Page 21 - Volume 3 - Walks In The Black Range

It was wide enough, however, that we were able to use cowpaths on the banks at times to bypass some rougher passages. Spring was coming on late in this dry year, so the scenery lower down, lacking any greenery, was not the best, but high above our heads it got better and better. Massive cliffs, sparsely covered with desert vegetation on the south facing slopes, and painted with piñon and juniper on the north facing ones, had us craning our necks.
At the deepest bend was an alcove formed where a layer of shale is eroding more quickly than the layers above and below. Nothing remarkable was found when I investigated, except the piles of flood debris about 15 feet above the floor of the canyon.
Eventually, the netleaf hackberries, to my mind a tree of the lower desert, appeared and the heat seemed to rise. We sat in the branch shade of a huge cottonwood (alive but leafless still) and then made our much more slowly back.