10/16-17/2009: Palo Duro State Park, TX

On my list of things to do before moving away from west Texas was to do a long exploration of Palo Duro’s backcountry. Of particular interest has been to get back into the North Ceta Canyon drainage and then try and make a loop up over Mesquite Park and back to the developed area of the park.

I left Dimmitt around 12:45 after finishing up work on Friday. I was excited about the trip as it was my first real backpacking trip without having the kids along in quite some time. The park was pretty busy as the annual trail run was scheduled for the next day. I picked up my permit and drove out to the trailhead.

The day was sunny and in the upper 60’s. I started east along the banks of the Prairie Dog Fork of the Red. Unofficial use trails provided intermittent paths as I waded through the frequently chest and head high grasses along the flood plain. A couple of miles into my walk I left the river and struck off to the southeast to try and shave a few miles off my journey into North Ceta Canyon. The walk took me through dense juniper and mesquite thickets, eroded clay badlands and upland prairie.

Around 5:30 I arrived in the North Ceta drainage and turned west. The large drainage felt like traveling a highway after the bushwhack getting there. I made good time heading west. I passed what looked like a good swimming hole at the junction with South Ceta Canyon. Around 6:30 I climbed up onto a small knob and tossed out my sleeping bag. I pulled out a precooked “Uncle Ben’s” rice meal and some power bars for dinner and fell asleep to the distant songs of coyotes.

Saturday dawned to overcast skies and the now familiar howls of coyotes. I was up before sunrise and had packed my gear and started walking. Today would be the crux of the trip, an ascent up and over Mesquite Park and down Red Canyon. The stream bed began getting more difficult to traverse as I encountered more water, and with the water came the slick clay.

I turned north and entered an unnamed canyon by which I hoped to climb up to the rim. I spooked a herd of 10-12 aoudads and watched them nimbly climb the walls. The walk quickly turned into a climb as I encountered numerous large boulders obstructing the bottom of the canyon. Complicating the climb was the small creek with numerous water holes which I tried to avoid. I had the thought more than once that a helmet would be comforting given my remote location. Near the headwall of the canyon I came across two narrow slot canyons. This prompted me to dub the area “Utah Canyon”.

A difficult scramble up the crumbling sidewalls of the canyon brought me out into an open bowl of eroded badlands. I spooked a few mule deer bucks as I traversed the eroded buttes up to the flat expanse of Mesquite Park. I was relieved to have made it up, but I feared descending Red Canyon was going to be more difficult. The topo map gave the impression of a large ring of cliffs just below the 3200’ elevation line. I mentally mapped out a few possibilities in case I “cliffed out” and began my descent.

The canyon started off quite benign, my only real obstacles were the thick vegetation. I made good time heading down. Eventually I encountered a large pour off. I scouted around to try and find a route down and realized that it was not one, but rather two large pour offs in succession. I was able to found a bypass around to the east of the first drop. I did have to rig a short rappel, but in the end managed to scramble down and around the pour offs and into the lower section of Red Canyon. From here I knew it would all be easy.

I made my way out of the canyon and back to the park road. I had hoped to follow the Juniper Trail back to the trailhead, but it was being heavily used for the annual Palo Duro Enduro Run, so I was instead reduced to a road slog for the remainder of the trip. I arrived back at the truck around 12:30, having completed about 16 miles.

9/30-10/3/2009: San Pedro Parks Wilderness, NM

We escaped west Texas every fall for the past several years to backpack in Rocky Mountain National Park to catch the aspen changing. Due to limited vacation with an impending move and a baby on the way we opted for something closer. My original intent was to hike the Windsor Trail into Puerto Nambe in the Pecos Wilderness. There are some tremendous aspen groves in the area and the only time I had seen them in the past was on a snowshoe trip. The more I thought about it I decided for something a bit less steep as my wife was 29 weeks pregnant and we were taking all of the kids.


