Exploring a canyon

I couldn't find a name for it. It's kind of small, so it may not have one. I first noticed it in November of 2008. I've been meaning to take a closer look since then, but every time I drove by there it was over 100. Too hot to go that far without knowing what was out there.

If you look at this location on Google Earth and turn on the Panoramio layer, you will see that I have a picture placed at this position.

There were at least 2 other places I wanted to go hiking on Sunday but I piddled around until it was too late to go to those places. I do that a lot and I think the reason might be that I just don't like being out in the bright mid-day sun. Makes for not-so-good pictures, too. For example, look at the next 2 pictures.

Looking back at Roblas Butte at the beginning of the hike.

Roblas Butte near the end of the hike. I think this just looks better.

I went to the top of a couple of hills at the beginning of the hike, to see if I could pick a path to the canyon. That didn't help at all. I just went in the direction I wanted to go. Before I had gone very far, though, I came across a cairn and a very faint trail. Cool. The nice thing about following other people's trails is that people are lazy (like me) and so they have probably marked the easiest path.

On a trail. A faint trail.

The trail was very faint and difficult to follow, so I just kept going the direction I wanted and noticed a cairn now and then. I took several pictures of the trail and you can see when you look at all of them that there isn't much there. After a little further, a large hill blocked the direction I was headed. The trail went into a creek bed there. I don't like walking in creek beds, but it looked like it might be less work than climbing over the hill. I didn't see many cairns in the creek bed. In fact, I had decided that it was late enough and I had better turn back. I was standing there taking in the scenery, drinking some water and cooling off when I spotted another cairn upstream. Well, OK, just a little further.

Another cairn beckons be onward.

I went a little further, but the creek bed seemed to be getting harder to walk in and it looked like there would be nowhere to go but up, soon. I stopped again to look around before starting back and I saw a large hole in the rock up above.

Zoomed in on the hole. It must be 4 or 5 feet in diameter.

Well, I thought it was cool. Well worth the hike to get out there. Since I had seen something new and interesting, I could head back now.

The trail was easier to follow on the way back. Maybe it showed up better with the sun at a lower angle. I hadn't noticed these borders before.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2012_12_02