This year's peak flow on the lower Dolores River...

occurred last night so I mounted the Bronco and headed to the 4WD ford above its confluence with the Colorado River near Dewey Bridge. Indeed, the waterway was raging with fast moving turbid and turbulent water and driving the river crossing is impossible at flood stage. The images show the river just below the peak discharge of 6,560 cfs as recorded by the USGS gaging station several miles upstream. For comparison, the spring runoff peak was only 414 cfs in April.

Bronco’s front tires are on the high water mark as the river is now slowly receding.

Look closely in the center of this wide image, across the river, and you can spy the continuation of the jeep road.

Two long and dreary days of rain...

are turning the Colorado River a light mocha brown color with the slowly rising discharge in response to the ongoing weather event. Here’s the river around noon today. More rain is in the forecast and a flood watch is in effect.

View upstream into Professor Valley with the river running about 3,300 cfs.

UPDATE 23 October 2026, the following day: The Colorado River is now running 11,600 cfs at noon, the highest flow of the calendar year and more than twice the peak discharge during spring runoff. What a difference a day makes.

Launch activities resumed today...

at the state line now that all fire restrictions have been lifted in Colorado. Despite the high overcast, nearly 50 rockets flew under otherwise good conditions and light winds.

View toward the flight line at the remote launch site west of Grand Junction, Colorado.

Launch control officer Rob sends a high power rocket skyward.

My always reliable Moab Man moments after ignition of its “F” engine.

Stopped short of Warner Lake...

by downed timber across the forest road, all I came home with is this image shot at 9,000 feet (2,740 m) of several of the higher snow-dusted peaks in the La Sal Mountains. A snapshot of the coming winter.

Summit elevations: Haystack Mountain - 11,630 ft (3,546 m), Mount Mellenthin - 12,645 ft (3,854 m), Mount Tukuhnikivatz - 12,482 ft (3,805 m).

This season's first snow has arrived...

in the La Sal Mountains following a couple of days of light rain at lower elevation. My weather station located in Castle Valley has recorded nearly one inch (25 mm) of rain and more is forecast the next several days. It’s a good start to the 2026-2027 water year.

Making a brief appearance in the stormy high country: Green Mountain (left) and Pilot Mountain (right) are 12,160 feet (3,707 m) and 12,200 feet (3,719 m) high, respectively.

The view opened up a bit more later in the afternoon, but unsettled weather is expected to continue for a few more days.

A gang of five painted faces...

is hidden in a sandstone alcove protected from the elements, thereby preserving the vibrance of the pictographs, in upper Davis Canyon inside the boundary to Canyonlands National Park. They seem a jovial bunch.

The wonderful Five Faces pictograph panel in Davis Canyon and another guy.

Log House ruin in Davis Canyon sits high on a ledge, precluding any close investigation. Note the numerous hand prints above the structures. All of the wooden logs had to be lifted up the cliff face!

Conjuring spirits the night before our walk, BH contemplates the meaning of life, the universe and everything at our rock shelter camp.

An interesting alignment of glyphs...

occurs in Shay Canyon where two separate but identical geometric patterns, about 20 feet (6 m) from one another, seem to match from the right perspective as one approaches the petroglyph panel from below. Coincidence or purposeful design by the ancient scribe?

Friend and neighbor BH points along the sight line that links the two separated petroglyphs.

BH’s point of view as observed from his position in the first image.

Did ancient astronomers use the Six Shooter Peaks...

as natural pointers in order to track the changes in seasons? Here are a couple of potential “observatory” sites that the early residents of Indian Creek Canyon constructed along sight lines related to equinox and solstice sunrises and sunsets.

The so-called “Mushroom Ruins.”

The “Boulder House.” The summit of South Six Shooter Peak sure looks like a gunsight from this perspective.

Photographer’s Ephemeris software suggests that the Boulder House ruin is optimally located to catch the descending Sun in the notch of South Six Shooter Peak during the winter solstice. An early winter test of this hypothesis is in order if the weather permits.

Red pin is location of Boulder House. Yellow line marks the Sun’s position, blue line marks the Moon during winter solstice.

Sun’s position at 3:34 pm MST on 21 December 2026, during winter solstice. Note the sharp shadow cast by the spire pointing directly at the location of Boulder House.

But wait, there’s more: Boulder House ruin also has a direct sight line to the summit of North Six Shooter Peak, and during the summer solstice the setting Sun falls right above its summit! This is no accident but by design.

Boulder House ruin and the view toward North Six Shooter Peak.

Photographer’s Ephemeris shows that during the summer solstice the Sun passes over North Six Shooter Peak during sunset, as seen from Boulder House.

So-called 'hero dirt' conditions...

exist on the singletrack right now, the perfect level of soil moisture that makes for a grippy experience with optimal traction. When I left the valley in July the trail surface was dry and dusty and loose so it’s wonderful that the recent rains have naturally repaired the trails.

The perfect trail surface: Better traction, effective braking, precise cornering with overall enhanced control.

It doesn’t get any better than this.

The first flood event to pass the new culvert...

beneath Castle Valley Drive earlier this summer did so quite easily, leaving behind a clear high water mark in the stranded flotsam. Considerable deposition of fine sediment has occurred in the bouldery rip rap, both upstream and downstream of the arch culvert.

Given the level of the high water line within the culvert, I conservatively estimate that the peak discharge through the structure was at least 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) but cannot estimate its duration.

My usual trajectory re-entering canyon country...

involves an exploration of the northern San Rafael Swell. Cedar Mountain provides a commanding location for landscape photography at both dusk and dawn. But the nearly full Moon once again defeated any attempts at Milky Way photography last night. Nevertheless, this high perch is magnificent!

This site will just have to make do for the evening. There is absolutely nobody around, save for jackrabbits and birds.

View southward from my perch, 1,600 feet (488 m) above the valley floor below. Look closely: Henry Mountains are on the far horizon, about 75 miles (121 km) away.

Dawn light strikes canyon country. Window Blind Peak - the stumpy butte left of center that is nine miles (14 km) distant - caught the first rays. Profoundly quiet. Sublime.

There’s even an outstanding geological cheat sheet provided at a BLM viewpoint. A crossbedded conglomeratic facies in the Dakota Sandstone (Cretaceous (143.1 Ma - 66 Ma)) forms the ledge at the edge of the high escarpment.