Trail Option

A personal geography of landscape and place, art and geo-science.

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Fall Color – Smith Valley, NV

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Riparian colors. A minor drainage shines in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

A storm had set in; great wind and slashing rain at StoneHeart throughout the night. And yet the Sierra seemed to have caught the storm by the tail keeping it from breaking further east. When this happens, the sunrise has promise. Hunting color at the edge of the storm, I set out into the dark rain of the pre-dawn, hoping the weather radar had truth in it.

Fall Color – Smith Valley Collection

Upstream. A riparian corridor in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Pairing. Cottonwoods turning late in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Lagging. Cottonwoods hover over a lone willow, Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Catching. Cottonwoods catch first light in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Overlay. Riparian shrubs in the watershed of Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Surrounds. A play of orange among the willows, Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

Fall Color – Smith Valley Collection

Smith Valley is on the opposite side of the Pine Nut Mountains, east of our home. In less than an hour, I am in the calm of the valley with dark clouds scudding off the mountain ridges above and to the west. It is as I hoped, a warm glow is peaking in the east and will light the east-facing mountain front. There is color here; black cottonwoods and willows peak from riparian corridors framed by golden rabbitbrush and grasses. Sometimes plans are brilliant.

Spring memory. A promise of life as the seasons turn, Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

I arrived at Spring Gulch, a sometime well-watered cleft between the lower slopes of the Pine Nuts and the Buckskin Range, and began picking compositions around individual trees. The trees were beautiful and still, almost begging for the new light. Somewhere above me the wind howled, but its effects remained invisible at the mountain tops even as its voice rolled downslope, an ominous warning of the storm rolling over and disturbing the peace in the little woodland.

Road to nowhere. An eager two-track scars the hills of Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

Working over the course of an hour or so, spitting rain reminding me of the storm at hand, I was very happy with the reward of the riparian corridors of the Great Basin Desert. Especially pleased at being relatively close to home. I journeyed back south, the wind and rain dropping in at my back altering and erasing my presence. I had stolen a few minutes in the calm before the storm, a perfect Sunday morning in Nevada.

Pivot and tree. Another cutting done in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

Fall Color – Smith Valley Collection

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands. #naturefirst #keepgoing

Fall Color: A Rainy Evening in Hope Valley

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Aspen mosaic. Autumn’s passing in Hope Valley, Carson Range, USA

Finally, rain. I spent the last week in the Mojave Desert, gouging around Las Vegas Valley, walking several ranges, and spending too much time in a casino conference center. I cannot complain about returning to in-person gatherings with colleagues and friends, but I still felt I needed the solace of Hope Valley among the first storm clouds of the fall. I had missed the peak colors, it seems, but the aspens and willows of Hope saved something for me.

Holding still. A lone aspen at the edge of the grove, fall colors in Hope Valley, CA, USA.

I found, however, that a darkness had settled in and the compositions, to my eye, today, were few. I worked among the trees and hiked between scattered groves of color. Two images stood out and I was happy to get the simple shots as the light faded further.

Fall Colors – Hope Valley Collection

As I walked, I reflected on the week and month as the pandemic appeared to fade. Our meetings had been an apparent success and I wondered if I could dare feel some relief (Omicron variant was still in our future). In my hand my camera fired, with the settings of a relatively slow shutter speed. The view on the screen was a blur, reminding me of the potential creativity of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM). I began to play and started to see things unexpected; things that seemed to relate to my daring sense of relief and recovery. Certainly not to everyone’s taste, but I like the creation in the moment when abstraction meets emotion, even when it is simple and personal.

Recovering. Hope Valley, Carson Range, USA
At the edges. Hope Valley, Carson Range, USA
Is there an after? Hope Valley, Carson Range, USA

Fall Colors – Hope Valley Collection

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands. #naturefirst #keepgoing

Nevada High Points #94 – Bird Spring Range

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False glitter. The lights of Las Vegas, Bird Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

Peak 5695

5695 ft (1736 m) – 1050 gain

2021.10.15

Peak 5965 – Bird Spring Range Photo Collection

Thankfully, my time in Vegas was about over. Leaving the conference hotel in the early evening, I worked my way south toward Jean, Nevada, eventually turning west toward Goodsprings. I hit the flaggy cobble-strewn track cut into the carbonate fans at the western slopes of the Bird Spring Range; the track parallels a dendritic dry wash draining the southern end of the Spring Mountains, of which the Bird Springs are a southeastern extension. The road, incised by consistent travel, cuts through a rocky plan of Joshua Trees and creosote. A smoother, less-used track heads into a broad swale in the northeastern portion of the range. I do not want to drive too far, as it looks like tracks head toward the summit ridge, so I find a turn out and settle into an evening walk.

