David took off from work on Wed so we could do some hiking. We went up to Sedona. We were originally trying to find the West Side Trail, but could not find the trailhead. After surveying the map, David chose Wilson Mountain trail. It turned out to be a great choice. We made it nearly the the top before having to the turn back. At our “personal summit” we rested and I posed.

We chose to hike Sedona to admire the Red Rocks and boy did this hike deliver. When we started up it was cloudy, but we still got some good views. It started to clear up as we got near the top.

I got some other good photos. (here, here, here, here and here)

On my way down to Phoenix, Joe’s Friend, suggested that I head to Moab and then go south through Momument Valley. I am so glad that I did. I arrived in Moab on Friday (Feb 24th) at midnight and left the next morning at 6:30 as I was worried how long it would take me to reach Phoenix on Saturday.

I stopped way too many times to count on this drive down. The area around Moab is fantastic. Monument Valley is even better. And the area in between is worth the drive if not a few stops.

Here are all the pictures

Wilson’s Arch

7am outside Moab

rocks

Twin Towers

Blue Mountain with Red rocks in the foreground

White line with Monument Valley in the distance

another

Monument Valley

Love the sign

Red Rocks

Mexican Hat

Monument Valley 1

River Valley behind Mexican Hat

River Valley behind Mexican Hat #2

Me and Monument Valley

Monument Valley 2

Monument Valley 3

Monument Valley 4

Monument Valley 5 and

a very bare mountains above Flagstaff, Az

On Feb 24th I woke up and decided it was time to leave Colorado, but first I had to visit Crested Butte. When I started this trip, Garrett gave me a traveling CD. It was a great traveling mix (Gorillaz, Massive Attack, Scissor Sisters, Pink Martini, Flaming Lips, etc). He was gracious enough to make me a 2nd CD and he sent it general delivery to Crested Butte.

I had to drive straight there will very few stops as I was worried about getting there before the Post Office closed. There were some beautiful stretches. Particularly Rt 285 east of Buena Vista, with the great views of North of the Continental Divide. One more.

I made it to Crested Butte with about 1/2 hour to spare. I got 2 good pictures on the drive in. The first one of the actual butte. And another of the surrounding mountains.

After picking up the package, I headed to Moab. On the way I noticed this McDonalds Sign in Montrose. I was alittle surprised that there was only a single arch and that very odd character holding the serving tray.

I woke up this morning and thought, “I’m tired of traveling.” As I lay in bed, I realized that I did not want to go skiing, or hiking or driving or …..

Ok, I got over that but not before I decided to change my plans.

The lack of snow here in Colorado, for the past 2 weeks and in the forseeable future, means that I am getting tired of sunny blue days, hardpack and crowds. I am going to skip skiing at Monarch Mnt, Crested Butte and Telluride. (I am most disappointed about missing Monarch. I guess it will have to wait till next year grin).

I will be in Phoenix on Sat night a few days ahead of schedule. I’m in Gunnison right now, heading to Moab this evening (should be a nice night for driving). I’ll get a very early start tomorrow as it is about 450 miles to Phoenix and I will be heading down through Monument Valley and I have a feeling I will be doing plenty of stopping, photo taking and a few short hikes.

The reason behind this change is that I want to ski on some fresh snow(selfish aren’t I), and it seems that in order to do that I need to get north. What does that mean, you ask?

Well it means the following

• I will be skipping Los Angeles. Tiffany does not know this yet and will probably be really pissed. I will promise her free drinks and a visit in April, which should hopefully soothe her bitterness.
• I will be skiing Mammoth late next week. Spending less time in Death Valley and only performing a driving tour of Yosemit
• I will be spending 3-4 days in Lake Tahoe
• A good chance I will be in SF a weekend earlier than I had planned.
• I may be home a week earlier than I planned.

Hmmm I wonder how many days till this plan changes?

