We started early this morning. Davis ran and then we went exploring. There are several trails into the canyon with it’s lush forests. We chose the one named “Rough Horsetail Trail.” Horsetails are a “fossil” plant. They are not vascular like most of the plants we are familiar with. They were around with the dinosaurs and make up most of the coal we find today.
At first I thought I was looking at a bamboo forest, but soon discovered the plants were not “vasular” which means they have to move the water from cell to cell instead of through specialized vessels. There were several box canyons that had “kickpoints. “ These were once the sites of tall waterfalls when this was not an arid region. 
Here are some pictures of the canyon walls. They have put benches here for folks to just sit and admire or meditate.
With Precious along we just admire. This is such an awesome place to be right now. (Clyda, I’m sending you a small sample of the very red sand and a small piece of the sandstone - it will probably not make it whole, but I tried!)The temperature today was not over 93 - humidity around 53%. We are amazed at the difference between here and Morehead at 93. One thing we have to watch out for is not drinking enough water - you don’t realize how much you are sweating and then when you, ummm, pee, well, it’s not often enough and it’s not clear enough. I would guess the south west might be the kidney stone capital of the US (I just made that up, but it might be true!).
We move on to the Route 66 museum tomorrow. Hope we can get better cell and Internet coverage. If not I’m sure you’ll understand.
Early to bed tonight - I for one am not used to all this hiking - but I loved it.
Shalom, Heather . . .
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