I suggest we have a quick lunch and go looking for a place mentioned in the guidebook, the Bighorn Mating Grotto. It’s not at all obvious how to get there, and we have some discussion before agreeing to start up the Wonderland Wash. We pack a buch of gear for the extra exercise.

Five minutes in Ted spots a rattlesnake, and we all dance to get by it. Inevitably we go up a wrong wash and have to turn around. It’s really hard to keep a sense of direction in the Wonderlands, and I’m always trying to track the time and direction of shadows. Finally we find ourselves scrapping through bushes, rocks, and cactus. I break a strap on one of my Tevas just before we hit a wall. Not wanting to give up, I put on my rock shoes and climb over. The grotto is on the other side, grassy and cool with some imposing-looking cracks rising up at one end. I find another possible entrance, then rejoin Ted and Ann. They suggest that I was gone long enough to live up to the grotto’s name.

We turn around, vowing to return another day and perhaps sample the grotto’s climbs, but today the light is short and beer is beckoning…