2013 Trip Report -Cady Canyons DE Rendezvous Outward Bound trip
March 3, 2013 by Marian Johns
This year our Saturday evening’s Silent Auction didn’t actually finish until Sunday morning. Consequently, we didn’t leave Zzyzx on our Cady Mt. Canyons trip until about 9:30 a.m. because Steve Marschke and Bob Jaussaud, our two Silent Auction organizers, couldn’t leave until the auction details were finalized.
We were fortunate to have Steve, (who is also our bighorn sheep expert and past president of the Bighorn Sheep Society), and his lovely wife, Debbie, on our trip because we intended to check out the bighorn sheep guzzler the Society has installed in the first Cady Canyon (on the south side of the Cadys) we planned to visit.
From Zzyzx, we headed to Baker and then took Kelbaker Road all the way down to I-40, then west on I-40. On our earlier pre-run, we had planned to take the Hector exit and cross the RR tracks there, but we found this crossing closed – blocked by locked gates. We then had to spend quite a bit of time working out an alternate route to find an RR crossing for the future Rondy trip.
We don’t know if our first canyon, (the “sheep canyon”) has an official name or not. Nevertheless, it’s a very interesting place, with numerous little caves eroded into the canyon walls. The sheep guzzler is actually located in a short side canyon, so we parked in the main canyon and then walked the rest of the way, hoping we wouldn’t scare off any sheep – had there been any. Unfortunately there weren’t any sheep to be seen, but the watering system is worth the short walk. It is quite elaborate with a couple of large storage tanks, a system of pipes from the water source and a drinking trough.
The second canyon we visited, also nameless, is farther north and on the west side of the Cady’s. I think most of us agreed that this canyon is the more scenic of the two we visited because of the beautiful colors in the canyon walls and the soaring dry falls located at upper end. The canyon becomes so narrow, we had to park a short distance from the end and walk the rest of the way. The high sheer walls here make further foot travel impossible.
We visited this same canyon a number of years ago and found a dead bobcat at the foot of this high dry falls. This year, on our earlier pre-run, we found quite a bit of trash – beer cans and bottles and lots of fireworks debris; we hauled out as much as we could carry in our hands and pockets.
Following our adventure into the Cady’s, we returned to I-40, said good-bye to one another and headed for home. It had been a beautiful day with gorgeous scenery, perfect weather – a fine finale for our 2013 Rendezvous.
