Pinto Creek (Click on picture right away to see entire picture)

Many of the faint hearted would never have made it over the road leading to Pinto creek.  In a couple places the gravel road was washed away to the point only the width of the trucks wheels would fit as we crossed a swail on the top of a steep precipice.  After finally reaching the creek, we tried to decipher the instructions to find the box canyon we were looking for.   The directions implied you would go up the creek.  We were "up the creek" as they say, it was the wrong direction.  As we made our way back to the truck we saw another vehicle coming into our parking spot.  With great clamor The Commander got the gentleman to stop so she could ply him for knowledge of the creek.  The young guy had his two sons with him, and he also intended to hike the creek.  Luckily, he brought the computer print out with the hiking instructions.  One key thing in the instructions gave away the direction.  The instructions said the hike had a net loss of 75 feet in elevation.  That meant we had to go down stream.

Pinto Creek was on The Commander's bucket list so off we went down the creek.  Since the instructions said there was no real trail Kadizzle figured the hell with it and just started getting his feet wet walking down the creek.  Later on the way back we found a better trail that would have kept us out of the water half of the way of the down the creek.  It turned out to be a perfect day for the hike.  As we went down stream, the canyon got more narrow and the rocks in the stream kept increasing until they reached the size of small houses.  You could see that as the water sped up during floods nothing but big boulders could remain in place.

When we finally got to the narrowest part of the canyon with steep, high walls, the huge boulders just about made it impossible to go on.  There were many wonderful pools of water that would make great pictures for a great photographer with a great camera. We lacked several of the required elements.

The Commander came across the most elegant pool of water and suggested Kadizzle jump in.  The water indeed did look wonderful, but it was deceptive.  The water in the pool had a chance to settle out the cold molecules and the pool was much colder than the stream had been.  Very shortly Kadizzle realized the family jewels were in peril if he stay in very long.  As Kadizzle jumped in, he realized he could see no way to get out.  The sides were all steep.  Fortunately around the bend where The Commander was waiting to take a picture, there was a natural way out.  Kadizzle was baptized in cold, clear water,

and his sins were washed away with freezing water.