Thursday, May 22, 2014

May 22 – Water Canyon and Viewpoints

It was another mostly sunny day. The weather forecasts are not very accurate as they keep calling for rain but at least it has been better than predicted.

Today we went for a short hike and then visited the rest of the viewpoints along the main park road.

Water Canyon is on the eastern edge of the park, down below the ridge and separated from the rest of the park. To access it you just park at a turnout on Highway 12.

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The canyon was formed by a creek that is now being used as part of an irrigation canal to get water from a reservoir up on the plateau to farms down below the ridge. Therefore it almost always has water flowing.

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Some flowers that we saw on the way in.

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It is a short 1/2 mile hike to a small water fall in the canyon.

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We did get closer but first we took a side trip to see Mossy Cave. It is not really a cave but a deep overhang made of porous rock. The water is always dripping on the underside so there is a lot of moss.

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A sign said that most years it will stay cool enough in there that there can be snow and icicles until mid June. Not this year.

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Back on the main path to the waterfall.

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On the far side there were some interesting shapes up on the hill.

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Jennie thought it looked like a person bending over to kiss a baby. I was completely different because I though it was some kind of animal, maybe a turtle, carrying a load on its back.

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We got down to the top of the falls.

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I noticed that a path (not official I think) went farther up the canal.

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I found a narrow spot and hopped across and came back to the other side of the falls.

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Of course I had to climb up to my turtle. It was steep and slippery.

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I couldn’t get under the turtle.

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Carefully heading back down.

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I saw a spot where many other people had climbed down a rocky layer to get under the falls.

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I worked my way back along the bottom while Jennie followed the proper path back along the top of the ridge.

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To get back to her side I had to walk across a log.

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We headed back to the car. With the deep blue sky we see a lot of jets overhead.

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Since the grocery situation around the park is terrible, I saw that we were close the small town of Tropic. We went to see if they had a better store. We found a General Store that had what we needed. I wish I had taken a picture of it. We are back to sagebrush country.

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We headed back to the RV to put the food away and have lunch.

Then we headed out down the park road. It is about 18 miles to the end with scenic viewpoints along the way. It climbs from just under 8000 feet near the RV to 9100 feet at the far end.

There was lots of evidence of various forest fires along the way.

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First up was Farview Point.

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Another bit of non-red colour beside the path.

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Next was called Natural Bridge. It is really an arch because it was not created by water action.

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This raven was wandering around the parking area looking for snacks.

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On to Agua Canyon. I thought the pillar looked like a Siamese cat.

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Next to Ponderosa Canyon.

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I definitely saw a face in the middle of that wall.

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And finally to Rainbow Point at the end of the road.

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Looking a long way back along the edge of the plateau.

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The wide version. Scroll right.

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Tonight we have some very dark clouds moving in so we may get the rain after all.

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