Memories from October 24, 2018.
At the confluence with Roger’a Canyon, there was a stream. This started today’s theme of beautiful was water can pour over rock. Pictures never really captured it though.
Boulders, which had slowed yesterday’s progress significantly, eventually disappeared and walking became easy on the wide, level stream bed. I had a small pain in my left knee after a particularly large jump down but that subsided by the end of the day.
Navajo Canyon was barren with dark and light sand, mud, and stones. This was a stark contrast to Roger’s Canyon where there and been trees, grasses, and sometimes even real dirt instead of fine sand.
One of the unique features seems to be this rock which is usually bluish and appears to be flaking off the way a charred log flakes off as it burns. This is a small piece but there are layers of the stuff in the canyon walls.
As I moved up Navajo Canyon, there were a few small blockages caused by seemingly out of place boulders.
While bypassing one, I almost stepped up onto this little snake which rattled at me. It’s positioned so precariously, as though it has just jumped up or was about to jump down, that it made me think that it was trying to bypass the boulder as well.
Eventually the stark barrenness changed to the more common yellow sandstone with attendant small trees and shrubs. The turn-off of Surprise Valley was marked by an easy to miss cairn so I was happy to have GPS.
Reese Canyon seemed like yet another world. The going was easy, on a dry, hard streamed. The rock was red with lots of green cover.
Eventually the rock itself became green. It felt kind of like walking through an aquarium.
I camped by the confluence of Reese Canyon and Last Chance Creek. There was an old trailer and corral nearby. With Reese Canyon’s bed a better road than some ATV tracks I’m not surprised that someone ran cattle down here.
Isaac Takes A Hike 