Caliente Mountain

Carrizo Plain National Monument

Click for map.

I have been thinking I might return to Caliente Mountain for a climb of it rather than a walk over from the side of it. I am not too keen on the traditional really hot day for it, though. I signed up for another Hundred Peaks Section hike, this time lead by the Doggetts and Jin Oak. At least one Simpson did it the week before, but I did not get signed up to that one. The weather promises to be stunning: a little cloudy and cool although with just a touch of a possibility of a chance of rain. Well, maybe a little more than that. It might rain. The early morning drive started into a stunning sunrise full of clouds and the spaces needed to let the light hit those clouds. We parked a little further from the mountain than expected at a new locked gate that sprang up a few years back, not quite using the parking area designated by some pipes on the opposite side of the dirt road.

gate across a fading road — The gate across the fading road at our start. Caliente Mountain is the high point toward the left.

With our boots on and our gear set for hiking and the sign in complete, we walk around the gate and fencing blocking our vehicular progress and set out across the grasses on a shortcut of the fading road that loops a bit to the north. The drying grasses have just enough moisture left in them to leave our socks alone with their sharp seeds. There are only a few flowers mixed in, generally in clumps.

chia and sunflower — A bi-colored composite and a very puffy chia variety among the not-quite-dry grass.

A gully gives us a bit of trouble in the crossing. Higher up, it is a step across as long as one can find stable footing on the sides. Further down, it requires a bit of climbing. Maybe down by the road it is fairly smooth. We get back on the road as we come to what was once the end of a drive for this hike. The gate here looks more official, having signs like "administrative use only" and a handy hiker gate to the side. Now we follow the faint road upward until if stops, having gotten... where? There is a decaying piece of machined wood, wider than a typical fence post, to the side and otherwise nothing. Our stop is high above, so we climb the hill ahead past another old fence to the ridge line.

burned fence posts and the plain — Looking across the plain. The old fence line below is a bit burned.

route for the peak — The ridge ahead. We will follow along the ridge beside Abbott Canyon to get to the peak. It is rather clear for a while.

Soda Lake to the northwest — Up on the ridge, we get a look out to Soda Lake. It all looks quite dry from here.

Once on the ridge, it is easy travel. Well, there is a thin rocky bit just a little way along it from where we first climbed up, but then it is easy travel through the grass. The others before us have beaten a faint trail. Sometimes it curves around the edge of a small bump, but mostly it sticks right to the top of the ridge line.

three passing through a clump of yellow flowers and other yellow flowers — Passing through a clump of fiddleneck as we follow a little down the side of the ridge line.

hikers along the top of the ridge line — Following along the top of the ridge line. Looking back, a light line of shorter bumps almost as far as the distant Tremblor Range shows the San Andres Fault.

Hiking ever upward. Oh, and a single yucca plant may see fit to bloom this year.

bumble bee doing its thing — Some phaceila come with a bumble bee.

Gradually, the we meet more and more brush. At first it is juniper bushes. Then manzanita gets mixed in and eventually it all seems to swap over to scrub oak. We have to walk around it all, but there is still plenty of room to hike.

yellow flowers on a hillside — Coming up on a field of gold as we wind around the juniper.

grassy hillside — Looking back down Abbott Canyon. The light plays through the grasses in fun ways.

rounded white flowers groups with more or less yellow centers showing — A sudden spattering of white pincushions.

foothills and a bit more — Looking southeast along the feet of the mountains.

The brush gets closer and closer. Somehow this does not cut off our possible trails. The thin track braids below and it braid above. Sometimes a trimmed yucca gives a clue as to where we might go to find an easier route, but even those seem to follow more than one track. Really, everything could be a route, just some routes are more miserable than others.

lower peaks around — The nearby peaks are falling away below us as we clamber through the scrub oak.

bush of purple flowers — We still have some flowers. Just a few lupine, but flowers.

The last of the climb was well shaded by clouds making it quite nice. A bit of scrambling around gets us an opening that lets us out onto the vanishing road at the top. Peter keeps pointing out that when we top out on this one, we will have done the entirety of the list that is in San Lois Obispo County. I wonder that surely there is some other worthy peak over 5000 feet around, but am answered it is not a question of worth or even accessibility, but existence. This is the only one that qualifies for the list. We wait a few minutes for the last of the group to get to the road, then take off to the peak.

brushy peak on down a vanishing road — Taking off down the old road to the peak.

purple and white flowers — Still finding a field of flowers here and there. It is spring, after all.

west along Cuyama River — The road is along the range top, so there are new views when we get there like this view west along the Cuyama River valley.

We arrive at the top. The broken Aircraft Warning Service cabin at the top looks somehow less substantial than when I came up five years ago.

telephone pole and toppled cabin — Arriving at the top, which is marked by a telephone pole.

edge of collapsed cabin and the rest of the range — The range is all quite a bit shorter to the southeast. Distant Mount Pinos looks like it might be getting some very light rain.

Soda Lake and more of the plain — Soda Lake out on a cloud shadow spattered Carrizo Plain. A more circular depression second from the right looks like it might still have some moisture.

twisting river path — Looking down on the twisting path of the Cuyama River.

All too soon, it is time to take off again, back the way we came. We still have a long way to get home.

thin path where there was once a road — Returning along the old road.

We stop a little short of where we came up where there is a thin trail going down. This was our aim, but we got a bit off in the confusion of the brush below. We rejoin our trail at a spot between where I pointed out some trimmed yucca followed by an arc of clear space and when I pointed to some more clear space on a ridge above, all of which moved the group in that direction. Oops. The first half of it was good, though. Once on our old trail, the stick marks Ignacia drew on the ground while being sweep really help direct us back down the way we came.

rusty barbed wire — A single line of rusty barbs keeps us in line along one section of the route.

energetic clouds — A few clouds show a little energy in them just before puffing into nothing.

It is all a bit easier once we are out of the brush again. As we approach the spot we first gained the ridge, we now edge around the side of the bump toward the dilapidated fence line below and then out onto the edge of the plain where the faint road is found. We follow it back, although I do not quite see how it swings northward after the gate and end up trying to cross the gully just a little further down from my earlier step across. It is clear others have crossed here before because they have carved a bit of a path down the steep sides.

carvings by nature — A closer look at the sandstone stripes.

a couple ranches on the plain — Nearly back down on the plain below with the ranches.

gully in the plain edge — Looking up the gully.

From the gully, we wander in vaguely the right direction toward the cars. They are invisible behind slight hills and the fast group ahead of us vanish too after a moment. Still, it all works out and we are soon there and can pluck out the few grass stickers in our socks before heading home.

*photo album*

©2018 Valerie Norton
Posted 7 May 2018

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