Continued...
I had made plans to visit my daughter at UCSB today, but due to a retreat, she
wasn't going to be available until noon, giving me the morning for some
gratuitous peakbagging. I had spent the night camped in the town of Mojave on
the western edge of the desert. With train and road noises, it wasn't the best
sleep, but I managed. All of the peaks here were short but steep hikes in and
around the Rosamond Hills. I had been to the area on a previous visit, but only
had time for about half of the offerings - today I would visit the remaining
ones. The rains have left the Western Mojave a wonderful
green, unlike anything I've seen in recent years here. It should be a fine
season for wildflowers. The area is a patchwork of BLM and private lands.
The rural homesteads are often sad collections of junk strewn about yards with
badly neglected homes. Mining is an old and ongoing tradition here, with gold
mining slowly consuming Soledad Mtn and other quarries taking their toll on
nearby hills. Around all of this, wind and solar farms have sprung up over
the past decade, slowly transforming the desert landscape yet again.
Standard Hill
My first stop of the morning was to get coffee in Mojave, and the second one
was to Standard Hill, just west of SR14 and north of Soledad Mtn. This small
hill is the site of an old open pit mine. There is no active mining going on,
but the hill is surrounded by fencing. So close to the road and open to view,
I didn't want to park and go over the fence. A better approach might be made
from the south or west sides, but for now I left this for another time.
Peak 3,377ft
Located southwest of Soledad Mtn, paved Mojave-Tropico Rd runs along its west
side. Dirt roads can get you a bit closer. There is a great deal of trash
dumped in this area, sadly. Once past , a climb up
of the
mountain is steep but enjoyable. The ground was alive with more green that one
is used to in the desert. There is some class 3 scrambling opportunities among
the cliffs near the top, but there are class 2 chutes cutting through them for
easier options. From the summit, Soledad Mtn dominates the view to
. Edwards Air Force Base stretches out to the east,
to the northwest. and east are desert flats
with scattered developments. Far to
the Tehachapi Mtns had a fresh dusting of snow down to very low levels, though
much of the view was obscured by low clouds.
Peak 3,490ft
Almost 4mi due west is this slightly higher summit. There are mining roads cut
all over the mountain but very little of it seems to have been carried away,
at least compared to Standard Hill and Soledad Mtn. The
big going concern is a gravel pit on the east side in the desert floor. I
used a dirt road across the flats connecting the two, but there is a paved road
heading west a mile to the south. I parked behind the quarry at the base of
the peak and hiked up . There is a better view of
from the summit, but otherwise similar views as Peak
3,377ft. On my way back I was startled by a large
staring at me, completely unbothered by my presence. Where
it came from I had no idea - he had no friends anywhere about, near as I could
tell.
Rosamond Hills
The highpoint is found near the western end of this range that stretches 16mi
east onto Edwards AFB. The shortest approach is from the north where there is
a steep 4WD track running up to the NE Ridge. I drove the easy part of this,
before things got more serious - I chicken out pretty easily
when it comes to hill climbs. I think I've watched too many YouTube videos where
things go badly wrong. I hiked up of the track,
then followed the short ridgeline to . I took a more
direct route down the north side on the return, some short bits of class 3 and
even a few .
Peak 2,950ft
A few miles SSW of the Rosamond Hills HP, this was the easiest of the day's
summits, taking less than 10min to reach the top from .
It, too, has with short class 3 scrambling.
Tropico Hill
On that first visit to the area I had tried to approach Tropico Hill from the
southeast, but found it surrounded by a high fence. There are old mining works
on the south side in bad shape, but somebody owns it and wants to keep the
public out. The north side has no such buildings and much of it is BLM land,
and it was this approach I used on this visit. The
last hundred feet to the top is fenced. I drove some rough dirt roads to get me
pretty close to the summit from . The hike was short and the
fence had a convenient, that allowed easy access. There are
some small telecom towers at the summit. My visit was exceedingly brief, only
long enough to snap a few and get back down without being
spotted. Exactly by whom I might
be seen I wasn't sure, but somehow I suspect this area is chock full of strange
characters whose bad sides I have no reason to find my way to. I was done before
9:30a with five summits, which is probably some sort of record for me. I still
had more than two hours of driving to get to Santa Barbara, so off I went...