Chris Brooks

Backpacking Grand Gulch - Collins to Kane Gulch

2026-04-09T14:03:38-04:00

Julie and I joined Jim and Mike for 5 days of backpacking in Cedar Mesa in April 2026.

Our route through Grand Gulch

Logistics

We booked our backpacking permits via rec.gov in Bears Ears National Monument. You don’t need to specify where you are camping, just where and when you will enter and exit.
- We also booked a visit to Moon House the day before we started the trip.
Given our route was a one-way path, we had to drop a car (Jim and Mike’s) at Kane Gulch ranger station then pile into our van and drive to the trailhead. We did that the night before and camped at the trailhead. This is allowed without a permit and the Collin parking area is well suited for this.
The road to Collin is about 45 minutes from Kane Gulch ranger station, 25 minutes of that being off-road with some rocky ledge climbs. It wasn’t hard but it isn’t trivial either.
Our biggest concern going in was water supply so we each carried 5-6 liters of water at the start. It rained most of the first night and following morning so water was never really an issue, other than forcing us to bushwhack most of day 2 because of the flooded gulch. Every night we were able to camp near a water supply and use boiled, untreated water for cooking.

Day by Day Reports

Suggestions

Side trips are the norm in Cedar Mesa. You’ll be scanning the canyon walls continually for ruins and rock art, often dropping your packs to go explore. So if your normal pace is 2 miles per hour when backpacking, factor in more stops and diversion than you would normally plan for. You might only make a pace of 1 mile per hour.
Likewise, weather and conditions can change your routing significantly. These trails are not maintained and usually not marked. You’ll follow deer trails and human trails; sometimes they are the same.
Bring binoculars to scan the canyon walls. And look for birds.
Purchase Kelsey’s book for accurate but imprecise guides to finding the cool stuff in Cedar Mesa (and surrounding areas).

Day 5 - Leaving Grand Gulch

2026-04-05T13:23:07-04:00

We had made enough progress in Friday that our Saturday hike should be short enough to be back at our vehicle by noon.

Part of Turkey Pen ruin area

Our camp was by Turkey Pen ruin. Eight years ago we could wander the area freely and visit the turkey pen, but sadly in 2022 the BLM had to close off the entire area because of erosion from foot traffic. Given this is the closest ruin to the ranger station, I suspect folks were also getting too handsy.

Hiking through a mini slot canyon

The hike out of the canyon was a bit more challenging than I remembered (we went opposite way last time) but still beautiful. Rock scrambling to climb over ledge pour offs.

Back at the trailhead

At about 11:20 we made it back to the ranger station. Mike’s rental car awaited us there. After giving our reports to the rangers there, we drove back to the trailhead (45 minutes or so with plenty of offroading) to fetch the van. While navigating a steep rock climb in the van coming out from the trailhead area I had to back up a bit to put the van into 4wd low and bumped the back left into the sandy bank. We didn’t notice until 25 minutes later that we had snagged off a piece of the black trim in the rear left panel. So an extra 50 minutes of driving for Julie and me to retrieve and re-attach.

Hotel, laundry, burgers, and beer awaited us in Green River. An amazing and challenging adventure.

Day 4 - Bullet junction to Turkey Pen

2026-04-04T20:29:37-04:00

Day 4 was a grind! But still awesome. We had a stretch goal of about 10 miles and we made it to about 9, largely because we had to continue until we found water.

Sheiks Canyon

It was a beautiful morning and in short order we reach Sheiks canyon where we dropped packs to head up a wee bit to find Green Mask ruin.

Green Mask

Julie and I were last here about 8 years ago but visiting is still so worth it.

The site has a massive panel of rock art, with a huge potential timespan of creation (3,000-8,000 years).

Mike and Green Mask

The mask isn’t that big as you can see from this photo. It is easy to miss as you gaze through the larger and often more abstract pictographs.

Not much more along the way to camp other than a perfect watering hole and spot for lunch. The afternoon became tedious as the air warmed and the gully dried out to deep sand.

Rock art in Grand Gulch

We had a big surprise an amphitheater before Turkey Pen ruins: a fantastic panel of petroglyphs and pictographs. Don’t have a name for it!

Trying out the water at camp

We camped at the only water for miles just below Turkey Pen. The water was… awful. Strong sulfur odor and lots of stuff floating. It was fine for cooking and coffee but nobody wanted to drink it straight after filtering.

