Heck of a Hike!

16 Sep 2010--Drove about 40 miles south of here to take in the scenery and to take a hike in what is called the Cathedral Wash that a local had told us about earlier in the week. Along the way, we stopped at the Navajo Bridge, a bridge 6 miles from Lee's Ferry, an area famous for being where people used to cross the Colorado River back in the old days.



Seeing as we are still in northern Arizona, it is not surprising that the Mormoms played a significant role in this area. Note that Lee's Ferry was known as "Honeymoon Trail" back in the day.

The bridge on the left is the bridge built in 1929 that replaced Lee's Ferry, and was the only bridge across the Colorado River at that time for 600 miles. The one on the right was built in 1995 to replace the original, making the one on the left a foot bridge now.

This is a stitch of the area as you look out from the bridge.

Heading down the road just a few miles we came to our hiking area...Cathedral Wash. We were taking the Lower Cathedral, heading to the Grand Canyon.

We were actually going on a hike down into what is usually a dry creek bed. It was going to be a 2.5 mile round-trip hike, with our half-way end point being at the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon.

In no time we were descending into the Wash.

The rocks were really interesting...check out these ones that look like a honeycomb.

Cathy is helping me here...laying a stepping stone so that I don't jump down into the mud. There were only a few places that had any water, but we were told that flash floods happened here, so we were on the lookout!

This looked like a little bus stop covering...how considerate, especially considering that it had to be 100 degrees as we were taking this hike.

We were surprised that we were steadily descending into the Wash. There seemed to be no end to our climbing down, and down, and down.

Cathy slid down the rocks at one point. Ended up turning her ankle and foot backwards under her butt, so had an injury. We didn't bring our Emergency Wilderness Kit, so we weren't prepared for any wounds. Fortunately, she's tough!

How beautiful are these rocks when the sun hits them a certain way?! It is at this point that we can hear water rushing somewhere, so we are hoping that it is the Colorado River and not a flash flood heading our way! haha

We are dangerously close to the Colorado, and Cathy is holding back this rock for me to pass.

We finally make it...it took us 2 hours to go 1 1/4 miles!

And now we have to go back. I am a little concerned because it seemed that we endlessly descended the Wash as we made our way to the river. So of course that means we will be climbing back up on our way out...

We saw several animal prints in the wet sandy areas on our way back that we didn't see on our way in...is something stalking us?...we are thinking bobcat on these...and a little nervous.

Almost there...it only took us 1 1/4 hours to get back to the Wash entrance, so a total of 3 1/4 hours for the trip of 2.5 miles.

Coming up out of the Wash at the end.

Before heading home we thought we would go down to the Lee's Ferry area, just to see what was there. They had a couple buildings, but nothing much more than that. More interesting were these rock formations alongside the road. These are true "hoodoos", in that they have a rock on top of them. What happens is a hard rock falls from the mountain above on top of softer rock below, and then over time the elements wear away the soft rock underneath, creating these hoodoos. Eventually the soft rock will go away completely, toppling the hard rock to the ground.

These are 2 shots from the Lee's Ferry area, the last shots before we head back home. Totally different, but equally beautiful.