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 So far, so good. Joey and Sean descend into the White Canyon near Hite crossing, Utah, upstream of the swimming slots known as "The Black Hole." The Black Hole. It sounds scary, right? Well, if claustrophobia, freezing cold water and flash floods get you nervous then this slot canyon run probably isn’t best for you. But if you’ve got a good wetsuit, booties and a perfect weather forecast then a day in the Black Hole of Utah’s White Canyon might actually be fun.
The pics tell the story best. There’s a lot of them. read more>>>
 The Henry Mountains from the north as we drove past the Maze and Goblin Valley. Surrounded by canyon country in all directions, it feels kind of strange as you approach them with the goal of skiing in mind. “So then what are you guys doing in Utah?” asked our friend after running through the list of typical Utah desert activities, i.e. biking, climbing, boating and hiking. I interrupted and said,”We’re skiing.”
In Colorado, the mountains are often the destination, but when visiting Utah’s canyon country they are usually relegated to the backdrop of the photos, if they even find their way there. Coloradans usually head to Utah to escape the snow and mountains, not seek it out. But with elevations exceeding 10,000 feet, the satellite ranges of Utah can actually make for pretty good skiing. And on at least a few occasions in the past, Sean and I found ourselves looking up towards the snow capped peaks from the sweltering heat of the canyons and talked about how we’d someday like to check them out. So after years of talking about it, we decided to head to Utah for a little ski road trip– and to the Henry Mountains we went. read more>>>
 Another awesome night at "Airport." Glow in the dark discs, and a satellite or two light it up. Click to enlarge. The hump of the ski season upon us and spring is coming. Punxsutawny Phil thinks otherwise, after seeing his shadow he declared there to be six more weeks of winter– but apparently Staten Island Chuck (who? read here) says Phil’s got it all wrong. After Christy and I opted to stay in bed this morning, rather than brave the negative double digit wind chill on our planned skin up Aspen Mountain, I thought I’d post some pics from warmer days, from our White Rim trip last fall.
 Day 2- heading from Airport to White Crack, the Washerwoman Tower is in the background. As has been the case for years now, Jared and Diana secured the coveted permit required for the trip into Canyonlands National Park, but this year’s loop around the White Rim wasn’t always sure to happen. The recent addition of second baby girl to their family left the trip up in the air– Di was going to sit this one out and Jared couldn’t decide if planning the trip this year was maybe a bit more than he wanted to take on.
Enter Jeremy Barbin, who kindly offered up his assistance to Jared in organizing the trip. What a nice guy to help you say? Well, as a result of Jeremy’s swift and silent hijack of the permit for the annual desert retreat, the group this year was not the typical set of couples, friends and family but was instead a raucous lineup of 16 guys. And despite a collective ‘roll of the eyes’ by all of the spouses/girlfriends when the roster of trouble making weekend participants was made public, I think Jeremy still insists, at least to his wife Lisa, that it really was just a mellow mountain bike weekend for the guys. read more>>>
 Our loop through the maze, thanks to Google Earth, another technical advantage of the day. Good, bad? I bet even crustiest old desert-rat would enjoy cruising the Utah canyon country this way. I love it. Put mildly, the Maze is out there. So remote and inaccessible is this corner of Canyonlands National Park that it takes nearly 8 hours to drive to some of its namesake camps from the closest gas stations in Green River– leaving you with barely enough fuel to return. As a testament to it’s remoteness and accessibility, along the way you pass Robbers Roost, the infamous locale old west bank robbers and gunslingers frequented as a hideout from authorities. So brutal is this section of Utah desert that temps can be in the 110-120 degree range certain times of year with no available water which together can result in true survival epics.
After all I had read about the Maze was later confirmed by some friends who had actually ‘epic-ed’ out there, I put it on my must-do list of desert trips. (Click here for the National Park Service Info Site)
It took ten years before I could actually get out there, and in that time, one minor thing has changed the Maze in a big way. All the aforementioned hard stats on access, water, etc. still held true but now different was the small fact read more>>>
“I’d like to see the guy who can ride up that!” said the rude guy from California as he arrived to the top of Murphy’s Hogback, walking his bike. When it was revealed that not only did most of our group ride the steep hill but Jared managed to do it with his daughter, Maia, in [...]
(or better yet, …to us!)
Canyon country is awesome this time of year. So when Tim asked if I’d like to join him and some friends on a Westwater trip, I was in. I’ve always been curious to see what this classic Colorado River run was all about. And with rapids that bear names like Funnel, Skull, Razor [...]
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