| Year | Dates | Location | Activity | Post |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | April/Easter | Big Bend NP | Camping, Hiking | TR-Big Bend NP Family Trip April 1968 |
| 1977 | December | Big Bend NP | Camping, Hiking | TR-Big Bend NP December, 1977 |
| 1985 | April | Big Bend NP | Camping, hiking | TR-Big Bend NP-April 1985 |
| 1985 | April | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Camping, Hiking | TR-Guadalupe Mountains April, 1985 |
| 1986 | October | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Backpacking | TR-Guadalupe Mountains NP Backpacking Oct 1986 |
| 1986 | September | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Backpacking | TR-Guadalupe Mountains NP Backpack Sept 1986 |
| 1997 | August | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Hiking | TR-Guadalupe Peak 1997 |
| 1997 | August | Wheeler Peak Wilderness (New Mexico) | Hiking | TR-Wheeler Peak-New Mexico Highpoint 8/31/97 |
| 1999 | February | Big Bend NP | Backpacking | TR-Big Bend NP Backpack South Rim Feb/March 1999 |
| 2000 | February | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Backpacking | TR-Guadalupe Peak February 2000 |
| 2000 | August | Indian Peaks Wildeness | Backpacking | TR-Indian Peaks Wilderness August 24-25, 2000 |
| 2002 | August | John Muir Trail | Backpacking | John Muir Trail Thru-hike 2002 |
| 2003 | August | Humphrey Peak (Arizona) | Hiking | Arizona Highpoint-Humphreys Peak 8/13/03 |
| 2008 | Indian Peaks Wilderness | Backpacking | TR-Indian Peaks 2008 Backpacking | |
| 2011 | January | Grand Canyon NP | Camping | TR-Grand Canyon camping January 2011 |
| 2011 | January | Grand Canyon NP | Backpacking | TR-Grand Canyon Backpacking January 2011 |
| 2014 | November | Big Bend NP | Camping | Big Bend Camping November 2014 |
| 2014 | April May | Texas, New Mexico, Utah | Camping, Hiking, Travel | Trip to New Mexico |
| 2017 | November | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Backpacking | TR-Backpack-GUMO Shumard 11/16/2017 |
| 2019 | November | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Camping, Hking | TR-Guadalupe Mountains Dog Canyon & Gypsum Dunes November 14-16, 2019 |
| 2022 | February | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Backpacking, Camping, Hiking | TR-GUMO Pine Springs/Guad. Peak; Dog Canyon/Marcus backpack-February 2022 |
| 2022 | October | Big Bend NP | Camping, Backpacking | TR-BBNP Backpack Northeast Rim (and more)-October 2022 |
| 2024 | September | Weminuche Wilderness | Backpacking, Camping, travel | TR-Backpack-Colorado-Weminuche-September 2024 |
| 2024 | December | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Camping, Hiking | TR-Guadalupe Mountains NP camping-December 2024 |
| 2025 | January | Big Bend NP, Big Bend Ranch SP | Camping | TR- BBNP, BBRSP (partially canceled)-January 2025 |
| 2025 | April | Guadalupe Mountains NP | Camping, Hiking, Backpacking | TR-Guadalupe Mountains National Park camping and (canceled) backpacking-April 2025 |
Category Archives: Camping
TR-BBNP Backpack Northeast Rim (and more)-October 2022
One night Seminole Canyon State Park; in Big Bend National Park two nights Cottonwood Campground, one night backpack to NE4, two nights Paint Gap 4
- Seminole Canyon State Park: Camping 10/15/22
- Big Bend National Park
- Camping: Cottonwood Campground BBNP 10/16/22–10/17/22
- Backpack East Rim 4: 10/18/22
- Camping: Paint Gap 4 10/19/22–10/21/22 | Flickr album
One characteristic of aging is that you can get great pleasure from revisiting experiences of your youth. Separated by decades, you forget the details of such experiences but recall that you enjoyed them immensely. In my case this holds true not only for books but also for my outdoor experiences. Going back decades later over trails previously trodden can be as full of joy and discovery as it had been the first time.
With this in mind I wanted to do an overnight to the South Rim, including the East Rim (which I don’t believe I’d been on before). I took advantage of online camping reservation systems and I booked a trip for October 15–21, starting with Seminole Canyon State Park and ending with three days at Paint Gap 4, probably my favorite primitive site in Big Bend National Park. In between was an overnight to ER4 (East Rim #4), a backcountry site on the Rim in the Chisos Mountains. My last backpack in the Chisos had been, I think, 1999. My last trip to the South Rim had been a day hike with friends in January of 2009, and I don’t know that I’d ever been to the east rim side as it’s seasonally closed for the Peregrine Falcon. (My first South Rim hike had been as a nine-year-old with my family in 1968.)
Continue reading TR-BBNP Backpack Northeast Rim (and more)-October 2022
TR-Guadalupe Mountains National Park camping and (canceled) backpacking-April 2025
Camping and backpacking at Dog Canyon campground; heavy snow made the backpacking impossible
- Camping: April 2-7 | Flickr album (and more videos)
Gear, Lessons learned
Trip Report
Planning
This trip was supposed to go something like this: camp at Dog Canyon campground in Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO) then a long day hike followed by a rest and packing day, then an overnight backpack to Blue Ridge backcountry site, one of only 3 I haven’t backpacked to yet. Another goal was to hike the Marcus trail and the far northwestern section of the Bush Mountain trail, neither which I’d ever done. I had five days at Dog Canyon CG reserved and a backcountry permit for Blue Ridge on Saturday night, April 5.
