Valley of Fire Sandstone High Point - 1/22/19

Valley of Fire Sandstone High Point from Visitor Center Approach

Critical Route on Ascent

Using Natural Terrain for the Climb from the Visitor Center

The Climb gets a Little Trickier

 The Tuesday hike this week was held in the Valley of Fire State Park. It is one of the park's most challenging - the Sandstone High Point. There are two or three routes that we have used to gain the peak but none of them are easy! The one they hiked today was an attempt at reducing the amount of exposure involved. Yep. Take a look at the photos that Laszlo contributed. Still some exposure!! Anyway, it appears that there are still plenty of strong club hikers that are up to the challenges created by Brian Dodd.

Squeeze

Steep Scrambling

Sandy gets a Great View

Up? or Down? - Maybe Both!

 Brian said, “We had a great group of 17 hikers brave the initially cold and windy morning to do the Valley of Fire high point loop.  Climbing up onto the plateau soon warmed us up, but it was still windy at the top, and after summitting, half the group chose somewhere warmer to eat lunch.  The route back to the south involves a great upper and lower body workout without any exposure.  All in all, it took 3 hours and 45 minutes to do the 4.7 miles and 1600 ft., but everyone enjoyed the great day out.”

Congratulations everyone! You "don't need no stinkin' trails!" Rocks do just fine!

Descent Crack

Rocky Descent Section

Back via the Fun Terrain