Continued...
My second day in the Carrizo Plain National Monmument was a full one, going from
sunup to sundown, tagging more than a dozen summits. It wasn't an arduous day
by any stretch, with plenty of driving between summits to give me ample rest and
quite a few drive-ups. I started the day in the Caliente Range and ended up in
the Temblor range on the opposite side of the monument. Most of the hiking was
done in the Caliente Range with easy driving, while the Temblor Range had short,
easy summits with some rough driving.
Peak 4,175ft
The peak is the third highest and third most prominent in the Caliente Range,
lying about 2.5mi east of the range highpoint, Caliente Mtn. I had hoped to
include it with the previous day's tour of five other peaks in the area, but I
had run out of daylight and energy. I spent the night camped at the saddle where
I'd ended the previous day's hike, getting up in the morning to move the car up
a spur road about 3/4mi closer to the peak. This left me with a five-mile
roundtrip hike.
is pretty tame with easy hiking in the upper
reaches of the Middle and Horse Creek drainages. I then climbed onto the crest
of the range via a steep , followed by more easy hiking
. There was a mix of clouds and blue skies, cool temps
and a brilliant display of in at least three varieties.
An helps some with the last mile, but it didn't make a
significant
difference. It took me a bit under an hour and a half to find my way to the
summit with excellent morning views. Caliente rises more impressively to
while a fog temporarily shrouded Soda Lake to
. To the north
and east stretched the vast Carrizo Plain, with the Cuyama Valley to the south
and southwest. I particularly liked the view
down the Horse Canyon
drainage with the softly-lighted, flower-covered slopes descending to the bottom
of the canyon. I left
at the summit before returning back down the
same way, taking less than an hour for .
Peak 3,562ft/Peak 3,465ft/Peak 3,900ft
I spent the next hour
to the Carrizo Plain, southeast on the main
Soda Lake Rd, then back into the Caliente Range for a trio of peaks. The road I
traveled was in good shape, apparently maintained as a utility road for the
transmission line that runs over the range here. The road goes just west of
Peak 3,562ft's summit, leaving a 100ft of hiking to reach
.
The road then continues downhill, making a long switchback to reach a
a saddle with before climbing up to the second summit.
The road goes directly over
of this one before continuing down into Cuyama
Valley. I turned around after passing over the summit, parking near the lowpoint
before the road climbs back up to the first peak. , the
highest of the trio, lies about 1.3mi to the WSW. I had to
into and out of two branches of Quail Canyon before climbing
of Peak 3,900ft. With carpets of yellow and some
, on mostly-open slopes, it made for a pictureque hike with fine
views. The summit offers a good view of Long BM to
about a mile away, the second most prominent summit in the range.
After snapping a from the summit of Peak 3,900ft, I made
my way back via the same route, around 12:30p.
Peak 3,502ft/Peak 3,187ft
I drove only about half the distance back to Soda Lake Rd before finding
that took me southeast through the rolling hills towards
the last
two summits in the range. The driving route took me into a lovely, high valley
at the head of a drainage emptying south into Cuyuma Valley. I parked at the
base of Peak 3,187ft, about 0.4mi away, and about 1.2mi from Peak 3,502ft.
Another fork of this road continues down into Cuyama Valley, but I don't think
it is accessible to the public from that direction. I chose to visit the further
peak first, following a branch of the drainage , with a
badlands-like stretch in before gaining a saddle.
Though steep on , the of the saddle drops
off gently into another high valley at the head of the adjacent drainage. I
crossed this , finding an that
needed hopping before starting up of Peak 3,502ft.
I paused at to take in and enjoy
that my wife had hidden away in my daypack. I took a
slightly different before crossing back between valleys
over the same saddle. I passed by near where I'd parked
before heading up the North Ridge of . I left
atop this summit before heading to
the jeep. Not surprisingly, I found no registers on any of the day's summits.
Elkhorn Hills
Having finished up with my objectives in the Caliente Range, I next turned my
attention to the Temblor Range on the other side of the Carrizo Plain. By now
I had reached the southeastern tip of the Carrizo Plain so there was little
driving to get from one range to the other. The are a
small
collection of low hills separating Carrizo and Elkhorn Plains. My driving route
to the Temblor Range took me into the Elkhorn Hills with a short diversion to
visit the highpoint. There are two closely-spaced points vying for highest. The
can be driven to, but the southern one is a few feet
higher and requires of walking to reach. The summit
had a spectacular view of of purple to the northeast in
the Elkhorn Plain, which I visited next. There were several cars parked there,
with being deployed to great effect in the
.
Temblor Range
After leaving Elkhorn Plain just after 3:30p, I spent the next three and half
hours driving into the Temblor Range to tag half a dozen summits, a few of which
actually involved walking. There is a very steep road that climbs
to get one to the crest of the range, 4WD definitely
needed. Though it is the steepest section of road I traveled, there is still
plenty of in this range. Unlike the Caliente Range
with its more nicely graded roads, the main road following the crest in the
Temblors seems to just go directly the various bumps with
little in the way of grading. The first four peaks up to
were all either or . I
had to walk maybe a hundred yards for a couple of them. It was 6p by the time I
got to actually hike. Peak 3,275ft sits off the crest to the northeast with a
spur road forking off in the direction of the peak. There was a very nice
couple camped on the ridgeline to Peak 3,275ft, so when
I pulled up and parked short of their campsite, I immediately let them know my
intentions to run off and tag a peak before leaving them in peace. They were
very nice about it, even offered to share a glass of wine with me as they were
preparing their dinner. I thanked them for the offer before
to tag the summit with a surprisingly steep finish up from a saddle for the last
200ft or so. was carpeted in shades of orange, yellow and
purple, the most
colorfully cloaked summit I found in the Temblors over this day and the next.
There were a lot of clouds throwing shade on the peak all during the ascent, but
some sunshine on my way back was able to cast it in a
as I
was nearly done. I was less than half an hour in managing the 1.4mi roundtrip
to the summit and back. The last summit, Peak 3,775ft, took me to the northern
edge of San Luis Obispo County. This peak, too, sits off the east side of the
main crest, with a road approaching of the summit.
One can actually drive right to the top on an old, rarely used spur road, but I
chose to hike the last peak in the last half hour before sunset.
was rather blase compared to the last, but
where I parked made for a very
fine campsite that night, overlooking the lights of Taft and those of the
oil fields that
dominate the east side of the range. Not finishing up until after 7p, it was a
pretty cool shower I took outside with a breeze blowing. I cooked dinner and
did some light reading before hitting the sack - it had been a pretty full day
and I was fairly tired tonight...
Continued...