Spooky Canyon
Dec. 29th, 2022 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalker5 Days in the Desert travelog #19
Afton Canyon, CA - Mon, 26 Dec 2022, 1pm
Not long after leaving an impressive but unnamed side canyon off the Mojave River, we arrived at Spooky Canyon.
We knew where it was because the friendly guy back at Afton Camp had a guidebook that identified the distance from camp (3.8 miles), the number of the railroad bridge (194.65), and even had a picture so we knew to look for a low, short trestle like you can see above. In fact as we were driving up the canyon we crossed paths with 4x4er coming down from the east. He had the same guidebook and recommended we visit. He had questions for us, too, BTW. He was happy to hear that the water crossings further west were passable.
We headed up into the narrows of Spooky Canyon. After the serendipity of the previous, unnamed side canyon we explored, Spooky Canyon felt... not very special. And totally not spooky. "What's so spooky about this?" became and in-joke Hawk and I tossed back and forth.
Okay, so apparently what's so spooky about Spooky Canyon is that... wait for this... it gets dark at the back. There's a cave. You need flashlights.
Whatever.
I mean, it's still beautiful. It's just that we felt a greater sense of awe, not to mention delved about 10x deeper, in that unnamed side canyon we found for ourselves.
Afton Canyon, CA - Mon, 26 Dec 2022, 1pm
Not long after leaving an impressive but unnamed side canyon off the Mojave River, we arrived at Spooky Canyon.
We knew where it was because the friendly guy back at Afton Camp had a guidebook that identified the distance from camp (3.8 miles), the number of the railroad bridge (194.65), and even had a picture so we knew to look for a low, short trestle like you can see above. In fact as we were driving up the canyon we crossed paths with 4x4er coming down from the east. He had the same guidebook and recommended we visit. He had questions for us, too, BTW. He was happy to hear that the water crossings further west were passable.
We headed up into the narrows of Spooky Canyon. After the serendipity of the previous, unnamed side canyon we explored, Spooky Canyon felt... not very special. And totally not spooky. "What's so spooky about this?" became and in-joke Hawk and I tossed back and forth.
Okay, so apparently what's so spooky about Spooky Canyon is that... wait for this... it gets dark at the back. There's a cave. You need flashlights.
Whatever.
I mean, it's still beautiful. It's just that we felt a greater sense of awe, not to mention delved about 10x deeper, in that unnamed side canyon we found for ourselves.