Day 3 - Cow Canyon to Bullet Junction

2026-04-03T11:16:25-04:00

An easier day of trail finding and hiking got us to Bullet Canyon early enough to setup camp, regroup, and head up Bullet to see some amazing ruins.

Breaking camp

Julie and I broke camp at about 9am, seeking some good sunshine to warm up, solar charge, and wait for Jim and Mike. There aren’t many ruins along this segment, and a side quest to Green House Canyon failed to reveal anything. We think now that we didn’t get in deep enough.

After about 8 miles of easy hiking we met the junction of Kane Gulch and Bullet Canyon, finding a perfect campsite with water still flowing out of Kane to make a nice watering hole. This area was almost completely dry just two days prior.

Hiking up Bullet Canyon

After setting up camp we grabbed waters, binoculars, and Julie’s awesome detachable day pack to venture up about 2.5 miles into Bullet.

Standing near Jailhouse ruin

First stop was Jailhouse ruin, named for the jail style wooden cross in one of the room windows. Julie and I were here about 8 years ago but it felt like a new experience.

Jim and Mike in Perfect Kiva

We then wandered the slick rock around the point to the east to find Perfect Kiva. This is one of the few underground kivas in the wild that you can still climb down into and experience. The ladder is a replica, with the original being in the Edge of the Cedars museum in Blanding.

Hiking back down Bullet

The hike back was spectacular with the sun descending in front of us and the brilliant greens from the recent rainfall adding color contrast to the desert landscape.

Feet relief

Back at camp we all soaked our feet in the watering hole, had more good food for dinner, shared our roses, thorns, and buds, and retired to tents by 8pm.

Day 2 - Big Pour Off Ruin to Cow Tank Canyon

2026-04-01T21:27:43-04:00

What a rough day - the rainstorm through the night and morning turned the Grand Gulch wash into a proper running creek. Problem is, the wash is usually the trail.

Hitting the trail at Big Pour Off

Our tent was nice and soaked in the morning but we stayed dry. Hardly a drop fell on Mike and Jim’s tents thanks to their cliff shelter. We hit the trail at about 9:30am.

We meet the flood - first of two encounters

About an hour into hiking the surprisingly dry river bed we met the flood - water coming down canyon but not aggressively so. This changed our hiking scheme and would make it a long day.

Julie crossing the stream

When we could traverse across plateaus between bends in the river we did, trying to follow game trails. Often we had to hug the river bank, crossing back and forth and improvising fords by tossing crossing rocks in.

Some of the plateaus were just impassable with dense dried out junipers. We had multiple sand collapses as we climbed or descended the soggy river banks.

Big Man panel

But the payoffs were incredible! Sometimes finding higher ground meant finding a surprise midden with ancient pottery sherds to examine. We also hit most of our ruin and rock art finding goals.

Big ruin and pictographs

Our final find was a large ruin with a huge set of pictographs. The views out to the amphitheater with green cottonwoods below made the climb worthwhile.

Our camp for night two

We ended our day about a mile short of goal, having likely walked two extra miles navigating the flood. Our camp is at the entry of Cow Tank canyon to Grand Gulch. Tomorrow we aim for Bullet Canyon n

Day 1 - Collins Trailhead to Big Pour Off Ruins

2026-04-01T09:44:00-04:00

After a night of van and tent camping at the trailhead we began our five day backpacking journey up Grand Gulch.

At the trailhead

This is Mike’s first big backpacking journey, and the first one in a long time for Jim. Lots of consternation about weather and water before we took down the Starlink and hit the trail.

Two main concerns without knowable answers: will we find enough water to make the full journey? And what impact will the pending half to 1” of rain on our second day have?

Cowboy camp

As we fell into the Collins Canyon we found the “cowboy camp”, a cool collection of (likely) early 20th century artifacts.

Bannister ruin

The big highlight of any hike in Cedar Mesa is finding old ruins and rock art. Our first big stop was bannister ruins, including an unusual above ground kiva.

We past another set of backpackers in this area, heading out to our starting point. This is the usual way of doing this trek - Kane to Collins. They gave us some intel on water ahead of us. The higher we will get the less ample pools we will find.

Pictographs in Deer Canyon

In Deer Canyon we had to scramble up the side canyon and scout for more ruins as well as a path to get to them. We found both, with the big payoff some beautiful pictograph drawings.

Julie soaking feet

After about 9 miles we made camp near ruins at Big Pour Off, a great spot with sheltered overhang cliffs and a perfect pool for collecting cooking water and soaking our feet.

