There's been little activity on this blog for a while because we're in mud season. Colorado mountain trails either have too much snow or mud to hike, and too little snow for snowshoeing. I've been hiking up Red Hill in Carbondale on a fairly regular basis both for training and enjoyment. Low elevation and south-facing trails might be open to hiking this month, but Mud Season is most notably the time that people like myself take off to the desert.
Utah is just a couple hours away, and March through May are great months for exploring the canyons in the beehive state (October through December are good too, but there's far less water and the days are much shorter). Moab was mobbed as I passed through there a couple of weeks ago. I was on my way to Cedar Mesa, where several canyons are home to great hikes as well as Anasazi Ruins. Over the last decade, we've hiked and backpacked many of the canyons of Grand Gulch (Kane, Todie, Sheiks, Bullet, Collins), the largest canyon in the region, as well as the Fish/Owl loop, and Road, McCloyd, and Slickhorn canyons.
This year we made a multi-day camp on the mesa, and day-hiked into many canyons. The luxury of a base camp, coupled with the light weight of a day-hike pack made this a most enjoyable experience. In addition, the ruins we visited might have been the best of the region.
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| Moon House Ruins up close |
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| Fallen Roof ruins |
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| Moon House ruins from across McCloyd canyon |
