Andrew's Lake

Finding powder in an old stomping ground always puts a smile on my face. To me, Andrew's Lake between Durango and Silverton is one of my favorite places, and certainly one of those important places.  Just like the poem that was written from a father to a son in 1986:

The Important Places

Child of mine

come as you grow

in youth you will learn the secret places

the cave behind the waterfall

the arms of the oak that hold you high

the stars so near on a desert ledge

the important places

and as with age you choose your own way

among the many faces of a busy world

may you always remember the path that leads back

back to the important places.

— Dad for Forest, 1986

I first heard this poem and learned about the film The Important Places during the 2015 Five Points Film Festival in Carbondale, and it reminded me of all of my "important places" in the San Juan mountains. When my husband told me he had gotten time off work for the holidays, I was excited to get back to my old stomping ground. We pulled into the parking lot for Andrew's Lake just as the storm was lifting, and we were ecstatic to see the pocket of freshly dropped powder. 

Justin's mom met us in the parking lot with her wooden skis, and we toured into the powder. It was invigorating and much needed. The clouds lifted, and we were greeted with blue skies and familiar views. It was the perfect start to a wonderful holiday week spent with family and friends in Durango, Colorado. 

Morning Glory

As October was nearing an end, we loaded up the vansion for one last desert "hoorah" before winter. We drove into Moab and found a campsite nestled in among ancient dinosaur bones and history.

We decided to hike to Morning Glory Natural Bridge, well, us and at least a hundred of our closest friends. The hike was absurdly busy, as most hikes in Moab are these days, but still lovely. There was an abundance of water, which the dogs were happy about. The trail follows a creek for a good while with several crossings.

We made it to Morning Glory Natural Bridge just in time to see a group repelling down from above. Although it wasn't the most peaceful hike and a feeling of solitude was seemingly nonexistent, it was still a great way to celebrate the changing season and soak up the last bit of warmth the desert had to offered.

Leaf Peepin'

Fall is a magical season, and every year, one of my favorite seasonal activities is leaf peeping. This year, we decided to pack up the vansion and head up Kebler Pass in search of golden leaves.

It was the perfect weekend to view the changing colors, but we were certainly not the only ones who decided that. Kebler Pass was busy and crowded with photographers and others out to see the stunning colors for themselves.

We found a campsite at the way to Lost Lake and enjoyed an crisp evening under a late September sky. The next day, we drove further up Kebler Pass to Lake Irwin, which was super crowded. Once we were past the lake, however, we pulled off the road and hiked up to Green Lake. We only passed a few people on the hike and were able to get beautiful views of the valley.

La Plata Peak

La Plata Peak is the fifth highest peak in Colorado with a summit reaching 14,336 feet. It has been one of my favorite fourteener hikes to date.

October was looming in the distance, and my husband and I decided we needed to head out for one more peak summit of the season. My sister was looking for a birthday adventure, and since this was her birthday weekend, she decided a summit was in order for her, too.

We arrived at the trailhead before sunrise and were surprised by how many cars were already there. With access just off on Independence Pass, this is a popular hike. After about an hour, we were greeted with a brilliant sunrise, which gave us a much-needed energy boost.

The wind began picking up as we neared the summit, and we were wearing all of our layers by the time we reached the top. It was worth it though; the views were spectacular and the smiles were bigger than ever.

Missouri Mountain and Clear Creek Campout

With summer nearing an end, my husband realized we had yet to camp with our families this summer. We quickly called everyone and made a plan to meet up Clear Creek Road outside of Buena Vista for a weekend campout.

Justin's sister and I began plotting an additional adventure which required us to meet a day early and climb a fourteener, Missouri Mountain (14, 067'). Missouri Mountain is a ten-mile round trip hike with 4, 500 feet of elevation gain. We set a date, and met for the hike. My sister and two friends also decided to join, making us a party of 5 strong women and 2 dogs.

Our alarm clocks went off at 4:00 am, and we huddled around the stove to make coffee. We were on the trail by 5:30, making good time up to Missouri Mountain's summit. The trail was great and well-maintained; we even passed by the Colorado 14er Initiative Group working on the trail. Once at the scree field, however, the trail became steep with loose gravel. We took our time and made it to the ridge quickly. The ridge is exceptionally long and beautiful, and I enjoyed walking the spine until I saw the final scramble, which required a bit of climbing. The guidebook calls this a class 2 climb, and it didn't say anything about any climbing - or scrambling for that matter.

Unfortunately, Loki (my puppy) and I didn't feel like we could maneuver the climb together, so we stayed back and didn't reach the true summit that day. We did, however, enjoy the beautiful views on our very private "false summit," only feet lower than the actual summit.

