The snow from a few days ago has already melted away.

We had a couple of dustings of snow earlier this month, but last night we got our first real snow this winter, about 6” at the house.

I’ve got about 60% of our wood split and stacked—did a little bit more today after sealing the deck yesterday.

We camped at Snow Canyon State Park and spent the day hiking its trail system. The park is a mix of desert sagebrush, slickrock, lava flows and about twenty miles of trails.

We came in yesterday afternoon and got the last campsite. Very nice campground and park, well worth visiting.

We drove from the Grand Canyon to Hurricane, Utah to ride the Hurricane Rim Trail.

Scenic ride, and it was nice to finally experience some warm weather.

We went for a hike down the North Kaibab Trail on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

It’s not nearly as scenic as the South Kaibab, but still a pretty hike.

Stopping by the Four Corners monument on our way to the Grand Canyon.

We got to take some tours at Mesa Verde on the last day they were available for the season.

The park is amazing, far exceeding my expectations.

We spent the day driving south from Fruita to Mesa Verde National Park.

We finished the day sitting next to a campfire on a cold night under a full moon.

We went for a hike today, at Colorado National Monument, which is just outside Fruita and Grand Junction.

We camped in Fruita and went for a ride on the 18 Road Trails north of town.

The trails are smooth and flowy with some tight gullies up high toward the ridge.

We rode a very scenic trail just north of Moab called the Monitor & Merrimac trail.

It started snowing in the morning as we were eating, so we packed up and ran. We drove for about an hour in the snow before dropping down in elevation and slowly outrunning the storm front.

We got Moab too late to do anything but eat and sleep. On the plus side, our Government Shutdown Tour got a lift when Utah announced that the state is paying to reopen its national parks.

We rode about twelve miles on a meandering trail that didn’t really go anywhere.

We rode a great trail at Cave Lake State Park outside of Ely.

We’re taking off for a two week vacation in Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Arizona.

We’re calling it the Government Shutdown Tour because the national parks just got closed due to the appropriations fiasco.

The temps have been pretty cold lately and the trees are letting go.