The Sawatch Cowpoke

  I like to think that the San Luis Valley is one of the forgotten areas of Colorado. I also like to think that the San Luis Valley will never garner the same attention as many of the other areas of Colorado that have experienced increased growth in the past couple years. One can only hope. Of all the places that we frequent, I’d have to say that the SLV is one of my favorites and one of the most enchanting. Nestled at the northern end of the foothills coming off of the eastern San Juans, Penitente Canyon remains as one of the earliest sport climbing areas in Colorado, or the country for that matter. At around the same time that Smith Rock in Oregon was coming into its own, a few of the brave in our neck of the woods were pushing ethics, and the grades of climbing forward. The unrelenting work of Bob D’Antonio, among many others, has provided one of the best and most technical areas of sport climbing concentration in southern Colorado and the intermountain west. If you’re looking to

  I remember the first time that I traced the trail on a map. It was just a giant loop. Nothing more, nothing less. Unremarkable, a dotted line traced on an insignificant corner of the Islands in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park. Then I saw what it went all the way around. It was years ago, I was on an entirely unenjoyable trip to the desert (which is hard to do for me) from where I was working at the time in Estes Park. It was my first year living there, and the chosen group of people I had come with were coworkers. All of us simply didn’t have the same interests. One of the few days that we were in Moab, we went over to Canyonlands National Park. At the time, I had only been there once before, and I was altogether not familiar with the country in that part of Utah. I was immediately drawn to the 3D topographic map that they had as one of the centerpieces in the visitor center. The loop was more significant now. It first descended, then ascended, then repeated several t