Debra and I were SO OVER being stuck inside, so we decided to head south, even though it was supposed to rain all weekend.
But at this point, we really did have to turn back. We didn't want to run out of daylight.
Our destination was the rock art in Old Woman Wash. The drive in was a little sketchy, and we had trouble following the directions, so we weren't sure if we were starting in the right place. We dropped down into the wash, and then we each turned to go opposite directions. I felt that we needed to go right, because the description said the wash would quickly deepen and we'd be in a canyon, in the reef. And it looked like we'd get to the reef pretty quickly going to the right. Debra turned left because the directions said to head west. We got out the compass, and she was facing west. So Debra won.
It was only supposed to be a 1.5 mile loop. So after a half hour of hiking in a boring, sandy wash, we were pretty sure we were going the wrong way. Honestly, I wasn't excited about it and wanted to turn around and explore in the opposite direction. But Debra wanted to keep exploring. We compromised on heading 10 more minutes in that direction, and then the landscape started looking like this.
I started feeling hopeful. "Okay, just 10 more minutes," I said again.
"10 more minutes."
Canyon!!! We couldn't turn around now!
It got real slotty, and there were a few potholes to negotiate.
All too soon, the narrows opened up and we got to this beautiful spot. The perfect shelter to enjoy a beer!
Later that night, we tried to figure out exactly where we were and discovered that we had hiked to Farnsworth Canyon. A lovely hike, but apparently there was a much faster way to get there. Also, if we had read about it in advance, we would have known to look for pictographs just past this last picture. Dang it! And, looking at the map, we saw that we should have turned right when we first dropped into the wash; the directions lied to us. Unless we were parked by the wrong chimney, which I seriously doubt. Oh well, I'll just have to go back sometime soon. We still had so much fun discovering something new on our own!
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