And then the start - about a mile and a half of open road with little shade at just after noon.
After the road walk we started along the creek and it wasn't long before we had some considerable shade. The first pictures make it look like there was shade all along the way, but I usually only stopped for pictures when I could take advantage of what shade there was. Most of the road was very open.
Right after this rest stop I slipped on a patch of slick clay and fell. I managed to twist around and land on my pack so that I was cushioned and not at all hurt. Just reminded to be careful.
When we were here I realized that my camera wasn't around my neck and I thought I must have lost it when I fell. Mike volunteered to go back and look for it but found nothing. I wasn't going to go on without it as I knew it couldn't be more than a couple of hundred yards away. Mike suggested I check my pack before we looked further. The last time I had it open (picture above) I remembered I had it in there and reminded myself not to leave it in there. Indeed, there it was. If I had realized that it was in there, I wouldn't have been so quick to spin and fall onto my pack - but it was safely tucked deep in the sleeping bag padding.
I tried to get Mike in a lot of these shots because of the amazing size of most of the rock walls, but he was often too far ahead.
We made it to the campground (#1) around 5:15pm. It was very near a full moon so later in the evening the moonlight was bright but only on the opposite side of the creek. Our camp was on the south side of the creek at the base of a very large wall in perpetual shade.
