We recently made a trip to Fish and Owl Canyons down in Cedar Mesa. It’s a region of Southeastern Utah that’s home to canyons, mountains, forested mesas, impressive sandstone formations and considerable Native American history.
At the far southern end of the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park is a valley called Salt Creek. The Salt Creek region is full of ancient ruins and petroglyphs unlike other areas of this National Park.
We like to say we’re just playing the hand we’ve been dealt. That is, when current conditions don’t allow for certain activities, just go with what’s working. In this case, we had such a warm, dry November that hardly any snow fell, and the ski areas were pretty behind when the usual Opening Day arrived.
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 […]
Clearing weather allowed for a descent of the Pine Creek slot, one of the Zion classics. I hadn’t been through this slot before but a friend who was with us had done it several times. He said it’s usually not too wet. That wasn’t the case here today, due to the prior days rain there […]
The fall off-season wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the desert. I recently joined a group of friends on a trip to Zion National Park, a favorite spot in southwest Utah for some slot canyon adventures. If there’s one rule regarding slot canyons, it’s that they should always be avoided when the weather isn’t […]
The following morning, with lighter packs, we continued down Buckskin Gulch to the Paria River. It was about six miles downstream to the confluence. After a quick dunk in the river and a little playing around with quicksand, we were on our way back up the canyon. We stopped at the midway exit to grab […]
Christy and I returned to run the Bear 100 again last weekend. I guess we’re just gluttons for punishment. We gave it our best and finished the 100 mile course with 23,000 feet of elevation gain in respectable times, though we were both a bit slower compared to last year. We ran unsupported, that is […]
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 […]
We decided to check out Capitol Reef National Park last weekend. Like many people, we had long known of this National Park in south central Utah but had never spent any actual time there. One of it’s major attractions is the Waterpocket Fold, a 100 mile long exposed monocline— a geologic uplift that has since […]
We met in Aspen in 2000 and have been happily stuck in the rockies ever since, getting out in the mountains every day we can, in every season and by all means possible. Read More
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