Day 64 - Colorado and Dinosaur Monuments

A quick five mile round trip hike took me to the canyon bottom of the Monument and Wedding Canyons at Colorado National Monument. Climbers were out and begginning their climbs up Independence Monument. Pics.

After this morning hike I drove north two and a half hours to Dinosaur National Monument. Named for a small park with a fossil wall of 200+ dinosaur bones, the park actually has a second larger section with incredible canyons and the scenic Echo Park at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. I desperately wanted to see Echo Park so I went to the non-dinosaur part of Dinosaur first.

Unfortunately the dirt road to Echo Park was closed due to recent rains making it rutted and impassable, so I had to stick to the views from the ridgeline 2500 feet above. But wow, were they great views. The view from Canyon Overlook is pic 3 and then 4, 5 and 6 are from Harpers Point at the very end of the road at the very end of the one mile trail, about 100 feet past the fence that stops the normal people.

Zoom in to the panarama if you can and you can see the Yampa river flowing in from the right, the Green river flowing in from the top and the Green river continuing south along the Whirlpool Canyon to the left. The Green river is one of the most popular white water rafting canyons in the USA (I understand why)!

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Day 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward. On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills. Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising. I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch). After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch. The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead. The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics. By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

Day 31 - Carlsbad Caverns

Everyone who enters Carlsbad Caverns inners as a child-- exploring an unknown world that over joys and surprises the soul. I had a choice of descending to the 800 foot down Big Room by elevator or by a mile long walk down the natural entrance. I chose the natural entrance and let me say-- what an awesome experience. You enter through a cave that thousands of bats fly out off at sunset each day. As you descend you hear the loud sounds of birds burping just inside the dark cavern. See video: http://youtu.be/Vpt4GQTCN-Y Hidden lights reveal the vastness of this cave making it possible to navigate an otherwise hundred percent dark space. The ceiling reaches hundreds of feet above you but it feels like thousands in this dark mysterious place. I kept stopping along the way to absorb the beauty of the cavern and capture it on camera but photos in caves are tough. Here were my best shots of the descent (look for handrails going down in first shot): I reached the Big Room, the ...

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