Well, I went ahead and made my campground reservations to last for all of the nights I'll be in Colorado National Monument. I can blow off the $40 dollars I spent, get a backcountry permit and do the route described in the post below, but I'm thinking, even with relatively short distance, do I really want to climb 2,800 feet in one day? Probably not. And if I do, will I really want to keep hiking for another day and a half (or whatever it ends up being?) Again, probably not. Although, granted, if I just suck it up and do it, it's mostly all downhill after that first day, I still probably don't want to do it, and I won't actually plan on doing so after all. Rather, I'll look around for day hikes, both in the monument and the surrounding area. I'm actually a little excited to see if I can get up on the Book Cliffs a bit, or Dominguez Canyon, or some of the other areas nearby. Of course, there's more to see than I'll have time to, so I'll have to be judicious in how I spend my time, all the while making sure now to overplan too.
So what does my new itinerary look like with just day hikes?
Well, the driving days are the same, including hopefully having time on Sunday afternoon to the do the Dillon Pinnacles.
Monday: well, I actually probably am not in any particular hurry to get to camp, since I have a reservation. But I want to be sure and get in before the office closes, so I'll probably go early, then go get some lunch, and then hike the afternoon and evening. I'm actually thinking of doing the Devil's Canyon hike, which is just outside the monument, but curiously very, very close to the edge of the monument where I'll be camping. If there's still time and daylight, I'll explore some of the little minor hikes of the Monument before turning in, like Artist's Point, Coke Ovens, or the Canyon Rim trails.
Tuesday will be a big hiking day, but since I don't have to carry my backpack, and since I can turn around and head back at any point I decide I've had enough, it shouldn't be too bad. I intend to start out with Wedding Canyon and hike to Independence Monument. I'll head up the Upper canyon trail as far as I feel like, before turning back around. Probably about the time that I'm not on the canyon floor anymore and start to see that I'm climbing out, I'll quit and turn around. Then, doing a kind of inverse lollipop, at the Monument itself I'll take the Lower Monument trail instead of Wedding Canyon and do a loop back to the car. Or, I could do that lollipop in reverse. I guess I'm indifferent to the two options right now.
Anyway, this is a long day, so I'll probably tired, dirty, thirsty and hungry by the end of it, and ready to head back to camp, make some dinner and take a load off for the rest of the evening. On the off-chance that I'm not, I guess I can finish any of the small hikes I noted above that I didn't do yet.
For Wednesday, I want to hike the Bench loop. It's probably not really a full day, unless I sleep in a lot or something, but I don't yet know what I want to supplement it with. Probably something outside of the monument, but it has to be a relatively short trail, and one that I can reach quickly. I'll keep researching various ideas.
Thursday I break camp and drive into Utah. I probably have plenty of time to enjoy a scenic day of driving and stopping and even some hiking. I only have to get to the Goblin Valley State Park area by nightfall and it's a ridiculously close two hours away. Even driving from Colorado National Monument to Dead Horse Point to Goblin Valley is less than four hours. If I want to go check out the Fisher Towers, that's probably even a little bit closer. So that gives me some time to really enjoy the day; I do have to do some driving, but if it's only about four hours, I can afford a few hours of hiking and sightseeing too.
I couldn't get a camp site at Goblin Valley State Park, but here is dispersed camping in the BLM land nearby, including on the side of local rinky-dink roads, so I'm planning on doing that instead. Friday morning it's the Wild Horse/Bell Canyon loops and then drive up to SLC.
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