Hiking - Picketwire Canyon Dinosaur Tracks during the Eclipse - 16 mile hike

Picketwire Canyon has the largest dinosaur tracksite in North America. It's also home to ruins and art from both Spanish settlement and the Apishapa culture (1,000 - 1,400 CE). During the hike, we'll have the solar eclipse, we won't have totality, but it will be 82% which sounds very cool for a hike.

The hike starts at the Withers Canyon trailhead, where it's a steep drop to the bottom of the canyon. Once at the bottom, the trail is the old road, mostly flat, easy to get a good stride.

https://www.gjhikes.com/2015/08/picketwire-canyon.html

The trackway is epic, we will have to cross the "river" to see half of it, but last time I just took my shoes and socks off, carried them with me and no problems.

The Eclipse will start at 9:15am, reach it's peak at 10:38 and be over by 12:30. I'm allowing extra time on the hike because we might just find a cool spot to sit and watch it for a while. I also imagine some of the Apishapa rock art might look amazing, or the old mission could look really cool.

I'm more comfortable on this hike with folks who I've met before. There's the "stranger danger" element, but this is a unique enough hike, mixing various elements. I want to make sure we're on the same page.

Sunrise is just before 7am and plan is to spend a large bulk of the day in the canyon. The last time I was there, I was told about an amazing petroglyph past the trackway a mile or so, and I'd like to try and find it.

There's also tons of rock art before and near the mission.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apishapa_culture

Contact me directly if interested in this hike. You'll need the normal hiking stuff, snacks, etc. There's a vault toilet at the trackway.

I prefer to hike without pets or kids.