IntrepidXJ's Adventure Blog

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, August 27, 2011

When I chose my photo for the month of August earlier this week, I realized that I never posted a trip report from our day driving over Imogene Pass. Even though it really wasn’t much of a ‘trip’ I did take a couple of photos on our nice leisurely drive over Imogene Pass from Telluride to Ouray. We started out the day at Bridal Veil Falls for a few photos before driving over the pass. Afterwards we stopped in Ridgway for some burgers before heading back home. Here’s just a few photos from the day.

Bridal Veil Falls

I’ve driven by these falls a number of times but never stopped and hiked up to them. That changed on this trip.

Bridal Veil Pool

The main fall kept moving with the wind, so every second it seems the waterfall looked different. It was pretty cool to watch.

Distant Storm

A storm off in the distance viewed from up in the Savage Basin.

Jeep at 13114

Imogene Pass….this might be the first time I have been up there with no snow or rain falling, even though it looked like it might start at any moment.

Top of the Pass

One more of my Jeep at the pass.

Richmond Falls

A great waterfall we visited on our way down to Telluride. The overcast sky made perfect conditions to get some longer exposures.

Amanda had to work on the Fourth of July Weekend so I was on my own to find something to do. It was getting pretty hot in the desert, so I decided to take a break from searching for rock art and head up into the mountains. There weren’t too many roads open yet because of the snow still up in the high country, but there were enough to keep me occupied for the weekend. I decided to head south to the San Juan Mountains and take my time exploring along the Alpine Loop. After passing through Ouray I took a left and followed the Uncompahgre River and Mineral Creek up towards Engineer Pass.

Small Falls

A small waterfall along the road.

Jeep Over Poughkeepsie Gulch

Looking over my Jeep into Poughkeepsie Gulch.

Mineral Creek

Along Mineral Creek and just past Mineral Point.

Darley Mountain

Snow B&W

Plenty of snow below Engineer Pass.

Flowing Water

View down Palmetto Gulch on the other side of Engineer Pass.

Keeping the San Juans Open

If it weren’t for these, many of the roads I drove this weekend still wouldn’t be open…

Whitmore Falls

I stopped and hiked down to Whitmore Falls along the way.

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Friday, December 24, 2010 | Christmas Eve

On Friday I picked up my friend Jackson and we headed to Bridgeport to hike into Lower Dominguez Canyon. There are some petroglyphs a few miles into the canyon which were my main goal for the day, but it was a very nice and scenic canyon with a few waterfalls as well. It was a great way to spend Christmas Eve.

The first petroglyph panel we encountered

From the first panel, I spotted some petroglyphs high up on the canyon wall, so we scrambled up the talus slope to get a closer look.

On our way up I found this sun carved into a boulder

The panel I spotted on the canyon wall

Closer look

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Well, it’s just about that time of the year again. It’s the part of the year that I start transitioning away from the deserts of Southern Utah and start to concentrate on the mountains of Colorado. The last time I was up in the San Juans was when I went snowshoeing back in January. I had heard that some of the passes around the San Juan Triangle have been starting to open, so on Saturday we decided to head on down there and see just what the conditions were. We found that the snow has been melting fast this year, and there were a lot more trails open than I had anticipated.

On our way to Silverton, we took the scenic side trip through the Red Mountain Mining District.

Red Mountain Creek

Yankee Girl

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