Mee & Knowles Canyons, Colorado

Buzz Burrell, Lisa Ledet, Stephanie Ehret & Peter Bakwin, 10h57m on April 7, 2007.

Mee & Knowles are two spectacular and extremely remote canyons in the Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness of the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area in western Colorado. If you like rugged desert landscape and don't want to see other people, this route is for you! Closing the loop requires around 38 miles of on- and off-trail hiking/running with somewhat tricky navigation. The route is described in Michael Kelsey's Canyon Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau.

Buzz had talked up this route for years. It has all the requirements: remoteness, difficult terrain, a little scrambling, tricky route finding, and of course the fact that nobody does this in a day. Buzz had done it a couple of times, but had never managed to get out before dark. Buzz, Lisa, Stephanie & I started at the Knowles trailhead at dawn on April 7, 2007. We ran down Knowles and up Mee. We were able to find sufficient ambient water in both canyons. Back up top, getting from upper Mee back to Knowles TH is somewhat tricky, as the area is a maze of ATV roads. Compass or GPS is helpful.