There's nothing quite like a raft group next to you bongo playing, guitar playing, singing, and yelling ALL NIGHT long!!!  I mention to Keith this morning that I am not a violent person, but if I had a gun right now, I would consider putting a few holes in this group's rafts.  Keith says last night he seriously thought about wading out to their rafts and cutting holes in them.  I wonder how this group manages to get down the River during the day when they party all night long.  Well, this should be an easy day of hiking and hopefully no one else will be at our campsite, so maybe we'll get a little more sleep tonight.

Morning view 10-13-2009 @ 7:01	Morning River view 10-13-2009 @ 9:01

     We pack and get away around 9:00.  Just over the ridge, we see a group of dory day hikers who are going up Nankoweap Creek and climbing between Nankoweap Butte and Nankoweap Mesa until they reach Kwagunt Creek on the other side.  That's a pretty aggressive day hike.

	Dory day hikers 10-13-2009 @ 9:14

     I find more blooming flowers today.

Desert Senna 10-13-2009 @ 9:31	Blazing Star 10-13-2009 @ 9:31

Globemallow 10-13-2009 @ 9:44	Purple Mat 10-13-2009 @ 9:46	Evening Primrose 10-13-2009 @ 10:26

     Part way up Nankoweap Creek, we come to more stone pillars in the distance.  These are not as impressive as the ones at Marion Point, so I don't assign a name to them.

	Stone pillars 10-13-2009 @ 9:41

     It takes us a little over two hours to reach our campsite at Nankoweap Creek.  We drop our packs and head up the creek in search of some Petroglyphs we understand are there.  The directions we have been given to find the Petroglyphs could have been better.  We wander around a while before finding the exact rock that has the Petroglyphs.  There are a lot of them on the rock and all are well preserved.  The marking in the middle picture on the second row was placed there by an archeological survey team in the early 1900s to identify this particular Petroglyph find.  That team believed these Petroglyphs were placed here around 1050-1175 A.D.

Petroglyph rock 10-13-2009 @ 11:47	Petroglyph 10-13-2009 @ 11:47	Petroglyph 10-13-2009 @ 11:48

Petroglyph 10-13-2009 @ 11:48	Archeological survey marking 10-13-2009 @ 11:49	Petrolglyph 10-13-2009 @ 11:51

     Keith and I start back to camp and meet a group just getting ready to head uphill.  They are doing the 800 mile Hayduke Trail (www.hayduketrail.org).  This part consists of an arduous six-day hike starting at the North Rim, going down the North Kaibab, up to the Tipoff Point, east on the Tonto to Hance Rapids, east on the Escalante to Tanner Rapids, east on the Beamer to the Little Colorado, hitched a raft ride across the river, in their words "bush-whacked" up to Nankoweap Creek, came up the creek to here, and are getting ready to hike up to the rim at the high access point, walk to Point Imperial, and finally hitch a ride back to the North Rim.  Wow!!  They are then going to other National Parks to continue this leisurely pace.

	Sharon 10-13-2009 @ 12:21

     Keith and I have lunch and then make camp.  There are lots of good tent spots and no one else is here, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to get more sleep tonight.

Richard's tent 10-13-2009 @ 2:56	Keith's tent 10-13-2009 @ 2:56	Camp at Nankoweap Creek 10-13-2009 @ 4:25

     Someone has placed a few rocks in the creek, making a small dam for a place to sit down in a pool of water.  There is a lot of debris at the base of the trees in the creek bed leading us to believe there was quite the flash flood here recently.

Small pool in Nankoweap Creek 10-13-2009 @ 2:58	Signs of a recent flash flood 10-13-2009 @ 4:36

     We agree to get up at 5:00 tomorrow morning and try to get away by 6:30.  That way we can make the climb up to Tilted Mesa when it is still cool.

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