Excellent Adventures

My sister Lori is interested in a short hike with me. I consult my guide and choose the hike to Stewart Falls, which is described as an easy family hike, three miles round trip. The trailhead is at Aspen Grove, which I haven’t visited in 40 years. It takes me...Read more

I will be spending the rest of the week with Mom, at least when I’m not out exploring local geology. It will be an opportunity to visit and to record some more of her stories for Kira to transcribe. This morning, after breakfast, I decide I’ll have a go at...Read more

Breakfast, and then Gary heads out for Green River for some car needs. I don hiking gear and head north towards Temple Mountain, following an old jeep trail. Wildflower. The petals and stamens immediately suggest something in the evening primrose clan, Oenothera. However, I can’t make a precise species match;...Read more

We awake to another beautiful morning. We are camped within a canyon that breaches the San Rafael Reef. The reef is located on a major fault in the basement rocks underlying the reef. Movement on the fault, which mostly took place during the Laramide Orogeny 60 million years ago, has...Read more

We wake, make breakfast, and break camp. We convoy north, stopping at a road cut I think Gary might enjoy looking at. The geologic map says only that this area is underlain by “Burro Canyon Formation and Dakota Formation, undivided”. That generally means either that the formations are thin and...Read more

I awake to another beautiful morning. I have some breakfast, fuel up again in Monticello, and head for the Needles district. I’m still playing it cautious, choosing the main route rather than a shortcut through the Abajo Mountains. But it’s a lovely drive either way, though I’ve driven the main...Read more

I awake to a beautiful Sunday morning. I make breakfast, then drive south to Blanding. I plan to attend church services there while recharging my camera batteries, then spend a relatively quiet day driving to Monument Valley and back. No hiking is planned. I find the church and am early....Read more

I’m up early, make breakfast, break camp, and head south into the park. Almost the entire thickness of the cliffs is mapped as Point Lookout Sandstone. As I discussed in yesterday’s post, this is beach sand deposited when the sea briefly retreated from this part of the world around 80...Read more

Just to be clear: It is my mother who has turned 90, not me. Our family had been planning a reunion and party for Mom for her 90th birthday for some time. However, COVID intervened, and it was only after we were all reasonably sure that Mom and most of...Read more

Morning of the last day. We’re looking at the southeast rim of Kilbourne Hole in the Potrillo Volcanic Field of southern New Mexico. Yesterday we explored and found dropstones but no mantle xenoliths, which are one of the most interesting and scientifically important aspects of the area. Kilbourne Hole is...Read more