Arroyo Seco, July 2004

An extremely longwinded description of river walking in Arroyo Seco is given in "Arroyo Seco, June 2004".  I won't repeat that here and instead will show pictures of a trip taken by myself, Emily, Henrik, and Ann the following 4th of July weekend.  Instead of going all the way down the river, from the Escondido Campground to the Arroyo Seco Campground, we instead started and finished at Arroyo Seco.  The first day we entered the river at the suspension bridge and went upstream for about 5 hours to an area called "Yin Yang" or "Hell's Half Acre".  The next day we came back downstream to the suspension bridge and walked back to the gorge parking are on the fire road.  To find out about the stretch of river between the suspension bridge and the day use area please see the September 2004 trip in the Adventure section of this website.  I hope you enjoy the photos.

After a 3-mile walk on Indians Road and a short trip down the Marble Peak Trail to the suspension bridge we entered the river and promptly got wet and then all laughed hysterically as this was the most fun we've ever had on a "hike."

From left to right we have: me, Emily, and Ann just right of the yellow dry bag.  We are just downstream of the narrow section of the river and also the waterfall.  I think Emily is sitting in the fun-noodle chair while I am floating on my backpack (lined with trash compactor bags).

Our disposable underwater camera took great pictures, this one of Henrik, the merman...

Having fun in the narrows are, from left to right, Anne (hat visible only), Casey (with goggles), and Emily (with silly expression).  I think this was taken after another bout of hysterical laughter.

Henrik took this picture of me from above the waterfall.  I am upstream of the really narrow section but downstream of the waterfall.

Ann climbs up the waterfall with a rope someone has left behind.  I am already up and ready to use another rope to climb over and down the waterfall, as shown in the next picture.

And here I am at the top of the waterfall.  You climb up using a rope to the left (not visible in this photo) and then use the rope that I am holding to get over the waterfall.

Emily used a little bit of my assistance to get down the second rope and over the waterfall.

And many hours after leaving the parking lot we arrived at our campsite, complete with a journal going back 4 years to 2000, that told us this paradise was called "Yin Yang" by some and "Hells Half Acre" by others.  The pool surrounding the waterfall was at least twenty-five feet deep.

Victim, crook, and poser from left to right are Ann, Henrik, and Casey.  Henrik didn't really push her, honest.  Standing in the shallows on the side will result in tiny guppies nibbling at your toes.

Our sandy campsite wasn't quite as soft as we had imagined.  Either sand flies or no-see-ums (we think) feasted on us during dusk but otherwise bugs were not a problem.  Henrik did however use a mound of sand as a pillow.

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