This is not the view I scrambled up the slickrock for. I considered a photo of the view looking down from the saddle at the left side of the picture. That direction is looking down toward a valley and the crack that is the top of Keyhole Canyon. It would have been a good illustration of the drainage showing that to be in a slot canyon during a storm is death. But I sort of liked this picture better.

The forecast of rain today was slightly wrong. The skies were clear almost all day so I was able to get to some places that I thought were going to be off limits. The clouds didn't blow in until almost 4 o'clock. The forecast is now for rain and snow. I'm pretty sure that the forecast is for a weekend as well, which I'm assuming means more people.

While I was out today I though that the title was going to be, "The impending weekend brings crowds." I did not see anyone while I was in Hidden Gardens or Clear Creek. I was just heading back in the West Root Canal when I saw my first fellow hiker of the day. Hey I know that guy. I've seen him in the breakfast room at the motel. He has a bad back, but he hiked to Observation Point (8 miles with 2,000' gain) and Hidden Canyon yesterday. Today he hiked the East Temple Loop. That's too gonzo for me. I sort of like not having to worry about falling to my death if I should happen to slip.

When I was almost back to the road I saw a guy who told me he heard that there was a nesting pair of California condors back, "in the yellow cliffs." I headed up that way but saw that I would have to drop down into the Many Pools drainage to continue. I plan to hike in that area on a future day.

And finally, I saw a couple when I was almost down the slickrock slope below where I took this picture. They told me that they plan to do the Keyhole Canyon route next year so they were just checking things out. So as you can imagine it was quite a crowd in the back country today.

With tomorrow's impending inclement weather, I expect to stay out of the east side drainages. That means that I'll likely be in the crowded main canyon. I was planning to stay out of the canyon during the weekends. Perhaps if it's raining or snowing a great deal of the other people will stay away. Maybe I will too. I haven't even turned on the television in my room yet. I was going to watch The Weather Channel today, but it's not shown on the listing. So much for watching the weather instead of going out into it.