Steamboat Springs, Colorado

With a recent 2' snowfall in the higher mountains behind steamboat that just made it deep enough to snowboard, and the onset of fall break, my good friend Henry and I headed up to Steamboat to spend a few days with my friend Aaron.

On the still morning drive up the Poudre Canyon, we saw a herd of bighorn sheep across the river. Of course by the time I had parked the car and gotten out with my camera, there were only two remaining in sight.  Still several of them had quite large horns, and it was quite a good looking herd.

We headed up to buff pass with the snowmobiles in tow. One of Aaron's friends had a snowmobile, and so we had seven people carried by two snowmobiles. The next day, we only had one snowmobile, and so two people would ride on it and three people would ride on their snowboards or skis behind the snowmobile with about 8' tow straps.

The road curves and switchbacks slowly up the mountain, which is quite a nice slope for skiing. Its not at quite a high enough angle to worry about avalanches too much. The snowmobile will drop you off at the top, and you ski down to where the snowmobile again meets you at the bottom. The powder is always untouched and deep, and even if you follow the same line again and again you are guaranteed good turns. 

Powder cat services do the same thing for over $300/day for one person, but we figured out that it had cost us $10 in gas to get the snowmobiles out there, and about $20 in gas to run the snowmobiles for the day, and that is split between 7 people. Its a cheap, fun way to spend the day, if you know people that have snowmobiles.

Henry is getting excited about all the fresh snow.

Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation Area, Nevada

We found it quite easy to visit Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation area. It was an easy 30 minute drive from the strip in our rental car, and we soon found ourselves on the outskirts of town entering into the beautiful landscapes and geology of the basin and range system. My Mom and I took the rental car and headed out of town.

There is the Aztec sandstone, a fine grained sandstone whose color has been altered by passing groundwater. Most usually it is the brilliant red of iron oxide, or a stark white, a color that usually marks the passing of oil through the beds.

There is a grey limestone that belongs to the Bonanza king formation.

Before even entering the park, we stopped at Calico Canyon, a popular spot for boulderers and climbers. We walked in a ways and took in the desert scenery.

At the bottom of the valley there was a conglomerate that had formed. One can imagine how desert flash floods moved these rocks into place. The clasts, or chunks of rock are made up mostly of limestone. The soft matrix is composed of fine grained sand from the sandstone.

The area was popular for climbing, and it was evident why. Tall, house-sized boulders had routes up their corners and the sandstone had cracks and pockets along the steeper faces that begged to be climbed.

Large scale aeolian cross bedding could be seen within these sandstones. This is typical of a sandstone, formed in a desert by the movement of dunes. The dunes' curved front surface is preserved as they move forward, leaving the small curves in the sand that deviate from the horizontal line. These lines are created as the movement of the dune erodes the sand in front of it into a flat surface, leaving the horizontal straight lines.

The area reminded me of the landscapes that Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire spoke of. You could find places to hide here, caves hidden canyons, places in the harsh desert where nobody would come to look for you.

A pleasant sandstone den for someone. Nobody was home when we visited.

The area is also well known for its petroglyphs. This was found right along the trail, and I don't imagine that it is very old. Regardless of its age, though, it is neat. 

We then drove over to the Red Rocks Canyon area. A day pass was was cheap, only $7, and allows you to drive, bike or hike around a 13.5 mile loop. There are many roads turning off that would have been fun to explore, and the hikes you could go on I'm sure would be incredible. We, however got there at around 4:30 PM and they ask you to be in your car and driving out by 5 PM.

When I say that the sandstone is large scale cross bedding, I mean it. Here you can see just how large these are. This is the same sandstone as the red colored one, but it has had groundwater, and possibly petroleum passed through it. The areas of different coloration are created within layers of sandstone that are more or less permeable, so that the color is removed accordingly. This creates the lines that we can see with our eye from far away. Notice the person in the bottom right corner for scale.

We drove around, and wished we had more time to explore the trails. We then headed back to Las Vegas, where you could buy a tall can of PBR or Coor light for an outrageous price.

Or just gamble and drink for free.