Of Star Trek Sets and Roller Coasters

This morning broke gorgeous. I mean, Oscar the Grouch couldn't be unhappy with a day like this. No way I was going to spend this day stuck in the lair, where I've mostly cocooned since mid-December. So the boys and I set out early to give that canyon another try.

Halfway up the wash to the canyon entrance, Ghost disappeared. I expected to meet him in the canyon; he's almighty good about knowing where I'm going before I do. The big fellas and I slogged through the wash and up the canyon till we got to the water hole.

Here I had a question to answer. I knew I could climb the rocks around the water hole, but I'd been worried that the big dogs wouldn't be able to follow. It turned out to be a non-issue; Magnus clambered over the rocks in front of me, and Fritz wasn't far behind. First hurdle cleared. Now we were in the canyon proper, where (I like to imagine) few people had ever been.

Think back to all those minimalist sets on the old Star Trek series, decorated with three foam rocks and an upside-down tree. That's what these places always remind me of, except that there are more rocks and no red shirted extra who won't be going home with us. The canyon walls are close on two sides, and there are generally some big boulders that must be scaled if you want to keep moving forward. Up the canyon, after all, is literally Up. There's always something to climb.

I still hadn't seen Ghost, but didn't worry too much about him. By now he knew exactly where we were, if he hadn't all along, and was just off having his own fun.

We came to some short rock faces that must be beautiful waterfalls during the monsoon. Snow melt had already filled several crevices, though this early most of them were still frozen over. In the deeper, shadier parts of the canyon the snow was thick and fluffy. It began to look as though this canyon might go on for miles like the other, larger branch does but I couldn't be sure of that because in spots it was quite a bit steeper. At some point it had to peter out and just become part of the plateau. Unless it didn't, of course.

But we didn't make it for miles. Probably less than half a mile in, we came to another rock face. To the left of the face was a cave, whose mouth was mostly covered with yucca. To the right, a narrow passage led to another water hole. This one was pretty deep, because it was filled (when the water was flowing) by a vertical fall higher than my head. I could probably have climbed out one side of that hole, but it would be quite an adventure and there was no way the big dogs were coming with me. This was the end of the road for now.

I looked around, just to see what there was to see before turning back. And at the top of the canyon I saw a sleek brown head looking down at me. Ghost had never come into the canyon at all; he'd been playing around on the plateau all this time. He made a move as if he intended to come down. Where he was, there was a vertical drop of maybe five feet and then some very steep talus. I didn't want to watch him try that. "No!" I yelled up at him. I pointed back down the canyon. "Go back!" I matched deed to word by calling the other dogs, scrambling out of the hole and heading back down myself. Hopefully he'd have sense enough to meet us further down.

Instead, a few minutes later I heard something running behind me. Ghost had, indeed, made it down that face without breaking his neck. And he apparently had quite a lot of fun doing it because he ran right past me, disappeared down the gorge, and a few minutes later appeared behind me again. Ghost had discovered the desert hills' version of a roller coaster, and he got to ride it for free.