IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

Saturday & Sunday, April 21-22, 2012

I was originally supposed to go camping this weekend with Amanda, but at the last minute she was unable to go with me, so I had to figure out something else to do. I sent an email to Marty to see if he was free on the weekend for some hiking on Cedar Mesa, but I figured he already had plans and I would be on my own. To my surprise, he was free and willing to join me. At first he thought he would only be joining me on Saturday, but he ended up camping overnight and exploring with me the whole weekend.

We met up in Blanding at the usual gas station so that we could top off our fuel tanks before driving through Comb Ridge and up onto Cedar Mesa. We made a quick stop at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station so that I could finally grab my Annual Hiking Permit for the year, and then continued on to the Owl Creek Canyon trailhead. I was surprised to see so many vehicles parked here. I guess I am used to hiking the lesser travelled canyons in Cedar Mesa, because I wasn’t expecting the parking area to be packed. Normally I would probably turn around and find somewhere else to go, but I sucked it up and continued on down into Owl Canyon for a short hike.

We stopped and visited the well-preserved set of ruins just in the large alcove along the trail. There were some very interesting and unique ruins here.

Owl Creek Alcove by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

There were also some pictographs painted on the ceiling of the alcove.

Paintings by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Small Room by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
 

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The clouds in the sky this evening were looking pretty nice, so I decided to drive up to the Monument to hopefully catch a nice colorful sunset. I didn’t get the spectacular sunset I was hoping for, but I did end up with with a few good photos while I was up there.

As I drove up Fruita Canyon I finally got a decent photo of Balance Rock in the late afternoon sun with some clouds. Usually as I drive by the sky is either completely blue, or I miss the direct sunlight on the sandstone.

Balanced Rock by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

I’m glad I stopped at Balance Rock this time because I also ran into a large group of Desert Bighorn Sheep with a few babies. I grabbed my long lens and took a few photos before they were out of sight.

Young Bighorn Sheep by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

After the bighorn sheep were gone, I got back in my Jeep and decided to hike Otto’s Trail and catch the sunset from that area.

The shadows creep across the canyon floor towards Independence Monument.

Independence Monument View by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
 

Sunday, April 15, 2012

After spending the previous day at Rifle Falls with Amanda we decided to spend Sunday morning taking a hike we have wanted to do for a while in in the Colorado National Monument. The last time we had planned to hike the Black Rdge Trail, it snowed, so we cancelled our plans because we feared it would be a muddy and slippery mess in places. Like the previous day, the weather forecast overnight was calling for storms, but luckily the Monument didn’t see any precipitation. The Book Cliffs, on the other hand, were coated with snow as we drove to the Monument.

Snow and spotlight on the Book Cliffs as we drove up into the Monument.

Snow on the Book Cliffs by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

A view down into Fruita Canyon as we drove to the trailhead.

Fruita Canyon by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Scenery at the beginning of the hike as we climbed up the trail.

Rocky Hill by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
 

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Since Amanda was off this weekend, I let her decide where we would be going on Saturday. She chose Rifle Falls State Park since neither of us had been there before and it’s a place we have both wanted to visit. We have driven past the park before, but always avoided it because it just seemed so busy. It’s a pretty small park located along Rifle Creek which flows down from the Flat Tops, but it has a nice waterfall, a few short hiking trails, and a small campground.

The weather forecast was calling for thunderstorms for much of the day, but they’ve been wrong before so we decided to go anyway. Besides, I was hoping for party cloudy skies to block the sun so I could get some longer exposures while not being completely overcast. I ended up getting exactly those conditions and the weather was actually great the whole time we were there. I think the forecast kept others away since we had the whole park to ourselves for almost two hours after we arrived. It was really nice!

If you don’t like photos of waterfalls, you should probably stop reading now since that’s all I took photos of while we were there 😉

This scene sure would have looked great later in the spring when everything is green or even in the fall when the colors are changing…but I worked with what I had.

Rifle Creek Falls by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

A closer look at the bottom of the right waterfall.

Bottom of the Right Falls by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

We hiked to the top of the falls for a view from above and down Rifle Creek.

Rifle Creek by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
 

Saturday & Sunday, April 7-8, 2012

I set out this weekend with one goal in mind- I was searching for a specific ruin known as the Painted Granary or Nestled Granary. I had done some research and thought I figured out which canyon it might be hidden in. The only way to know for sure was to get out there, hike around and search for it…so that’s what I did!

While trying to find a way into the canyon, I came across these ‘bird tracks’ in a very shallow alcove.

Bird Tracks by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

Eventually I managed to find my way into the mouth of the canyon and started hiking upstream while searching the canyon walls for ruins. I hadn’t hiked very long when I spotted the ruin I was looking for…I was excited to find it and scrambled up the loose talus slope to reach it. There were a few other ruins below it that weren’t in as good of shape.

Ruins Below by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

There was also one nice reverse handprint painted on the sandstone inside the large alcove. There were a couple other one’s that were pretty faint and hard to see, too.

Hand & Painted Granary by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr