Hiking at Indian Canyon

Earlier this week we went for hike with some friends and learned more about using a map and compass. We had loads of fun and I got a few questions answered, but Jake wanted to go back and explore the area some more today and I'm glad he did. We were there about two hours climbing over the rocks. There were lots of plants and grasses. Tom dug in the sand in the wash and it was damp. It's been months since there has been rain. The boys wanted me to go up to the top of the rocks they were climbing earlier, but about half way up I decided I didn't like it and we changed direction. We went across the wash and up some slick looking rocks. This is what we found.

 

This rock tried to eat Jake!

 

Tom will go in now that Jake has checked it out. 

 

That's one strange looking cave animal. Both the boys are in there!

 

This tree is dead now, but it grew hear around the rocks. Crazy!

 

This is Jake looking disgusted that I won't go farther up.

 

Cool rocks inside other rocks.

 

We found water! Lots of cool larvae and bugs in here.

 

Water was seeping out from under this one. We have to find the source!

 

More water. And deeper.

 

Time for a snack break.

 

It's clear and cool here.

 

Tom insisted on going up one side and we went up the other. He's over there somewhere.

 

Jake and I went this way.

 

Looking down into the gorge. It's totally cut by water and you can hear is dripping and running.

  

Down on the rocks below.

 

Tom's following up our side "Smeagle" like.

 

I think this looks like and alien coming out of the rocks.

 

Lots of these cool looking rocks below.

It was a great day. I'm sure we will be back there again soon! 

I have to add a few things to this post. We talk a lot while we are doing things like this. Here are some of the conversations.

Jake asked "If it were a matter of life and death, could we have a fire outside of a fire ring." Two things in play here. He's reading the rules (posted obsessively all over the park) and he's pulling in a scene from "The Fellowship of the Ring" which he just finished reading. It led to a discussion of rights and self-preservation which was awesome and I pulled some ideas I had read recently from Hobbes' "Leviathan".

We had seen some ideas on Facebook this morning about hiding things in plain sight, like money and cell phones and such. We thought about how we could hide some money in a bug out bag along with what we should have in that bag. Jake wants to have a more complete bag so that he is prepared if we are ever stuck on a hike. We talked about the difference between opportunistic crimes and premeditated crimes. Funny, because none of us would ever consider taking something just because there was no one around holding on to it. Tom said he found a soda cup and wrapper at the park the other day, but assumed someone had left it there for a reason and didn't throw it away.

Some guys came up the rocks behind us while we were hiking, with a big dog on a leash. It made me suddenly aware of how vulnerable we were. Our only way of protecting ourselves was a couple of boys with pocket knives. I wished I had some kind of weapon. There we were, alone, in the desert. I'm a law abiding citizen so I don't have a weapon. I bet that people that have the inclination to hurt people don't think "Oh, wait, I'm going onto national park property, I better leave my gun in the car."

We found a rock that looked like an elephant foot. We decided an elephant fell into a worm hole on the other side of the planet and it closed before he fell all the way through. It would have funny to see an elephant shoot up from the ground feet first and then fall back to earth when it realized the gravity had changed. That would be one confuse elephant.

While sitting in the shade of a giant boulder have way up the rocks, Tom decided that this place needed a better name. Rattlesnake Canyon just didn't do it. It had to describe the place better but not be too obvious. After a few minutes of quiet contemplation, he announced "The Valley of Moses"! Jake nods, "Yes! Water from the rocks!" Which led to us retelling the story and I adding that the reason Moses didn't get to cross the Jordan was because of that incident, listening to God, Moses of all people should have known better.

Loads of "Lord of the Rings" references as we climbed. Oh! And my personal favorite. "This would be an ideal place to meditate, or smoke pot." (which is what the guys following us and eventually passed us looked like they were going to do) The boys hope they brought a backpack full of brownies. The conversation went downhill from there!