Photo Journal & Trip Reports (Colorado)

Cow Creek Bushwhack
July 2008  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

During the last three days, I bushwhacked through the Cow Creek valley, a rugged and remote mountain valley in the Uncompahgre Wilderness of the San Juan Mountains east of Ridgway. My original plan was to hike through the valley and continue up to the high alpine zone, where I would hike a high loop route around to Wetterhorn Basin and then take a trail back to my truck...

2 Sunrises on Mount Sneffels
June 2008  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

This June I made two early morning hikes high up in Yankee Boy Basin, a high mountain valley above Ouray, Colorado.

On Monday I woke up at 2am, drove up to Yankee Boy Basin, and hiked in the dark via headlamp up to the ridgeline of Cirque Mountain, a 13-thousand footer with a nice view of neighboring Mount Sneffels...

2008 Skiing & Snowboarding in Colorado
Winter/Spring 2008  |  Colorado

The 2007-2008 snow season has been an epic one, with record breaking snowfalls in western Colorado. The town of Ouray (where I live) got over 21 feet of snow, more than twice the average, and the most in 60 years of records! The high mountains probably got twice that, if not more...

Winter Camping in the West Needle Mountains
March 2008  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Lured by a full moon and a forecast of clear skies, in late March I went backpacking for two nights in the West Needle Mountains in the San Juans near Silverton, Colorado. This area is incredibly photogenic; from my campsite on a 12,200 ft ridgeline, I enjoyed broad vistas of the Needle Mountains, the West Needles, and all the peaks of the Molas Pass area...

Colorado Fall Colors
September/October 2007  |  Colorado

Autumn is probably the most spectacular season in the Colorado Rockies, as the vast fields of aspens turn bright yellow and orange under snowcapped mountain peaks. For the last several weeks, I've been searching for grand aspen vistas to photograph, mainly in the West Elk Mountains near Crested Butte, and San Juan Mountains around Telluride and Ouray...

Weminuche Wilderness Trek
September 2007  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Over a span of 7 days in late August/early September, I hiked alone through a high route in the Weminuche Wilderness of the San Juans. The mountains here are perhaps the most rugged and remote in all of Colorado...

Maroon Bells Four Pass Loop
July 2007  |  Elk Mountains, Colorado

This popular hike in the Elk Mountains near Aspen is referred to as the Four Pass Loop. It is about 25 miles long, and passes over four high mountain passes, circumnavigating the famous Maroon Bells fourteeners...

Spring Riding in the San Juans
April/May 2007  |  San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Instead of making separate trip reports for each spring backcountry hike and ski/snowboard trip that my friends and I do, I thought I'd just make a page with some of my favorite pictures from various hikes this spring in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado...

Mount of the Holy Cross
October 2003  |  Sawatch Range, Colorado

Notch Mountain, in the Sawatch Range just south of Vail, Colorado, has a perfect front-and-center view of Mount of the Holy Cross and its east facing cross couloir, made famous in 1873 by legendary wilderness photographer William H...