2003-11-07 Lost Mine and The Window 2003-11-08 Pine Canyon and Ernst Tinaja 2003-11-09 Cattail Canyon 2004-11-04 The Journey 2004-11-05 Casa Grande and Lost Mine 2004-11-06 Cattail Canyon 2004-11-07 Santa Elena Canyon and Cattail Falls 2005-06-01 Chisos Mountain Lodge 2005-06-02 Emory Peak 2005-06-03 Desert Views 2005-06-04 The Window at Sunset 2005-11-03 Cattail Canyon 2005-11-04 South Rim 2005-11-05 Santa Elena Canyon by Canoe 2005-11-06 Santa Elena Canyon by Canoe 2002-11-08 Emory Peak and South Rim 2002-11-09 Cattail Falls and Santa Elena Canyon 2002-11-09 Terlingua and Lajitas 2002-11-10 Old Ore Road and Hot Springs 2002-11-10 The Window at Sunset

Day 3 (Sunday, 11/9/2003)

Casa Grande' would have to wait, because on Sunday, Robert and I set out in an attempt to find a way into Cattail Canyon, the virtually inaccessible hanging canyon above Cattail Falls. We had a tip from a ranger in the Basin that some hikers had successfully found their way in by ascending the 1000-foot talus/scree slope to the south of the falls, which goes up and around the peak and would offer at least a view of the canyon if not a way down into it.

Simply getting to the talus field involved a somewhat non-trivial bushwack across the ravine beneath Cattail Falls. The talus field also proved to be a much more difficult ascent than we'd predicted, and we found out later that much of the difficulty was due to approaching it from the wrong angle. Upon rounding what we thought was the outcropping at the top of the field, we discovered that we'd climbed into a dead end. And since the field was at about a 45 or 50-degree slope at that elevation, traversal over to the correct path would have been treacherous, so we opted to call it a day. But despite not seeing the canyon, we got some spectacular views of the western desert and discovered the correct path to take for next time.

So next year's dance card is already full.