Warren Point
Joshua Tree National Park
We finished our Arizona trip in time to stop by Joshua Tree National Park for the annual Holiday Hooplah put on by the Hundred Peaks Section. Of course, there are peaks to climb. I signed up for some lower peaks, which are on a different list and watched over by a different group, but then had to find another hike due to a leader getting injured. The only one on offer that I had not done was a little hike to Warren Point. This starts from the same location as the hike I signed up for for Sunday and the future will likely have both hikes combined into a single elaborate peak bagging extravaganza. For now, we gather at an easy hour on a mild day to start off into the desert.
The area has a network of trails and a simple map is available from the visitor center. We wander the ones that take us toward Warren View, a smaller peak near Warren Point that has a nice view. It is a whim on the part of the leader because a guy who had been there many times once got elaborately lost on the way before writing his will on his baseball cap and getting found just short of death. The trails we follow are shallow canyons and obvious while the footsteps are visible, but would be hard as the first person after a rain.
We spur off on the wrong trail in an accidental and very short possible reenactment of the lost man's moves, but catch it and fix it somewhat before 5 days have passed.
The trails do have markings at the junctions, but they are very simple. A couple letters in flaking paint on the sides of a post is supposed to suffice to direct the traveler.
Just a little bit of climbing and we stand at the viewpoint. It does have some view.
We traverse off the View to catch the trail up to the Point.
In very little time, we are standing on Warren Point.
There is a well established use trail heading off another side of the peak and after chatting with a local snow bird coming up it in his flip-flops, we head down it.
Among all the plants similar to the ones I have been seeing in the last week, mostly cholla and other cactuses, I take a little time to record a few of the unique ones.
Bill knows I like to search for section corners, so stops near one he knows is actually there. He sets the group on it and we have it in less than a minute. It is just a stack of stones, likely described in some detail on a piece of decaying paper somewhere, with no signs warning against destruction or there will be a small fine, but it is exactly where the map says it is.
The use trail eventually hits an official trail and we start again on following the various trails back to the visitor center.
©2016 Valerie Norton
Posted 18 December 2016
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