Dinner at Big Pour Off camp

Dinner about 6pm and in the tents by 7:30 - “backpacker’s midnight.” Rain coming tonight - Jim and Mike have their tents nestled under the overhangs while Julie and I are in the open meadow. Will see what tomorrow brings.

Canyonlands Needles

2026-03-31T10:18:32-04:00

Our final campground stay before backpacking Cedar Mesa was at Canyonlands Needles district. Remote and awesome.

Landscape during day 1 hike

We did an aggressive hike the first full day, Wooden Shoe Canyon to Lost Canyon, about 10 miles with some heat. Very worth it and a good warmup for backpacking

Traversing the slick rock

The hike is a mix of going up riparian gullies with canyon and slick rock transitions. Beautiful views and some new birds for me: juniper titmouse and black-throated gray warbler.

Ussie in the slot

We took it relatively easy on day two, hiking the Chesler Park view out and back for about 6 miles. Little slot canyon was fun. More amazing views.

I’m glad I brought my mini Taylor guitar - lots of fellowship playing and singing around the campfire after dinner. We bade farewell to Jim and Jill.

Album Club: Rocket to Russia - Ramones

2026-03-30T22:00:33-04:00

While camping together in Canyonlands / Needles, Jim and I discussed our 3rd (so far) pick from 1977: Rocket to Russia by Ramones.

Song Ratings

#	Song	Jim	Chris
1	Cretin Hop	—	—
2	Rockaway Beach	—	—
3	Here Today, Gone Tomorrow	—	Starter
4	Locket Love	—	—
5	I Don’t Care	—	—
6	Sheena Is a Punk Rocker	Starter	—
7	We’re a Happy Family	Bench	Cut
8	Teenage Lobotomy	—	Bench
9	Do You Wanna Dance?	—	—
10	I Wanna Be Well	—	—
11	I Can’t Give You Anything	—	—
12	Ramona	—	—
13	Surfin’ Bird	Cut	—
14	Why Is It Always This Way?	—	—

Legend: Starter = would start a playlist

Bench = solid

Cut = would skip

Jim’s Notes

You kinda wonder how things would’ve turned out if the Sex Pistols hadn’t come along with their nasty brand of punk. Would punk have had a bigger impact into the ’80s? Certainly the punk revival of the mid-90s with Green Day suggests it could’ve been a bigger deal.
The covers are good although I don’t believe Surfin’ Bird really fits in with the rest of the album. On the other hand, Do You Wanna Dance? sounds like a happy Ramones song!
Blitzkrieg Bop, I Wanna Be Sedated and Sheena Is a Punk Rocker are my 3 favorite Ramones songs so my starter isn’t all that surprising.
The middle of the album from Sheena Is a Punk Rocker to Ramona is a great run of tunes.
And the best thing about a Ramones album is they run about 30 minutes!

Chris’s Notes

Pure fun. I want to play in a band that plays songs like this.
I’m a sucker for covers
“Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” sounds like a big influence on future emo and mood rock
Zeitgeist was DDT??
Ramona almost made the bench

Islands in the Sky

2026-03-29T11:17:51-04:00

We spent two nights in Dead Horse Point State Park and made a brief swing through the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands.

Canyon view from Dead Horse

This was maybe our fourth visit to Dead Horse, and an opportunity to show off the camp to Jim and Jill. On Thursday night our soon-to-be backpacking buddies Jim and Mike showed up.

Julie enjoys sunset at Dead Horse

Dead Horse is the Mini Me of Canyonlands — not part of the national park and a smaller peninsula than Islands, but no less dramatic. The big bonus is that there is accessible camping that situates you right near both rims so the hiking is easy and flexible. You can do a less than 2 mile loop near sunset to visit the west rim and look out over Shafer trail, White Rim Road, and Canyonlands. Or you can do a 5-6 mile loop and cover both rims and the end of the peninsula.

View down over Shafer trail from Canyonlands

Given we were so close to Island in the Sky I suggested we swing in there before venturing on to Moab and eventually the Needles district of Canyonlands. So worth it as you migrate to views that are much more expansive. The canyon below just opens up wide and you can see Needles off in the distance.

Return to Arches

2026-03-27T11:49:07-04:00

We made our fourth or fifth return trip to Arches earlier this week, meeting up with friends Jim and Jill and staying in the incredible Devil’s Garden campground.

