Notes from my sleeping bag…

I’ve never slept in such a narrow canyon before. This isn’t the most narrow canyon I’ve ever been in, but typically canyons fluctuate between narrow sections followed by open mouths where sand dunes or rocks allow us to camp out of the wash. This was not the case here. All that separated us from the flowing river was a few inches of raised sand.

Sleep was less alluring than watching the ribbon of sky above us. Some time after midnight the big dipper was outlined perfectly between the canyon walls. The moon was bright, almost full and following the path of the setting sun. Too bright to look at in fact. The craters were not visible behind the beams of light stretching out, as if we were looking at the sun.

All night long I watched the moon shadows dance up and down the walls. First, an image appeared of Yoda’s left ear, as if he were leaning off the rim and listening to the river’s song. Then, an angry bunny with eyes turned down, wearing a bow behind the ears and a bushy tail. As the moon rose higher in the sky, the images changed until they faded all together.

We watched the moonlight walk down the vertical red walls and illuminate the water- silver now. This morning, when we walked into the mouth of the canyon, the water was grey and brown, gently gurgling with silt. By mid afternoon, the water had a green tint to it, and the deeper into the canyon we walked, seeps of red soaked into the water.

How strange it felt to be sleeping in such a tight canyon in the presence of moving water.

I’ve never seen such a canyon, where the water flows from wall to wall and there’s nothing to do but walk downstream. The middle of the river is safest. The closer I walked to the edge of the rock walls, the deeper I sunk into the sand. Up past my knees, several times I sank below the mud and into the cobblestone layer before learning to walk in the middle of the river.

We laid in our sleeping bags with Mallow curled up next to us, watching the moonlight crawl over the water and up the beach until BAM! the light shone in our eyes as if it were high noon. A loose beanie can be pulled over the eyes to mitigate the sudden overhead light that you can’t turn off, but I didn’t bother trying to sleep.

Even when I closed my eyes, I was still seeing the canyon.

It was too good to sleep, I didn’t mind being awake. Passing the hours by watching constellations move in and out of the picture- Orion’s belt lay in the thin strip of sky close to morning light.

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