Red Rock Canyon

This morning a small piece of sun makes its way to our campground. The clouds are heavy but there is no rain yet and we pack up a lunch and head off to Red Rock Canyon. The hike is short, and while others take the paved path around the canyon John and I climb down the bank and into the creek. We skirt the sides of the creek to get a good look at the rocks - which as would be expected - are very red. The water is clear and runs over rocks that are at turns burgandy, wine coloured, terra-cotta or orange depending on if they are wet or dry. As well , a cream coloured stone runs through all this, creating a swirled or striped effect in the rock. Underwater the red and white stones take on the shapes of salmon, sitting in the hollows of the river.

The canyon is a beautiful gash in the prairie: hard and curved, ragged pines hang off its edges, moss and small ferns grow down the steep slopes.

This is mudstone - originally the bottom of an inland sea, and then packed down over millions of years. It is in on it way to becoming shale in some parts of the canyon - but isn't there yet as the walls release small red flakes of rock. Some of the stone holds the shapes of a shallow sea...ridged impressions of the sand under the water. There are also what I call flower stones - green with white sunbursts patterned across them - the fossilized bodies of ancient creatures.

We walk up the canyon as far as possible without wading in too deep and reflect for a moment on what this place was like before contact: an orange/red canyon cut through the grasslands of a lush prairie, a piece of light and likely rest for those who lived here.

Now it is a National Park with a concrete parking lot under construction to hold the tour buses that migrate here each summer.

Of the river...the poet Tim Lilburn has this to say....

In itself and elsewhere, the river a feathered thing.
I'll go down there.
I'll take the gold body
That is quarter-full in my body, thinness rushing
                             to its edge, a building voice,
and put it in the grass.


 Of course John is shooting pictures so check out his handy work - very nice.
http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/sredir?uname=johnsampsonphoto&target=ALBUM&id=5514629545573643233&authkey=Gv1sRgCKjO37Wtlu6HZQ&feat=email

Talk to you all soon - S:)