Sunset near Devil’s Garden

The reason we love staying in this campground: the park is fairly vast and you can start and end your day easily with beautiful hikes of just about any difficulty level.

One of the many spectacular formations that aren’t arches

We did all the highlights and stuck to mostly shorter hikes. Hits for me were the arches right near the campground that we did at sunset, and a morning walk around namesake Devil’s Garden area. Finally saw my Say’s phoebe, a new lifer for me.

Album Club: Trans Europe Express — Kraftwerk

2026-03-25T10:11:37-04:00

Friend Jim and I have an album club going that we started a while back. I’m going to share our summaries here. This one is Trans Europe Express — Kraftwerk. Discussed on March 15, 2026. Picked by Jim.

Ahead of time we each pick a starter (favorite track), a song to come off the bench (maybe a high quality deep cut), and a song we would cut.

Song Ratings

#	Song	Jim	Chris
1	Europe Endless	—	Starter
2	The Hall of Mirrors	—	Cut
3	Showroom Dummies	Starter	—
4	Trans‐Europe Express	Bench	Bench
5	Metal on Metal	—	—
6	Abzug	—	—
7	Franz Schubert	Cut	—
8	Endless Endless	—	—

Legend: Starter = would start a playlist

Bench = solid

Cut = would skip

Jim’s Notes

Less repetition (Showroom Dummies, Trans-Europe Express) would make this a much more interesting album.
Trans-Europe Express, Metal on Metal and Abzug are a single composition IMO.

Chris’s Notes

Holds up very well to repeat listens. Hard to believe this is 1977. Want to listen to German version.
Sad to think the pan Europe ideal is probably lost in time now.

Golf in Rio Verde

2026-03-23T18:58:43-04:00

Played in my third straight member-guest with friend Cliff down in Rio Verde AZ, at the far NE corner of Scottsdale.

Cliff holes out in our first shootout chip-off

Average temps were over 25 degrees higher than the past two years - 102-103f for the competition days. We didn’t played great but were grinders, finding a way to win or tie our final 4 out of 5 matches. This qualified us for the shootout.

Shootout is quite a spectacle with two different gaggles of 13 teams going out in alternating shot, eliminating three teams each hole. We survived three holes to make the final 8 then lost in a chip-off. I blame my poor lag putt that prevented us from making par and avoiding the chip-off; Cliff probably blames himself for not being just a foot or two closer to the hole.

My game is in an ok state after some major swing changes this summer. Driving is best it has been but approach play is lacking. I’ll work on it.

Bee colony in transition

Always enjoy the desert wildlife. Checked a few birds off my list: Harris’ hawk, gila woodpecker, and a few more. Highlight though was a bee colony that temporarily relocated from a ground stump to this branch in Cliff’s backyard.

(Jeff) Tweedy in Phoenix

2026-03-17T20:25:50-04:00

Julie and I saw Jeff Tweedy in Phoenix last night, at The Van Buren. Jeff is in parens because this is really the Tweedy band, with Jeff and sons Spencer and Sammy comprising half the ensemble.

Jeff Tweedy with son Spencer on drums

This was such a different show than I’ve seen Jeff in before. I’ve seen Wilco four times and Jeff Tweedy “solo” twice. This wasn’t a solo gig - it was a proper band that brought some very different vibes than Wilco.

The band played more Meat Puppets songs (2) than Wilco songs (0). There was serious harmonizing going on! It sounded very good. Wilco does this but on a small scale; this band was tight and would at times have five or six vocals going.

Jeff was charismatic as usual; his tone has turned so much warmer in the past few years. He seems so genuinely happy to be on stage with his sons and other young adults that grew up with his sons.

Tanks and Lizards

2026-03-16T11:31:51-04:00

Julie and I are traveling from Napa to Scottsdale, taking our usual sweet time. First night in Bakersfield, second night just outside of Joshua Tree National Park.

Julie hiking in Joshua Tree

We are again skirting the southern border of Joshua Tree after passing through the Coachella Valley. The heat is approaching but temps are still pretty comfortable.

Outside the Patton museum

Our first stop was the Patton Memorial Museum at Chiriaco Summit. The museum was just ok - a mix of general WWII info and Patton specific displays. The tank static displays were disappointing - just a single Sherman tank from WWII and the rest were modern tanks like the M60 or random unarmored vehicles. Showing a Sherman next to a Panther or Tiger (or T-34) would give a lot more perspective.

