For Sunday the plan was to descend another granite creek with a nice set of narrows, return up a second creek, and then loop back to our starting point on a good trail. It would be a more leisurely day than the day before and we did not need any gear other than a wetsuit for this trip. The canyon started as a wide open valley with a peaceful creek in it. Rocks towered overhead at intervals but essentially the route involved crossing back and forth across the stream and cutting through the vegetation to find the path of least resistance.
Everywhere we looked we saw lots of frogs, happily sitting on the warm rocks in clusters. After skirting several deep pools we came to one that would be a shame to not jump into, and so we suited up and jumped in. The water was surprisingly cold.
And then the fun began. Several slides led to an awesome flooded corridor. I found a sketchy way to climb above the deep pool and jump in. The good stuff kept going for at least another half hour. Jumps, slides, swims. A really pretty bit of canyon.
Eventually it abated though and turned its water boulder scrambling for quite a while. The narrows opened to give great views of the ever deepening valley, lined with trees and rock formations. We reached our tributary creek and started on up it. To my surprise this creek too was very pretty. It even had a waterfall where we had to climb out of the drainage to bypass. The canyon had some great sculpted granite.
We de-suited at just the right point, walked about a hundred meters to the trail, and followed the trail back to our cars in the blazing heat. We had another superb leisurely afternoon at camp. In the morning we said goodbye to Tom and Megan before we drove to get in one last adventure. Thanks to Tom and Megan for fantastic company and a great weekend, and to Todd for secret canyon beta.
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