TR-Guadalupe Mountains NP camping-December 2024
- Guadalupe Mountains National Park 12/2/24-12/5/24
- Guadalupe Peak horse trail 12/2/24
- Frijole-Smith Springs loop 12/3/24
- Tejas Trail -> Trail jct. 12/4/24
Gear, Lessons learned
Trip Report
Continue reading TR-Guadalupe Mountains NP camping-December 2024
TR-Backpack-Colorado-Weminuche-September 2024
Backpacking in Weminuche Wilderness, then AirBnB in Cortez, CO
Gear, Lessons learned
Trip Report
Planning
I decided I wanted to revisit a couple of backpacking trips I’d made years ago, partly because a lot of my earlier trip had been obscured by clouds and fog, and partly just to get out to a not too crowded part of the San Juans again. I would visit an area where I’d camped and backpacked going back almost forty years, the San Juan mountains and the Weminuche Wilderness. I first visited the San Juans on a long trip in 1986, car camping at Vallecito campground on the western side of the wilderness area, based on a suggestion from my parents. I returned for a couple of backpacking trips in the 1990s, in the Williams Creek area which is about thirty miles north of Pagosa Springs on USFS roads.
Continue reading TR-Backpack-Colorado-Weminuche-September 2024
TR-GUMO Pine Springs/Guad. Peak; Dog Canyon/Marcus backpack-February 2022
Took a trip out to Guadalupe Mountains National Park last week. I’d reserved Sunday and Monday nights at Pine Spring, Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday nights at Dog Canyon. I intended on climbing Guadalupe Peak again Monday, then I was planning on a backcountry stay on Wednesday night, possibly at Blue Ridge (as discussed here; https://bigbendchat.com/tentative-plan-for-one-night-backpack-dog-canyon-b-t18146.html).
I’d been getting in pretty good shape over the past six months, doing cardio, hiking, and most recently hiking with a pack to start conditioning myself for backpacking. But I had an unexpected trip to take my 89-year old mother to California to meet her new great-granddaughter from New Zealand who was visiting family in Berkeley…but I digress. Bottom line is I was out for a week, then home for only a couple of days before leaving on my trip.
I left Austin around 4 pm arriving Ozona around 8 pm. I began this habit of breaking up the drive to GUMO a few years ago; gives me plenty of time to pack, take care of chores, and hardly feels like any time at all for the first day. And then it’s nice to get to my campsite early enough to where I don’t have to rush to beat sundown (especially in Winter). I got to GUMO just before 1:00–oops, Noon Mountain time; went to the visitor center to make sure I didn’t have to check in or anything (got that Senior Pass heh heh, and had already booked the camping) and wanted to confirm I could get my Wednesday night backcountry permit here on Tuesday morning as I left (I could).
TR-Grand Canyon camping January 2011
(There is a separate Trip Report for my backpack to the bottom that trip here.)
Work in progress…
I headed out to Grand Canyon National Park in January of 2011 to camp and do an overnight backpack to the bottom of the canyon. Why January? Well, less crowded. I had overheard a Ranger telling another visitor seeking a backcountry permit on that 2007 trip that aside from New Years’ Eve and New Years’ Day, it was very unlikely they’d have a problem securing a first-come first-serve permit for Bright Angel campground (at the bottom). Hmm, I thought at the time, I’ll come back. And I did.
Continue reading TR-Grand Canyon camping January 2011
TR-Guadalupe Mountains Dog Canyon & Gypsum Dunes November 14-16, 2019
Wednesday the 13th I left Austin after work and some final packing around 6:00 P.M. and got to Ozona around 10:00. Next morning I kind of let Google navigate me, wanting to stay well away from US 285; ended up going East and North of it, to near Odessa, then coming into the Guadalupe Mountains/Lincoln National Forest via Carlsbad. Only in one small section, around Eunice, did I experience much oil field traffic.
Arrived Dog Canyon 1:00 P.M. MST on Thursday. I was a little discombobulated since I have never arrived there so early in the day: Because of the distance, I generally arrive shortly before sundown but since I’d left from Ozona I had a significantly shorter drive.
TR-Backpack-GUMO Shumard 11/16/2017
CalTopo map
I spent most of a week in mid-November (2017) at Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO). Camped 4 days/nights; at Pine Spring CG and in the middle an out/back overnight to the Shumard Canyon backcountry site. I don’t have a *lot* of info to add; i’ve done the El Cap/Overlook trail several times over the decades so didn’t take many photos. I had never done the Shumard Canyon stretch before so this was all new to me. It turned out to be quite challenging due to the trail conditions, and I took very few pics (even though i’d intended to do some night photography). That happens. Continue reading TR-Backpack-GUMO Shumard 11/16/2017
Tents
Here are some of the tents I’ve used:
First tent I ever owned started out as a loaner from a friend of Dad’s.
