Tinker Cliffs and McAfee Knob: Doubling Down on the Triple Crown (Part 1)

Lisa, my wife and editor, is out of town producing an opera. To give her a break from the responsibility of helping me prepare posts for publication, I am digging into the "archives". The following two-part post and associated restaurant review were written 2015 but not previously posted. Enjoy! The southwest view from Tinker Cliffs …

The Konza Godwin Hill Loop: Little Hike on the Prairie

"Me mind on fire -- Me soul on fire -- Feeling hot hot hot" ~ Hot Hot Hot, Buster Poindexter and his Banshees of Blue It was hot. The mercury was on its way to ninety. We stepped out of the air-conditioned Subaru into a perfectly still Kansas afternoon. The sun blazed down from partly …

Little Jerusalem Badlands and Monument Rocks: We Thought Kansas was Flat

Kansas is flat, right? To quote my late father-in-law, "It's common knowledge". There are some things you just know ... like, that Kansas is flatter than a pancake. It is, but it is not, in fact, the flattest state in the USA. There are six states that rank more geographically level than the Sunflower State. …

Chappy’s Mountain View Bar and Grill: Home of the Slopper

We were on our way to do something that I hadn't done in three and a half months. Even longer for Lisa. Eat out. At a restaurant. The last time I ate at an actual restaurant was my stop at Goblin and the Grocer (read here) after my Indiana Dunes hike (read here). That was …

Lakes of the Clouds Trail: Lost Among the Clouds

"I've looked at clouds from both sides nowFrom up and down and still somehowIt's cloud's illusions I recallI really don't know clouds at all" ~ Both Sides Now, Joni Mitchell Lost is maybe too strong a word. We were off-trail. There was some bushwhacking involved. This included scaling a steep embankment and fighting our way …

Venable Falls: A Venerable Hike

Willow Lake (read here) had blown our minds on Thursday. Our next Colorado hike was to be Lakes of the Clouds. Friday morning, we broke camp and made the two and a half hour drive from Crestone to the town of Westcliffe, where we would stay at the nearby Alvarado Campground. In that two and …

Willow Lake: Rose Tint My World Keep Me Safe From My Trouble and Sprain

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.” ~ Anne Brontë Roses. There were other wildflowers on this hike, but the roses were so prolific they seemed ... thematic. A keynote. A thread. A motif. They were everywhere along the trail and in full bloom, their pink to red blossoms …

Hope Lake: We Hoped to Find the Trailhead

In my last post I told you that the Goulding Creek Trailhead was hard to find. I was a fool. Ah, those blissful, bygone days of yesterweek when we thought a trailhead a few hundred yards off of a major highway was elusive. One day later, we sat in my Subaru Crosstrek at a hairpin …

The Goulding Creek Trail: A Meadow Quintet

I was apprehensive. With COVID-19 on the loose we hadn't hiked much; now, we stood at the trailhead of a nearly 2,000 foot hike. That's the elevation - the length was 31,680 feet, or about six miles. It was an out and back hike, so that two-grand worth of uphill would come inside of three …

Big Al and West Mancos Trails: Pleasant Surprises and Abandoned Hikes

Hey, West Mancos Trail ... we're just not that into you. Some hikes just don't work out. Some days you just don't feel it. We should all be comfortable abandoning a hike that isn't tripping our triggers. Hiking when you're not feeling it can be boring, unpleasant, possibly even dangerous if your mind is somewhere …