The third day was
more spectacular scenery with interesting rappels and some more stretches of
extremely dense brush. We encountered one small rattlesnake which we somehow
spotted coiled amid the brush before almost stepping on it. A couple of the
rappels were a real challenge where you are forced to go down through the
stinging nettle infested brush and spraying water.At 4,000' we left the water and encountered three dry rappels with the last rappel at 2,700'. At 3,300', we were climbing down a 50' rock embankment and almost to the base when a mountain lion bolted from his shelter beneath a rock ledge. It was startling to have him bolt out 20' in front of us. We were glad he had not waited until one of us dropped down in front of the ledge before heading out and perhaps figuring he was cornered and would come out clawing.
The bottom two miles of Craig is fairly open with only occasional rock faces requiring easy climbing. We reached the canyon mouth by early evening and their was a 1/4-mile use trail leading south to an old mining area and roadhead where we can parked the cars three days earlier. Several of us then made the long drive back up to the crest to retrieve our shuttle vehicle at the top of Craig. Craig Canyon was as interesting and impressive as the other major east side Inyo canyons which all offer spectacular scenery, streams, and historic features. -Steve Smith-
