Continued...
The last day of this desert roadtrip had us in the El Paso Mtns for a second
day, this one mostly on the western side of the range in Red Rock Canyon State
Park. Tom was the only one among us that had previously visited this park and
we all found the colorful geology interesting even if the scrambling was more
mundane. Tom decided to let me take on the driving duties and give his jeep a
rest which I had no problem with - I owe him (and a bunch of others) a few years
of driving payback.
Peak 3,310ft
Our first summit was located just east of SR14 which runs north-south through
the park. We turned off at the Red Cliffs Natural Area, following an unsigned
dirt/gravel road that got us within about 3/4mi from the peak on its northwest
side. While Iris went off for a morning potty break, Tom and Karl started up
the steep slope immediately off the road, figuring Iris and I would catch them
in short order. They'd already reached the ridgeline several hundred feet up
before . It was a quick pace despite the initial steepness
and we were only 40min in reaching the summit. Iris and I overtook Karl on the
way up, but Tom kept up a demanding pace that left him in front all the way to
. When I commented that he seemed to have picked up his pace
considerably from the day prior, he smiled and responded that he wanted to be
first to at least one summit during these three days - now he planned to take it
easy the rest of the day. Though the climb was ordinary, the views were not,
particularly in the first half of the ascent when we were treated to a sunrise
scene on the seen to the west and north. Finding no register
at the top, we of our own before descending. Our
went more directly off the summit, but really no better or
worse than our ascent route.
Red Buttes
Red Buttes is the highpoint of the state park, a pair of colorful rock
formations slowly eroding in the desert, overlooking Last Chance Canyon. We
covered less than 2.5mi and 1,000ft of gain in visiting the two summits, the
longest of the day's hike, but still modest. The bigger effort was the driving,
for which the wheel for most of the hour+ we spent in
getting from one to the other. The drive took us through the Cudahy Camp site,
an old ranch tucked in area with more brightly colored
rock. took us to the lower first, with
some modest rock scrambling and a descent down through a small
. We spent about 45min getting from the south
summit to where we found a Smatko register
(only a few years before he passed away) along with a newer
one placed by some folks from the
Sierra Club's Owens Peak Group based out of Ridgecrest. The OPG initials have
also been used by the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group to stand for "Occasional
Peaks Gang". I suspect that was a tongue-in-cheek alternative to the official
Sierra Club designation. Since there was still room on the older register pages,
we chose to instead - never pass up an opportunity to sign
a Smatko register. We took a here before descending back
down of the summit rocks, to an
(no longer driveable) and then .
Peak 4,391ft
Another 20min's drive saw us to the Copper Basin Mine, home of the famous
Burro Schmidt Tunnel. William Schmidt spent more than 30yrs digging a half
mile-long
tunnel through the east shoulder of the mountain as a way to make it easier for
him to haul ore down to Garlock. The man must have been completely nuts because
the alternative hike over the ridge takes all of fifteen minutes - only six
minutes longer than it took us to walk the tunnel. Clearly the man simply
liked digging his tunnel. He would get the last laugh because his tunnel has
become a popular backroads tourist stop, it has its own wikipedia page and
Schmidt will likely be
far longer than any of us. We parked just
outside before hiking through the tunnel. Though
wider and
taller than most mining shafts, the ceiling wasn't high enough to hike through
without stooping, at least for anyone over 6ft. Karl and I followed closely
behind Tom who wore a headlamp, while Iris took up the rear some distance behind
us with her own lamp. Near the end we met a few motorcyclists who were walking
in the opposite direction. At we followed a trail back
up to the ridgeline and then west to
of Peak 4,391ft. The BLM road goes over the very summit, though there is a
rather steep section just past the parking area for the north tunnel entrance,
near where is located. There is some colorful
to be found scattered about the area, the veins from which Schmidt was
extracting gold (though obviously not in any serious quantities) until he got
distracted with his tunnel. Our whole outing took us half an hour.
Peak 3,425ft
Our last peak of the day was about 3.5mi southwest of the tunnel, overlooking
the west side of Last Chance Canyon. We were able to drive to within a quarter
mile of the summit, making for a short,
that took less than 15min to reach the top. has a fine
view the eastern end of
the park with a good deal of old mining scars dotting the slopes. Following this
last summit, I drove our party back out of the range and state park, to our
campsite where the other vehicles had been left on the southeast side of the
range. We had more daylight available, but I
wanted to get a jump on the drive back to San Jose. Karl and Iris were heading
home as well, but Tom had plans to spend another day out in the desert - one of
the first times I can recall heading home before the rest of the crew...