We left town around 5:30 Friday afternoon, headed for Sumner State Park outside of Ft. Sumner, NM. We arrived right at sundown. We came across a little western diamondback warming itself on the road. I was able to use a trekking pole as a snake hook and lift it up to the car window so the kids could see it well without worrying about them getting too close. I turned the snake loose and we got a campsite along the Pecos River.


Friday dawned to a balmy 55 degrees and we continued our trip west. Around noon we turned back east from Cuba, NM and climbed into the Sierra Nacimiento. I was excited as the oak were a beautiful rust red down low and we could see patches of aspen changing up high. We arrived at the trailhead and were greeted by brisk temperatures in the 40’s, clear skies and shimmering aspen.

The San Pedro Parks is a relatively flat area of uplifted granite that averages around 10,000 ft. in elevation. We followed the Vacas Trail (an appropriate name as there are quite a few cattle which graze the meadows in the area) up a very gradual slope starting around 9,200 ft. in elevation. About two miles into the walk we came across Vallecito Damian, a small area of meadows with a beautiful campsite. We opted to set up camp here and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

The kids played as Jen and I set up camp and fixed dinner. The high stayed in the low 40’s and occasional gusts of wind chilled as the sun set. It was forecasted to fall into the low 20’s so the seven of us piled into our four man tent to conserve warmth and turned in to the music of at least four different bull elk bugling.

We awoke Friday morning to clear skies and a much balmier temperature than expected at 31 degrees. During the night some of the cattle for which the San Pedro Parks are so well known for had moved in to graze our meadow. Their low bellows lended to the pastoral air of the morning.

Our plan for the day was to head up along Clear Creek to explore some of the meadows further in the wilderness and try to find some more aspen groves. The seven of us followed the diminutive creek to some more meadows. We were passed by a lone hiker and a horseman, our only company for the day.

A little over a mile into our walk we found one of those rare magical places, a pure aspen stand at peak color. Golden tinged light filtered through the dense canopy and showers of leaves fell with every breath of wind. We spent several hours enjoying the beauty before returning to camp.

Our evening hours were spent around a nice fire. My oldest two boys and my youngest daughter opted to bivy under the stars with me while my wife, oldest daughter and youngest son retired to the tent. We once again enjoyed the evening elk serenade as the fire slowly died.

Saturday dawned to a crisp temperature of 23 degrees. We fixed breakfast, broke down the tent and packed up. Our solitude was broken by three separate groups of hikers as we walked out. I knew we’d been spoiled when Jen commented about how crowded it was on the trail.

We made it back to the trailhead and headed out. As I knew this was likely our last trip to the Jemez Range I wanted to explore a little. We decided to drive “Hwy 126” east. I put highway in quotation marks as a fair bit of it is dirt road as it travels through the mountains. It was a beautiful and lonely drive with golden aspen seemingly everywhere we looked.

From La Cueva we headed east onto Hwy 4 through the beautiful (but frustratingly restrictive) Valles Caldera National Preserve. We decided to stop by Bandelier National Monument on a whim for lunch and ended up staying for three hours. The boxelders in Frijoles Canyon were a soft yellow and the picnic area was much less crowded than I expected it would be on a pleasant Saturday afternoon. The kids enjoyed exploring some of the ruins, playing along Frijole Creek and spending a few hours outside the car. Finally, we got back in the car and finished the drive back home, arriving around 11:30 Saturday night.

9/11-13/2009: Serpent Lake, NM

Our original plan had been to take this weekend and meet up with a friend and his son to go camping. When that fell through we decided to head out anyway and get up into New Mexico. The boys had originally said they wanted to go on a bike trip in the Sacramentos, but the evening before we left they changed their minds and decided instead to hit an alpine lake.

We left Dimmitt Friday morning around 8:30 and by 1:30 were at the Angostura Trailhead outside of the Pecos Wilderness. It was beginning to cloud up a little and we had about 3.5 miles to go to get to the lake, so we decided to get started. The trail involved a gradual climb of 1300 feet up to Serpent Lake, which sits a little over 11,700 ft. Views were quite limited as nearly the entire route stays in thick subalpine forest.