Bird Spring approach. An easy evening walk to the high point of the Bird Spring Range, Mojave Desert, USA
Cactus light. The sharp ends catch the last light of the evening, Bird Spring Range, Mojave Desert, USA

The light feels harsh until the sun is on the brink of the horizon, golden hour rushes past in mere minutes. I am, however, excited by the walk into nightfall, making way steadily up a useless vehicle trail. A few outcrops of gritty limestone punctuate the trail, where a bright waning moon is diligently chasing the sun. The upper steps of flaggy limestone are steep, and it seems the vehicles have forced their way to a rounded summit plateau. It is a dead-end drive, but I guess the lights of Las Vegas are the draw – and a cheap way to climb a mountain. Happy I am alone this evening.

Into the dark. Night settles in as I approach the steep summit trail, Bird Spring Range, Mojave Desert, USA

I find the summit cairn of Peak 5695, high point of the Bird Spring Range. Earth’s shadow has rocketed past, and the Vegas glitter shows its fleeting beauty – it does look fancy and promising from this height and distance. I am glad to have followed my previous morning outings with an evening one.

Summit register #94

Peak 5965 – Bird Spring Range Collection

The descent is slow in the cone of the headlamp light, ball-bearing gravel rolling on limestone steps. A Joshua Tree, with a reaching arm, startles me as it pops into the peripheral light, anthropomorphic brush at my shoulder. I laugh out loud, only to shiver at the sudden creepiness. But as things flatten in the canyon bottom, I enjoy the last of the moonlight.

It has been a good week of walks in the hills of southern Nevada’s Mojave Desert. I will admit, however, that the peak-bagging spree has begun to lose its magic. I needed the escape from the urbanity of Vegas, but the series of small peaks – though high points of named ranges – has felt hurried. I look forward to slowing down and moving further east on my future visits this far south.

Keep going.

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands.

#naturefirst #keepgoing

Nevada High Points #92 – Frenchman Range

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Sunrise Mountain. The skyward tilt of the limestone rocks of Sunrise Mountain guarding the northern end of the Frenchman Range, Mojave Desert, USA

Frenchman Mountain

4052 ft (1235 m) – 2400 ft gain

2021.11.12

I slept much better in Kyle Canyon the other night. The past two nights, however, have been strange. I have a room at the Flamingo in Las Vegas; it is a perfectly fine room with a nice view, but I feel trapped. Although I have a conference to attend later in the week, and work to do at our local office, I need to get out early and get back in the air.

I am in Vegas for the week, so I plan to take advantage and get beyond the urban interface to summit a few of the local, small high points, a couple of which are visible from my 24th-story window. But, before I can see any mountains on the eastern horizon, I am driving into the dark of the early morning and into a sheeting rain squall on the Lake Mead highway. Frenchman Mountain, the high point of the range of the same name, is the goal for this morning’s walk. It is a mountain I have looked at every time I am in Las Vegas Valley, and I stared at it for much of the time I spent in my hotel room yesterday – I am no fan of the casino and with the pandemic in its delta phase, and who knows what that is, I am not spending much time in the public masses of the casino floor.

The rain let up as dawn approached. Behind the rain, a brisk wind poured from the north, ripping at my jacket as I left the trailhead. The hike to the summit is rather uninteresting, and I kind of wish I would have found the faint trail that climbs from the west, but in the dark of a quick morning, the road to the summit towers makes sense. It is a road, however, that seems to go straight up. The hike stirs the soreness that echoes from the Charleston Peak effort a few days ago, but it fades as I gain elevation.

HP #92 Collection

Frenchman Summit. Communication towers at the high point of the Frenchman Mountains, Frenchman Range, Mojave Desert, USA

The road folds in ever-climbing switchbacks into the cleft of the canyon and views are only to the north. I am soon at the first pass; a false summit that might be disappointing if I did not expect it. I knew I would lose a lot of elevation after this pass before climbing the second steep grade to the summit. It came as no surprise. I would later see two groups that arriving at this point and, looking down the steep drop before the track’s ultimate rise, and probably influenced by the buffeting wind concentrated at the pass, would seem to utter, “forget it”, and turn back, descending to the trailhead.

The uninteresting ascent, descent, and ascent-again is well worth it. Thinly bedded, brown to white sandstone, limestone, and dolomite protrude in crenelated skins, tilted razors peeling away against the sky. Cactus, creosote, and blackbrush cling to the steep, parched slopes.

