Circle the Cirque Crest

I would of liked to take a better picture of this beautiful canyon, and perhaps climb up a ways. There were shelves with trees, waterfalls, steep granite cliffs, cascades and secrets begging to be explored.

Kid Creek Canyon

Circle The Cirque Crest - By D.W.Donehoo (All rights reserved)

One spectacular sight which I had too little time to examine was the canyon of Kid Lakes outlets. Sheer walls with ledges crowded with tall trees, and free falling waterfalls hinted of other wonders the canyon must be hiding. It would be worth a trip up through Paradise Valley to the "Kid Valley" camp to explore the Kid Lakes outlets valley above. We forged on, actually using one of the outlets stream bed as a path through dense bush. This would be a very dangerous ford early season. Finally we broke through to "Kid Valley", and one of the first truly easy sections of the Blanco. We found an excellent camp on level ground near water, with a nearby forest. The whole valley was fairly level, actually looking like a section of Paradise Valley.
After the valley, travel improved dramatically. Guide books say the worst of the bush is in the lower section of the Blanco, but we found that not to be true. While there was bush, it tended to be no worse than waist high, with only a few exceptions. The down side of the bush was it was Manzaneda and thorny Snow Bush, making progress sometimes tricky. We were covering ground a lot faster , and finally Upper Paradise Valley could be seen below perhaps two miles away. The canyon narrowed yet again presenting a route finding challenge between the river and cliffs.

We threaded our way through river rocks, lowering our packs by hand at one point until I was standing on a fairly gentle granite slope with a clear view all the way to Upper Paradise Valley. From where I stood it looked like a large flat area below crowded with trees. All that stood in the way was another stretch of talus and bush, and then the inviting woods leading to the trail. I was relieved that it would soon be over, and I knew we had nothing major standing in our way. I began to relax, throwing off the pent-up tension of the last 24 hours. I would soon have a hot shower, dine at the buffet at Grant Grove, and sleep in my own bed that night. I would be sorry to leave the wilderness, but that would not keep me from enjoying the comforts of civilization. I began to walk down the easy granite slope, noting the patches of pine needles to be avoided, mentally mapped my route, and started down. About half way just before a turn to the left to avoid a patch of needles I glanced up one more time at the inviting woods below of Upper Paradise Valley.

And then, disaster struck.