A little over four hours into our walk we arrived in the Serpent Lake Basin. We had the place to ourselves and found a choice site with a view of the lake and magnificant headwall which backs it. We fixed pizza for dinner and lounged around the campfire before turning in. We were serenaded all night long with the bugles of a lovesick elk.

Saturday morning brought a temperature of 34 degrees and the sound of the wind ripping through the trees. We cooked pancakes for breakfast and walked around the lakes while we waited for the air to warm.

Once the winds settled down and the boys warmed up we loaded our day packs and set out to climb the ridge. The going was slow as we switchbacked up to reach the alpine tundra. Views began to open up to our east and the surrounding terrain was layed flat before us. Wyatt commented, "Dad, this is just like looking at the map. I can see everything". Once we hit the ridge we were again exposed to the winds which were blowing from the west. We were treated to fabulous views of the rugged Truchas Peaks.

Our route turned north as we began following the spine of the ridge towards Point 12,828, the peak which towers over Serpent Lake. Building clouds and tiring legs forced us to end our quest at a rocky promontory around 12,500 feet in elevation. We then turned around and began our descent, sometime around 12:30.

Low rumblings of thunder began to echo across the mountains as ominous appearing clouds pushed their way in from the south. The sun warmed air began to cool and the wind began to pick up. We headed back down to the shelter of the lake basin.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent playing, catching salamanders and napping. The sky remained overcast the rest of the day and fog banks intermittently moved through our mountain hideaway.

We fixed bean burritos for dinner and built a fire to ward off the increasing chill. At dusk it began to rain lightly and we headed in to the tent.

The gentle rain became torrential during the night as the sky flashed with lightning and deep booms of thunder reverberated. Around 2:00 I opened up the rain fly and had a small collection of snow fall from the tent onto my hand. I looked outside to a brilliant starry night.

Morning dawned to 35 degrees and some scattered low clouds. We had to make it back to teh trailhead by noon to make it home in time for church. To minimize morning discomfort and keep the boys happy and efficient we ate our pancake in the warmth of the tent. We then broke down camp, packed and headed out.

We made good time on our way back as the route was all down hill. We passed a bowhunter and his son as they packed out a beautiful 6X6 bull they had killed two lake basins to our south. We made it back to the truck by 11:45 to make the long drive back home.

8/28-30/2009: Guadalupe Mountains NP, TX

Despite numerous trips to the Guadalupes (primarily the New Mexico portion) I had never climbed Guadalupe Peak, the Texas state high point. Colter, my four year old, was also interested in an attempt on the peak. Despite his age, he is probably our best hiker.

The two of us left town a little after 7:00 Friday night and rolled into Gualalupe Mountains NP after midnight. We tossed our sleeping bags out on the ground and went to sleep. Despite some biting gnats we slept well.

Saturday morning brought clear skies and moderate temperatures. We awoke, cooked pancakes for breakfast and packed up. We made it to the visitor center at opening to get our permit to camp at the Guadalupe Peak backcountry site.

We picked up our permit and headed out to the trailhead. The day was rapidly warming as we began our climb. While we ceratainly didn't set any land speed records, we did make steady progress as we climbed. We had frequent rest/water/snack breaks. At one point our pace was reduced to stopping to catch a grasshopper, having it jump five feet up the trail, standing up and walking to the insect and then repeating the process. We sang, counted switchbacks and talked. Finally, around 1:30 we arrived at the backcountry site, 3.1 miles and 2200 ft. of elevationm change.

We spent the afternoon reading, napping and enjoying the rustling of the ponderosa in the breeze. The high only reached 68 at the campsite and the day was beautiful. We cooked bean burritos for dinner and as the afternoon grew late we began the trek up to the peak to watch the sunset.

