After my last post, I returned to Yosemite. I got in several great days of climbing. On my last day I climbed Royal Arches. It's a pretty easy route, but it's the longest route I've done so far. It was a gorgeous day and the climb went very smoothly. It was a great way to end the Yosemite part of my trip. I'm already thinking about my next trip to Yosemite. After leaving Yosemite I hit to road to start heading east. I plan to be back in Virginia by the end of the month. I moved pretty quickly through California and Nevada, so I didn't take many pictures. But I had to stop and get a shot of this billboard.

Only in Nevada...

My next stop was Buckskin Gulch, a slot canyon in southern Utah. The hike follows a narrow canyon for about 15 miles before meeting up with the Paria River. Once I hit the Paria, I headed upstream to get back to the road I started from.

Below are a bunch of pictures from the hike.
Just starting to descend into the canyon.

Still early on in the hike, so the canyon isn't too deep. The canyon gets deeper as the hike continues and the canyon walls are nearly 500 feet tall by the time you get to the confluence with the Paria River.

Most of the time there is no water flow through the canyon; but when it rains, the canyon quickly floods.

After the flooding subsides many pools remain. There's no way around the pools, so I had wet, muddy feet for almost the whole hike.

Mucky shoes after one of the pools.

I'm smiling here because I have no idea just how much of the day I'll spend in these pools of stagnant water. Fortunately most are less than knee deep, but there are several deeper ones.

Petroglyphs near the Middle Way, which is the only way out of the canyon for about a 15-mile stretch.

Note the boulder wedged between the canyon walls. When the canyon floods, it's pretty powerful. There were several spots where you could see driftwood 30 or more feet above the ground. Fortunately there was no chance of rain anywhere nearby when I was hiking.

Most of the canyon was narrow, but occasionally it would open into spacious areas with enough sunshine for trees. The above picture was taken downstream of the confluence with the Paria, where the canyon opens up quite a bit.

Once I got to the confluence with the Paria River, I thought the wading was done. I was wrong. The deepest pools were on the Paria. Fortunately there was some water flowing, so the water wasn't stagnant like the earlier pools. The above picture is of me in the last pool, which was the second deepest. The deepest was almost up to my neck. (In case you're wondering, I knew this was the last deep pool, so I waded through, set up the camera and went back in for the picture.)

Cliff wall near where the Paria meets the road. So the hike's almost over! This was probably the most unique hike I've ever done. Overall it was a blast. The hiking was mostly pleasant and easy. There were a few tricky sections involving crawling over boulders, and of course there were the pools. But after a couple of them they didn't faze me too much.

After the hike, I continued to drive through Utah toward Colorado.

Somewhere along the road in Utah.

This rock formation is known as the Mexican Hat, and is the namesake of the nearby town of Mexican Hat, UT. The top rock is about 60 feet across.

It's an easy scramble up to just under the top of the hat. This is the view of the San Juan River from under the hat.

Fall colors in Utah, south of Moab.

I'm currently in Carbondale, CO visiting Mike and Tina and their son Henry who turned four weeks old today. So expect baby pictures in the next update!

As always, thanks for reading.