Keith and Pat told us about a hike that sounded perfect for us. It was just outside of Mecca, CA, at the end of Painted Canyon Rd. We had to take our time on the 4.7 miles of poorly maintained gravel road. Surprisingly, there were a dozen cars in the parking lot. The area was large, so we only encountered a few other hikers.
I would have missed the big rock arrow pointing to the slot canyon (it was about 20 feet long and 5 feet wide.) Luckily, Joani saw it and off we went!
This "trail" was not for sissies. You had to climb over and around some pretty formidable rocks and every so often you would have been blocked without the ladders that were considered part of the trail.
Looking up - the picture makes it look like we were practically in the dark, but that was never the case at all.
At its narrowest, you could not pass another person in the slots and it appeared we might have been more than a hundred feet from the top. I tried to forget that this was along the San Andreas fault and put thoughts of an earthquake out of my mind.
Along the trail, there was a fork that I missed and Joani and I went different ways. We were separated for 20 or 30 minutes before I doubled back and found her waiting at the fork where she showed me the arrow pointing to the right. It is amazing how little sound travels in the canyon. I think we were only 20 feet apart before we could hear each other shout. We stayed a little closer after that.
We reached the top from the left in the picture below. The wrong way that I went would have had us coming up from the right (which is the way we went back down).
This way to the canyon floor was questionable.
I'm sure this hike would be a geologist's dream. The sediment layers were amazing - this one looked like burled wood!
At this particular drop, the ladder was almost useless (it was about three feet long.) You had to keep your back against one side and hands on the other side to ease your way down.
Looking up out of the slot canyon.
When we finally emerged from the slot canyon we headed up "Painted Canyon." We decided, after nearly seven miles of hiking, we would have to return another day to do it justice, so we returned to the car and headed for the coach. On the gravel road out, we tried to capture the color in the hills. I guess that was the upside to traveling at 5 mph over the rough road.
We had a well-deserved ice cream cone, later, as we took stock of just how sore we would be in the morning.
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