Rock Canyon

Tuesday, Carlos was headed out to explore a bit of Rock Canyon, which is just up the road from the Provo Temple, and I decided to tag along to see if I could capture some autumn-ness. The trees were absolutely gorgeous, and the rock formations up that canyon, with their jagged points jutting up and the sweeping curves of folded rock, are fascinating and beautiful in their own right. And it's a popular place for rock climbers, with some beautiful paths along the cliff bases. I want to go back to shoot some rock climbers sometime.

We also stopped at a cave or two, one of which you can crawl quite a ways into, and at the end of the main corridor, it drops slightly and branches into two directions, each relatively short (maybe 15-25 feet) but great little spots to...tell ghost stories in? Judging from the litter and lingering smell in there, others apparently decided smoking and drinking in their is fun, but I like the ghost stories idea better. I'd say they're great for making out, but I imagine there's just too much opportunity to get all scraped up doing that kind of nonsense.

One mini-cave we saw was up off of the trail a ways, so we climbed up the steep slide of loose rocks to check it out. Once up there, I suggested we see what was up around the bend, so we climbed more loosed rocks up the mountainside. I hugged the side because there were more branches and solid rocks there and because Carlos was causing avalanches behind him as he trudged up in a two-steps-up-one-step-back sort of way because of the rocks slipping beneath his feet. As we got higher, I hoped there'd be another trail above that we could follow because getting down would be a bear. No trail. Getting down was a bit dicey, but not too bad, and I only got one scrape. On the way, Carlos decided to help nature along by dislodging a fairly large boulder from its teetering perch. Some things never stop being fun. The rocks there have more cleavage than the Playboy mansion and are fun to take apart like a puzzle. Carlos rock-surfed down (he had much better/more durable hiking shoes and a minor deathwish). You should see the video he took from a first person viewpoint doing that. Very fun.

Anyway, beautiful trail, lots of great places to stop and loiter or eat or... whatever. And surprisingly beautiful in the fall.