Photo Journal & Trip Reports (Backpacking & trekking)

Please enjoy these photo journals and trip reports from some of my outdoor photography adventures, starting with the most recent. You can subscribe to follow my latest blog posts (and any other blogs as well) by using a feed reader such as Inoreader or Feedly.

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Smoked out of the Winds — Smoked out of the Winds

September 2025 | Wind River Range, Wyoming

In early September we set out on a planned 6-day backpack trek in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. After three days of camping amongst rugged granite peaks and lovely alpine lakes, we had to retreat unexpectedly when the mountains became inundated with wildfire smoke from the Dollar Lake Fire on the northwest end of the range. Here are some photos and stories from this unique and surreal trek!

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Trekkin the Écrins — Trekkin the Écrins

July 2025 | Écrins National Park, France

In early July we embarked on a two-week trek around the Parc National des Écrins (Écrins National Park) in the French Alps. Our route roughly followed the GR54 trek, but we did a lot of extra sidetrips and detours. Along the way we stayed in alpine huts as well as some quaint villages.

This was the longest and most ambitious hut-trekking route that we've yet done in the Alps, and I have a lot of photos to share from our travels in these magnificent mountains!

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Summer Above Moab — Summer Above Moab

June 2025 | La Sal Mountains, Utah

Last weekend I drove out towards Moab, Utah again for the fourth time this year. This time, though, instead of a canyon trip, I ventured up into La Sal Mountains which rise over 8,000 vertical feet above Moab like an alpine island towering over the surrounding desert and canyons...

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Trans Catalina Trail Again — Trans Catalina Trail Again

April 2025 | Catalina Island, California

12 years ago, Claudia and I hiked the Trans Catalina Trail across Catalina Island, off the coast of southern California. With fond memories of that trip, we returned to do it again this spring! This time we were joined by my cousin Kelly and her friends Ginny and Larry, so we had a fun little "tramily" to keep us company during the 38-mile, 5-day backpack trip...

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Back to the Canyonlands! — Back to the Canyonlands!

February 2025 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Last week's backpacking trip near Moab whetted my appetite for more of this kind of stuff, so on Monday I drove out to Utah again for another quick trip - this time a solo one-nighter to a seldom-visited corner of Island in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park...

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Colorful Moab — Colorful Moab

February 2025 | Moab, Utah

With an unseasonably warm weather forecast at the beginning of February, we headed out to the Utah desert for three days of backpacking and camping on slickrock in a wonderful canyon and sandstone landscape near Moab. We were treated to some wonderful sunsets and sunrises, making for a collection of very colorful photos!

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Aurora over the Sneffels Range — Aurora over the Sneffels Range

October 2024 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Leading up to October 10, 2024 a severe geomagnetic storm was forecasted after a strong solar flare erupted from the sun the previous day. The news was full of reports forecasting a KP8-level aurora that should be visible even as far south as the southern United States! With such an optimistic aurora forecast and good weather I decided spontaneously to hike and camp up high in the San Juan Mountains for a chance to view this incredibly rare event.

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Sleepless with Longs Peak — Sleepless with Longs Peak

September 2024 | Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

In mid-September after visiting friends and running errands in Denver and Fort Collins, Claudia and I headed to Rocky Mountain National Park, where I had reserved some last minute wilderness camping permits for three nights...

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Sangres Seven Pass Loop — Sangres Seven Pass Loop

September 2024 | Sangre de Cristos, Colorado

Looking at a topographic map of Colorado, the Sangre de Cristo Range in southern Colorado is the easiest mountain range to recognize - a straight and solitary line of mountains stretching down the center of the southern portion of the state...

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Ragged Elks Trek — Ragged Elks Trek

September 2024 | Elk Mountains, Colorado

At the end of August and beginning of September, Claudia and I joined our friends Ann and Holly for an ambitious 5-day trek through the Elk Mountains, Ruby Range, and Ragged Mountains - a 50 mile traverse through some of the most beautiful mountain landscapes in Colorado, between the towns of Aspen, Crested Butte, Marble, and Paonia...

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3 Days In the Grenadiers — 3 Days In the Grenadiers

August 2024 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

With a brief window of decent weather between monsoon storms, last week I ventured back into the Weminuche Wilderness for a quick but strenuous solo 3-day backpack trip through the rugged Grenadier Range via a series of high passes and lots of off-trail rock hopping...

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Threading the Needles — Threading the Needles

July 2024 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

At the end of July I ventured out for a 6-day solo backpack trek through the Needle Mountains, a remote and rugged sub-range of the greater San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado. This was the seventh trek I've done in this specific range (not counting other nearby trips within the Weminuche Wilderness), though it has actually been six years since my last visit...

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Wandering in Wildflowers — Wandering in Wildflowers

July 2024 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

This week my wife and I ventured into the mountains near Silverton, Colorado for a wonderful 3-day trek through the wildflowers! We shuttled cars and did a one-way trailhead to trailhead walk - another variation of a trek that we've done two previous variations of, and we also included two exploratory side hikes each evening...

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Down in the Narrows — Down in the Narrows

May 16, 2024 | Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is easily one of the most awe inspiring sights in Colorado. Carrying snowmelt down from a broad watershed of the West Elk, Elk, Sawatch, and San Juan Mountains, the Gunnison River roars through 2,000 sheer vertical feet of 1...

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Knowles/Mee Canyons Loop — Knowles/Mee Canyons Loop

April 23, 2024 | Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness, Colorado

Hungry for a desert adventure, in mid-April I headed to the canyons west of Grand Junction in the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness, an area I'd never visited before, for a 36-mile loop trek going down Knowles Canyon, along the Colorado River, then up Mee Canyon. This was a fantastic but strenuous trek through seriously awesome canyon country.

