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Heartbreaking history on the Colorado plains – Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site
The Eastern Colorado plains are the original homeland of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Osage, Kiowa, Sioux, Jicarilla Apache, and Ute tribes (source). But by the mid-1800s they were being systemically dispossessed from their homelands. The 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie established that the Cheyenne and Arapaho would retain some of their native lands in exchange… Continue reading
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On Top of Kansas: Mount Sunflower
In late April, we set out for our first camping trip of the season. Our ultimate destination was the Oklahoma panhandle to climb the state high point. As it turns out, though, when one drives from Colorado to Oklahoma there’s quite a lot to see along the way. So naturally, we stopped to see as… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: St. Mary’s Glacier
Most lists of “best hikes near Denver” include St. Mary’s Glacier. And with good reason. For a relatively short drive and 1.8 miles (2.9 km) of hiking, you can see a pretty subalpine lake, bristlecone pines, and stand on a glacier. Well… sort of. As it turns out, St. Mary’s Glacier isn’t actually a glacier.… Continue reading
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On Top of Nebraska: Panorama Point
The highest point in Nebraska, Panorama Point, is located just across the border from both Colorado and Wyoming in the middle of basically nowhere. The elevation at Panorama Point is 5424 feet (1653 m) – higher than I would have expected for a plains state. But one thing differentiates this high point from most of… Continue reading
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A day trip to Pawnee National Grassland
The lands of northeastern Colorado have been inhabited for at least 12,000 years, originally by nomadic hunters. More recently, these lands were the home of the Arapaho and Cheyenne, who were forcibly removed in the 1880s to allow white settlers to establish homesteads and farm the land. As settlers soon learned, though, this shortgrass prairie… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Helms Lake (the winter version)
As I’ve spent more time in Colorado and gained more knowledge and confidence in my winter hiking abilities, I’ve begun to push myself harder. I’ve tackled longer and more challenging hikes, and been rewarded with gorgeous snow-covered views and relative solitude. But I’ve also established some limits on just how much I’m willing to challenge… Continue reading
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A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day of skiing
Since moving to Colorado, we have managed to go cross-country skiing about once a year. I wish we could go more often, but we don’t have our own gear (yet). Fortunately, there’s a place not too far away that rents gear for a decent price, and there are some trails in the mountains that are… Continue reading
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A weekend in Twin Lakes, Colorado
The combination of living in Colorado and having a winter anniversary always makes it difficult to figure out how we’re going to celebrate. You just never know what the weather has in store, especially in the mountains. This year we actually had the opposite problem from what we expected: it was going to be too… Continue reading
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Colorado Summits: Greyrock Mountain
The wild fluctuations and extremes of mountain weather is something that can be hard to grasp, particularly for someone who hasn’t spent much time in them. Hell, I’ve spent most of my life living near and exploring the mountains, and I still underestimate them from time to time. Mountains do weird and intense things to… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Burning Bear Trail
The Guanella Pass area is moose territory. So when we headed up Burning Bear Trail one January morning, adjacent to an expanse of willows, I was on the lookout. Just a few minutes up the trail we encountered a fellow hiker who informed us there were four of them just ahead in the willows. Despite… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Black Lake (the winter version)
Exactly one week after hiking to Sky Pond in the winter – my last hike of the year – I found myself back at Glacier Gorge trailhead, this time with a friend, for my first hike of the new year! We were fighting cold gusty winds as we readied ourselves to head up the other… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Sky Pond (the winter version)
Frozen alpine lakes have become one of my favorite things since moving to Colorado. I just love the icy winter scenery so much. It’s already become an annual thing for us to hike to some of the more easily accessible lakes in Rocky every winter. But this winter, my friend and I had a more… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Chair Rocks
Have you ever walked along a trail mere minutes before a car went flying off the road and landed on said trail, right where you’d just walked? No? Neither had I… until this hike. My friend and I set out early one Saturday morning, the landscape beautifully dusted with snow from an overnight storm. The… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Deer Mountain
It’s not every day that you hike a trail and find yourself nearly face-to-face with its namesake animal. But such was the case on Deer Mountain. (Better than coming face-to-face with a bear on Bear Peak, I suppose.) There were four of them, and they couldn’t have been more than 15 feet (4.5 m) away.… Continue reading
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Island in the Sky – Canyonlands National Park, Utah (part II)
For our final day in eastern Utah, we headed into the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands. This is the one you’ve probably seen pictures of, as it’s the easiest to access and therefore the most popular. It’s only about a 40 minute drive from Moab, down a very scenic stretch of highway. I… Continue reading
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Exploring the Needles – Canyonlands National Park, Utah (part I)
Years ago, I set foot in Canyonlands for the first time, a stop on a summer national parks road trip. We spent a full day in the park, seeing as much as we could. But we knew we’d barely scratched the surface. This time around, I was determined to see more of this beautiful red… Continue reading
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Iconic Utah – Hiking to Delicate Arch
Delicate Arch is inarguably the most iconic sight in all of Utah. It’s on the license plate, the state quarter, signs all over the state, and numerous other things. But none of these can prepare you for the majesty of the arch itself. The first time I saw it, I was completely in awe. This… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Loch Lomond
Are you singing the Loch Lomond song in your head now? Me too. In fact, it was stuck in my head the rest of the day after doing this hike. It’s in my head again now as I’m writing this. But despite the Scottish origin of the song, today’s hike is not located in Scotland.… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Mohawk Lakes
The Spruce Creek Trail to Mohawk Lakes is one of the most popular hikes near Breckenridge, Colorado. Generally, we try to avoid extremely busy trails such as this one. But some hikes are pretty enough that you just have to suck it up and brace yourself for the crowds. We hoped that arriving early morning… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Twin Sisters Peak
2020 was a rough year for all of us, Rocky included. First, the park was closed for weeks in the spring due to the pandemic. Then it closed again for 15 days in October and November due to forest fires. In all, nearly 30,000 acres of the park burned. It was absolutely devastating to watch… Continue reading
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