Memorial Day weekend, 2000. Nancy's fiancee, Joe, accompanied me on this trip. We left the truck on the bikes at about 6:30 AM in an attempt to beat the heat. When we got back 4 hours later, it was well over 100F. This view of backlighted mountains in the haze was the first scenic moment of the morning.

Jim and I had started up the canyon a couple of months earlier in my 4-WD pickup, but decided to turn back when the canyon walls closed in on the rear view mirrors on the doors. I'm glad we did. There are several places in the canyon where one could easily get a stock vehicle stuck. This is the first one, and it's mild. With a little care, this obstacle could be driven around. All the tough spots were much easier on the quads than they would have been in the truck.

The large photo linked here has a circle drawn around some marks on the rock in the center of the photo. Thousands of years ago, the local Indians drew pictures by scraping on rocks. The pictures were used to tell stories. These Indian rock drawings are called 'petroglyphs'. The marks on this rock were made by vehicles that weren't quite tall enough to clear. They, too, tell a story. Either they're modern-day petroglyphs, or the ghosts of oil pans past. The black marks on the left should need no explanation, but for those who don't go 4 wheelin', they're skid marks from the tires of less capable vehicles and inexperienced drivers.

Here's Joe starting to tackle one of the tougher obstacles in the canyon.  Approached carefully, it wasn't really too big a challenge on the quads. I got my truck hung up on a similar rock near Crown King a year ago.

Finishing the job. I missed the two times Joe's bike had a wheel off the ground, but didn't have the heart to send him back down to do it again just for the camera.

We saw a number of scenic vistas after we made it out the top end of the canyon. This, and the following three frames show some of them, but don't do justice to the color and textures of the scenes.

Scenic Vista 2.

Scenic Vista 3.

A stitched panorama shows the scenery off toward the south west. This was about the highest point on the trip, over 600ft. elevation above where we started, and about 12 miles from the truck. You'll have to use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of your screen to see the entire panorama.