Bad Photo, Amazing Experience

This is a terrible photo, taken in haste as the deer ran off. However, moments before the picture was taken I had the most incredible experience.

At Buckskin Gulch, I entered into a short section of slot canyon that was only about 10 feet wide with vertical walls. As I rounded a bend in the slot, I was shocked to see an entire herd of deer charging right at me. The lead deer skidded to a stop just before hitting me, causing the animals behind it to literally pile up, like a bunch of tailgaters in a fender-bender on the Loop 202.

The herd made an about-face and ran the direction from whence it came. But moments later, it came running back, charging me a second time!

Then all the deer just stopped in the middle of the slot, looking frightened out of their minds.

Further down the slot, just beyond the deer, another group of hikers appeared. They had spooked the deer into the slot, and the animals had become trapped in the narrow canyon between me and the other people. As the deer tried to figure out what to do, tension in the slot rose like a flash flood. Something had to give, or someone was going to get trampled by a dozen sets of hooves. Since I was just standing there trying to get my camera out of my pack, the other hikers decided they would turn around and run out of the slot, allowing the herd to escape.

And so they did. The above photo was taken after the deer got out of the slot and were running off into a more open section of Buckskin Gulch.

The rattlesnake and grasshopper were also in Buckskin Gulch. The coolest critters in the gulch, however, are ravens who actually fly through the slots. Acoustics in the canyon are great, causing everything to echo and amplifying the sound of flying ravens. Their flapping is so loud it sounds like a giant monster breathing...and getting closer...and CLOSER!!

Who'da thought there would be so many things living in such a little sliver of a canyon?