Moments in Dirt and Ink

Mount Diablo State Park Knowing I would pass through the very general area twice and figuring I should stop and do something along the way, getting to the top of Mount Diablo was at the top of the list of possibilities. I go out of my way to try to find random corner markers, so the initial point for most of the surveys of California is a must visit. There are also all the reasons this was made the initial point, namely that it can be seen from all directions for miles around. This translates into views in all directions on a clear day. Putting it on the southbound leg of my trip means there might be more wildflowers and there are definitely fewer tolls. The mountain can be a drive up. I am sure it is a very pleasant, winding road up, but I want to climb it. As hinted by the myriad of markers on the map above, there are a lot of choices on exactly how to climb this mountain on foot. I decided to build my route on a popular loop visiting area waterfalls. This has the adva...

Grand Mesa National Forest Rather than go to a high point on the mesa, like Crag Crest, this trail travels the typical top of the mesa that claims to be the highest flat top mountain in the world. I thought it would make a nice evening hike. This is another that is not on my map, although it is well signed from the road. (It is a Trails Illustrated 136 Grand Mesa map that seems so incomplete.) There is a map at the parking lot showing a trail progressing a few miles southwest with connector trails to the road to the west. I think I will maybe do a little loop and a couple hours. Wide grasslands lined with pines at the top of the mesa. Past a line of pines, there is wide grassland just getting started. It looks like it becomes cow pasture eventually, but is not yet. A faint old road seems to travel the middle of the meadow. Dotting the flat grasslands are a number of shallow ponds. Some areas are marshy and require careful foot placement to keep dry feet. One o...

McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area (BLM) I aimed at starting the Rabbit's Ear Trail in time to finish around sunset, somehow doing the math without quite understanding how late sunset is this time of year. I am trying to get around the other thing that happens this time of year: it is very hot. The car thermometer reads 104°F at 6PM when I get to the trailhead. The trail is a lollipop, traversing a ridge to the north end of the Rabbit's Ear Mesa, then looping around the edge. A sign with a large topographic map claims it is 5.6 miles total while the loop is 4.2 miles and the stick 1.4 miles, a total of 7 miles to finish. At this temperature, that can be over a liter of water difference, so very important to planning what to bring. I have four liters and grab it all and very little else. It seems like too little as I listen to the giggles from the people playing cards in their air conditioned camper next to me. Juniper and sage make up most the local ve...

Dixie National Forest Camping along the road to Oak Grove is limited to designated camping sites and down beside campsite 3 is a small loop trail signed for hiking. It follows decaying road beds which join and continue on, after many miles, to the Cottonwood Forest Wilderness. Just past the opening in the fence for the trail are signs declaring "closed area" with very large letters in order to run people off, but the smaller letters below add "to motor vehicles". I head up and to the right to loop around the small, deeply red canyon. Following the old road up the canyon.

Dixie National Forest (map link) Signal Peak is a major peak in the south part of the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness, the highest point in Washington County, and looked like a good climb to me. One approach is via Oak Grove although as the summer heats up, the route from Browns Point becomes more popular. The road to Oak Grove is a well maintained graded dirt and the trailhead is full of informational signs including a cut wood map. The trailhead in Oak Grove Campground. The map is the middle sign behind the fence. It is sunny and threatening to be warm already as I start, but I am quickly among the oaks. Above, it is hard to see where the trail might be going. Largely, there seem to be cliffs. Panorama of the cliffs above. Signal Peak is off the ridge to the left.

Dixie National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 After an amazing light show and rain off and on through the night, I make a lazy start in the morning. The nearby meadow area lets in some sun to try to dry everything and it is mostly there by the time to pack up. Crossing the meadow, there is a deer path to follow downward, at least at first. It does not drop very fast, so I make my own way getting my shoes wet in grasses along the way. The trail is easy to locate again just on the other side of the creek. I still do not see the extra trail indicated on my map. At the sign for Anderson Valley, I turn down the third trail. It crosses a narrow arm of meadow and runs into trail leading both up and down the edge of the meadow. Perhaps this is the rest of the indicated junction. If it is, the right side will go back to where I was and the left will go where I want to go. It does not feel right, though. I head left, which is entirely the wrong direction...

Jeffco Open Space Map link. I am told it was not the case a couple days ago, but today is hot in Golden, Colorado. We will hike up from the highway to the top of Lookout Mountain where Buffalo Bill is buried to reassure ourselves that he is, indeed, dead. The hike is a popular one that starts at the edge of highway 6 and climbs through a semi-familiar landscape of sages and, higher up, pines. Garth, who has been hiking barefoot some recently, points out the three cacti that can make that miserable. One is the prickly pear that is so common everywhere, including at home. Some of the familiar is not so much so upon closer inspection. These hillsides seem to be covered in Matilija poppies, but it is more likely that they are crested prickly poppy (Argemone polyanthemos), which also has the big, crinkled, white petals. A selection of prickly poppy on the hillside just along one of the parking areas on the side of the highway. The trail climbs along Chimney Gulch. The bo...