It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to escape the July 4th crowds in town and go explore the Sangres. The Sangre de Cristo Mountain range runs north to south from near Sailda, Colorado, down into New Mexico. A lot of 14er climbers in Colorado know the Sangres for peaks like the Crestones, […]
We love Bryce Canyon National Park. We just returned from four days of trail running and backpacking there and we were blown away by the beauty. Utah has no shortage of incredible desert scenery, the state has five National Parks to showcase it all. But through the years we had always set our sights on […]
We’ve always insisted that some of the easiest peaks can present the biggest challenges. We had twice failed to reach the grassy summit of Electric Peak, 13,598 ft. in the Northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Once in the fall it was due to unexpected snow and the second time, in summer, was due to intense rain.
We made a trip up to a favorite remote spot for the weekend, to Pierre Lakes high above Snowmass Creek. Many people who have climbed Capitol Peak have peered down to the rocky basin with the alpine lakes and promised themselves they would camp there someday, but the reality is that few actually do.
Continuing with our exploration of the peaks and valleys of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, we headed up to another new area, Dry Lakes and Horn Peak, 13,450 ft.
The Waterpocket Fold of Capitol Reef might be best described as a bend in the earth’s crust where subsequent erosion has exposed the underlying rock strata. Whereas the layers of desert rock are normally seen in a canyon wall stacked vertically, the layers of the Fold are tilted on their side and are eroded away […]
Continuing with our exploration of the Northern Sangre de Cristos, we backpacked up San Isabel Creek and climbed Eureka Mountain last weekend. Two years ago, Christy and I looked down on San Isabel Lake from the summit of Hermit Peak to the north, and knew we would have to camp there some day soon.
It’s that time of summer, when the “monsoonal flow” brings regular wet weather to the state. The forecast for last weekend looked less than ideal for any sort of outdoor adventure, but we had made plans to go on a backpacking mission, so we headed out anyway. It’s hard knowing not going, right? The goal […]
It has been unusually hot and very crowded around town, so we decided to escape on a little camping trip last weekend. And whereas we often seek solitude in far away places, we took a chance on a local spot where we’ve always wanted to camp, up by South Fork Pass.
It’s pretty chaotic around Aspen these days, and since the typically quiet trails are teeming with summer visitors, we decided to head back to where we always find solitude, the Sangres. A quick look at our favorite map of the area pointed us in the direction of North Crestone Lake. It’s a couple of valleys […]
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