Day 8 – 9/1/19
15 miles / 157.2 total

We expected miles to come slowly today, and we were right. The canyon was a mix of all different kinds of cross country travel: rocky creek bed, thick pokey brush, occasional game trails, wading through pools of water, scrambling up huge boulder chokes, etc.

There was a ton of wildlife in the canyon: antelope, ducks, snakes, lots of birds (I don’t know anything about kinds of birds), and of course cows. The most exciting though was a badger! This is the first one I’ve ever seen. It was adorable, in that way like I thought raccoons were adorable until one killed my chicken, Mrs. Featherbottom.

Towards the end of the day, the canyon narrowed down in places, leaving no possible route but directly through deep pools of water. The infamous swimming section! Of course we put our electronics safely away (I double ziploc-ed mine), so I don’t really have photos. The water actually wasn’t very cold, not like the slot canyons of Utah that I’ve been in. It was actually pretty fun! The upside to it being so damn hot and dry is that it’s not really a worry to get wet out here right now.