Hiking and backpacking trip reports from the Rocky Mountain West and beyond.https://awayfromthegrind.com/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/the-formerly-secret-open-space-area-241/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/the-formerly-secret-open-space-area-241/Our area trails have been busy.  So busy that people have had some difficulty practicing social distancing on the trail.  Is it OK to get within the six…Thu, 07 May 2020 00:03:05 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/poudre-river-corridor-south-trails/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/poudre-river-corridor-south-trails/The March blizzard left me with a near lethal level of cabin fever. Imprisoned in cold and brown and bleak the pressure was building to bursting. I had to…Thu, 04 Apr 2019 18:18:08 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/red-mountain-open-space-the-nearby-wonderland/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/red-mountain-open-space-the-nearby-wonderland/The rock bends, one hundred feet of strata curving down to enter the ground. Rust red bands, others grey as old bone, one nearly white, another the deep…Sun, 15 Apr 2018 21:36:41 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/guadalupe-mountains-national-park-escaping-to-spring/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/guadalupe-mountains-national-park-escaping-to-spring/Spring rarely visits Cheyenne, Wyoming during spring break. So if we’re to truly have a spring break we have to go find it. Where can we find new leaves…Fri, 16 Mar 2018 01:12:13 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/i-love-big-bend-national-park-it-nearly-killed-me/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/i-love-big-bend-national-park-it-nearly-killed-me/The Chisos Mountains are like blocks dropped from the sky, crowding the horizon with towering edges that jangle the sense of right and wrong. This is…Sun, 11 Mar 2018 05:18:25 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/wyoming/sheep-mountain-trail-centennial-wyoming/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/wyoming/sheep-mountain-trail-centennial-wyoming/Highlights: This is the mountain that everyone sees but few explore, the eastern most spur of the Medicine Bow Range. From the road the mountain simply…Fri, 30 Jun 2017 22:39:28 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/spring-and-fall-hikes-at-guernsey-state-park/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/spring-and-fall-hikes-at-guernsey-state-park/For spring hikes nothing in southeast Wyoming beats Guernsey State Park. If you think you know the place, popular for its camping, swimming and water…Thu, 27 Apr 2017 18:24:35 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/fishing-for-fossils-near-fossil-butte-wy/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/fishing-for-fossils-near-fossil-butte-wy/Over the holiday weekend we went fishing near Kemmerer, WY. At Fossil Lake. Sun, 24 Jul 2016 22:49:52 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/cottonwood-draw-falls-not-for-everyone/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/cottonwood-draw-falls-not-for-everyone/This waterfall isn’t for everyone. It’s out of the way. On no maps. Not that big. And it requries a real bushwack to reach. Plus it’s seasonal, flowing well…Thu, 09 Jun 2016 01:26:15 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/conservation/reese-mountain-saved-for-now/https://awayfromthegrind.com/conservation/reese-mountain-saved-for-now/(Note: This piece was written for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle and published on Jun 22, 2006 along with a companion article by Cara Eastwood. Shortly following…Wed, 01 Jun 2016 01:24:51 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/boars-tusk-by-any-other-name/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/boars-tusk-by-any-other-name/Give it a more captivating name and this ancient volcanic plug just might be a tourist destination.Tue, 31 May 2016 23:30:04 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/crystal-reservoir-loop/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/crystal-reservoir-loop/Are you a person that just has to see behind the familiar?  To peer beneath the everyday and common place?  When you were six was Curious George an…Sun, 15 May 2016 22:45:03 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/pole-mountain-surprise-the-death-crotch/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/pole-mountain-surprise-the-death-crotch/I thought I knew all the paths of Pole Mountain and Vedauwoo.   Prided myself in my superior know-how and know-where.  So I was surprised when my friend…Mon, 02 May 2016 01:50:36 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/walking-the-devils-backbone/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/walking-the-devils-backbone/The devil is buried. And his backbone protrudes. You can walk beside it, touching the sides of his massive vertebrae. Chilling? Creepy? Actually it’s a fine…Sun, 17 Apr 2016 14:07:23 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/greyrock-mountain/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/greyrock-mountain/There are surprises (Wow!) and surprises (Whoa!). On any trip, let’s have more of the first. The Greyrock Trail, not far from Cheyenne, has some solid…Sat, 14 Nov 2015 23:27:23 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/bison-at-soapstone-prairie/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/bison-at-soapstone-prairie/Ten genetically pure bison will be returned to the grasslands of Soapstone Prairie and Red Mountain Open Space on November 1, 2015.Sat, 31 Oct 2015 22:33:14 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/twins-looking-at-twins-the-twin-sisters/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/twins-looking-at-twins-the-twin-sisters/The Pawnee, it is said, found their way around the Colorado plains by noting the location of “the Twins,” that great pair of peaks we know as Longs and Mt.…Sun, 18 Oct 2015 11:55:31 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/rocky-mountain-national-park-centennial-celebration/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/rocky-mountain-national-park-centennial-celebration/Rocky turned 100 on January 26th.Sat, 11 Jul 2015 11:03:51 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/new-mexico/el-moro-national-monument/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/new-mexico/el-moro-national-monument/First trivia question:  “What is the nation’s first national monument?”  You’ve got it.  Devils Tower.  A matter of Wyoming pride, it adorns our license…Fri, 03 Jul 2015 20:49:56 GMThttps://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/the-medicine-bow-one-hundred/https://awayfromthegrind.com/hiking/the-medicine-bow-one-hundred/Those things include the Superior Hiking Trail in Minnesota (232 miles), the Tahoe Rim around Lake Tahoe (165 miles), the Ouachita Trail in Arkansas and…Sun, 10 May 2015 21:30:59 GMT