IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

On Sunday we headed south to Telluride so we could ride the Gondola and check out Mountain Village. After that we stopped at the Union Cafe in Ridgway for some delicious burgers, and then we headed up to Coal Creek to check out some more fall colors. Here’s a few photos I took along the way with my S90….

Boarding the Gondola to Mountain Village

Mountain Village

We did a little hiking at the middle stop on the way back….St. Sophia Station.

Telluride down below

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On Saturday morning Amanda and I headed to Meeker for our annual Fall Colors trip. This year we would be checking out the Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway. This road is about 80 miles in length and connects the towns of Meeker and Yampa. Both ends are paved for a number of miles and the section in the middle is a well-maintained gravel road…..but we weren’t here for a challenge, we were here to check out the scenery. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of fall colors along this route, but luckily we were able to find some nice colors along the way.

Starting to see some colors as we climb into the Flat Tops.

Our first destination off of the main route was the side trip that would take us to Trappers Lake. There weren’t many colors to be found here because of the Big Fish wildfire that burned 17,056 acres back in 2002.

A few photos from our hike along Trappers Lake.

Colorful drive on our way back to the Flat Tops Trail

I stopped in a colorful grove of aspens for a few photos.

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Yesterday morning Amanda and I headed to the Colorado National Monument to hike the full Liberty Cap trail. I have hiked it from the bottom before, which is a shorter, but steeper hike. This time I wanted to start from Rim Rock Drive and hike across Monument Mesa to Liberty Cap, and then finish off the trail to the bottom. The full trail was about 7 miles in length and took us about 4 hours to complete. Here’s a couple of pictures I took along the way.

Views over the valley when we reached the rim

Can you spot the trail down from the rim?

Liberty Cap

Amanda and I in front of the Liberty Cap

This weekend Amanda and I finished up our Laccolith Tour this year by heading up to the Abajo (Blue) Mountains. We started out by heading west out of Monticello to North Creek Pass.

Then we followed Indian Creek and Johnson Creek to the Nizhoni Campground.

From there we made our way up Dry Wash to do a little hiking and find some ruins. While hiking, Amanda decided that she wanted to sit down and rest while I continued on a little ways. Shortly after we split, I heard a noise off in the trees ahead of me. I stopped and listened, but did not hear the noise anymore, so I decided to carry on. Right after I started hiking again, the noise in the tress started up again, and two large bears started crossing the trail about 20 feet in front of me. At that point I turned around and safely got out of there!

We made it back to the Jeep and followed another spur road in Dry Wash that did lead us to some ruins high up in the cliffs.

We then left Dry Wash and continued on across The Casueway

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This past Labor Day Weekend Amanda had to unfortunately work on Sunday and Monday, so I was on my own. I figured that I would head back to The Henry Mountains to complete some of the trails that were blocked by snow on our last trip, plus do a little hiking to the top of Mount Ellen. You can find the previous trip report here.

After some breakfast on Sunday morning I made my way to Hanksville, where I topped off of my gas tank and headed south towards The Henry Mountains.

I did a little exploring on some side roads before actually reaching the mountains.

Following the Sawmill Basin Road around Bull Mountain

…and then up to Wickiup Pass at 9,200 feet.

Nice views of the desert stretching out beyond the mountains

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