3/3 – Reflection Canyon is also located in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
The idea for the weekend was to do a night photoshoot of the milky way in one of the most remote and darkest place in Utah…during a new moon. The weather was supposed to be mostly sunny. It wasn’t. It turned to rain and snow storm overnight while I was camping 7 miles away from the car…after a 75 mile dirt road 🙂
Oh well, I took photos of the snow instead. Better luck next time. Truth is; two feet of snow and I would have been cast away for days with no means of communication. I was quite lucky in that regard.
I spent part of the night pounding on the ceiling of the tent so the snow would not accumulate. I feared there would be more snow but it wasn’t too bad. Just crazy slippery and obviously no trail to be found most of the way…
This area of Utah is amazing. Honestly the entire state is just phenomenal.
I’ve never done a slot canyon so I thought I’d try.
I was a bit surprised 🙂 Much narrower than expected plus some climbing on two locations. I was carrying a backpack with $8000 worth of camera gear and a tripod. Oops. Everything went fine though. These slots were 12 inch wide at time. A bit tricky to navigate.
These two canyons are located along The Hole In The Rock road in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument
Clearly, a three day weekend is way, way too short for a trip to southern Utah but for now that’s all I have. This should have been a five day trip at least.
The first shot is a view of Castle Valley, Utah seen from the Dome Plateau. I got there via a fairly rough 4×4 road but that was unecessary. The highlands Road is an easy dirt road that goes to the same place. Live and learn.
Not much hiking these days. I’m mostly focusing on fixing up the house. Plenty of work in the basement, some work in the yard but mostly spending my time in the attic these days fixing the electrical and redoing the entire insulation. I’ll post photos of that eventually. In the meantime…
A 12h hike on the Loft Route of Longs Peak to check things out. A fun hike going down the Kelso Ridge of Torreys Peak and some off trail scrambling up Atlantic Peak & Pacific Peak via the mayflower trailhead.
Thanks to a fairly cold & wet year Colorado has been quite green. The fall colors near longs peak are splendid.
Loft Route of Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park.
The famous “knife edge” of the Kelso Ridge coming down Torreys Peak.
Start of the Mayflower Gulch Trail. I wasn’t really paying attention to the trail and forgot to turn somewhere so I just went straight up the gully to reach Atlantic Peak. It worked.
Roasted Artichokes and Prosciutto
Big Heart Artichoke and Parmesan Soup
Home made Potato Chips with Fleur de Sel and Parmigiano
Peach Cobbler with Spicy Rum
Notes:
– I didn’t do a very good job choosing the artichoke but otherwise the recipe is really good.
– I added carrots “chips” to the soup. It works.
– I used only brown sugar for the Peach Cobbler and added strawberries and red plum. Served with Bourbon Praline Pecan Ice Cream from Haagen Dazs
Seared Scallops with Bacon Marmalade – I paired it with a White Burgundy (Pouilly-Fuisse 2013) and I regret nothing.
I bought two pounds of fresh scallops so that’s what I’m going to eat this weekend mostly…
Trying to stay in shape after the Climb of Mount Rainier earlier this month. I gave myself a week off then…back to the gym. And of course some mountain climbing on the weekends.
No summit of Mount Meeker but good training. Gully up the loft had about three feet of stable snow + a few inches of not so stable snow. Had to turn around about 150ft from the left turn out below the cornice.
The goal is to go up the snow on the right and turn left before the last big rocky bloc.
Another climber going up another gully on the left
Stepping aside from the blue sky and the nice trails for a few hours I went to a store in Leavenworth called “A Matter of Taste”
I’m not gonna lie I would buy the entire store if I could. I ended up buying only six jars including the delicious Spicy Red Jalapeno Mustard
and Roasted Pineapple & Habanero…
Apparently the story is that the old mining town was dying so they decided to change it into a ‘Bavarian’ looking town and a tourist destination. It worked 🙂 The surrounding area is actually pretty nice too.
