We took a morning kid-venture to a few of the Arroyo Tapiado mud caves, a short dirt road drive away from the Agua Caliente campground. We stretched our legs at Round Room Falls, then drove further up the wash. We went into Plunge Pool Cave which was surprisingly cool; a serpentine passage led to a cathedral-like dryfall plunge room with a dramatic skylight. We explored briefly up the kid-sized side-branch before returning and hiking up the intermittent Big Mud Cave. This had some nice scenic moments and we walked a fair way up the canyon until it began to open. On the way back we popped into Footprint Cave, then returned the way we came. It was a short jaunt; someday I'd like to have a thorough explore of this interesting area.
We had lunch and a swim back at camp then set out for the surprisingly long drive to The Slot. The parking lot was overflowing with probably 40 cars and lots and lots of people. It certainly wasn't ideal but nevertheless we were able to find the wider spots to pass people or be passed. I had always been down and back but we managed to find a steep, lightly worn path that we could use to loop up out of the canyon and then follow the 4WD road back to the parking lot. I then left the others to the rest of their trip and drove back fairly uneventfully.
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