Badlands Residency Day 11
Residency Day 11
April 1, 2012
Sara (park ranger) and I headed out to Calhoun Canyon about 9:30 this morning, hiked up it's length, then climbed over the ledge. We climbed up the buttes above the ledge, and looked out across. Sara pointed out telephone pole canyon in the distance. We decided to climb all the way over the buttes to the other side and see if we can walk around them to get back. Once we got down, Sara asked if I wanted to head over to telephone pole canyon and hike down it to get back over toward my car. Sure! We headed that way, and indeed met up with the castle trail for a while, then diverted over toward the canyon. Spent a good couple hours trying to find a way that we might possibly make it down, one was reasonably promising, but in the end, everything we found led to a sheer drop off at some point. It's a stunning area though, with all the tiny little fingers of erosion coming together to make bigger and bigger gouges in the earth until they cut down deep and endless. Took a lot of photos, but they probably won't do it justice. In the end we had to walk back over to the buttes above Calhoun Canyon and hike back down that way, thwarted. Saw a garter snake in the canyon on our way out. Funny little guy just sat there in the middle of the path watching us for a long time. It was a great hike. I'd like to go back and try hiking up telephone pole canyon again. If there is a way up, it would likely be easier to find from below.
Today it is so beautiful out again, shorts and tank were warm to be wearing on our hike. The birds are noisy as can be today. The smell in the air combined with the hot wind transports me to summers on my grandparents' farm in Minnesota. I could go lay out in the grass here, close my eyes, and find myself suddenly there on the farm, laying on a hill, listening to the prairie wind in the grasses. It helps that the light breeze blowing through the blinds on my window sound like the blinds on the porch windows at the farm. So magical.
It was hot, around 90, and dry with little wind all day. What breeze there was disappeared about dinner time. As I sit typing this, a sudden, strong, cool gust is coming and going, and promising the cool and rain that is due overnight. The sound of the wind in the rocks and grasses is energizing. It's still early, so I'm going to get back to today's painting. Working on capturing the morning spent down at sage creek after camping. It's another big one. Something about being here, it's hard to paint small.
Sounds like another wind storm is kicking up! 30-35 mph winds, gusts around 50, according to national weather service.
Today's music of choice? U2's The Joshua Tree. Fits my mood and the hot and dry weather.
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| I discovered this little guy this morning, inside the trash can we hiked up the butte to retrieve last night. He had to climb Sara's bike to get in there. |
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| The back side of the buttes above Calhoun Canyon, as we now call it. |
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| The maze of erosion we climbed through to get to the canyon edge. Sara is in the center of the photo. |
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| Hiking towards the telephone poles in hopes of a way down. |
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| looking back to the other poles for scale reference. |
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| Where we thought we might be able to hike down, until looking from another angle revealed another sheer drop. If you look close you can see the tiny telephone pole just above the deep shadow at the base of the canyon. |
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| A view of some of the copious fingers of erosion here. |
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| Some of the areas we looked at for a way down. Yeah. |
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| Sara took a couple pictures of me above telephone pole canyon. |
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| This little guy was planted in the middle of a narrow slot area of Calhoun Canyon. He didn't want to move. |
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| He the gracefully slithered along the canyon floor, moving up the side of the rock to a small ledge here. |
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| Recently deceased deer skull on the hike out. |
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| Exiting Calhoun Canyon as it opens up. |
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| Sunset view out my front window. |