Ilanarama!

That's me, on top of the 57th highest mountain in Colorado (13,972 ft). Wikipedia says of Pigeon Peak: In terms of local relief, it is one of the most impressive peaks in Colorado. Its most dramatic rise is over the Animas River to the west, over which it rises 5,750 ft (1,750 m) in under 2.5 mi (4 km). Also, its east face is a 1,000 ft (305 m) cliff. Also, it can kill you with its brain.

( Fascinating tale and pretty pictures! )

Or just go straight to the photos on Flickr here.

As some of you know, I'm training for my third marathon, and bound and determined to break 4 hours (which incidentally would qualify me for Boston, at my age). Last night I ran a teeny little 5K race here...and came in third among the women at what to me was a mind-boggling 23:27 (and which I think must be slightly off - my own timer gave me 24:27, and I know I turned it off a little late, but not by a whole minute - I'm guessing I came in around 24 minutes). First was a former college track star and second was a high school track star, and their ages added together are still less than mine, so I feel pretty good.

Anyway, the amusing thing about it is that the local paper reported on the race, and although they didn't give my place, they ran a photo of me (the third photo for the article). Um, I look hot and sweaty and kind of chunky, and my ponytail is foreshortened and looks like a librarian bun. But hee, my picture in the paper this morning!

Some people are peakbaggers. They have a list of mountains to climb (Colorado fourteeners; the "seven summits"; etc) and they climb them.

Britt is a lakebagger. He wants to fish in every named lake in the Weminuche Wilderness. So last weekend, we backpacked into the area known as Mountain View Crest to bag four lakes: Ruby (one of many in the Weminuche), Emerald (ditto ditto), Webb, and Pear. I insisted on bagging a peak as well: Overlook Point, the high point (12,998) along Mountain View Crest. (Yes, it sounds like a subdivision. It's a ridge.)

The 360° view from Overlook Point (1 minute video, no audio, annotated):



( Story of our hike, 14 more photos including ELK!!! and links to the others. )

Or, go directly to the set (23 photos, 1 video) on Flickr.

I don't have a lot to say, so I'll just link to the Flickr photoset. Our goal this trip was to get into the upper valley of Rincon La Osa, a high valley that runs from the Continental Divide to the Pine River. (Which I am crossing in the photo above. That is a grimace, not a grin, because that river is very recent snowmelt.) It took two days to get there; we stayed there a day and dayhiked up to Gunsight Pass on the Divide, and then it took two days to hike out by a slightly different route (on the way in we went via Divide Lake, on the way out via Granite Lake, but the trails rejoined shortly after the lakes). We saw lots of deer and elk, but too far away for decent photos. Britt fished a lot. The weather mostly sucked, but when it was nice, it was lovely. Um. Not a particularly exciting trip report, sorry. :-) But it was awesome to get away from people and into the mountains again.

From Escalante we drove back toward Colorado on the Burr Trail, which is the more scenic and slower route. It passes through the dramatic redrock of Long Canyon, where we explored a little side canyon and I photographed some really cool stripey rock; then it descends across the Waterpocket Fold (the south end of Capitol Reef National Park) and joins the north-south Notom-Bullfrog road. We'd taken this road twice before; once we'd gone north to Hanksville and once we'd gone south to the Bullfrog ferry across Lake Powell. This time, armed with a guide to the backways of Utah, we went east, across the Henry Mountains. These granite peaks are weirdly out of place in the sandstone country; volcanic forces uplifted them, and then the sandstone eroded around them. Unfortunately, in 2003 there was a huge fire which absolutely toasted the forests in the Henrys, because otherwise it would have been a lovely and cool oasis in the desert. After routefinding our way across the pass and through the mountains, we headed Coloradoward, stopping at the overlook where Lake Powell backs up into the Colorado River. There were a bazillion places we would have loved to explore, but it was time to go home.

( Four final pictures )

All 111 pictures from the trip (and let me tell you, that's only a fraction of the photos on the hard drive!) are in my Utah/Arizona 2008 set on Flickr.

I figured I'd better get to the rest of our vacation pictures before we went on another vacation :-)

Cottonwood Canyon is about 50 miles of dirt road that connects the Paria-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness and US 89 with Utah 12 between Bryce Canyon NP and Escalante, going north-south along Comb Ridge. It's known as a scenic drive for many reasons, among them Grosvenor Arch:



( Cottonwood Canyon )

We then continued north to Bryce Canyon:



( That hoodoo that you do so well )

Or, straight to Flickr: Cottonwood Canyon photos (5) and Bryce Canyon NP photos (14).

Well, I finished the half marathon, but I didn't make my goal of breaking 2 hours. Which is probably because 1) I was coming back from an injury that really cut a hole in my training, 2) I tried to stay with three other runners going for 9 minute miles, and I knew it was too fast for me, and I stayed with them for 7 miles, which probably wasn't good strategy as this is the first time I haven't made negative splits, and 3) JEEBUS IT'S HOT. Over 70 at the start, 83 at the (uphill and unshaded) finish. Not sure what my time was exactly, but 2:03-ish, which is worse than my first half some years back. Oh, well.

I...I'm going to have to punt, here. Because the South Coyote Buttes are so mind-blowingly magnificent - the colors, the shapes, the sheer abstract artistry - that I really don't have anything to say. I've uploaded thirty pictures to my Flickr site, and you can find them all here. Or do the slideshow thing. There's a sliver of moon over a butte, there's a weird tower with a window in it, there are stripes, there are squiggles, there's a couple pictures of me. Um, yeah. Ogg say: sandstone nifty, make pretty pictures.