Little Painted Canyon and Painted Canyon - 3.1.2018
Drive to the end of the Painted Canyon Road and park at the 'End' sign... 'Little Painted Canyon' is behind the vehicles... this is not to be confused with the 'Painted Canyon' parking area which is just out of frame on the right... we will go up Little Painted Canyon and return via Painted Canyon... making for a nice loop hike.
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Heading up Little Painted Canyon.
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Arizona Lupine... guess it traveled all the way from Arizona.
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Ghost Flower... never seen one of these before.
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Gail is leading us off of the beaten path into this slot canyon.
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In the slot.
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Slot canyons can be very narrow... duh!
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Passing packs in the slot.
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Very narrow in places.
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Awkward.
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Solving the puzzle.
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Gaining elevation in the slot.
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Just another obstacle to overcome.
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Still passing the packs around.
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Steeper terrain here.
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Will this get us out of the slot canyon?
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Looking down on Brian and Gail.
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Ah... there is Little Painted Canyon below and we have reached a dead end.
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Gail and Brian coming up to check out my view of Little Painted Canyon.
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Heading back down into the slot and heading back to Little Painted Canyon.
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What we went up on the way in, must be dealt with on the way back down.
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Gail assists Brian with a foot placement.
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Gail gives the universal sign for 'do not enter this slot canyon'.
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Back to reality and continuing up Little Painted Canyon.
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Deeper into Little Painted Canyon.
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Continuing up Little Painted Canyon... the photos simply do not do the variety of colors justice.
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Continuing up Little Painted Canyon.
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Castles above Little Painted Canyon.
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Continuing up Little Painted Canyon.
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A dry waterfall in Little Painted Canyon.
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Coming up out of the canyon on an obvious path.
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Out of the canyon and on a good path.
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Looking beyond the Mecca Hills to the north end of the Salton Sea... with the Santa Rosa Mountains on the right horizon.
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A little higher and we got a broader view of the Salton Sea.
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Continuing on a good path... looking for access to Painted Canyon.
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We bumped into a cute couple along the way.
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The trail on the right pretty much avoids the canyon... but we are taking the trail on the left that will get us to Painted Canyon.
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Gail and Brian point to our route into the canyon.
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Working our way down into Painted Canyon.
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Narrow in places.
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Continuing down Painted Canyon.
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Ah yes, there are some ladders that need to be down-climbed on the way out of Painted Canyon.
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Watch those nails Gail.
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Hikers choice on how one deals with the ladders.
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This one makes me dizzy.
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Looking up from Painted Canyon.
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Oh boy... there had better be a ladder here.
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Down climbing to get to a ladder.
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Whew... now lets get down this thing.
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Gail ready to get off the ladder.
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Passing the packs again... we wore ourselves out passing the packs around.
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Definitely a tight squeeze.
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Gail checking to see how Brian is doing with the ladder.
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Finishing up the ladder portion of the canyon.
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Back down on the floor of the canyon... a quarter mile of hiking will get us back to the car and finish our loop hike... the loop was 4.6 miles and ~700 feet of elevation gain.
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