Down in the ground

There’s a slot canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park imaginatively named the Slot. While the famous slot canyons of the Colorado Plateau are usually smooth tan sandstone, the walls of the Slot are gray sediment that tends to erode in lumps and chunks. It doesn’t create juicy yellow-to-pink-to-purple light, but it’s still enjoyable, in a different, slightly spooky way. More like descending through one of the less-awful levels of hell than slipping through a secret passageway to heaven. The oh-ee-yah, ee-oh-uh chant of the Witch of the West’s guards would be an appropriate soundtrack for this hike. Instead there were just the chatter and laughter of kids, and the wheezing and grumbling of old farts wanting to know how much farther it is and if it gets worse.