Picketwire Canyon - Part 1

A new year and new adventures. This past Saturday I headed out to Picketwire Canyon located south of La Junta, Colorado in Comanche National Grasslands for a little exploring.

The start of the road back to the trail head.

The trailhead for Picketwire Canyon starts in the campground area of Withers Canyon and descends down about 250' though a shade area that hasn’t seen the sun for a bit.  

Old structure.

 

Old well.

 

 

Heading back down the trail.

Another old structure and well.

 

One of the main structures/ruins in the area the Dolores Mission and Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

One final photo of the mission and cemetery before starting the hike back.

 

Back at the trail head and time to start home. 

Painted Mines Trail, Colorado

After suffering from some depression on Saturday and just being tired in general I knew I needed to get out and get some fresh air. So I headed off to the 'Painted Mines' hiking trail just outside of Calhan, Colorado for a short hike.

 

Pikes Peak in the background.

 

I had the place all to myself till I got back to parking lot where there was a group getting ready to head out. Though this was only a short hike it did wonders and I feel a whole lot better.

Sometimes its the small things that can make all the difference.

11-Mile Reservoir, Colorado

Back at the beginning of November I felt the itch to get out and explore some new ground. When I first came to Colorado back in 2011 I had past 11-Mile Reservoir a number of times and briefly stop there to check it out while exploring central Colorado but never really taking the time to explore it. So this day I did just that and hike around the southern portion of the reservoir.

No that's not bigfoot in the background but a simple fishermen.

It was cold enough outside to dust the top halves of these tress with some frost.

 

This was a great start to a Saturday morning.