This is the second of three articles I wrote for the website Trazzler which disappeared a few years ago. Photos are from a ride in 2009 Head north from Nederland on the Peak-to-Peak highway and you will see a sign for Caribou Ranch Open Space. Turn there and soon see a sign for the Mud Lake Open Space. There are several miles of trails here which are perfect for beginners. There are several benches along the trails where you can take a break and enjoy the views of the surrounding mountains. Mud Lake One of the trails goes up to the Caribou Ranch Open Space trailhead, where you can lock up your bike before going on its trails. They don’t allow bikes on the park’s 4 ½ miles trails. Both of these open space parks are newer and in great shape. They are great for getting out in the mountains for a couple of hours when you don’t feel like hitting the harder trails in the nearby Indian Peaks Wilderness. DeLonde Homestead in the Caribou Ranch Open Space DeLonde Homestead Farm - The H...

This post is actually an article I wrote for the website Trazzler, which no longer exists. Photos my trip there in 2008 have been added. In the West Elk Wine Region of Colorado there are several small wineries that they don’t sell their wines outside the region. Grapes Vines at Stone Cottage Cellars One of the best parts of stopping at these wineries is that you can talk with the owners. While you taste their wines, you can listen to their stories of how they got started. One of these is Stone Cottage Cellars. The owners built the stone cottage, stone by stone. They have an excellent Alpine Dessert wine. The Vineyards at Stone Cottage Cellars Another winery, Azura, is named after the boat the owners sailed around the world in. Their tasting room is also an art gallery and has great views of the surrounding area. Both of these wineries had four or five wines each and were on top of a mesa above Paonia. What are their stories? You’ll just have to go there to find out. On t...

A Scenic Bike Ride at the Mouth of the Canyon.   The upper end of this trail is at the Park and Ride at the base of Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's great if you want to do an easy bike after skiing or snowboarding all day at Brighton and Solitude in the Spring. Most of this trail is completely offstreet, but there was a section in a neighborhood where the trail was a sidewalk or I had to ride on the on road. The trail starts off by going under Wasatch Boulevard. Then it heads downhill along the creek until it leaves it and drops you off on a street for the road and sidewalk section. When I went in late March, there were lot's of tree in bloom, especially in this section. Spring Time Trees The trail leaves the road and follow the creek again. The creek goes into a pond in Old Mill Park. Just upstream of the pond, is a bridge that gives a good view of the creek upstream of here. I was able to get this photo with the mountains making the sides of Big Cottonwood Canyon in the ...

This hike is east of Park City in the Uinta Mountains. It is in a national forest area called Mirror Lake Highway Recreation Corridor. The road goes from Kamas, UT to Evanstan, WY and is a scenic byway. Unfortunately at this time you have to have a national forest pass or pay a parking fee to park at most places on this road. (More Info) It is a very scenic drive with lots of trails, campgrounds and picnic areas. This hike took me about two and a half hours, with my GPS recording 301 m of climbing and a distance of 6.8 km. I hiked clockwise and the first lake I came to was Kamas lake. Panoramic Shot of Kamas Lake A Peak Rising Behind Kamas Lake After Kamas Lake the trail goes over a small ridge with great views to the east before climbing up to Loft Lake. It was mid-October and there was some snow and mud on the trail as I went past Lofty Lake, but it was not hard to rock hop through. Lofty Lake was near treeline and the area around it was mostly alpine tundra. Ther...

Head up a mountain right off the boat! The Mt. Roberts Tram is by the cruise ship docks in downtown Juneau and takes passengers up 1,745 ft to the top of Mt. Roberts. It is run by an Alaskan native owned corporation. On the way up and on top there are excellent views of the the downtown area and of Douglas Island. Empty Cruise Ship Docks - Late Season View of the Gustineau Channel on the Way Up (Looking South) At the top terminal there's a restaurant and shops. More importantly the hiking trails run right by there. So you can either hike up or take the tram up (or down). I took the tram up and down since I was just doing an evening trip. Trail on Top of Mt. Roberts There was a bit of wildlife at the top including ptarmigans and squirrels. Ptarmigan on the Trail Along the top is a wooden cross. It is called Father Brown's Cross after a Jesuit Priest. He began building the trail to the top of Mt. Roberts with the help of volunteers. The current cros...

At the foot of the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska is a lake, called Mendenhall. (With an outflow called the Mendenhall River and it's in the Mendenhall Valley...lots of stuff called Mendenhall in the valley) The glacier calves and sends icebergs onto the lake. We kayaked across the lake from a put-in near the outflow, up to the glacier itself. The water is obviously pretty cold (about 34°) so be prepared for it and don't plan on swimming far if you flip. At the beginning you can't see the glacier all the way down to the water due to the rock peninsula sticking out, but once you get around it, it's amazing. The Mendenhall Glacier from the Put In The views were amazing from anywhere, even on a cloudy day. We put in at the West Glacier Trailhead and began kayaking across the lake. We could see some icebergs along with Nugget Falls on the other side of the lake. Panoramic View from the Put-in On the way across we went close to some of the icebergs. ...