![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn8Ig5Rty7o8SqUUg7GHkRLL77qXFr_3-hLReEz_FdNBzwQNAeJ-50i7-mhtkeWBq-R9Vqbm6dSIZ8iEv2Mg3auDu66ab8EZdmxO5b6iPxsvsc6zYeYNntReitLDhLB_YRtvsR_9hkYsg/s400/RedrockCynFormations18b.jpg)
Redrock Canyon in the Mojave Desert (click to enlarge). William Manley, the first 49er to cross Death Valley, passed through this canyon and recorded in his memoir that it was a small, spring-fed paradise. Manley arrived there in December, so he didn't know that in April, ferocious, freezing 60-mile-an-hour winds rip through this otherwise idyllic desert canyon, often for days at a time.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbY4qmR2jLQ3mzj4KgxGRuqyJsdHsantg9b1t3YrpSSir6gmPfpMy5s8Y2nY_IpOngNLkOnBYJv9tXr_N0zTMblSQ6uzrpmRmfuyBoNTPmX1q-kmvFCdYmABPSxVpM3TX_32zIuDfRHBg/s400/RedrockCynFormations19.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmYNBFhOoqrwzN8EeWWYfWCBQryny-XwDOuBuOLMApESb7uB4yDInS1Czz-uJrfA31vri5_G5fwHQAaEgaPkOqRUVHmY2Zi7aSL-oVJTiuBtO4vsmoj9uAqOAl00WaZdW0Clx7HbHM48w/s400/RedrockCynViewNWhc.jpg)
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The winds finally let up for a few hours the next day around noon, and I set out on a hike to explore the painted desert.
I returned to the camper as the winds kicked up again, and spent another sleepless night in the Mojave, praying to God knows who to pull through this horrific experience in a sandblasted corner of Hell ... See Redrock Canyon, but never, never in the month of April.
- Nature Hunter
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