group--Alan, Wade, Paul, and I--hiked to Cowboy Cave. The cave, and its neighboring cave, Walter's Cave, was excavated in 1975 and found to contain a mammoth dung layer from the late Pleistocene, along with...

After two shorter warm-up hikes the previous day, we left camp on Saturday morning and drove north along the Spur to a drop-in point near Northeast Spur Fork. We were joined by Pat the previous evening at camp, bringing the total group size to seven. Our plan was to drop into Spur Fork (a...

Horse Canyon, Needles. This tributary to the famous Salt Creek is not as impressively vast, has no springs or running water but instead presents you with miles of deep sandy wash bottom, and, as used to be the case with Salt, permits vehicle travel in it's entirety. From a backpacking...

I am finally writing my Spring Fling trip report. First, this trip was postponed until October, it is now the Utah Oktoberfest trip. I flew into SLC on Friday Oct 11th. Immediately I grabbed my rental, a Ford SUV AWD. Clearance was fair but no Toyo truck. I headed out of town through SLCs...

After my long weekend in southern Utah, I took a relaxing break at home for a weekend and then set out for another three-day weekend and did some tough but rewarding hikes in the southern Horseshoe Canyon area. Day one consisted of two hikes: Bluejohn Spring and the Millard Canyon Trail, for a...