Photo of the Week 8.14.2023
Colorado
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Photo (Video) of the Week 7.31.23
Colorado Hiking Video 2023
Photo of the Week 7.17.23
Summer Adventure Update
It’s getting close to the first trip and things are coming together! I’m less than 2 weeks out from heading to Colorado to backpack to the Blue Lakes and hopefully summit Mt Sneffels. After a month of being on the transfer website exactly at 8am I was able to score a Havasupai Falls permit for the 3rd week of August!
The Colorado trip will start early on Saturday the 22nd. It’s a nine hour drive to get to Ridgeway and I lose an hour, so I want to get going to get my campsite set up with a little time to chill at the Ridgeway State Park. I’ve driven up and hike to Blue Lakes in the same day, but I thought it might be nice to get up there, sleep much higher than Phoenix and then do the hike to the lower lake. The next morning I’ll get the backpack loaded up and head into the wilderness! I’m sure trailhead will be crowded, hopefully I can find a spot. I’ve heard the road isn’t in the best condition. Stoked to get up high in the mountains, so far the weather looks ok 🤞.
For Havasupai I got a room at the Hualapai Lodge in Peach Springs the day before. I’ll drive up mid-morning, get checked-in for the hike at the Grand Canyon Caverns Inn, and then head to the hotel.
The plan is to wake up around 3am and drive out to the trailhead to get a nice early start, it’ll be a hot day and I’d like to go ahead and get a campsite set up and chill in the waterfalls! The second day I’m hoping to hike to the Colorado River confluence, a16ish mile round trip, and then chill the next day before hiking out.
That’s the plan right now, we’ll see how it works out!
Summer Adventures 2023
I’ve finally decided on this summers adventures. I’m going to do the Blue Lakes of the Colorado and try to summit Mt Sneffels, and then go finally check out Havasupai!
This will be my third time to the Blue Lakes, I’ve gotten turned around by weather twice on Sneffels. Hopefully the mountain gods will smile upon me this year! It’s an amazing place and I’m looking forward to just being camped next to the amazing view.
I’ll probably drive up from Phoenix on Sunday, if I get an earl y start I can hike in the same afternoon. It’s only 3.2 miles to the first lake, but gaining about 10,000 feet in 12 hours can cause a little heavy breathing. Hopefully I’ll get a nice sunset and crash out for a first night in the tent for the summer,
Depending on how I feel/weather I’ll either do a acclimation hike, or just get up and try to give Mt Sneffels a go. I’m hoping to headed up the Southwest Ridge, but I think snowpack will probably determine my route. Even in late July I’m planning on dealing with some snow up high. If I’m able to bang out Mt Sneffels quickly, I might cruise over to Ice Lake and hike around there for a day or so.
In mid-August I’m working on going to Havasupai Falls. It’s been on the list for quite a while and I want to get to see it before it becomes even more difficult and expensive to access. I missed out on a slot through their lottery and am now stalking the Cancelation/Transfer List they put out every morning. I’m hoping for Tuesday entry day, that gives me Monday to drive up, get registered with the Tribe and get a good nights rest at a local hotel. I’ll wake up pretty early to make the 1.5ish hour drive to the trailhead and try to be hiking by 6am. I would hope that would put my at the campground about noon, get set up and chill.
The next day I’m going to try to do the hike to the confluence of the Colorado River, Almost every time I’ve been to the Canyon I make it to the river so why stop now! That hike should take most to the day, the next day I’ll chill by the close waterfalls and get ready for the hike out. I’ll be happy to get a permit and a hotel booked, gotta keep checking that website!
I hope this makes for a cool summer in the outdoors, and that I’m able to make it three summers in a row standing on a 14er!
Keystone Ski Day
My wife’s cousin and his family had moved up to Colorado a few years ago. We had meant to visit them sooner, but something made it difficult over the past few years. We put it on the books a couple months before and made it happen.
The main goal was to hang out and get in some good family time, but he does live in Colorado, we were visiting in the winter and he skis. Sounds like I’d be remiss to not have a ski day.
We woke up a around 5am and headed out about 5:30. I figured there’d be traffic but nothing like it was! I feel like we were going 10mph for a 30mins! It took us 3 hours to get there from his house in northwestern Denver, but we made it by 8:30 when the lifts start spinning, so all good!
Got a discounted lift ticket from the cousin’s epic pass a few days beforehand, (still $181), picked it up and we headed for the River Run gondola. After getting up to the top we cruised over to the back side of the mountain to get away from the base area crowds. The first run was pretty crowded but the snow was nice and the sun was out. It’s been many years since I skied a larger ski area and it was nice to be able to cruise for a ways.
We spent the morning cruising the runs on the Outback, never stood in line for more than 5 minutes and the high speed chair gets you back to the top quickly! I found a fantastic tree run with some nice soft snow, and the bump runs had some great lines. The runs weren’t crowded at all on the backside, we had a fun morning and got in 9 runs.
We hit up Labonte’s Smokehouse BBQ at bottom of North Peak for lunch around 1pm. The line was pretty long but they got you through there pretty quickly. The brisket sandwich was pretty tasty for quick on mountain food, and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale washed it down nicely!
Had a nice afternoon session and found some more good open glade skiing, but I’m not in the greatest of ski shape (day 4 in the past 3 years), and I was starting get pushed around by the mountain around 3pm, so we decided to call it a day.
After the long cruise back to the base area we loaded up and headed back to Denver. I enjoy having Arizona Snowbowl as a place to ski in AZ, but it was nice to be at a bigger resort, the last time was Park City in 2010. I got in 13 runs, felt really good skiing the bumps and tree lines, this was my best day on skis in 10 years!
Keystone Ski Day Video
Blog post to come!
Photo of the Week 2.28.23
Going Down The Trail 