The moon shines through some funky clouds above Hayden Peak, as seen from my front door in Ouray, Colorado.

During the last three days, I bushwhacked through the Cow Creek valley, a rugged and remote mountain valley in the Uncompahgre Wilderness of the San Juan Mountains east of Ridgway. My original plan was to hike through the valley and continue up to the high alpine zone, where I would hike a high loop route around to Wetterhorn Basin and then take a trail back to my truck. However this plan was thwarted by geography - the Cow Creek valley is absolutely impassible six miles up, forcing me to turn around and bushwhack all the way back out the way I came.

This photo shows a sample of the kind of terrain and bushwhacking I was dealing with the entire time. There are many obstacles along the river which forced me to constantly hike up and down through thick bush and forest and along steep, loose, rocky slopes. Over the three days, I spent 23 hours of tough hiking to cover a mere 12 miles round trip, for an average of about 0.5 miles/hour! I can think of a few words to describe this bushwhack; it was brutal, tedious, frustrating, demoralizing, maddening, hellish, unrewarding, exhausting, etc, etc.

Below are some more photos from this fruitless exploration.

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[+] Dusk in Ouray, Colorado as seen from the Sutton Mine Trail.

A couple weeks ago, I booked flights to Santiago, Chile for October/November. I was going to hike volcanoes in the Atacama Desert and the Lake District. Read my post about the short-lived plan here.

Well two weeks later, I noticed that Orbitz still hadn’t charged my credit card. Odd. So I logged onto their site and sure enough, my reservation had been cancelled! Apparently they didn’t feel that it was important to notify me of the cancellation or explain why they cancelled. But, no matter, because a quick flight search revealed that flights all the way to the South Island of New Zealand would only be $200 more! New plan! Tickets booked!

I’ll be flying from Montrose to Denver to LA to Aukland to Christchurch - 24 hours total travel time each way. I’ll be there for seven weeks, leaving in mid October and arriving back home to Colorado in early December. (Or if McSame wins the election while I’m gone, perhaps I can figure out a way to just stay down there forever).

Anyways, I’ve long dreamed of visiting New Zealand but it just seems so far away and I just never thought of it as a realistic possibility anytime soon. So, I am really really excited for this trip. I have no plans figured out yet, except that they will surely involve lots of trekking (or “tramping” as they say) and photographing the beautiful scenery.

The best New Zealand landscape photos I’ve found so far are from Andris Apse. Incredible stuff.

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WATER FIGHT!!! This is a Ouray 4th of July tradition dating way back to the mining days, in which 4 people (2 vs. 2) blast the hell out of each other with fire hoses, for as long as it takes until the losing team falls down or just can’t hold on to the hose any longer. It’s a ridiculous mix of hilarity and brutality, and as I look at these photos I still can’t stop laughing.

This year I got right up along the ropes and snapped some photos while getting completely drenched. Good times! Check out all my battle photos below.

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[+] Sunset behind Potosi Peak, 13,786 ft., as seen from the Hayden Trail above Ouray, Colorado. Although it’s only the fourth tallest peak in the Sneffels Range, Potosi dominates the southern side of the range, soaring 5,000 vertical feet above Canyon Creek and Camp Bird Road. It’s a forbidding seldom-climbed peak, surrounded by sheer cliffs and rugged canyons. Read more about Potosi Peak on SummitPost.org.

On Saturday I camped up in Blaine Basin, with Mt. Sneffels towering above. That evening, I hiked up to the summit of Peak 12,910, which has an incredible vantage point directly facing the rugged north face of Sneffels. I’ve hiked to many different vantages around Mt. Sneffels, and I think this one is the best!

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What an amazing hike this morning! After catching a few ZZZs, I woke up and got out of bed at 1am, hiked up Mt. Sneffels under a brilliant full moon, and topped out on the 14,156′ summit at 4:15am. The air was really calm and not that cold, and I had plenty of time to relax on the summit before the dawn light, enjoying the massive vista of moonlit peaks. Once the sun started rising, the photography was fast and furious, and I got some good large format shots with the 4×5. Now I’m off to Boulder for my friends Santos and Jill’s wedding.

See my photos here.

On perhaps an impulsive whim, I just booked plane tickets to Santiago, Chile! Woohoo! I’ll be headed there from October 15 to December 1. A full six weeks!

I have two plans for the trip. I may do one, or the other, or both.

First idea: Head south from Santiago to the Lake District. This area is lush and green, with big lakes and beautiful cone-shaped volcanoes. I’ve travelled through here once before back in 2002; my friend Mikel and I stayed briefly in the adventure town of Pucón, where we snowboarded at the little ski resort on the slopes of Villarrica Volcano. Here’s some great photos of the Lake District by Gerhard Hüdepohl.

Second idea: Head north from Santiago to the Atacama desert. There are even more enormous volcanoes there, including Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano on Earth at 22,615 feet. The alien landscapes of the Atacama look like a photographer’s dream. Again, check out Gerhard Hüdepohl’s amazing Atacama photos to see what I mean.

UPDATE: Now I’m not going to Chile… I’ll be going to New Zealand instead! Read about my change of plans here.

Sunset light in the pines near the Portland Trail overlook above Ouray, Colorado.