Cottonwood and Taylor Valley

The reason I'm drowning at work is because last week was exam week, plus homework due week, plus daily activities due week, plus we went camping this weekend.  Adding on to this stress was a last-minute harvest of the rest of our tomatoes and basil after a frost advisory was issued last Wednesday night.  Anyway, we left Friday around 4:00 (just in time to get stuck in traffic in Golden) and got back Sunday evening.  It was my first meeting-less Friday, so we decided to take advantage.  We drove to Buena Vista, CO and decided on the Cottonwood Hot Springs for night one.  For $70 we got a tent site, bathroom and shower access, and most importantly, access to the hot springs!   

The aspens were turning colors and it was such a beautiful drive as we continued Saturday morning up Cottonwood Pass after some bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Once I find my camera in this mess I like to call home, I will share with you some sunset pics I took, but until then, here's the pics off of Dave's camera (but I took most of them).

Our tent spot for Friday night at Cottonwood Hot Springs.  The gazebo-type setup was very odd, but it worked.  We were able to have a campfire inside this enclosure and our tent fit in there as well.  It was right next to a coy (sp?) pond and the river, which was so loud, we had trouble hearing each other, much less our neighbors. 

We stayed here Friday night.  Left of the building is a series of five outdoor hot spring pools, a sauna, and a shower.  It was fun!  We tried out the different pools from warm to hot in between dinner and smores Friday night around 10pm.

Dave is pretending to be excited about his gluten free pepperoni spaghetti made from stewed tomatoes from our garden.  Nice face.

On Saturday, Dave fished the Arkansas between Buena Vista and Leadville.  I graded and got some sun.

We decided on camping another night, rather than backpack the sand dunes since the trees were so beautiful.  We went to the grocery store and got some chow for dinner since all we had left was backpacking food, grabbed lunch from my favorite Buena Vista old fashioned burger joint/ice cream shop, then were on our way.  I hate that I'm an ice cream shop lover.  It's not good for my figure! 

Top of Cottonwood Pass, the Atlantic Side.

Top of Cottonwood Pass the Pacific Side.

Standard travel pic... Dave with camera in hand, sunglasses, camping hats.

The other side of the pass was nasty.  The road was dirt and had little wash outs, bumps, pot holes, all while descending from 12,126 feet in a top heavy SUV.  I just about lost my breakfast.

We arrived at "Lakeview Campground" to find this sweet spot still empty.  The camp hosts were from WI and gave us dibs on their fishing spot at the reservoir.

Taylor Valley, Taylor Reservoir in the background and some sweet mountain range.  Dave is getting camp set up.  I'm always in charge of laying out sleeping pads, bags, and pillows while Dave runs the stove/fire.

Oops!  I forgot my fishing pole at home.  Dave had his fly fishing pole, but it was not ideal for the reservoir.  No fish for us.

Taylor Valley view at sunset.

 Shortly after fishing, we made kielbasa for dinner with corn on the cob and hot coco.  I had luckily brought along my ski jacket.  I wore that, my winter hat, gloves, a hoodie, pajama pants plus jeans, and socks to bed.  I was so bulky I could barely zip up my mummy bag that I had pre-warmed with boiling water in a water bottle.  I was cold! 

My hot springs-soaked towel had been left out to dry and we woke up to frost over it and other surfaces.  No wonder I had been so cold!

Turns out, just below the dam to the reservoir were hundreds of HUGE fish!  They would jump five feet out of the air and they were visibly everywhere in the river.  Dave and the rest of the world tried to catch them, but no one got a bite!  I swear if we had a net we could have just netted five at once.  It was bizarre.  I got some reading and paper grading done while Dave fished.

Later, downstream, Dave yelled up to me that he finally caught one.  I was grading, again.  What a prize winner!  Nice job, hun!  ;)

There was no way I was going back over Cottonwood Pass to get home, so we took the long way through Gunnison, then over Monarch Pass and up 285.  Here's a vew from the top.

Aspens lining the way home. 

