As the dawn turned to sun, the cliffs near the trailhead went Ansel Adams on us and then started to glow. The tall limestone cap which overlooked us was called "Old Turtleface." Our guide and new member David Bert explained to us that sandstone naturally occurs on top of limestone, so the canyon at Red Rocks is what remains of a natural cataclysm, reversing the normal order so that the limestone layer was above the sandstone.

The thing is, it really looked like the head of a turtle looking down on us that April 8th, 1998, right before sunrise. Sunrise bloomed portentously long before the first morning rays appeared. David had us on top of a nice small sandstone cliff by then. He played a tape of beautiful Amerindian music. I think I was feeling the effects of the two wonderful glasses of red wine I had at InterGraph's party the night before in Las Vegas. Not to mention the $5 I put on #14 (and $2 on 2nd-12) as my first, second, third (and was there a fourth?) bet; only that way on #14 and 2nd-12. I won. It was my first bet in Las Vegas ever, earlier a.m. that 8th at Whiskey Pete's.

Old Turtleface began to look more and more like a regular mountain, as the morning light sketched giant gaps between the sandstone cliffs. It's like the sandstone bluff we were looking out from had tumbled somehow from being on top of the limestone. I was more concerned with not falling myself, and realized there was no margin for carelessness. I was really feeling that wine, the fatigue, and the win (which paid my phone bill since I went to bed right after). I stayed on the bluff with Dann while the rest of the group all marched down to the traditional roasting pit with David, and then returned.

So it was back to hiking. The rocks beneath our feet were very significant. One certain truth is that if we didn't treat them as significant, we would likely fall and at least get scratched up by pebbles' sharp edges. An inevitable product, if you ask me, to eventually fall. In fact the most common recurring Petroglyph in the park was "The Fallen Man." Gee, I wonder why? Not slipping was an issue tromp after tromp after step-over-and-down.

So we went down a slope to an overhang which jutted down on the opposite side from the fire pit. One Digital Explorer said: "This brings up every height issue I've ever had." Everyone climbed down to the Pictographs of tall Mormon hat friends, so I had to join them. That's when I decided the problem was the thirty pounds I wished I immediately didn't have as extra weight (not to mention the other seventy). Had help. Got down. Whoah. It was a cool perch.

Then it was back up, over and down, cross the plants to cliffs opposite and pretend the slope was a staircase up to some Petroglyphs. The Amerindians here sure picked good spots. I wasn't the only tired one in the group. As we left to troop back to our first parking spot, David decided our group had better skip the arch. We passed some nice wildflowers. Whitman skipped landing flat-footed in short hops, which was a pretty efficient way to get across all the loose, sharp-edged pebbles.

We drove from there past the road overlook to the base of a waterfall. The soil here became wetter and a distinct tan scattered with larger rocks, more of them fist-size or bigger. At first, I went behind David and kept pace. Stepping where he stepped seemed a great thing to do.Then we were on about the correct level but were still over to the side from the crag in which the waterfall waited. As the sandstone jutted out in shelves on which we could walk or carefully place our feet, oxidized spots poked up from adjacent erosion of the rock to form brown pimples called "Indian Marbles" because they break off eventually and Indian children used to play with them. I was the straggler in the group, and Rob Lindstrom and Andy Hadel hung back for me.

Finally coming around the corner to the falls was a visual feast. Up ahead the group had settled comfortably by the falls. I found Dann had secured a great shady spot under a sharp-cut overhang. I sat down next to him and rested and stared. I certainly wasn't the first person to muse from this exact spot. It made me think about our member Jim Spohrer's "WorldBoard" idea. Dann checked his watch and it was 9:45 a.m.

It was so cool to watch everyone feeling all refreshed by the water of the waterfall, as they spread out, laughed, and photographed. So as we were leaving, I start talking to Doug Filter about what we were going to upload when we got down. I feel all intensely about the naming convention on our website which would make this trip "expeditions/040898". Of course after all the being careful I did to get huffing and puffing through this whole morning, when I get really passionate about subdirectory names that's when I slip and fall into a cactus. It was just a little prickly-pear cactus with few serious spines and lots of little annoying ones that break off beneath the skin. I think that really makes the point about computers and the web alienating us from our own bodies, which is part of the reason for having Digital Expeditions. Fallen Man, hmm.

Coming down was a joke. Todd Iorio did an interesting original way to get down so David Bert, Rob Lindstrom and I followed him with me taking up the rear once again. The worst thing was knowing that my own rear was adding to erosion pretty badly when sliding down hefty little loose rocks. I sent an unpleasantly large rock rolling down toward Rob Lindstrom at least three times. But we all got safely to the bottom, and it was time to conspire about how to make multimedia of all this.

Some of our group split off, either leaving disks with us or making arrangements. Since Rob Lindstrom and Todd Iorio were two of the people who had to go, we thought we'd settle for just getting a page up like we did last time (Feb. 19th) at Mount Wilson. Those of us planning to do this part convened at a nearby covered picnic area. I rode with Rob Sklenar and Andy Hadel, just as we had arrived dinnertime on the 7th. Doug, David, Toni, and Brent were already there. I went straight into the bathroom to take my pants and socks off and do a better job of plucking prickly-pear quills from my skin. Some of them even came out instead of breaking off.

David Bert had taken off with Toni to get pictures of the Joshua Trees in bloom, but after they came back we discussed things of mighty moment, like clients for instance or projects we'd like to do or pitch. Toni and I showed David the Nevada Wildlife Federation web page about Red Rock Canyon. We also talked about how fragile the area is and how good it was that the Bureau of Land Management was keeping the area pristine. We were not allowed to remove even a pebble from the park. The potential for vandalism was a real concern also, like the bamboo at my beloved Huntington Gardens which are defaced with graffiti.

Rob Sklenar was a bit cold and Doug put a big towel over him which was blue on one side and green on the other. Brent was sitting around with Toni and Andy on the cement against the railings. Brent said Rob looked like he should have been in the show at Caesar's the way he looked in that towel. Sklenar made a hilariously royal imperial lift of his right hand. Of course the towel raised with his arm. Brent sarcastically declamed a grandiose: "I am posting to the Internet!" He nailed it. It was hilarious.

So we just grabbed three quick images and kibbled together a quick page with a few words about the morning's trip. It was about noon now. We also talked a lot about how we wanted live webcasts from expeditions to become normal, and not this trivial making the point with one page. As of right now I'd like to say that we could really use support for our activities, and I am hoping to find people to help us financially. So Dann had driven up and then taken off to get food and drinks and come back. We had sorted of waited for him a long time. Doug and Rob drove over to the far end of the parking by the picnic area but still couldn't get a clear cell for the phone. Finally we split up since we figured Brent, Doug and Toni would just establish the signal from their van as we got on the road back toward Las Vegas. So they take off.

As Sklenar and Andy and I are driving off ourselves, we pass Doug pulled over by the side of the road. Brent comes up when we pull over and says that since Doug got the cell signal and we were still all together, Doug thought "the King" - meaning Sklenar - had better do it. So Rob uploads it with Brent standing shotgun holding the phone at a particular angle. Dann had pulled over too, as it turns out, with food from Arby's which he said was compliments of the Rio, because he had won nicely at slots. When we were all done, Brent said: "One thing I sure learned from this trip is it's important you point the phone in just the right way."