I saw lots of wildlife on the trip from Salt Lake to Frisco, CO. There were Deer near Vernal,UT and inside the monument. I spooked 3 different groupings of deer on Monument Mnt. I saw 3 large birds of prey resting on poles near the road near Maybell, CO. A herd of antelope near Maybell, CO(right after I was reading a sign that discussed antelope and thought, you know I have never seen antelope). And finally coyotes on the top of Monument Mnt while I was eating my lunch(more about that later).

On Feb 17th, I came into Denver for a long weekend and to visit my friend Joe. It was a great weekend despite the chilly weather. (It was well below freezing at night and on Sat it did not get above 10degF I belive). I was a nice relaxing visit for me. We had a few things planned, but we really just let whimsy take us where it would.

On Saturday, despite the cold, we went to the Denver Art Museum. On the way to museum, we took a look around the library(another pic). The library was interesting and was pretty busy with street people trying to get out of the cold. One of the things that caught my eye was this great mural in the foyer. We spent about an hour in the museum (we eventually ran into anarchylime in the lobby) and overall it was pretty good. But I have to admit that we skipped 3 of the 5 floors as they were filled with various genre that I am really not very interested in(yeah I am bad). Before we hit the museum we went on a misguided hunt for a mailbox(I had 20 postcards to send out). After wandering around for 5 blocks we finally found one, and we were both shivering so badly that I felt like running back to the museum. However, I still snapped a few pictures(here, here and here) On saturday night we met two of Joe’s friends, Chris and Dave, for dinner at Duo. Dinner was great and the company was even better. During dinner Chris suggested come to Boulder and have brunch at Lucilles on Sunday.

On Sunday, we decided to take up Chris on his offer and go have brunch in Boulder. Chris was able to join us. I again was busy snapping pictures.
Joe and Chris
Brian and Chris
The flatirons above town
Architecture fetish 1
Architecture fetish 2
Architecture fetish 3(I have never seen a bell tower like this before
Joe and Chris 2

After brunch Joe and I went for a little drive up out of town to find Boulder Falls. I got a few more shots. A trademark self portrait, Joe napping and Joe and his car.

After the viewing of Boulder Falls, Joe allowed me to indulge one of my dirty little pleasures. We aimlessly wandered around parts of downtown Denver. I got a million shots of architecture and here are some just of the highlights;
Joe and Union Station
Joe surveying the Platte River
Stylish bridge over the railroad tracks, connecting the park by the Platte River with the rest of downtown
Denver
Architecture fetish 1(entry way to old ATT building)
Architecture fetish 2
Architecture fetish 3
Blue bear peering into the convention center


Joe asked that I take a few pictures of this house for him. I got a few that I liked.

Joe working in the yard
Front of the house 1
Front of house 2
Joe by the stairs and
Another of Joe

All and all I had a great time. Joe was a great host. He has a great group of friends. There were lots of cool things to do. And from an architecture point of view there are many, many great old offices, apartment buildings and homes around town. (I think if I had wandered in the neighborhoods, that Joe showed me, when I was trying to decide to move to Seattle or Denver, I might have choosen Denver).

I left Steamboat Springs on Sunday (Feb 12th) and was planning on a 1/2 day of skiing somewhere and ending up in Silverthorne/Dillon area. The drive down Rt40 from was beautiful and for the first 40 miles there were all these ridgelines and peaks that were just calling out to be summited. I kept looking, but could never find a plowed forest road or pull off where I could stop.

Finally I passed found the Moument Mt Reservoir Power Project. I decided screw the skiing I wanted to summit Monument Mountain. After review of the map I realized I could park by the Dam at the end of the reservoir and start up from there.

It was damn cold when I got out of car. I put on all the clothes I had, including 3 layers on the legs, 4 on the upper body and 2 layers of gloves. The wind picked up as I started across the dam. Any bit of exposed skin started to burn. I bundled up even farther; googles on, hood up, hands covering my face. Luckily once I crossed the dam and started up, the wind let up and it was more comfortable.