The trip was lovely, but Monday was brutal, I had a schmoozing dinner Monday night, and I'm just now able to catch my breath.  Time to go clean up a bit!  I might take the night off of grading just so I don't loose my mind.  My four Exam 2's will be all multiple choice! And no more homework, ever!  ;)

Needles Lost Canyon and Squaw Canyon

We made it back to camp at Lost Canyon 1 in Needles where we pitched our tent, opening it only for seconds to throw stuff in over a fear of letting in bugs.  The camp was buzzing disgustingly with life. Dave fed a few mosquitoes while I fended off horse flies with my hat. 

The site had a nice dining room table and chairs set up for us. 

Super excited for freeze dried food.

Our means of boiling water for our freeze dried packs of Mexican Style Rice and Chicken.  Yum!  Dave fends off the bugs by sipping fireball. 

From our tent

Dinner hit the spot.  2.5 servings, my butt!  I ate the whole thing.  We went and watched the sun set, then decided the best way to avoid the flies and mosquitoes was by getting into the tent.  We played a few rounds of Dave's homemade version of Quarto.  I had hiked in my ipod touch for reasons I can't explain, but to avoid listening to the noises outside the tent, I threw on Ratatouille until I got sleepy.

The next morning, over breakfast we debated how to get back to our car.  I just wanted to go home ASAP.  Dave thought we should take the scenic route.  I was scared of going back the way we came and seeing the ladder again, but I was also worried about the scenic route since the ranger mentioned a few things I wouldn't like.  Why go 2.6 miles when you can go 6.1?  We took the long way, up Lost Canyon, over a rock formation, then down Squaw Canyon with packs. 

We were able to pump water from this spring through Dave's fancy pump thingy and fill up his camelbak (haha, he gets the added weight!) to keep us satisfied for our long hike out.  We actually drank just about everything we brought in including this extra 3 liters. 

The hike started harmlessly along the bottom of the canyon, but things quickly got annoying.  Did I mention it was a wet year in Utah?  Well, Lost Canyon is usually the only canyon with water, but this year it was the canyon with a lot of water.  Standing water.  Yes, a mosquito haven!  I didn't vacation in Utah to hang out with mosquitoes!  In fact, as I was packing ample amounts of sun screen, I looked at the OFF and thought, "Nope, won't need that!"  I was very, very wrong.  These things were large and they swarmed around us as we hiked and pumped out CO2 like nobodies business.  The hat made a great swatting tool, but eventually I couldn't fend them off and got a total of 20 bites on my arms and legs and neck.  Dave was wearing long sleeves and pants, but they still got his face.  They even got me through my shirt!

Dave got bit while taking this picture. 

We were going up and over this thing off to the right to get out of Lost Canyon. 

Itchy

We just climbed up out of this valley.  The scary part was very minimal and Dave talked me through it like a pro.  The Ranger mentioned a crack you had to jump over, but I swear, we never had to.  I kept worrying it was coming up, though!

After the scary part, I was very happy to be on something semi-flat, so I took a seat by a cairn to catch my breath after the climb.  No tears today!  Take that, Needles!

We stopped here for lunch.  Cheetos, beef jerky, and dried fruit.  Quality.

Entering Squaw Canyon on our way out.

Success!  We're almost out!  Note the yellow flowers everywhere!  , 

6 miles with packs after 3 days of camping/hiking, this about sums it up.  Time to go home!  Our cars are near the butte on the right, I think.  (Hehe, I said butte!)

We made it back to our car, threw on the chacos, used the pit toilet, changed, Dave had an Avery beer, and we hit the road.  It was finally time to head home.  Good thing, too, it was getting hot out!  We left around 1:00 and didn't get home until 9:00pm.  Poor Dave drove most of the way while I held my eyes open.  I've never been so tired in my life!  It was a pretty drive back, following the Colorado River all the way to Vail.  The River has overflowed its banks due to high snow pack melting.  It was fun to watch it rage through Glenwood Canyon. 

It was a fun memorial day weekend trip! 

