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A hidden waterfall and obnoxious geese – Curt Gowdy State Park, Wyoming
The final destination for our three-day weekend in Cheyenne, Wyoming was nearby Curt Gowdy State Park. Curt Gowdy State Park is located in the foothills of the Laramie Mountains, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Cheyenne. This is the native land of the Comanche, Pawnee, Crow, and Shoshone, but they were displaced in the… Continue reading
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Pioneers on the Plains – Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming
Ask anyone who has ever gone on a road trip with me, and they’ll tell you I planned far more things than we could possibly fit into the time we had. They wouldn’t be lying. I’m not exactly what you’d call a relaxed vacationer. But every once in a while – usually accidentally – I… Continue reading
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48 hours in Cheyenne, Wyoming
Visiting Wyoming’s capital city was not plan A for this particular outing. But when weather thwarted plan A, we found ourselves spending the weekend in Cheyenne. Prior to our departure, some friends warned us that Cheyenne was lame and to prepare to be disappointed. Perhaps they enjoy different things when they travel or went in… Continue reading
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Colorado National Monument
I was sorting through some old posts on here recently and stumbled across this one from a few years ago about my previous trip to Colorado National Monument. I imagine many of you can relate to the cringey feeling you get when you read something you wrote so many years ago. And, of course, the… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Butler Gulch
Colorado has turned me into a winter person. I swore that would never happen, but it appears I was wrong. As a kid, I never liked winter. It’s cold and dark and lasts way too long. Then I moved out east and my first winter there was marked by 3 giant snowstorms that collectively dropped… Continue reading
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Colorado State Parks: Eldorado Canyon
There are numerous canyons extending into the Front Range of the Rockies. Some are the routes for major highways from the plains into the mountains, but others have been set aside for recreation. One of the latter is Eldorado Canyon, located just a few miles south of Boulder, Colorado. It’s a narrow canyon with tall… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Lower Coney Lake
Lower Coney Lake, located in the Indian Peaks Wilderness of Colorado, is beautiful. Getting there was awful. This was partly due to weather and partly due to the fact that, all in all, this was not my best day on the trail. My friend, her husband, and I arrived at Beaver Reservoir around 7:30am, and… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Cub Lake
The Cub Lake trail is one we neglected for years. It wasn’t intentional. It just never seemed to be at the top of my list. In the summer, I prefer to take advantage of the nice weather and hike in the tundra. In the spring, this trail is a muddy mess. And shortly after I… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: winter at Sky Pond… again
Is it possible to hike a trail too many times? In some cases, the answer to that question might be ‘yes.’ When the hike in question is Sky Pond, though, and it’s wintertime, I would argue that the answer is very clearly ‘no.’ Back in December 2020, we hiked to Sky Pond with our friends.… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Wind River/Glacier Basin Loop
Normally I’m excited for snowy mountains and frozen alpine lakes and snowshoeing, but this past winter I had trouble locating my enthusiasm. It might have been because winter took its sweet time arriving in Colorado. The mountains ended the year with snowpack that was far below normal, and it didn’t actually snow on the plains… Continue reading
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Visiting the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit
I’m not really into art. I can appreciate the time and effort and talent that goes into creating a piece of art. But you’d have to drag me to an art museum, at which point I’d spend a few seconds looking at each item and then get bored. Then a few months back I read… Continue reading
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Squeezing our way through Little Wild Horse Canyon
After seven wonderful days exploring the red rock desert of Utah, our trip was coming to an end. We would be spending the night at a hotel in Green River, setting us up for an early morning start for our drive back home. But before checking in for our final night away from home, we… Continue reading
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Goblins and goblettes – Goblin Valley State Park, Utah
We pulled into the mostly empty parking lot around 8:30am and stepped out into the chilly November air to take in the view. On the way to the overlook, we stopped to read a sign. “Like nowhere else,” it read. I looked up at the bizarre landscape in front of me. Back down at the… Continue reading
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The Waterpocket Fold – Capitol Reef National Park, Utah (part II)
As I mentioned briefly last week, Capitol Reef gets the ‘reef’ part of its name from the fact that, from a distance, the towering line of colorful cliffs appears to be an impenetrable barrier. This 100-mile (160 km) long wrinkle in the Earth’s crust is called the Waterpocket Fold. Sometime between 50-70 million years ago,… Continue reading
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Orchards, cliffs, and petroglyphs – Capitol Reef National Park, Utah (part I)
Capitol Reef National Park is the least visited and most underrated of Utah’s “mighty five.” And I sort of understand why. It’s not as archey as Arches or as canyoney as Canyonlands. It doesn’t have Bryce’s hoodoos or Zion’s Angel’s Landing. But you know what? Capitol Reef is a really cool place that is absolutely… Continue reading
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A waterfall in the desert – Escalante National Monument, Utah
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a hidden gem. Spanning two million acres of mostly undeveloped wilderness, this national monument preserves a vast expanse of red rock desert in southern Utah. The monument is part of the Grand Staircase… an enormous span of rock layers that represent nearly two billion years of geologic history. These layers… Continue reading
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Land of the sleeping rainbow – Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, Utah
After two wonderful days of hoodoos, we departed Bryce Canyon and began the 90 minute drive to our hotel in the small town of Escalante. I’d planned some extra time for the drive knowing that we’d be following Highway 12, which is a scenic byway. We would also be driving past three state parks, though… Continue reading
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Among the hoodoos – Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah (part II)
Despite its name, Bryce Canyon is not a canyon. It’s a sequence of amphitheaters located on the edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. This name was given to the plateau by the Southern Paiute people, who lived in and around Bryce Canyon for hundreds of years. The word hoodoo is also derived from the Southern Paiute… Continue reading
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“It’s a helluva place to lose a cow” – Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah (part I)
Thank you to Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea documentary series for this gem of a quote. If you haven’t watched this series, I highly recommend it. We really enjoyed it! The quote is attributed to Ebenezer Bryce, a Mormon pioneer who homesteaded near Bryce Canyon in the 1860s and began taking visitors… Continue reading
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Colorado 13ers: James Peak
About a month after summiting three 13ers in one day, I found myself back in the very same area as I made my way toward the summit of the adjacent 13,294 foot (4052 m) mountain: James Peak. It’s one that I’d wanted to climb for a couple years now, although I don’t know why, out… Continue reading
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