We only have about six miles to go today to Palisades Creek, so there's no need to get around early. We leave around 8:30. Our campsite last night was a little small, but it is the only place you can camp between the Confluence and Palisades Creek.
The Beamer Trail is very easy walking and substantially level. However, the irritating thing about it is having to continually contour in and then out again to get past all the drainages that intersect the trail. I've not counted how many drainages there are, but it seems like twenty-five.
The trail is high above the Colorado River where there are great views looking both up and down stream.
The only place with some minor exposure is just before we reach Palisades Creek. Here, the trail is a little narrow in a few places with large drop-offs on the River side. We finally get past the last drainage and are high above Palisades Creek looking down on our camp spot. It is still a lengthy descent down there.
We pull into the first area we come to, which has lots of trees. I have camped before farther down in the open. While resting and before setting up our tents, we discuss whether to move camp downstream to Espejo Creek. That would make our hike tomorrow shorter, but I am a lot more tired right now than I thought I would be. We take a vote and agree to stay here.
Everyone sets up their tent and then Pete announces that he is going to go out to the River and bathe. I've got to see this as I'm not sure he understands that the water is always a near constant 45 degree temperature. After putting one foot in, he has an abrupt change of plans. Tomorrow we are hiking over to Tanner Rapids and then up the Tanner to the top of the Redwall for the night. Since we have a long, hard hike tomorrow, we agree to get up and leave early. MAIN INDEX | HIKING INDEX | BACK TO DAY 2 | FORWARD TO DAY 4
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