Written by JN on November 26th, 2009
Arches National Park in Utah is without a doubt one of the most awe inspiring places I’ve ever been to. With a four-day weekend over the American Thanksgiving, and having already gorged on turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving Jamie and I decided to take a mini-vacation and head out to the desert.
The drive out from Denver was decent and holiday traffic wasn’t too bad and we left right after work heading up and over the mountain passes and down into the desert. My first thought after passing through Grand Junction and over the Colorado/Utah line was “wow, look at all those stars!” and my second though was “I really should have filled up in GJ” (c: Fortunately after only 30min with the gas light on we rolled into a Shell station and I put 17.2 gallons into an 18 gallon tank!
Camping in Arches was easy to find, there is one campground in the entire park and it was only about half full as we cruised through at 10:30pm. The vacation had a few goals
- Relax and be outside without worrying about summits
- Enjoy the warm(er) weather
- Get some really good photographs
Since #3 generally requires sunrise or sunset I had looked up the good times and locations for Arches and Canyonlands and the first on our list was Double Arch, at sunrise.
Double Arch before sunrise
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Posted in Denver, Mountains, Travel | No Responses »
Written by JN on November 21st, 2009
Really not much to say, it was windy… and cold. Windy and cold, pretty much sums it up!
We parked nice and high, 12,051 or so and climbed up and over Mt Sherman then climbed up the tallest of the “twin” summits on Gemini
Jamie climbing up Mt Sherman
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Written by JN on November 8th, 2009
Since yesterday was such a beautiful day Jamie and I decided to head out and go hiking today. Pettingell Peak, off of the Herman Gulch TH seemed like a great choice to us but must not have been favourable to others as we didn’t see another soul all day!
Moonset
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Written by JN on November 7th, 2009
I’ve been recalcitrant in updating the blog lately and this is my attempt to get things squared away.
Oct 3: After Fletcher Mountain Jamie and I got out and hiked the Hell’s Hole trail by Mt. Evans. We were looking for a nice easy day and this trail delivered. It was 8mi and ~2000+ ft of elevation but it all on really nice trails and it wasn’t difficult at all. We took a few pictures but none really worth posting
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Written by JN on September 27th, 2009
Fletcher Mountain lives in the same neighbourhood as Quandry and Pacific and as luck would have it, it’s also a Centennial Peak in Colorado. Jamie and I parked at the Blue Lakes trailhead and started heading up the trail.
Quandry Peak with Blue Lake(s) on the right, as seen from the summit of Fletcher
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Written by JN on September 26th, 2009
This weekend was the 50th Anniversary of the Alpine Rescue Team. As a new member it’s rather hard to put all of this history into context but it was amazing to see all the former members that came back to visit, reminisce, and remember.
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Written by JN on September 19th, 2009
Jamie, Neil (her cousin), and I went hiking today out in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. The IPW is an amazing location and with the fall colours in force it was looking gorgeous today! The route to Apache is really nice, it starts off easy with a 2mi hike to Isabelle Lake and the swiftly goes off trail.
View of Apache and Navajo from the basin
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Posted in Denver, Mountains | 1 Response »
Written by JN on September 13th, 2009
Last week I was backpacking in the Grand Teton National Park with my friends Ryan, Lisa, and Alan. The pictures are up but no story yet, that will come in the next few days.
Posted in Denver | 1 Response »
Written by JN on September 13th, 2009
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Written by JN on September 13th, 2009
Shower + Coffee = Happy Lisa!
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