Common chuckwalla sunbathing

Julie and I shuttled over to the Cottonwood Visitor Center in Joshua Tree then hiked the Mastodon Peak loop, an enjoyable easy loop with dramatic desert flora and some interesting wildlife. Birds included Costa’s hummingbird, black-throated sparrow, and phainopepla. And of course the magnificent chuckwalla lizard! I first spotted one across a wash high up on the rocks and we identified via a photo taken through binocs. Shortly after we were greeted by one sunning just off the trail.

Today we move on to Scottsdale. Jeff Tweedy concert tonight!

Rewiring the Backswing: Lessons from a Patient Coach

2026-03-12T10:55:52-04:00

I’ve been working with Erik Barzeski on my golf swing for a while now, and the last few months have been a deep dive into the backswing — specifically, three interconnected changes that sound simple on paper but feel like rewiring your brain on the range.

Erik demonstrates

And I’m a wee bit stressed because I’m playing in a member-guest in Arizona next week and even Erik chastised me for going so deep into swing changes so close to an event like this

The Problem: Everything Was Behind Me

Here’s the pattern Erik kept seeing in my swing videos: my trail arm was getting stuck behind my body during the backswing. The elbow would end up way back, the club would cross the line at the top, and from there I was fighting physics to get back to the ball. Sound familiar? If you’ve ever heard a teaching pro say “your hands are behind you,” you know the feeling.

The root causes turned out to be a chain of related issues — grip, arm motion, and wrist action — all feeding each other.

Change #1: Get the Grip Out of the Palm

This one has been a recurring theme across multiple lessons. My left hand grip was sitting too high in the palm, almost back near the wrist, instead of running perpendicular across the base of the fingers. Erik’s fix: grip the club in the air, not off the ground, and place it at roughly 45 degrees across the finger base. Curl, wrap, done.

Why does this matter for the backswing? A palm grip limits your wrist hinge. And wrist hinge, as it turns out, is the engine that makes everything else work.

Change #2: Lift the Arms — Seriously, Lift Them

This was the big revelation, backed by GEARS 3D motion capture data from tour pros. Erik showed me the numbers: the angle between the trail upper arm and the shirt seam should increase during the backswing. For PGA Tour winners, that angle goes from around 40° at address to 60-75° at the top. Their elbows bend well under 90°.

My pattern? The angle was decreasing. My arm was dropping and rotating around my body — the exact opposite of what the best players do. The old idea of “staying connected” with a towel under your arms? Erik calls that the opposite of what good players actually do.

The fix sounds almost too simple: lift your arms away from your chest as you turn. Feel the trail arm moving away from the shirt seam, not glued to it. The result is hands that stay in front of the chest instead of disappearing behind your head.

Change #3: Hinge Earlier, Roll the Club

The most recent feedback tied it all together. My wrist hinge was happening too late — the club shaft was still wide and flat when it should have been setting upward. And I wasn’t rolling the club enough: the back of the left hand needs to rotate slightly skyward as you hinge, so the club doesn’t stay shut and cross the line.

Erik’s checkpoint: freeze at the top. The club should point at the target or slightly left of it. If it’s pointing right (across the line), the hinge was late, the roll was absent, or both. The hinge creates momentum that helps the arms lift — they work together, not against each other.

What I’ve Learned About Swing Changes

A few things stand out after months of working through these changes:

They’re all connected. Fix the grip and you unlock the hinge. Hinge earlier and the arms can lift. Lift the arms and the club finds the right position at the top. You can’t really do one without the others.

It feels wrong. Every single one of these changes felt bizarre at first. The arm lift felt like I was throwing my hands to the sky. The early hinge felt rushed. The roll felt like I was opening the face. Erik’s direct instruction on that: “There’s no sense in doing the same thing you’ve always done.” Commit to the new feel.

Data helps. Seeing the GEARS numbers for tour pros — the actual degrees of arm lift, the elbow bend angles — makes it concrete. You’re not guessing. You know where 60° is versus 24°. It removes the ambiguity that makes swing changes feel like a leap of faith.

Slow practice works. The main drill through all of this has been slow swings with a freeze at the top — pause, check the position, then chip the ball down from there. It’s not glamorous, but it builds the pattern.

I’m not there yet. The club still crosses the line more than I’d like, and under pressure my hands want to go back to the old palm grip. But the direction is clear, the feedback loop is tight, and for the first time in a while, the backswing feels like it’s getting simpler, not more complicated.

That’s usually a sign you’re on the right track.