Mesa Creek Trail

Partway up the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway is the Mesa Creek Trail (that’s #505, if you’re wondering). We decided to take a quick side hike up the trail to see what we could see. At first we saw some mud. Then we saw a guy setting up for a wedding.

Then we saw a lot of mud, and some dogs. So overall, a pretty good side trip!

A Cloudy Fall Day

So, back to September. After wandering around Wining in Palisade, we headed up to the mountains to see some leaves. Of course it was cloudy, snowing, and generally unpleasant. But it actually turned out to be a good day for photos.

And hey, some bonus photos of Wendy & I standing around!

Creeping Through the Canyon

I meant to post this after my earlier set of canyon photos, but forgot. Whoops

! Anyway, this is my favorite shot from that trip. I believe this was in Arscenic. It’s not the darkest or twistiest part of that canyon, either!

Bonus photo, this one from Slideanide.

Canyoneering at Poison Springs

Last weekend I gathered the Canyon Crew and headed off to Utah again. This time to an area charmingly named Poison Springs. Despite the name it’s actually a nice area – as evidenced by the bizarre crowding. Usually we’ll see at most one other group all weekend, but this time there were about 10 cars there, and a bachelor party of 11 guys!

No matter, we still managed to do three canyons in two days.

The canyons in the area are named in keeping with the “poison springs” theme.

On Saturday we descended Arscenic, followed by Slideanide. Then on Sunday we jaunted down the road to the Irish canyons and descended Shillelagh.

 

 

More photos on Smugmug, but I'll throw a few of myself in here because… ego, I guess.

Looking down past my own leg there. This was standing on a ledge about halfway down a rappel.

I believe this is the second drop in Shillelagh, but I could be wrong.

Slideanide, maybe?

Standing in Arscenic Arch

Screwing around while other people get down an unusually long elevator downclimb.