Colter had plenty of energy after his nap and dinner. We comparitively flew up the last mile to the summit. He made a camera, tripod and cable release from some sticks and an agave blade and stopped to take photographs on the climb.

We were treated to spectacular views in the waning afternoon light.

Around 6:00 we scrambled up to the summit. The winds were calm and the views we staggering. We signed the summit register and spent about 45 minutes at the top before heading back down.

We scrambled back down to our campsite and climbed into our sleeping bags. We turned in to a temperature of 60 degrees and calm winds.

Sunday dawned to cloudy skies and a light, intermittent drizzle. I was concerned that the rain wouldn't let up as we didn't bring a tent, but within a few minutes it abated and the skies began to clear.

We fixed another breakfast of pancakes, packed out gear and headed down the mountain. The walk down occurred in a fraction of the time as our ascent. We passed several groups of impressed folks as Colter descended from his 8.4 mile walk with a 3,000 ft. elevation gain. The big motivator as we came down was a planned trip to Carlsbad Caverns on our way back home.

I arrived a the caverns with pretty low expectations. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy caves, but always wild caves in the past. I was utterly amazed. The caves were spectacular. Colter repeated, "This is awesome, this is awesome". We walked the Big Room Trail before heading back home. We had a great trip, travelling from the top of Texas to the bottom of an ancient sea.

6/26-28/2009: "Bikepacking" Gallinas Canyon

Wyatt, Sabrina, Colter and I left Dimmitt bound for New Mexico around 8:30 Friday night. They had been requesting to take a camping trip on the bikes for some time, but the deal was we had to wait for Colter, our four year old, to be able to ride without training wheels. Additionally I had to find an area where we would be close enough to make it back to church Sunday night for a class Jen and I were leading, have an easy enough grade for the kids to be able to ride, have access to water and have minimal traffic. After considering all of these variables I decided to head to Gallinas Canyon in the Santa Fe National Forest.

We arrived in the forest close to 1:00 and tossed out the sleeping bags in a ponderosa forest. Around 6:30 I awoke to a beautiful orange sunrise. As I lay there looking up at the sky pondering the old proverb, "Red in the morning sailor take warning..." it began to rain. It had been a busy sleep deprived week, so I reacted by pulling the sleeping bag over my head and going back to sleep. Fortunately the rain was brief and the sleeping bags didn't get too wet.

The four of us headed down into the canyon after a pancake breakfast and parked the truck. We loaded all of our gear into the bike trailer and started out. The grade was mild (about 3%), but still enough that the kids had to work hard at times as we wound our way through the canyon. We took plenty of rest/water/play/water breaks which made the trip more enjoyable for the kids.



We stopped for lunch and played on some rocks by the creek for about 45 minutes before continuing up canyon.

The canyon has some private property scattered in it. Unfortunately these parcels tend to be on the most desirable land for camping.

Around 1:30 we made it up to Burro Flats, an area of small meadows near the end of the road. We had biked a little more than six miles and climbed around 1100 feet. We set up the tent in the meadow and spent the rest of the afternoon playing, resting and reading.

We fixed pizza for dinner and read the remaining twelve chapters in Louis Sachar's "Holes" before climbing into bed.

Sunday dawned to leaden skies and rain. We had planned to cook pancakes for breakfast again, but the more prudent (and less wet choice) seemed to be granola bars. We broke down camp and climbed back on the bikes. The wet dirt combined with high speeds on our way down did result in a few crashes, but no injuries. We arrived back at the truck wet and muddy, but the kids quickly asked "When do we get to do this again?".

5/29-31/2009: Middle Fork Lake, NM

The kids and I loaded up the van and left Dimmitt bound for the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico. We arrived at the trailhead to Middle Fork Lake around 12:30 AM on Saturday morning. We tossed out our sleeping bags next to the van and went to sleep.

Saturday dawned to clear skies, a temperature of 31 degrees and a layer of frost coating anything exposed to the air (including Colter's hair). We cooked oatmeal for breakfast before loading up the packs and setting out.

