I was getting tired of walking around the neighborhood for daily exercise during
the COVID-19 crisis, so I decided to head out to the desert for a few days. It's
not exactly sheltering-in-place per recommendations, but it was pretty socially
isolating. The only interactions of note I had during the trip were to handle
the gas pumps at two stops. I used disposable gloves, so little chance of
transmitting a virus in either direction, I figured. I drove out to the Lava
Mountains southeast of Ridgecrest to visit a handful of unnamed summits. None
of them were particularly noteworthy, finding no registers and no interesting
scrambling. The wildflower displays were another story and made the 15mi loop a
pure joy. Almost everywhere I turned was a little valley of
or a slope of . Most of the route is
within the Grass Valley Wilderness,
bordered on the north by the Spangler Hills OHV area. With a few more hours
later in the day, I visited a few other easy summits before calling it a day.
Lava Mountains
My main objectives for the day were a collection of five minor summits in the
Lava Mountains. These were the last of the range's 12 summits I'd yet to visit.
All but one are located in the Grass Valley Wilderness. An OHV road runs along
the north side of the range and Wilderness to allow access. It appears I could
have driven to the east side of the Wilderness boundary for a tighter loop, but
I'm not sure it would have saved any time given the additional driving it would
require. I parked at the Wilderness boundary north of the first summit, making
for the shortest drive, about five miles from the pavement.
The road descending from the Summit Range to the west
is pretty rough in a few places and only suitable for extra high clearance. Even
with 10.5" of clearance, I managed to bang the undercarriage a few times. After
parking, I
followed a drainage southeast and south to a low pass into the next drainage
where I got a first view of Peak 3,853ft. I actually mistook the higher
to the southwest for my summit and merrily headed off in the wrong direction.
It was easy to be distracted by of wildflowers that caught
my attention in shades of yellow and purple. It wasn't until I had nearly
reached of Pt. 4,187ft that I noted the GPSr showing I had
bypassed my target summit. I turned east and made my way to Peak 3,853ft, now
climbing it from the southwest rather than the north, as intended. Oh well. It
was a lovely day, and some extra time was of little consequence. It took about
an hour and a quarter to reach the first summit shortly after 9:30a.
of Peak 3,853ft was large and flat, not the best for views,
though there was a nice one to of Pt. 4,187ft and higher Dome
Mtn behind it. In the hazy distance, snow could be seen atop Olancha Peak to
the north and Telescope Peak to the northeast. A carpet of flowers covered the
of Peak 3,853ft's summit. I headed east off the summit,
descending
before starting the climb to Peak 3,646ft, about 1.5mi in that direction. There
was no mistaking the location of this or the other remaining summits as they
were easy to spot from one summit to the next. After another class 2 scramble,
I reached the summit of Peak 3,646ft in a bit under an hour. Dark
were strewn about . It felt
pretty remote up here with colorful views into the valleys below. I left
here that might have to wait
some time for another soul to wander by.
I turned northeast in descending the second summit and heading to
, a mile and a quarter away. It was a neat,
from the direction I
approached it, though I was up and over it before I noticed I hadn't taken a
photo from the summit. After descending off its southeast side, I landed in a
gravelly that I would follow for the next two miles as I
made my way to the fourth summit, Peak 3,137ft. The sand and gravel were nicely
compacted, making for easy walking. Somewhat unexpectedly, because I hadn't
studied the maps well beforehand, I came across a fenceline marking the
. On the other side were signs of
up the
wash, not shown as a road on the topo map, but clearly getting enough use to
be considered one. The wash runs northeast through a gap between Peak 3,137ft
and Rock BM, and before reaching it I turned southeast and east to follow
another branch of the wash in that direction towards Peak 3,137ft. I climbed
this peak from the west side, finding no difficulties and reaching
by 12:45p. It marks the easternmost summit of the Lava
Mountains, overlooking to the east. The summit is
only a quarter mile from the
China Lake Naval Weapons Center, though I saw no fenceline or other signs of
civilization in that direction. This also marked the furthest point from the
car, leaving me about 6.5mi to get myself back.
Rock BM was the last and lowest of the five summits (by chance I managed to
climb them in order from highest to lowest), more or less on the way back. I
returned to the wash system, followed that to the gap between the two summits,
then started from the southeast. In addition to the
abundant yellow flowers, there were small fields of found
along the way, more subtle and not so easily seen from a distance. The summit
had two benchmarks, one and a second
stamped with "ROCK". I left here before dropping off
. At the base of the peak I turned northwest to
follow another out to the of
where I could pick up the .
Though not as scenic as the earlier portions of the hike, these last 4mi along
the road were easy and pleasant enough. I to the jeep shortly
after 3:30p, not having seen another soul the whole time.
Summit Range HP
Sandwiched between the El Paso Mtns to the west and the Lava Mtns to the east,
the summit range is really just a plateau covered in rounded bumps. Its
highpoint has only 40ft of prominence and little more than
along a 4WD track in the OHV area. I had visited it six years earlier and
stopped for a second visit because it was only a quarter mile off the route
I drove to reach the other summits - pretty much a freebie. There are two bumps
vying to be the highest, so I drove over both before calling it good.
Fish Head Rocks
This is a small graffiti display found at the mouth of Poison Canyon, just off
the Ridgecrest-Trona road, SR178. The small collection of
have
been painted to look like fish or more accurately, morey eels. The original fish
drawings dated to the 1930s. More annoying graffiti acculmulated through the
1970s, leading Boy Scouts and other groups to paint over them. A group of local
girls came out and repainted the fish faces and have they have remained for a
while now. Located on the north side of the road, the faces are only visible
driving towards Trona. Parking is available about 100yds from the rocks. After
crossing a dry creek channel, class two scrambling leads easily to
. Only about 20ft of prominence on this one.
Peak 2,771ft
This last summit is found a few miles north of Fish Head Rocks, the southernmost
summit in the Argus Range. A utility road can be used to get
, accessed off SR178 a few miles northeast
of Fish Head Rocks. here were drier, , and
not adorned with
the flowery abundance found in the Lava Mtns and Spangler Hills. I spent about
40min to reach the summit where one can see Searles Valley to
and just make out Trona over lower hills to the northeast.
by 6p, I took
the opportunity to shower and change into some fresh clothes before heading
to Ridgecrest. Normally I would have gotten dinner there, but in the interest
of isolating I stopped only long enough to get gas. I then drove out to SR14
and found a place to camp off the highway south of SR178 near the LA Aqueduct.
I had dinner and caught up on the news before heading to bed a little early. A
good day...
Continued...