IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

The 2013 City of Grand Junction calendar has been out for a little while now, so I thought I’d make a quick post to show off my photos that were chosen. Each year the City of Grand Junction creates a calendar that they send out to everyone in the city. This is the first year I have submitted photos for use in this calendar since I didn’t have many local photos that I thought were good enough to submit before. I made an effort over the last year to concentrate on making some local images so that I could finally submit a few. They ended up choosing two of my photos for the calendar, so I guess the extra effort paid off.

I have a small photo of a Ute petroglyph panel in Big Dominguez Canyon for the month of February, which is nice since my birthday is also in February.

The second photo they chose is one of my favorites from this last monsoon season at the Colorado National Monument. Even though this photo is at the very end, it’s the only other full-sized photo in the calendar besides the cover. Plus, if anyone is looking up a city phone number they will see it. 😉

If you do not live within the city limits but would like to pick up a copy of the calendar, you can also stop by and get one for free at City Hall.

I headed up on top of the Grand Mesa this evening to catch some of the fall colors. I was hoping to photograph the sunset from this location, but as you can see from the photo above, there wasn’t much of a view this evening. The very to of the Mesa was in the clouds and it was snowing pretty good. Luckily, I was able to drive back down off the Mesa a little bit to get under some of the clouds!

Getting Out by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

The continuation of the previous post…

The only plant big enough to winch to nearby happened to be behind the Jeep, but I had no other options, so I tried it. I was really worried that since the tree was right next to the bank of the wash that all I would do is pull it over…but luckily it held! I managed to drag the front end of my Jeep around until my tires were on more solid ground in the bottom of the wash.

I was also worried about popping off my fender flare, but the winch rope managed to stay between the top of the bumper and the bottom of the fender flare until the Jeep spun around enough to clear the flare completely. It couldn’t have worked any better!

It does appear that I’m going to need to replace my winch rope after this angle pull, but that’s a small price to pay.

Quicksand! by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

This was the first time I’ve ever been stuck in quicksand. To be honest, I didn’t give quicksand the proper respect it deserves before since I’ve always been able to just drive right through it. I’ve now learned my lesson and will be a little more cautious in the future. My Jeep may not look stuck too bad from this angle, but the front tire on the passenger side was up to the top in a very soft soupy sand. Also, the belly of my Jeep was on the ground and the rear tires had dug themselves some nice holes…it wasn’t going anywhere under it’s own power!

I just picked up my copies of the 2013 Colorado National Monument Calendar this evening. One of my photos from this past winter was selected to be used for the month of January.

So if you find yourself at the Monument or one of the local shops selling the calendar, feel free to pick up a copy 😉