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Roaming the Ritter Range — Roaming the Ritter Range

September 2023 | Ansel Adams Wilderness, California

In mid-September after our 7-day trek near Bishop, Claudia and I drove up to Mammoth for a few days of rest and restaurants, then headed out on another backpack trip in the eastern Sierra - this time a 4-day jaunt along the base of the Ritter Range in the Ansel Adams Wilderness...

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Evolution Loop — Evolution Loop

September 2023 | John Muir Wilderness, California

In early September Claudia and I continued our Sierra highlights tour, driving down from Tahoe to Bishop along the foot of the rugged and impressive peaks of the Eastern Sierra. We loaded up our backpacks for the longest trek of our summer road trip: a 7-day, 54-mile route through the John Muir Wilderness in the Eastern Sierra from North Lake to South Lake - a near-loop that would take us through Evolution Basin, an area which we've heard numerous people describe as the heart of the Sierra and one of the favorite highlights of the John Muir Trial and Pacific Crest Trail...

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Granite Islands in the Sky — Granite Islands in the Sky

August 2023 | Desolation Wilderness, California

As fun as our time in Idaho was in August, it was actually the opening act for the main event of our big summer road trip - a month in the Sierra Nevada in California! So in late August, Claudia and I hit the road again and continued on from Idaho to California for the first of our Sierra adventures: a backpack trip up to Lake Aloha in the Desolation Wilderness, just southwest of Lake Tahoe...

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Above the Uncompahgre Gorge — Above the Uncompahgre Gorge

July 2023 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Last week in mid-July I did a pleasant 3-day solo backpack loop through the Uncompahgre Wilderness above and east of the town of Ouray, Colorado. This is a favorite trek I've done numerous times before but this time I varied my camping destinations and did a bit of exploring along the way, and I also had a notable encounter with the local wildlife!

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Sneffels Summertime — Sneffels Summertime

July 2023 | San Juan Mountains, Colorado

At the beginning of July I spent a pleasant evening and morning on a high ridge in the Sneffels Range with a wonderful view facing my favorite mountain: Mount Sneffels.

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Some Early Season Backpacking in Colorado — Some Early Season Backpacking in Colorado

May 2023 | Colorado

The weather this spring has been quite wet in the mountains of southwest Colorado with frequent rain and thunderstorms, almost like an early monsoon pattern. The unsettled weather has dissuaded me from attempting any high camps in the snow so far, but with a hankering for some backpacking I have been seeking out some lower elevation destinations this May for some quick backpack outings...

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Exploring in the Needles District — Exploring in the Needles District

April 2023 | Canyonlands National Park, Utah

With its fantastic red and pink spires, the Needles District is a spectacular and popular part of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah. In the busy spring and fall seasons, most backcountry campsites are completely reserved months in advance...

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Remote Wanderings in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts — Remote Wanderings in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts

February 2023 | California & Arizona

Although the weather was still a bit on the chilly side, in February we headed southwest for two weeks of camping, backpacking, and exploring craggy desert mountain ranges. Our road trip took us through the deserts along the lower Colorado River, first through the Mojave Desert in California, then down into the western Sonoran Desert in far southeast California and west Arizona.

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Desert Freeze Fest — Desert Freeze Fest

November 2022 | Southeast Utah

Despite a 20º weather forecast I drove out towards Moab to do an exploratory backpack trip up an obscure canyon all the way to a high rim overlooking the Fisher Towers, camping two nights along the way. Between the frigid temperature, fresh snow, rugged terrain, and torturous bushwhacking, the trek ended up being one of the more physically and mentally challenging backpack trips I've done.

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Aspen Immersion — Aspen Immersion

October 2022 | Colorado

Autumn really put on a show this year in Colorado, with snowy peaks and brilliant aspen colors. Most notably, the golden aspen colors were nearly two weeks late and lasted for longer into October than I ever remember happening before...

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Hut to Hut in the Hohe Tauern — Hut to Hut in the Hohe Tauern

September 2022 | Austria

In early September we headed south to Alps for an 8-day hut-to-hut trek through the Hohe Tauern National Park in Austria. A north to south crossing of the Hohe Tauern range, our route started from near the town of Kaprun, took us right past Grossglockner (the tallest mountain in Austria), and ended in the town of Mörtschach – while staying at alpine huts for seven nights along the way.

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High Hanging Fruit — High Hanging Fruit

August 2022 | Sneffels Range, Colorado

When I first moved to southwest Colorado in 2006 I had a good 5-10 year stretch when the San Juan Mountains were pretty much a blank canvas for me for planning grand backpack treks and discovering loads of unique scenes to photograph...

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Wild in the Gore Range — Wild in the Gore Range

August 2022 | Gore Range, Colorado

High above the bustling ski town of Vail and the drone of cars and trucks zooming along Interstate 70 rise the rugged mountains of the Gore Range, surrounded by civilization yet harboring some of the burliest peaks and wildest valleys in Colorado...

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Light in La Platas — Light in La Platas

July 2022 | La Plata Mountains, Colorado

La Plata Mountains are located just northwest of the town of Durango, Colorado, in the southwest corner of the greater San Juan Mountains. I guess it shows how vast the San Juans are that it's taken me 16 years to finally go visit La Platas! I've spied their rugged ridges off in the distance many times from the Weminuche Wilderness or the western San Juans, but for some reason I just never got around to driving down there...

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Chasing Sunsets in the Weminuche — Chasing Sunsets in the Weminuche

June/July 2022 | Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado

After a dry and extremely windy spring, this summer so far a strong monsoon weather pattern has settled in over the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, bringing much needed rain along with plenty of lightning and thunder...

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