Alright, alright, alright. Where were we? Oh yah, the Bar 10.
So, down the road we went. With each mile it was getting hotter and hotter. Hmmm, this was getting a little too similar to Phoenix temps, but no matter. I had been dreaming about jumping into the Colorado River! Finally, we crested the last hill and saw that NO ONE was at the spot. Perfection. Well, perfection less the 110 degrees. Can’t have it all.
So, after a quick half hour eating lunch and chugging some water (Gotta pregame when it’s this hot), we headed down to the river. It’s only a half hour hike in good weather. With my buddy Kevin not used to the heat and his 5 year old daughter it turned into a bit of a cluster.... Kelsey stepped it up and carried her a ways and we got our spray bottle of water out. (Redneck AC when we’re driving our FJ40 without AC, glad we brought it!) Everyone made it down to the waters edge, if just... Then, it was time to relax. No way we were heading back up the steep hike until the sun was out of view. Mostly on the hike we took video (I’ll post as soon as we edit the video part of the trip), but I had to download this one part... Drink it in. Happy Birthday America. Apologies in advance. We hiked up the river and floated back next to rafters who were on day 13. Pretty epic. It’s something I have on my bucket list (To raft the entire canyon)
The hike back up wasn’t too bad. We just hung out and took breaks as we went. Eventually, K and I knocked out the last of it and just kept an eye on Kevin and his daughter. Honestly, she did amazingly well since every step for a 5 year old was about waist height. Once back up top we were toast... We were more than toast. Food and whisky was about all I could think that sounded good.
The best part about this spot is that things just keep getting more mind blowing as the sun sets! Photo dump ahead.
This is a nice Arizona drink to end a very Arizona day.
It had cooled down a lot, but it was toasty. We had every window and door open as we slept. Somewhere around midnight a cool breeze from the river started up and made sleep bearable.
At some point in the middle of the night I thought “Yah, that one point on the topos looked to be the highest elevation and I haven’t been there before... sold.”
So, with that I finally decided where we were headed to the next day. A spot at MUCH higher elevation! Thanks for coming along on part 2!
Tim
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