Seafloor reckoning. Tilted beds of limestone and dolomite form the dramatic crest along the summit of Frenchman Mountain, Frenchman Range, Mojave Desert, USA

A misstep on the summit ridge could mean a deadly tumble in the washes thousands of feet below. It is surprising and exhilaratingly steep. I wander the summit straddling the ridge, the summit towers obscuring the natural setting and sitting in two clusters along the ridge. But these dramatic mountain rises above one of the most unnatural settings there is: Las Vegas blankets the valley below the peak, a sparkling mundanity of straight-line streets leading to the false opulence of the strip. (Is that too much? It is how I feel this morning because I am expected back down there).

The hike back to the trailhead is quick and windy. I meet the parties that re-think their outing at the first, false summit. I encourage them onward, but soon notice they are following me down.

Back on the 24th floor of the casino, I see Frenchman rising on the valley’s eastern skyline. It will greet the sun early tomorrow morning (and many days after, of course), but I will look at it a differently than I have in the past. It was a good to roam its summit and a great way to escape the valley, chasing the squalls into the early light. If I look to the south, I can see the River Mountains, I think I will do this again tomorrow.

Early snow on Charleston. Snow remains from the squalls of our summit day on Charleston Peak in the distance, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

HP #92 Collection

Keep going.

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands.

#naturefirst #keepgoing

Nevada High Points #91 – Spring Mountains

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Time hoarders. Bristlecone pine – another day in the element where they are and have been. Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA.

Charleston Peak

11,918 ft (3633 m) – 5300 ft gain

2021.11.09

We have not been on a big hill for a few months. The smaller, hidden gems are a pleasure, but nothing beats some elevation gain and ultimate altitude. I had a work week in southern Nevada, so we decided that for Second Friday we would climb Charleston Peak, high point of the Spring Mountains and a nice prominent summit in the midst of the Mojave Desert. Darren would fly home on Sunday, after which I was sentenced to a week on the strip. But I will deal with that later, tonight I am on the edge of the Mount Charleston Wilderness.

HP #91 Collection

A simple camp on a tributary wash at Kyle Canyon, Spring Mountains.

Camped in Kyle Canyon – bagged a USFS spot for a couple nights – I am up in the dark at 5.30 to prep coffee and breakfast, fuel for the day; Darren soon pops out of his tent to join me. We had set up our packs last night, and they were slightly heavier than usual. The day held an unsettled forecast so that meant a few more layers to take along – and I had my camera and a couple lenses, always good to be prepared even if it was a nice, promising morning. So, all things ready, we made a quick drive to the trailhead, where several cars were already in the lot – a small pack of trail runners heads north, they might have an adventurous day.

Guarding the summit. Charleston Peak rises above its eastern limestone escarpment, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

The typical route to Charleston Peak is known as the ‘South Loop’, although it is often done as an out-and-back. That is our plan given the day’s forecast. Although I am curious about alternative routes – the ‘North Loop’, also not a loop, stands out – there is a rather massive limestone wall that rises for a thousand feet or so, forming an abrupt and defensive eastern escarpment. And yet, there must be some interesting and challenging routes in there somewhere. Those kinds of challenges are behind me now.

Trail at sunrise. The first switchbacks at first sun, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA
The good boundary. Entering the Mount Charleston Wilderness on the north slope of Griffith Mountain, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

We begin the South Loop below Cathedral Rock and are soon in the slow switchbacks that ascend the gullies that cut the north face of Griffith Peak, a southern pinnacle on the long ridge connecting Griffith and Charleston. The route is basically forested switchbacks, one after another, leading unendingly, it seems, to the long (~4 miles) ridge that then climbs gradually for the remainder of the walk to the high point. It is a splendid trail. We have traversed riparian woodlands leading to stands of ponderosa pine transitioning to lodgepole, fir, and, eventually, bristlecone – wonderfully diverse above the desert.

Under the storm. The last sun before the storm, streaming through a canyon below Griffith Peak, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

At the ridge, we begin to encounter rime ice, clinging as windvanes to leeward sides of tree branches and blades of grass – the wispy strands of ice reach several inches in length. Although calm now, it is obvious that yesterday (last night?) it was windy and cold, with just the right amount of moisture to form the wonderful crystals. The ethereal ice highlights the skeletal remains of once healthy pines consumed by the Carpenter 1 fire of 2013. We would walk in the fire scar for the first half of the summit ridge.

