This morning I headed to the Colorado National Monument to hike down Monument Canyon. Here’s a few photos I took along the way.
Making my way down into the canyon
Looking over the Coke Ovens from the side trip to the overlook
Continuing on down the trail
The Coke Ovens from below
At the bottom of the canyon
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.
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
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
Yesterday Amanda and I headed to Arches National Park for the sole purpose of hiking to Delicate Arch. We left home early and ended up staring the hike to the arch shortly after 9:00am. When we reached the arch, we were lucky enough to have it to ourselves for a little while. It seems that the last few times I have headed to Arches, the skies have been nice and overcast for me, and yesterday was no exception. It wasn’t until we were heading back down from the arch that the clouds finally started to clear out. Here’s some photos from our hike.
Arrived at Delicate Arch and had it to ourselves.
Me, under the arch.
Amanda and I.
Amanda next to the arch.
