A Christmas morning quickie with Ryan before heading back to the AirBnB to
open presents. I'd been to this P1K 8yrs earlier on my first visit to La
Quinta, impressed with the collection of rugged summits that surrounds
this part of the town, called La Quinta Cove.
We parked at the popular
Cove Trailhead on the south side of La Quinta, less than a mile from the
summit, and went up from there. We found a good use trail that goes
partway up the West Ridge, then followed the continuing ridge up when
the trail went off to traverse the slope towards the north. A party of
6-7 bighorn ewes watched us from above,
moving only slightly to the side
when we passed by, apparently fairly accustomed to people. One of them had
a tag on her ear and a radio collar around her neck. We took just
under an hour to reach the summit
with views of La Quinta and the
surrounding communities. The Salton Sea and the agricultural enterprises
of the Coachella Valley are to the SE. The higher peaks of the Santa Rosa
Mtns are to the south and west. John Vitz's register
from 2007 is still
at the summit in a glass jar, with many, many entries. On the descent, we
took a loose gully directly off the west side
that took us back down to
our starting point
in an hour. The large parking lot, with only two other
cars when we started out, now had several dozen - seems folks need to get
their Christmas exercise early before gorging themselves later in the
day...
La Quinta Cove.
We parked at the popular
Cove Trailhead on the south side of La Quinta, less than a mile from the
summit, and went up 
from there. We found a good use trail that goes
partway up 
the West Ridge, then followed the continuing ridge up when
the trail went off to traverse the slope towards the north. A party of
6-7 
bighorn ewes watched us 
from above,
moving only slightly to the side
when we passed by, apparently fairly accustomed to people. One of them had
a tag on her ear and a radio collar around her neck. We took just
under an hour to 
reach the summit
with views of 
La Quinta and the
surrounding communities. The Salton Sea and the agricultural enterprises
of the Coachella Valley are to the SE. The higher peaks of the Santa Rosa
Mtns are to the south and west. John Vitz's register
from 2007 is still
at the summit in a glass jar, with many, many entries. On the descent, we
took 
a loose gully directly off 
the west side
that took us back down to
our 
starting point
in an hour. The large parking lot, with only two other
cars when we started out, now had several dozen - seems folks need to get
their Christmas exercise early before gorging themselves later in the
day...