We left Muley Tanks refreshed after our rest day. I’m so glad I took time off in Hanksville because my knees are now doing better, and they seem to keep up with recovering from each day’s hiking again.

We headed down Halls Creek for five easy miles, then chugged up the Red Slide on a steep, faint mining trail. The rocks and cliffs were a deep, rich brownish red, perfectly complemented by the pinyon and juniper near the top. We skirted a huge drainage to climb a pass, where we stopped for lunch on this warm and lovely day.

After a steep scramble down, we entered Middle Moody Canyon through an upper arm. As we walked down, the walls grew higher, and the middle of the canyon floor was sometimes blocked with massive sculpted boulders we got to climb around.

Dave pointed out a spectacular shooting star as we sat eating dinner on a ledge above the canyon floor. The moon is nearly full and the night quite still.

TRAIL NOTES:
There was a trickle of water in Halls Canyon from a side canyon before the Red Slide, but there was recent rain. Also found a small pothole of water just before joining Middle Moody, and a tiny intermittent trickle later that looked very alkaline.