After the hike, my friends left and my family arrived. The next day we took our stand-up paddle boards down the road to Clear Creek Reservoir and played around. My mom and mother-in-law took to the boards and had a blast. That night, we roasted marshmallows and enjoyed some family time.

Fancy Pass Loop

"I'm so fancy!"

I woke up one summer morning in July and realized I had yet to put my backpack on this season. Knowing that had to change, I immediately began planning for an adventure.

After some time spent reading guidebooks and looking at maps, I settled on Fancy Pass Loop, also known as Missouri Lakes Loop. The trip is eight miles long with two passes, Fancy Pass and Missouri Pass. Once I decided this was the spot, I scoured the web looking for trip reports and such.

I quickly discovered that this is one of the more popular loops in the Holy Cross Wilderness. Website after website warned against overuse and crowded trails. I had already planned everything out; however, so I decided to give it a try anyways.

My husband had the grand idea to hike up Fancy Pass and down Missouri Pass, which turned out to be an excellent decision as most people seemed to day hike to Missouri Lakes. We hardly saw a soul until we reached Fancy Lake, and even then we only crossed paths with two other groups.

Fancy Lake is stunning, but Fancy Pass is daunting with a 35 pound pack and a surprising amount of snow. We took our time crossing snow fields and navigating a path to the top of the pass. The views were beautiful, and we scoped out an area to camp in near Treasure Vault Lake. Several other groups were camping in-between the passes, but the area was large enough that every group was able to find a secluded spot.

We toasted to adventure and enjoyed a dinner of couscous with bacon and veggies while soaking in the views. We had a family dance party in an alpine meadow at sunset, then we went to bed. The following day, we quickly climbed to the top of Missouri Pass and made our way down to the many lakes below.

It turns out the trail wasn't overly crowded, and the mosquitos were more obnoxious than any person we encountered. Happy trails!

Grizzly Lake

Our friends scored a campsite in a popular area up Lincoln Creek on Independence Pass outside of Aspen, CO, so we decided to go for an adventure. Lincoln Creek is accessed by a four-wheel-drive road that hosts several campsites that is almost always crowded due to it's proximity to Aspen and the numerous alpine hikes available.

We were planning on hiking Grizzly Lake one day and Petroleum Lake the next day. We made it to Grizzly Lake, a beautiful scenic high-alpine lake. The entire hike was beautiful starting with aspens and fields of wildflowers and ending with snowfields and craggy rock peaks. The following day, unfortunately, the rain kept us from exploring Petroleum Lake. Another day, another adventure.

Mount Belford

To celebrate our second wedding anniversary, my husband and I decided to climb a mountain. Late June is still pretty early for mountain climbing, especially with all the late season moisture we got this winter, but we decided we would go for it anyways.

We chose Mount Belford (14,067'), accessible down Clear Creek Road outside of Buena Vista, Colorado. We arrived late Friday night and camped right off the road about a mile past the trailhead. With seven miles and 4,000 feet of elevation gain ahead of us, we went to bed early that evening.

In the morning, we got an early start, hiking the first mile and a half of switchbacks in the dark. The water crossing was very high, so we took a half-mile detour to see if there was a better spot to cross - there's not! So we took off our shoes and crossed the icy knee-deep water. After the water crossing we quickly made it to tree-line and began our ascent of Mount Belford.

We saw several other groups on the trail, but the mountain wasn't too busy. We made it to the top in time for lunch, but the clouds started building around us. We decided not to bag two peaks in one day, and we left Mount Oxford for another day.

I was grateful for the icy water crossing on the way down because my feet were sore from the first fourteener of the season. After a wonderful hike, we made it back to van-trouble; it wouldn't start. It turns out we had jostled the battery lose on the washboard road. Luckily, Justin had it up and running with enough time for us to make our dinner reservation at Mount Princeton Hot Springs. Of course, we soaked in the over-priced hot springs, too.

It was a wonderful anniversary, and I am looking forward to many more adventures to come.

The Sandy Juan

Somehow we scored a permit for the busiest week on the San Juan river (from Mexican Hat to Clay Hills), in mid-June. Run-off was fierce throughout Colorado, and everyday we checked the flow of the old San Juan. We watched as the river rose all the way up to 6,800 CFS on the day of our launch.

Having run this stretch of the San Juan at a typical 400-1000 CFS several times, I was both nervous and excited for the big flow. I had planned on taking my Shaboomee paddle board down the San Juan, and with limited boat space, I decided not to chicken out because of high water, instead I borrowed a helmet and headed for Utah.

It rained all day, and as we began shuttling the cars, I started worrying about Clay Hills Road. It was, as I suspected, in rough shape. We had to rally our cars down to the takeout and back to the put-in. It was touch-and-go in spots, but in the end we made it back to the put-in - not without a few hiccups, however. The Subaru that was taking us all back to Mexican Hat overheated from the clay and stopped us about 45 minutes outside of Bluff. We were stranded for three hours; the car refused to start.

