Mojave Preserve and Providence Mtns Rec Area over New Year's
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 12:51 am
On Friday, December 30th I drove to Mojave National Preserve and hike to Old Dad Mountain in the afternoon, which turned out to be a really nice hike. Then in the evening I camped at Kelso Dunes with Scott, Ron, Ray, Juliet, Gary, and Joe.
Here are my pictures from the Old Dad
Mountain hike and Kelso Dunes:
http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/1091387
Here's my summitpost page on Old Dad:
http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain ... in_id/6239
On Saturday, December 31, 2005, we toured Mitchell Caverns and did a hike in the Hole-in-the-wall area. Then Joe and I camped out at the campground near Mitchell Caverns where we met up with Harlan, Courtney, and Rick. The winds picked up on Saturday night and were really strong that night - rocking our vehicles and blowing tents over, but it calmed down just in time for our hike to Fountain Peak in the morning. Sunday morning we all headed up the trail to Crystal Springs with the intention of getting to Fountain and maybe Edgar. Harlan, Courtney and Rick were moving really fast and looking for some extra fun along the ridge that leads to Fountain Peak; so we split up at Crystal Springs. Joe and I stayed in the overgrown canyon and the rest headed for the ridge.
We bushwacked through the vegetation and then when the canyon split we went right but after a while we decided that taking the left canyon would have been better because the terrain was getting pretty nasty, so we traversed over to to the other Canyon. From there it was steep but we were moving along okay. More choices - which saddle on the ridge was best? We picked one and climbed up some more steep loose rocks only to see that we'd have to traverse over a pretty rugged ridge to get to the summit of Fountain Peak. At first we thought we'd drop down and try to pick the ridge up closer to Fountain Peak, but we were feeling pretty beat up with our bodies all scratched and covered with stickers from cacti and other bushes; so we called it a day.
Other than getting scratched up more and falling on another cactus, the hike back down to was a speedy retreat - nothing like the hike up.
We got back to the parking lot about the same time as Courtney, Harlan, and Rick who not only got to Fountain Peak, but also made the rugged Class 3/4 traverse to Edgar Peak.
Pictures from Saturday and Sunday:
http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/1092284
I didn't get too many pictures on Sunday - I guess struggling too much with the cacti to take pictures.
Here are my pictures from the Old Dad
Mountain hike and Kelso Dunes:
http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/1091387
Here's my summitpost page on Old Dad:
http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain ... in_id/6239
On Saturday, December 31, 2005, we toured Mitchell Caverns and did a hike in the Hole-in-the-wall area. Then Joe and I camped out at the campground near Mitchell Caverns where we met up with Harlan, Courtney, and Rick. The winds picked up on Saturday night and were really strong that night - rocking our vehicles and blowing tents over, but it calmed down just in time for our hike to Fountain Peak in the morning. Sunday morning we all headed up the trail to Crystal Springs with the intention of getting to Fountain and maybe Edgar. Harlan, Courtney and Rick were moving really fast and looking for some extra fun along the ridge that leads to Fountain Peak; so we split up at Crystal Springs. Joe and I stayed in the overgrown canyon and the rest headed for the ridge.
We bushwacked through the vegetation and then when the canyon split we went right but after a while we decided that taking the left canyon would have been better because the terrain was getting pretty nasty, so we traversed over to to the other Canyon. From there it was steep but we were moving along okay. More choices - which saddle on the ridge was best? We picked one and climbed up some more steep loose rocks only to see that we'd have to traverse over a pretty rugged ridge to get to the summit of Fountain Peak. At first we thought we'd drop down and try to pick the ridge up closer to Fountain Peak, but we were feeling pretty beat up with our bodies all scratched and covered with stickers from cacti and other bushes; so we called it a day.
Other than getting scratched up more and falling on another cactus, the hike back down to was a speedy retreat - nothing like the hike up.
We got back to the parking lot about the same time as Courtney, Harlan, and Rick who not only got to Fountain Peak, but also made the rugged Class 3/4 traverse to Edgar Peak.
Pictures from Saturday and Sunday:
http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/1092284
I didn't get too many pictures on Sunday - I guess struggling too much with the cacti to take pictures.