Monday morning canyon blogging

Yesterday we had the great privilege of visiting Aravaipa Canyon, a federally protected wilderness area with extremely limited access (fifty people per day) and one of the few full time riparian areas left in southern Arizona. The canyon walls are steep and the bottom fairly flat, reminding me of Canyon de Chelly in the Navajo country. But Aravaipa is much narrower than Canyon de Chelly, and it's really a gorge through the mountains that is open on both ends, like the Grand Canyon but unlike most others (which typically have a terminus near the top of a mountain). The photograph was taken a little way up Horse Camp Canyon, branching off to the north, looking out into Aravaipa. That's my wife in the center of the picture, taking photographs of her own.