It was a Sunday, and when the ranger stopped by he told us the nearest auto repair shop was in Blanding, and they weren't open until Monday. With that, we decided there was no point in waiting around or missing our trip, so we left the car on the side of the road (knowing we could deal with it when got off the river) and two kind and generous rangers drove us all the way to Mexican Hat.

We launched and made quick time to our first campsite. The river was exciting at 6,800 CFS. A new rapid formed from a flash flood at Twin Canyons; it felt even bigger than Government, but that may just have been because it caught me by surprise on my paddle board. It was wonderful, but then the storms began rolling in. Slickhorn Canyon flashed in the morning while we were packing up, and Grand Gulch was pouring out water when we passed by; I've never seen so much water in the canyon. on the final night there was a torrential storm; we were camped at Oljeto - a known flash flood site. Just as I had fallen asleep, hurricane-like wind picked me up in my tent and the sky opened up with a torrential downpour. Luckily, we made camp on a high ledge and everyone was safe.

It was a San Juan trip unlike any other I had done before. I missed the calm serenity of that stretch of river, but the high water and unpredictable weather gave new life to that canyon and showed me a side, which I appreciate in it's own light.

Little Wild Horse and Bell Canyon

The desert calls to me throughout the year. The red rock, warm sun and isolation are hard to beat; and so I find myself in the desert several times each year. Those of you who know me, know that I almost always get rained on when I go to the desert, and this trip was no exception.

In spite of ourselves

We'll end up sittin' on a rainbow

Against all odds

Honey, we're the big door prize

We're gonna spite our noses 

Right off of our faces

There won't be nothin' but big old hearts

Dancin' in our eyes

-John Prine

We camped just outside of Goblin Valley, in the rain, and we witnessed a spectacular full rainbow that made the rain entirely worth it. When the sun came out in the morning, we decided we had better take advantage of the weather window and hike the two slot canyons we had traveled to explore, Little Wild Horse and Bell Canyon.

The canyon hike makes a perfect loop full complete with excitement and adventure. I will definitely be back to explore more canyons at a later date.

Mount Garfield

Mount Garfield is an iconic desert highpoint seen from i70 on the drive to or from Grand Junction. Not knowing much about the hike, it had been on my list of adventures for a while. My husband agreed to hike it one Sunday on our way back to Carbondale.

We found the trailhead easily. Justin didn't heed the warning posted before the highway underpass; however, and we ended up driving through a pool of water that was nearly high enough to reach the van doors. He punched it through the standing water while I yelled at him (oops!); it's safe to say I was a bit shaken up upon starting the hike.

Mount Garfield is a four-mile round trip hike with 2000 feet of elevation gain. We began hiking up the STEEP spine section - pausing nearly every fifty feet to catch our breath. I felt the onset of vertigo just as we were reaching the end of the spine, thankfully. After the spine the hike is moderate with several more ups and even a couple of flat sections.

We made it to the top and enjoyed the view just as the rain clouds began rolling in. We snapped a couple of photos and headed down quickly. We made it safely across the underpass ravine again, and then we were homeward bound.

SUP Moab

"A desert is a place without expectation." - Nadine Gordimer

Another weekend, another adventure; Justin and I packed up the vansion and headed to Moab for the Back of Beyond SUP race. We arrived late Friday night, and to our surprise EVERY campsite was reserved all along 128! 

Just as it started to rain, we pulled into a final campground and a gracious host allowed us to park our van there for the night. Relieved, we set up our spot and had dinner. The campground was crowded and it wasn't long before we met some folks also in town for the race; we made new friends and learned about an awesome local (to Carbondale) SUP company, Shaboomee. 

We made the most of the stormy night dancing to funk music under the E-Z-Up with new friends. The next morning when we awoke we were relieved to find the clouds had mostly rolled out, and we could see blue sky above us.

The race began at Dewey Bridge and ended at Hittle Bottom, so we headed to Dewey Bridge after a short hike. I demoed a Lava Grande Tri-tube Shaboomee board for the race and some of my girlfriends rode on the MacDaddy Super Shaboomee board with Shaboomee owner, Shaine Ebrahimi; everyone had a great time. 

Indian Creek

When the snow starts melting in Carbondale, Colorado, I start itching for the desert. I find comfort in the warmth of the red rock, the twinkling stars at night and the blooming desert flowers. Each of these things reminds me to appreciate every season, and every springtime desert trip teaches me to make the most of mud-season back at home.

We packed up the vansion and drove to Moab. Our destination was Indian Creek, a spectacular car-camping spot tucked up against Canyonlands National Park. We spent four wonderful and refreshing days at Indian Creek, exploring nearby canyons and soaking up the sun.

It was exactly what I needed; it always is.