Our guide led us to this access to the river bottom in the Escalante National Monument in Utah. When we first saw it, we couldn't believe we were going down that with packs on! Or even without!!!

That's why we are all standing there thinking "No Way am I going down THAT!" But after a few of the adventureous souls (my self included) went down a bit and back up, then farther, etc, we all decided that maybe we could.

It turns out the sandstone gave you excellent traction, so going down was no problem, other than your own internal fears.

Later in the trip we found out the "trail" (actually there were no trails, you made your own) was often in the river......which had some quicksand spots! We ran into a big one and half the group got stuck till we hauled them out.

I had a ball - I am truly in my element in such wild and wooly places.