Withers Canyon
We came off of the Picketwire Canyon tour with many hours of sunshine left in the day. The tour guide had told us about Withers Canyon, a great way to see Picketwire Canyon from above. He gave us verbal directions and we headed off to find the trail. It turned out the directions weren't entirely accurate.
We passed by the trailhead by a few miles and then stopped to consult a map as we knew we were far from Picketwire Canyon. At that point, Bob told us he was going to head into town so the three of us turned around to go back to an area we suspected was where the trailhead was hidden. We found it, along with a broken and closed pit toilet.
We found ourselves at the campground first. The trip down into Withers Canyon was a hiking trail so we continued on. When we got back to the loop we found some people at the intersection who had been on our tour. They said they also followed some poor directions but managed to find their way to the overlook. We were happy to hear we weren't the only lost ones.
We headed to the end of the trail at the locked gate and decided to walk the rest of the way. It was overcast and it looked like the rain was on its way, but we decided to chance it. The walk was easy and nice, and the views at the end were cool. We could see a cabin down in the valley and the 4x4 trail below us.
The walk back was in the sun and we were all sunburned and tired. Still, when we got back to the vehicles we stopped at the other overlooks on the way back to the intersection. We hadn't seen the Spanish mission on the tour because of mud, so it was good to see it from above.
The rest of the loop would have been really mellow but we had fun because it was really muddy in spots. Ben had fun getting his Jeep very, very muddy. It meant we were smiling when we made it back to the trailhead.
We headed back into town and met Bob for dinner at a weird Mexican restaurant. Bob was heading home in the morning but the rest of us would go explore other canyons in the area. We had a really good time in the ones we'd found so far.
