Continued...
Today's adventure was a collection of short hikes at the north end of Panamint
Valley and the higher elevations to the west around Darwin Bench. None were
more than a few miles in length and most were much shorter. The peaks
included a pair found in Purcell's Rambles & Scrambles along with a
couple of minor range highpoints.
Lake Hill
At the far north end of Panamint Valley can be found one of two large dry lake
beds that occasionally form shallow pools. Adjacent to this is Lake Hill, an
odd protrusion of black limestone rock rising almost 500ft from the valley
floor. A decent, but not great (high-clearance recommended) road leads north
from SR190, going past Lake Hill on its east side at a distance of about half a
mile. There are a few rusting frames of autos from a bygone era that have been
left as historical artifacts, now protected by the national park they have
become part of. From , the East Face of Lake Hill looks to
have an imposing cliff band, but this is mostly illusional. We used five
different variations to climb , and as many on the way down
afterwards. The hike is characterized by an easy, short walk across the valley
floor, followed by a steep scramble up somewhat loose rock that manages to hold
together because that's what limestone is good at. We spent 20min in the early
morning to reach just as the sun was over
the Panamint Range to the east. Aside from labeled
"BLACK", a register we found was mostly a collection of loose sheets with a few
names we recognized - , , a few
others. The roundtrip effort came in at 45min - a good warm up.
Panamint Gates South/North
Back at SR190, we drove our collection of vehicles west past
(no longer selling the state's most expensive gas, but close), up to a saddle
with Panamint Gates South, the other short scramble we got from Purcell's
guidebook. These two sentinels stand guard over the western entrance to Panamint
Valley, separated by a small wash that lies between the dramatic Rainbow Canyon
to the north and Darwin Wash to the south. This rather
takes less than 15min to climb up where we parked off
the roadway, but offers some dramatic views . It
took only a minute to talk the others into adding
which we hadn't intended beforehand but seemed like the obvious add-on. We
dropped down the sometimes loose of the first peak, crossed
and the second, an effort that took an
additional 45min. There was no register found on the North Gate and as I wasn't
carrying my pack on this one, we had none to leave, either. We descended via
, a more gentle gradient than the South Slopes we had
just ascended, which then required a second crossing of the wash before we could
climb where our cars were left. An
hour and three quarters, all told.
Talc City Hills HP
More driving on SR190 to the west got us to the Darwin Plateau and the old
Saline Valley Rd junction. We left the cars here and piled into Michael's
Pathfinder for a driving exercise into the Talc City Hills. The highpoint is
oddly located where this small collection of whitish hills abuts Malapais Mesa
and the southern end of the Inyo Mountains. As such, it has little prominence
but still manages to be a range highpoint. Go figure. We drove northeast about
2.5mi before turning left leading to a small mining
operation from days past. We parked just before located
up the hill, with a
shaft going down some distance into the darkness. The wooden ladder looks as
rickety as one could imagine and it can't help but send chills down one's spine
when considering what it would be like to descend it. We left it to climb
steep slopes on , leading to which
makes for a decent hike with good views off both sides. The highpoint is found
at the far of the crest, about a mile and quarter from where
we'd parked. John Vitz had left a register there , with Bob
Sumner having signed
in only five months before us. Not a lot of visitors in 18 years. We took a
more direct descent from the summit and into
that took us nicely back out to another spur road leading
to . We spent an hour and a half all told on this one.
Santa Rosa Hills HP
The Santa Rosa Hills are found about 8mi to the northeast of Talc City, and the
road we took there through Santa Rosa Flat was a bit rough and rocky, making
for slow going on the drive. A better approach to the highpoint is on the Lee
Flat side of the hills to the northeast, which we would use for the return. Our
was 3/4mi southwest of the summit, near where the road
crests between the two shallow valleys, east of . The
hiking is uncommonly easy across , even for the desert.
It took only 25min to reach where we found a Richard Carey
only a year old. and
had already left their own entries since. We
by 2p with plenty of daylight remaining, but still lots of driving for everyone
(especially Michael and I) to get home. As mentioned, we found the easier route
on the return, driving out through Lee Flat and then on the newer, well-graded
Saline Valley Rd that spit us back out at SR190. We connected back up with our
other cars at the old junction and from there went our separate ways to head
home. A nice, easy end to a fun weekend of peakbagging around the Panamint
Valley area...