Following
our trip to the hot springs, some of our Orange County friends stayed over
for a second day of hiking. We added one of our local hiking friends to the
group and headed for Calico Basin, just outside of Red Rock. We had discovered
this hike a week earlier and Patty showed her feminine side with a strong
recollection of the stripes and polka
dots that line the canyon. Bob's recollection was more along the lines
of the rock scrambles. Any way we looked at it, however,
it was worth showing to the out-of-towners.
The
trail begins in a wide red valley and winds past
the uncompleted construction site of a house that
was reportedly being built by a local Mafia kingpin before he was found "swimming
with the fishes". From there the trail crosses a saddle
and descends through a beautiful slickrock trough
into the next canyon. Throughout our hike the predominant color was RED.
At
the end of the trough there is a 10 foot drop through a crack. What may have
looked intimidating from the top turned out to be
as easy as climbing down a ladder. As we progressed
through the canyon, our friend, Ben, tried to run down the steep slope on
one side and up the opposite bank. He made it halfway!
A bit farther along in the canyon we came to a pretty scary looking drop.
But as usual, group dynamics got everybody down. We have a classic photo of
Patty telling Joan "it's really not bad".