Frozen in place. Rime ice traces a red thistle on the South Loop, Charleston Peak, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA
Lime and frost. Playful patterns in the windy rime ice huddled against a limestone outcrop, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

A small summit hiking team, all women from Los Angeles and, formerly, Costa Rica, catches us as we paused to relish the fog that swirls on the western wind churning along the ridge. At our meet-up, they ask if we are doing the North Loop on the descent and given that Darren and I had started a discussion about our descent route while switchbacking through the forest, I immediately confirmed that we would indeed be heading north after the summit. It would be a good, if quick, decision.

Trail fog. Costa Rican summit team, our partners for the day, work steadily up the south loop trail, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

The fog became definitive cloud and pellety graupel pecked at our shirts and packs. The climbing kept us warm, but the moisture crept in. It was windy now too, but the trail guided us easily even as we needed to be strident in the building wind. We soon found, just below the summit, the wreck of the 1955 CIA plane. It is a few large fragments of the fuselage and landing gear (and certainly other bits) strewn among east-sloping talus. It seems that it only just missed clearing the ridge, but, flying east, it crashed into the western slope and tumbled terribly over the ridge. Apparently disoriented in a storm, the plane went down, and none survived their secret commute to Groom Lake (Area 51) deep in the Nevada desert.

We regain the trail, turning into the wind on the northwest slopes; it is snowing steadily and brashly now. Finally, the radio towers of the rounded summit came into view, but we were otherwise clouded-in – there was no view in any direction. Should we wait? Would it be a short time until a little clearing revealed a desert panorama far below? Who knows? One thing was sure; the wind chill was crisp, and the moisture of our climb made the cold cling to us, like the rime ice building on the summit towers. We donned our down jackets and set off into the wind-driven squall scouring the giant Z switchbacks on the peak’s eastern face. The Costa Rican party summited just behind us.

A summit squall. Darren checks the weather on the summit of Charleston Peak, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

The North Loop has, just below the summit, a very different character than the South Loop. Its switchbacks are exposed, and filled with recent hard-packed snow, the narrow trail is almost serious, especially with the blowing snow and fog adding a bit of drama. I am immediately glad we came this way. There are stories in the ‘summit’ blog sites implying that the North Loop is not worth doing because it lacks interest. How wrong that is! After the few exposed switchbacks, we begin a long traverse, passing the Devils Thumb on our way to the upper reach of Trail Canyon. And we soon get exceptional views of the summit behind and just above us – yes, the summit is clear now. There are mountain views you simply do not get on the South Loop. The trail remains above 11,000 feet for several miles, skirting rock walls and pulpited hoodoos. I would not have wanted to miss this; if we can miss something that we do not know about.

The clearing. The clouds break as we descend the east face of Charleston Peak, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA
A grove of ledges. The light follows our descent as we traverse the ledges below the Devils Thumb, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA
Ending the loop. Darren enjoying the scenes of the North Loop below Charleston Peak, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

I was beginning to feel the long day as we approached Trail Canyon junction, almost 16 miles into our walk. Autumn colors peeking from the evergreen forest replaced the fog and snow show. The warm color in the raking light of the evening made the descent a pleasure. The Costa Ricans had joined us for most of the afternoon, and it was clear I was lagging more than these steady walkers. We talked of other peaks of late and climbs of the future.

Kyle Canyon. The post-storm light plays with the autumn colors of Kyle Canyon, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

Pavement appeared abruptly at the wilderness boundary, the bottom of Trail Canyon. This meant that we had a road-walk for the last mile, but this was fine; it gave us time to review the day and bask in the true pleasure of unexpected alpine walking adventure. It might have been the best day I have had on a mountain – completely unexpected in such proximity to the desiccated oddity of Las Vegas.

Charleston Peak. The high point of the Spring Mountains rises above southern Nevada, Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

On the truck’s tailgate, we toasted our unique day on this great mountain tailgate, and then a couple from Connecticut, whom we had met as they headed south on the high switchbacks of the North Loop, came out of the forest below Cathedral Rock. They looked due for a finish and a rest, so we offered them a ride to the Trail Canyon parking area. I was happy to do this until they said they had had a clear summit after our warning of snow and windy fog. But that is how it goes, and, of course, this news failed to diminish our pleasure of a perfect day.

HP #91 Collection

Even freeze-dried spaghetti tastes special after a day like this. Refueled and cherishing the echoes in our legs, we sat by the fire and marveled at our good fortune. Then slept very well.

Keep going.

Giving way. Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands.

#naturefirst #keepgoing