Painted Canyon: Adventure in the desert

I'm out here at Painted Canyons. Just got out here. It was a three hour drive from Los Angeles. Stumbled across this on a thrill list, a list of like ten places you didn't know existed in California. So I was like, checked it out on the map, it's only three hours away. So I was like, hey, looks pretty cool, I'm going to check it out. And when I got to the end of the dirt road down there, there was a sign that said four wheel drive only vehicles, and I was like, oh ----, because obviously I'm not driving a four wheel drive car. But you know, it was pretty packed down, it wasn't too bad. If you have no experience driving on loose sand, I would recommend not doing it, but you know, I've got some experience off roading in my Hyundai Accent, so yeah, it's pretty cool. If you saw my last video, you know what foods I recommend not eating before a big hike, so this time I thought I'd tell you how I got fueled up today. Obviously you want to eat something low fat, high carb, like fruit or rice. It's a slot canyon, there's a part that's called the ladder canyon, where you go into the slot canyons with ladders, but this place is feeling pretty refreshing. Good to get off, get out of the city, shake off the urban vibe, come out here and sweat a little bit in the desert. Some people like to sweat in saunas, I prefer to go out in the desert and sweat. Saunas smell like sweaty old man ass. To get to the ladder canyon, this is the main trail right here, you see the sign that says trail, and this big canyon goes off to the right, and then on the ground there, you can see a big arrow someone made with stones, and up where those people are coming from is actually the, that's actually where the ladder canyon is. Man, I'm only like 10 minutes in and already this place is awesome. Painted canyons, I hit this ladder, this is for I think the way back, I came through that way, and then the first ladder in is down here, but this place is cool. It's not too crowded, some older people, some young kids doing it, if you can climb a ladder man, this is, I highly recommend it so far, I'm only 10 minutes in, this is ******* sweet man. Man, this place is awesome. It's definitely not the place if you're claustrophobic, because you can see some pretty tight slots there. I hear some people coming, but man, I've seen old people, I've seen young people, it's not too difficult, the ladders are a little rickety, but I mean really, I probably wouldn't even need these ladders, I haven't seen one I couldn't do without a ladder yet, but yeah, this is awesome. The ladder canyon trail takes you up to the top of this ridge here, I ran into some people that said don't go right, I'll probably go up because it's a little higher, take a look on the other side, but they said go left, and it looks like you can follow this ridge trail back to the parking lot I guess, I don't really know. That's the cool thing about exploring new adventures, things you haven't done before, you get that adrenaline rush, that explorer vibe going on, get out of the city, get a good sweat, get carved up and get it ******* done man. So a little confusion because those dudes told me to stay left, but then this trail goes on, and I saw one of those stone arrows pointing this way, so tough call, who do you trust, a real person that you talk to, or the stone people, who knows, maybe the stone people know more than the regular people, because I see like there's cell towers over there and on this little hand drawn map that I saw online, it had cell towers that kind of look like the other side of the cell towers, you can link back to that original spot where the big main canyon trail broke off to the right that I showed you in the beginning. Alright well it looks like the stone people were right, I don't know what those people I ran into were talking about to stay left they said, so I followed the stone arrows, stayed right, started coming down from the ridge, and now you can see this goes back down to that main canyon that originally forked right where we went to the smaller slot canyon to the left at the beginning, so cool, I'm glad I'm going to make it back to my car, I think I'm getting a little low on water, but yeah this painted canyon man, this place is awesome, there's a whole back side of the ridge I didn't get to try, left side of the bigger, I think this big canyon goes around, it's a big loop, I'm not going to do that today, but I'm definitely coming back, this place is cool, funny thing, I left my new hiking boots in my wife's car, and so when I was heading out today I figured hey, well if you've seen my Carlin Falls video, which I'll put a link to, you know I don't recommend hiking in flip flops, so from personal experience, but I grabbed my old hiking boots, my old hiking boots, these North Face, I don't know what the model was, I've had these things since like 2009, they've been through trekking in the Himalayas, jumping off waterfalls in Costa Rica, trekking through the rainforest in Puerto Rico, and finally today I had a couple blowouts, I've glued those soles on, on the back side, never on the front, but on the back side a couple times, just a little bit of crazy glue in there, but I definitely got my money's worth, looks like when I get home I'll be chucking those in the garbage man, North Face, North Fake, that's the stuff you buy in Pokhara, Nepal, North Fake, but North Face makes quality products, I don't remember the brand of my new boots, I think they're Merrells or something like that, but man these things lasted a long time, I definitely got my money's worth, hopefully the soles, which are hanging on by a thread, stay hanging on by a thread until I make it back to my car, but Painted Canyon, Ladder Canyon, can't recommend this place enough, absolutely beautiful, nobody out here, ran into a couple people, but good to come when it's still a little bit hot, that way it's not crowded, but definitely bring more water than you think you need, I drank 2 liters in the car on the way, and I have 3 liters in my backpack, I don't know how much is left, but I'm definitely going to go through that on the way back, but man this place was awesome, definitely check it out, highly recommend it, peace!