Outdoor Project

If you're looking for some peace and quiet in the wilderness but don't have a lot of time to get out of town, this hike to Elsay Lake in Mount Seymour Provincial Park is a great adventure for you. Elsay Lake is hidden between Mount Elsay and Mount Bishop, and it can only be seen from these two mountains (or by air). These two mountains surround 90% of the lake with steep and wooded slopes that keep the lake well protected from wind but also from early morning and late evening light.

Needles Overlook is a spectacular vantage point over Canyonlands National Park, though it is not within the park itself. This area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is accessed via US-191, further north than the entrance to Canyonlands. It overlooks the Needles District of the national park, but the two are separate destinations.

About a 15-minute drive south of Carbondale, Penny Hot Springs is located at the base of a granite cliff about 100 yards north of mile marker 55 along Highway 133. An large, unpaved turnoff provides parking for several vehicles, then it’s just feet down to the banks of the river and into the rejuvenating pools.

The Bucyrus Dredge Loop is a major jumping off point for several fantastic mountain bike rides in the Breckenridge area. It also happens to be a historical site, once the home of massive 500-ton dredges that operated when the creeks and gulches around Breckenridge were alive with mining activity in the late 19th century. The remains of one of these gigantic dredges can still be found trapped in the pond it created in its gold-hungry wake. 

Encompassing over 40 acres in the heart of the 18 Road Mountain Bike Trail System, the North Fruita Desert Campground provides ample opportunity to bike all day directly from your campsite. There are 58 individual campsites, and each site contains a fire ring with a grate and a picnic table and has parking for two to four vehicles. Please remember campers must bring their own firewood and there is no electricity, shade shelter, or garbage pickup.

Just outside the Colorado National Monument is a mountain biker's singletrack paradise known as the Lunch Loops at Tabeguache. In the early days of mountain biking when Fruita's trails were in their infancy, Grand Junction wanted to join the singletrack craze as well. Local riders have been using Jeep road loops outside of town to carve out primitive trails for some time, already creating the genesis of what is now the Lunch Loops at Tabeguache.

Perched atop a rock outcrop above a waterfall on the Crystal River, Crystal Mill was constructed in 1893 and used a powerhouse water turbine to generate compressed air for silver miners nearby. When the Sheep Mountain Mine closed in 1917, the mill was shut down. It was then placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

One of the most photographed sites in Colorado, the mill is located 6 miles east of the small town of Marble and is accessed primarily by four-wheel drive vehicles, although hiking and mountain biking are also possible.

Billy Epic is one of the oldest mountain bike trails in the Whistler Valley, built by Bill Epplett. Part of the Westside Trails, it is most often accessed from the Alpine Meadows subdivision 4 kilometers north of Whistler Village.

If you’re looking for an adventure in the Wasatch that includes faint trails, bushwhacking, old mining sites, substantial elevation gain, fantastic views and scrambling, all in a half-day hike (if you’re fit and don’t get too turned around), then the Carbonate Pass hike to Kessler Peak is just the thing. About halfway up Big Cottonwood Canyon, Kessler Peak looms over the road.

Overlooking the middle of Big Cottonwood Canyon, 10,403-foot Kessler Peak is the north end of the ridge that separates Cardiff Fork and Mineral Fork. With no other peaks nearby that approach its height, Kessler’s summit provides views of most of Big Cottonwood Canyon as well as other mountains from Mount Raymond to American Fork Twin Peaks.