ADVENTR.co // Adventures and Photography from the Colorado Plateau, Rocky Mountains & Beyond

Borderlands of the Bears Ears Country

Saturday & Sunday, April 27-28, 2024

This weekend Diane and I headed down to the edges of Bears Ears National Monument so we could hike and search for rock art and ruins in some of the canyons along the borderlands of the monument. We were originally planning to leave after work on Friday, but rain was predicted for the area overnight and into the early morning, so instead we decided to leave early on Saturday morning and timed it so we would arrive after the weather was supposed to be over leaving cooler temperatures and partly cloudy skies behind. Our timing worked out perfectly! Although we would see a lot of interesting and unusual rock art this weekend, much of it was hard to see and photograph, so I’ll just share some of the better photos below.

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Bangs Canyon: Rough Canyon Loop

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, April 23, 2024

As I’ve been trying to hike more local trails during the week, I realized that I had not hiked much of Rough Canyon within the Bangs Canyon Recreation Area and thought it was finally time to remedy that oversight after work today. So this afternoon I drove up to the Bangs Canyon Trailhead and started hiking down Rough Canyon from where it splits off from the more popular Mica Mine Trail. I mistakenly thought this was going to be an easy hike along a good trail the entire way, but there turned out to be a bit more scrambling and route-finding along the way than I was expecting. It was nothing too difficult, but I had just assumed there would be a well-used trail down the canyon since it’s in a popular area close to town. I followed the the canyon downstream until it opened up near the mouth of Cross Canyon and then met up with the Tabeguache Trail which I followed back up to the trailhead to complete a loop. It turned out to be a nice loop through a rugged canyon that’s pretty close to home.

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Moab Meanderings: Moab Area Rock Art XLIII

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Although I was going to be attending a concert later in the evening with Diane, I still headed out to Moab early in the morning today so I could spend a couple of hours visiting a few scattered rock art sites in the area with a friend. Here are some photos of the rock art sites that we saw this morning.

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Utah Rims: Zion Curtain Trail to Point 5482

After Work Adventures | Friday, April 19, 2024

Since I was going to be staying closer to home this weekend so Diane and I could go to a concert on Saturday night, I decided to head out after work on Friday for a late afternoon hike on part of the Zion Curtain Trail to a highpoint in the Utah Rims area just west of the state line and Rabbit Valley. After driving west into Utah on the old 6 & 50 Highway, I headed south on a narrow Jeep track to the rim of the mesa above McDonald Creek and then hiked west along the Zion Curtain Trail to Point 5482. I was hoping that the sun might peek out from behind the clouds for to add some nice light to the landscape this evening, but it stayed pretty cloudy throughout my short hike.

Beyond The Swell: Last Chance to the South Desert

Friday – Sunday, April 12-14, 2024

A few months ago I finally did something that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time when I signed up for a Swiftwater Rescue Training class that would be taking place on Monday and Tuesday along the Green River near Swaseys Beach at the mouth of Gray Canyon. Since I needed to be in Green River on Sunday night for the class, I figured this would be a good weekend to spend some quality time wandering around the fringes at the southwestern edge of the San Rafael Swell and into the adjacent Cathedral Valley District of Capitol Reef National Park. It feels like it’s been quite a while since I’ve spent much time out in this desolate area and I was looking forward to returning since there are plenty of new places I’ve wanted to explore with my Jeep and on foot, plus a few others that I’ve wanted to return to.