Needles Lost Canyon and Peekaboo Trails

The poor man working the back country pass office had no idea what he was getting himself into when he volunteered to help us.  I wanted to do the exact same route we had done in 2009, or at least to hit the same high points.  Dave wanted to check out the east side of the park, which we hadn't ever explored.  The guy behind the counter knew not to intervene.  Dave was right, we should do something new.  We decided on Lost Canyon 1 (LC1 on the map below). We'd start at Squaw Flat and hike directly to our site, drop our packs, and continue on to Peekaboo to see an arch before the day ended (it was 1:00 or 2:00 when we signed in).  I mentioned to both of the people helping us that I have a fear of heights and they both didn't seem to think it would be a problem, but pointed out two places that I might have issues, one on each leg of the yellow highlights below.  Anxiety kicks in. 

Red indicates 2009 trails we hiked.  Yellow was this year. 

 We finished up packing our packs for one night in the back country (a few miles from our car), including our tent, sleeping bags and pads, stove, food, and water for two days in the desert for drinking and cooking. Then we wandered off towards Lost Canyon.  The hike starts off over a mild rock formation, then through a very dry, very sun-exposed, very sandy length until we reached the next rock formation that we had to hike over.

I think this is the view from the top of the rock formation we crossed.

We now had to get down into that valley.

So we follow the cairns through a few switch backs down this thing that leads us to a ladder to get us off one of the mushroom tops.  I was not too happy about the ladder and this is one of the fear of heights things that the ranger warned me about.  I had a very heavy, very large pack on my back.  Okay, Dave's was heavier, but still, we each had 2 water bottles and a 3 Liter Camelbak of water weighing us down.  My sleeping bag was strapped under my pack, so even when I tried to sit down, I'd feel like I was going to fall forward.  (I remedied this anxiety on my way out put putting the sleeping bag in the pack so I could always sit down if needed, which is very necessary when fear of heights freak outs occur.)  I was not ready to climb down this ladder with my pack on.  I unstrapped and handed the pack down to Dave.  The thing was that the ladder lead to a ledge with maybe three feet before a 30 foot drop to the bottom of the canyon, so Dave was a little nervous that I'd just let my pack pound down into him, knocking him off.  I handed it to him slowly.  Looking down was not a good idea, but how could I get down the ladder without looking down?  I did it.  I stood near the short ledge and strapped my pack back on, the tears now starting to come, and continued along the edge of this ledge, trying to hug the wall and duck under a mushroom top, but my pack kept hitting the top and throwing me off balance.  I made it, obviously.  I was pretty upset, but happy to be on solid ground in Lost Canyon. 

Sucking back snot and holding back tears after a major freak out.

 We made it to our camp, which was located in this oddly green portion of the desert in an oak tree stand.  And guess what greeted us?  Horse flies and black bumble bees the size of small birds.  Oh joy.  We dropped our packs and took a smaller pack to do a hike to an arch at the Peekaboo camp up the way.

Dave generously carried my water in his day pack and I was free to hike with nothing but my favorite rag and my trekking poles (which double as ski poles and reduce down to an 18 inch pole for packing), a birthday present from Dave. 

This hike looks like a straight line on the map from the ranger, but upon closer investigation, the hike weaves in and out of these large rock formations above the valleys.  (Note to remember to borrow topo map from friend next time.)

 After a mile+ where every little hill seemed like a cliff, my nerves, still frayed from the ladder incident, got the best of me and I broke down again.  I was done with this hike.  I wasn't going to make it to Peekaboo.  It was a repeat of last year's Island in the Sky Lathrop Trail where I freaked out half way and we had to turn around.  Dave explored ahead and even though I had quit prematurely, he was very sure that I wouldn't make it past a portion just ahead anyways.  He explored the area while I relaxed and collected myself for the hike back and enjoyed this epic view.

Snot rag comes in handy post freak-out.

Me--"I'm done with this hike."  Dave--"Check out the formation behind you!"

One of the many "cliffs" I don't care to tumble down.

Starting to feel better.  Sitting is good. 

Through the sun glasses.

Conveniently optimistic, despite me.

 We made it safely back to camp.