Middle Fork Lake is a small lake near the northern edge of the Wheeler Peak Wilderness. Until recently there was a Jeep road leading up to it and with its proximity to Red Rver it was a heavily travelled route. The road was closed to motorized vehicle use a few years ago, making it a great walk to a high mountain lake.

We headed up the road through a thick forest of Engelman spruce, subalpine fir and aspen. The road paralleled a branch of the Middle Fork, treating us to a series of cascades. The kids enjoyed playing in the remnant snow.

We made the 2.3 mile trek up to the lake a little after noon. We found a beautiful campsite on the north side of the lake back in the trees. We set up camp, dried out the sleeping bags and played by the lake as clouds slowly began to gather.

Around 3:00 we began to hear low grumblings of thunder and it began to rain. Wyatt and I put on our rain gear and went for a walk around the lake as the other kids played in the tent. We had fun climbing through the snow and watching the rain move in. We headed back to the tent as the lighting drew closer.

The clouds moved out as quickly as they had appeared and we were able to finish the afternoon with plenty of sunshine.We cooked cheesy chicken enchiladas for dinner and enjoyed a small fire before retiring to the tent to read a few chapters of "Ralph S. Mouse".

Sunday dawned warmer and drier, with a temperature of 35 degrees when we awoke. We spent a lazy morning playing and taking down camp before heading back down. Our trip out was uneventful, not passing any other hikers until we were within a 1/4 mile of the trailhead. We had great solitude for such a pretty and easily reached location. We had seen two hikers on Saturday, had the lake to ourselves and saw only the one pair of hikers Sunday.

4/4-10/2009: Zion National Park, UT

We left Dimmitt Saturday morning with the plan to drive to Page, AZ for the night. The weather staerted out rough as we drove into a 30-40 mph head wind, but began to settle as we headed further west. Finally, after 11 hours of drive time we settled into a motel in Page for the night.

Sunday we awoke and continued west. We stopped at the visitor's centers for Glen Canyon NRA and Grand Staircase-Escalante NM, arriving at the Watchman CG in Zion around 2:00. The Griffins (my roommate from college, his wife and 3 kids from Pasadena, CA) had arrived at the campsite about 15 minutes before us. We set up camp, enjoying the challenge of keeping eight kids aged six and under corraled. We then took the shuttle to the Zion Human History Museum and then walked back to the campground after stopping at the Virgin River to play.

Monday we took the shuttle up to the Zion Lodge where we had a snack under a massive cottonwood in front of the lodge.

We then loaded up the kids and hiked the Emerald Pools Trail. It was a beautiful walk, although quite crowded. The kids did a great job hiking. We decided to ride the full trip through the canyon on our way back to the campground and made it back around 5:00.

Tuesday we awoke and took the shuttle up to the Temple of Sinawava. We spent the entire day playing along and in the Virgin. Once again it was quite crowded but beautiful. We finally finished up around 5:30.

Wednesday we drove up to Spring Creek Canyon on BLM land adjoining the park to the north. We loaded our packs and walked about a mile and a half to a small shelf where we set up camp. From there our families split up to explore the narrows of Spring Creek.

We made it back to the campsite around 5:30 as snow flurries began to fall. We cooked dinner and I managed to build my first fire with flint and steel and all natural tender (no dryer lint this time!). We warmed ourselves by the fire as the temperature dropped into the 20's.

Thursday dawned to clear skies and a temperaute of 24 degrees. We packed our gear and walked back to the cars.

We drove through the Kolob Canyons portion of the park before arriving back at the Watchman CG where we set camp back up. The kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt underneath the towering sandstone walls of Zion Canyon.

Friday morning we broke down camp. We celebrated Good Friday with each other by having Brad administer communion before we parted ways. We headed up to Denver to see my parents and one set of my grandparents for Easter. On the drive we stopped through Colorado National Monument, completing the scenic drive. Finally, on Monday we drove back to Dimmitt.