IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Since our original plans for the weekend were to go rafting near Glenwood Springs on Sunday, I ended up heading to Davis Canyon on Saturday to do some hiking and exploring. Unfortunately, because of the wind, our rafting trip on Sunday never happened 🙁

After driving up Davis Canyon to the Canyonlands National Park boundary, I parked my Jeep and hiked in. My first destination would be the Five Faces Pictographs. These pictographs are in amazing condition.

All five faces.

Below the pictographs on two sandstone slabs were ten large depressions.

After leaving the Five Faces, I backtracked a little ways down the canyon to check out this small, but well-preserved granary.

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This last weekend Amanda and I headed south to Hovenweep National Monument and the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. This is an area we have been close to many times before, but had not been to yet. I’m not sure why it took so long, but it was definitely well worth the visit, and I’m looking forward to heading back to explore more in the future!

After setting up camp at the Hovenweep campground, we started out by making our way over to the Holly Group of ruins a few miles away. Hovenweep is a bit different from other National Parks and Monuments as it is not one large area. Hovenweep is actually comprised of six separate villages spread over a twenty-mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons along the Utah-Colorado border.

Holly Tower and Holly House

Holly House

After visiting Holly, we backtracked to the hiking trail for both the Horseshoe and Hackberry ruins. After a nice half mile hike, we reached Horseshoe.

Round Tower perched on the canyon rim (Shiprock on the horizon).

Horseshoe House

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I have wanted to check out the arches of Rattlesnake Canyon for quite a while. Today we finally had a chance to head out and hike the trail through Rattlesnake Canyon since we didn’t head out of town this weekend.

The first arch we came across is Unnamed Arch.

It is right next to Hole in the Bridge.

Hole in the Bridge is a nice double arch.

Looking across Rattlesnake Canyon, you can see a lot of potential for many future arches.

Twin Arch is the next arch along the trail.

Twin Arch is also pretty close to Hole in the Bridge.

Next up is Eye Arch.

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This last Thursday was Amanda’s birthday, so she got to choose where we went last weekend. After getting a taste of The Great Sand Dunes last August, she wanted to head back while Medano Creek was flowing. Since she ended up having Friday off from work, I ended up taking the day off as well, and we made our way down to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

We took the scenic route through Lake City and Creede via Colorado 149. Along the way we stopped at the North Clear Creek Falls. We were greeted with a closed seasonal gate, so we parked the Jeep and hiked to the falls.

Before reaching Creede, we spotted a few Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep along the road. I’ve never managed to get a photo of one before, so I had to stop.

Soon we reached Alamosa and checked into our hotel and grabbed an early dinner. We were glad we got a hotel this trip as the weather was not the best and we were glad not to be camping in the cold. After dinner we headed out to the dunes to catch the sunset.

Medano Creek was flowing

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Yesterday we decided to stick close to home. Amanda had mentioned that she wanted to head up the Top of the World trail soon, so we headed that way for a while. We also explored a few trails and roads I had not been on in the Cisco Desert along the way. Here’s a few pictures.

End of the road, after following the West Cisco Wash trail which ended up above McGraw Bottom.

Headed back on the little used two-track

Next stop was McGraw Bottom where we came across the remains of some old stone buildings

I headed up the Kokopelli bike trail a little ways until it turned into single-track that’s closed to vehicles. Nice view over the Colorado River

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