Mount Peale

Well, my son Dalton needed his Buick Regal in Grand Junction where he could work on it with the guys who put in his engine, so I had to tow the car there with my truck this weekend. I rented a U-Haul tow dolly and decided to make it a three day weekend.

I set off at 3 AM on Saturday morning to avoid the nasty I-70 traffic. No way I wanted to be stuck in that towing a car. The trip to Grand Junction was pleasant and incident free. This afforded me the chance to cruise on to Moab for a bit of fun.

After visiting the family Saturday, I decided to climb Mount Peale in the La Salle range Sunday morning. No, it's not a 14er but it has been a goal of mine because it is the highest peak in the La Salles (and Moab is way hot in August). The best way to get to the trailhead is to go around the back side of the range through the town of La Salle and up to the pass that way. The other way is only fun if you like rough and rocky.

I must say that ascending the peak in the La Salles is much different than Colorado 14ers. I was the only one on the mountain all day. In fact there were surprisingly few campers around medicine lake. On the climb up I got off trail in an area that experienced an avalanche last winter. Quite a scene with trees uprooted and rocks thrown about. So off the trail I went and up through some steep and loose scree. My advice is to stay in the valley even if you get off trail. If you cut through the scree you will hit the main trail above (like I did.) From the summit you get excellent views of the La Salles and you can see the Henrys, Blue Mountain, the Grand Mesa and the Sleeping Ute.

The trip down I stayed on the trail. There was snow in the valley so I tried a bit of glissading. Quite a fun day all by myself!












Later that day we decided to go shooting. I had won a muzzleloader from a raffle ticket I bought from Tosha for the Little Britches Rodeo. Here are shots of Veronica and me shooting at the police range. You can see the mountain I climbed in the background.