I climb up the high road, but it dead-ends at a transmission tower

So much for the high road! I ride back down to the sandy wash. It's getting hard to see, so I turn on my headlight.

On the way back down, I look at a fork in the high road that leads steeply down into a narrow canyon. I consider following it, but wonder if maybe it too is a dead end that would require that I climb back up just to get back to the main wash.