Exploring A Canyon: First Camping Adventure of the Season

Last weekend we had two days of perfect weather and I didn't have to work, so I went on an impromptu camping trip with my friend.  I wanted to make sure that we went somewhere warm and had thought about going to Moab since it tends to stay a bit warmer in the desert than it does up in the mountains.  My friend had a better plan.  We ended up driving almost to the border of Colorado and Utah and turned down a county road that wound it's way through a beautiful canyon where we ended up spending the night.  We camped along side a good sized stream in an area with a handful of big box elder trees and a nice open grassy area for our tent.  There was already a fire ring at the site and a little exploration turned up a perfect grill grate for us to cook our dinner on.  We spent the first evening exploring the ruins of an old abandoned mining town and the closed up mines at the end of the canyon.  The tailings piles were littered with colorful green and blue stones of all shapes and sizes - remnants from the mining days left behind.  The canyon itself contained several mines - all of which had been sealed a few years ago.

After having a small dinner, we proceeded to enjoy a nice campfire and watched the stars come out on a beautiful clear night.  The sound of the stream babbling in the background was soothing and I think we both slept very well that night.  The next morning we went for a good hike down the canyon road to see what we could see.  What we saw was a number of rock formations carved by wind, water and time.  Here is a little taste, though the pictures have nothing on being there in person!

Here are a few pictures of the view of the stream from our campsite:

We also saw a number of butterflies on the hike, and I found the first Indian Paintbrushes of the season.

These trips are the reason that I couldn't stay away from the mountains.  I love it here!

Oh, and did I mention that we were the only people there that weekend?  We had the whole canyon to ourselves!  There are very few places on earth that you can have that!

This was the view from a lookout point on the highway.  Doesn't look like much from up here, but I am so glad we were able to go check out the depths of the canyon.  It was an amazingly beautiful place that I plan on visiting again.