It is not a particularly hard climb, only 2.1 miles and ~1300ft up. The elevation got to me often (~8700ft at the summit). On the way up I tried to follow what I thought was a road up to the top. The road ended after about 1/2 mile. At one point I came to little fence with signs on the other side saying Authorized Personnel Only. Ooops, I wonder if I should be here?

Well after an 1.5 hours I made it to the top. On the way up I saw lots of deer and alot of bird life. I had to cross a bunch of scrub pine areas that had me a little spooked as I did see cougar tracks.

I ate lunch at the summit and was enjoying the sun and the nearly 360 view of the valley below when I noticed something moving on the ridge line. Hmmm what is that? I pulled out the camera and zoomed in. Low and behold it is a bunch of coyotes. Cool! I blissfully keep eating my lunch. Drink of water, chewed on frozen Cliff bar. Drink of water….. I look down the ridge again and … oh wait the coyotes are coming my way…. and there are 6 of them.

Hmmmm…. I put on my pack and started down. I only wanted to worry about the cougars, not the cougars and the coyotes. Going down was easy and it took me less than 45 minutes to reach the car. I snapped only a few pics during the walk. Here is the view of the peak from the car and here is the view of the car from the top

I ended the day by stopping in Hot Sulfur Springs and partaking of their hot springs. It was pretty quiet and a nice way to spend 2 hours. My legs really thanked me the next day.

Dinosaur National Monument was pretty impressive. It not only houses one of the richest beds of dinosaur fossils in the US, but also the quite spectacular ridges and canyons surrounding the Green River. I recommend a visit if you are passing by.

I arrived at the Utah entrance to the monument on Tues (Feb 7th) night. Since the Quarry was closed, I did the “auto tour”, looked at
petroglyphs (more here, here)and did some wandering around. It was right at sunset and I got some great photos. (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here andhere)

The next day I got up early as I wanted to hit the Quarry and then do some hiking in the Colorado portion of the monument. The Quarry is pretty specatular. If you are into puzzles, you could spend hours attempting to figure out how many dinosaurs are entombed there. (It is a 100ft high wall of stone with the bones still in the rock for your viewing pleasure).

Afterwards, I went over to the monument entrance in Dinosaur, Colorado and drove about 5 miles in, which is as far as they plowed the road. I went for a little hike around the plateaus. Here I am all ready for the hike(a close up). On this hike is when I noticed just how quiet things were. I could not hear any cars, planes, people, etc….. nothing. I really love the feeling of being miles from any other person and then randomly choosing a direction and start walking. No plan, no agenda, just walking and looking.

More photos here, here, here.

On Feb 7th, I left Salt Lake and planned to make it to Craig, CO. I wanted to do some hiking in the Dinosaur National Monmument and to see the Quarry there. Due to my late start on (see previous posts), the Quarry was closed when I arrived. I decided to stay in Vernal,UT.

The ride from Salt Lake on Route 40 was pretty, in a desolate sort of way. I loved this picture. Freedom Bridge over the Starvation Reservoir.

Well the saga of the brakes on my car continues. The grinding sound just kept getting worse yesterday. This morning I went back to Les Schwab and they spent some time looking at it. After another hour, the mechanic comes back and says that the clip that holds the brake pad had come loose and was rubbing. He tells me this in a nonchalant way, like I am over-reacting about the grinding noise. Then he says if it happens again, don’t worry about it, it will eventually grind itself down. I stood there dumbfounded. Grind itself down?

Needless to say, 1/2 to Park City, the grinding starts again. Also on the highway, I begin to notice that there is a wobble when I go over 65mph. How the hell did they un-balance the tires?

I called up the Les Schwab and asked where the closest one to Park City is. The nice receptionist says there is one in Heber City.

I stop at the Les Schwab in Heber City. Tell my tale and 2 hours later the mechanic comes up to me and says, “it is all ready to go. I filed down the portion of the clip that was rubbing so it will not happen again. We balanced your front tires, I do not know how they got that unbalanced.”

My recommendation, if you ever need brake work done, don’t go to Les Schwab. Especially not the one on Redwood Rd in Salt Lake.