Happy Thanksgiving! Lately I've been super antsy to get outside for a little adventure, so yesterday morning I spontaneously decided to go for a winter camp! I wasn't packed and ready to go until after noon, so I couldn't do anything too ambitious or distant. I headed to a place not far from Ouray where I knew that a short ~1 mile, 400 vertical foot hike up from the trailhead would take me to a nice meadow with views of towering peaks across the valley.

Part of my motivation for this quick winter camp was to test out some new winter gear I've acquired recently. With temps dropping as low as 5º F (-15º C) this night was a good test, and I was pleased that I was toasty warm all night long. My goal is to have my kit so dialed that winter camping is not just borderline survival, but actually comfortable! So far so good. If you're interested I've written in more depth about my winter backpacking gear here.

Colorado (and much of the western U.S.) is in the midst of an "atmospheric river" winter storm that has dumped 2-3 feet of snow across Colorado so far. This morning Mount Sneffels made an appearance during a brief break in the storm.

The warm and dry Indian summer here in the San Juan Mountains came to an abrupt end in mid-October with a big snowfall in the high peaks. Then so far in November there's been a series of prolonged snow storms and it finally feels like winter has settled in.

At the end of September my buddy Dave and his friend Eric invited Claudia and I to join them on a two-day rafting trip down the mellow "Ruby Horsethief" stretch of the Colorado River from Loma, Colorado (near Grand Junction) to Westwater just over the Utah border. Dave planned the entire trip so Claudia and I just had to show up with our ducky (an inflatable canoe) - nice!

We got lucky with perfect weather and no wind, so for the most part we could just kick back, sip beer, and enjoy the views while the lazy river took us down through the canyons. It was cool to float past Mee and Knowles Canyons, which I just backpacked through this last April. Floating is a much more chill way to travel through this canyon country, that's for sure!

After our 5-day trek in the Sangre de Cristos, we drove down to the southern Sangres in New Mexico to spend three days relaxing in the town of Taos. The highlights were visiting the fascinating Taos Pueblo, eating delicious New Mexican food (including the best chili relleno I've ever had at Antonio's), and strolling around browsing the various art galleries and stores. Always a nice place to visit!

Yesterday we had some more thunderstorms roll through during the afternoon, and when it started clearing up right before sunset there was a brilliant double rainbow over town and fresh snow on Sneffels! In recent weeks I've seen the Sneffels Range briefly covered in hail several times after thunderstorms, but this was the first actual snow up there this summer (you can tell by the way it's caked onto the steep rock faces where hail would just slide off). The temps have been cooling off lately and autumn feels like it's right around the corner!

What a cutie!

The weather has been exciting here in the San Juan Mountains lately, with lots of monsoon rain, lightning, and thunder passing over throughout the days and nights!

With a couple days this week between family visits and itching for some alpine exercise, I spontaneously headed out for a quick overnight backpack trip in the Sneffels Range yesterday. I returned to a familiar quiet basin, but rather than taking the usual valley trail to get there, I explored a new (to me) circuitous route over a couple high passes. Summer is in full swing and I'm excited to get out for more backpacking soon!