Black & White Loop v Elk Ridge Descent (in some wildfire smoke) - 8/4/25

North Sister from the ascent Ridge

Sisters Ridge

B&W of Black Sister on a smokey Day

Starting up Elk Ridge from Break Saddle

Starting up Galium Road from Chain-Up TH

This is a hike I've been wanting to do for a couple of years. As with other new hikes, I spent a little time scoping out the route from afar and on Google Earth. Last year, I found a cool trail to complete the fun! More on that later! There are also two other routes within this hike that were brand new to us. My thoughts on these routes will be revealed in the text below. But, for now, we should welcome the Galium Ridge and the Elk Ridge to our fold. (Galium aparine is a distinctive herbaceous annual weed with a number of common names including, cleavers, bedstraw, catchweed bedstraw, grip grass, stickywilly, and others. And, all this time, I thought they were talking about gallium, the soft metal, and not about galium, the plant!) Oops. Live and learn.

Galium Spring Area

Susan leads up ridge above Galium Spring

Susan and I parked in the middle of the Chain-Up Trailhead on Lee Canyon Road and started hiking up to the top end of the large turnout. Galium Road leads around the corner and into a canyon. The wash in this canyon was gutted by Hilary but the trail continues alongside up to where Galium Spring spills lightly out from the right.

Rock outcrop on ridge Summit

Mountain Mahogany on first Ridge

Susan haloed by the Smoke

 This is a popular wildlife watering hole and the wilderness experts have the water draining into a pvc pipe poked with tiny holes. The water jets out through these holes to allow animals to better slake their thirst. Good idea. So, usually, we continue up the small canyon and connect with a ridge to climb up to Galium Ridge. This time, we climbed up to the top of the spring area to a saddle in the ridge above looking for a horse trail that would lead us further up to the left. We did find a trail of sorts and reached the ridge point at a rock outcrop. A left got us through the rock and onto the ridge that continued by curving around to the right. It didn't have much foliage and descended a little to a saddle.

First ridge with directional Cairn (North Sister ahead)

Nearing the junction Saddle

At this saddle, someone had built a cairn with a stick in it. The stick pointed in the obvious direction along the ridge to the right of the rise. To the right of the trail, the hill fell steeply down in a bowl of scree.

Starting up from the Junction Saddle

Mummy Mountain in wildfire Smoke

View down off the first ridge to the Left

The trail clearly led us to the next bare saddle where I recognized my former trail coming up to junction with us from the left. At this time, I could compare the two routes. Although the new route was fun, it did not make our hike to that point any shorter. Even the elevation gain was similar. So, we melded into the regular trailed route as it began climbing a little steeper up the ridge toward the Sisters Ridge. North Sister was, and had been, clearly seen ahead to the left. South Sister rose to its left. The trail(s) led up through the mountain mahogany growth while balancing the narrowing ridge. When the trees thinned slightly, we were nearing the first large geological sculpture ... the Sisters Arch. Stay on the right side of the ridge to see this.

Arriving at the Sisters Arch

Black Sister from fork Area

Beyond the arch, you can see Black & White Sisters sitting majestically on the end of the Sisters Ridge in the near distance. We took several photos and tried to use the smokey haze for the results. That's why I presented the black and white photo near the top of this entry.

Traverse from above Arch to Sisters Ridge

View from Traverse Trail

Climbing Sisters Ridge to White Sister

(The smoke was moving northward so we were breathing just fine. This was not the case when we started and I used a buff to cover my nose and mouth.) Not too far up past the arch viewing area, a trail forks off to the right. This is the small but exciting part that I discovered last year. The trail traverses above the scree bowl to the right until it reaches the Sisters Ridge. It cuts off a considerable climb and descent that we usually made before. (Thanks to whoever made this trail!) Susan and I pranced around the scree bowl and arrived at the Sisters Ridge happy! (Yes, I prance.) The second photo of this entry shows what the main ridge looked like behind us. The photo to the right shows what the ridge looked like in front of us heading toward White Sister. We took more photos as we paused on White Sister and hiked around behind Black Sister. We took a break on a shaded log on the ridge down from the black rock and continued down the regular steep descent that began at the endpoint of this ridge. A good trail finally helps with the descent here to a saddle between the bottom of the main descent and the beginning of another ridge. Enter: Elk Ridge! The wash below Elk Ridge to the left is what I call Elks Club Wash because there was so much elk evidence when I first did that wash.

Kay says, "White Sister ahead!"

Susan and Kay on White Sister in front of Black Sister (or, Black Rock)

Well, this ridge that we were about to playfully descend also had a lot of old elk evidence. In fact, there was a vague trail that we followed up and all the way down, albeit not in a straight line! Sometimes, I felt we were following an animal and sometimes, I knew we were following a happenstance hiker of old. (Like, for instance, when we found three different very old trail marker white ribbons rotting on trees.)

Southeast Point of Black Sister

North Sister from Black Sister Ridge

Susan on Black Sister Ridge

We are learning a lot about tracking, I think. The trail only allowed for slight indications of someone who had come before. What helped the most was that the trail always took the most logical route. There were a few times, though, that we found more than one route and we had to explore a little to discover good ways. Mountain mahoganies were everywhere! I think I brought home a whole branch of blooms in my shirt because of bending through the branches of these trees that naturally spread out over the years. It was a full body workout! I knew there was a home on the hillside to the right and I didn't want to cause attention to them in case they felt it was a problem so we kept having to work our way over to the left toward Elks Club Wash. Finally, just as we had looked over our shoulder and saw the house, we made a beeline down the hill to connect with Nutans Road, Ada & Edith's small mining road. Susan knew where she was and continued straight to descend into the wash. I decided to take a left on Nutans Road and descend into the wash at the regular point near where the road and wash crossed. I met up with Susan on down the wash and we hiked down to Lee Canyon Road.

Kay starting up Elk Ridge

Wide angle from Elk Ridge(L) High Point

Our plan was to hike up the Lee Canyon Wash to the Chain-Up Trailhead but we were tired by this time and ended up hiking up the road a little bit until it was easier to dip into the wide wash on our left. 

Scenes from first part of descent on Elk Ridge

Scenes from 2nd part of descent on Elk Ridge

Susan takes a rest while Kay takes Photos

Climbing over a few trees later, we made it to the easiest place to exit the wash and cross Lee Canyon Road to reach our car. Wow! What a hike! And, can you believe it was only 4 miles! But, at our leisurely pace, it took us 6 hours to accomplish. On any pure exploratory, time is ignored. It's usually an experience that cannot be replaced!

Stats: 4 miles; 1800' gain; 6.25 hours

Junction with Nutans Road at bottom of Elk Ridge

Using Elks Club Wash for descent to Lee Canyon Road

Lee Canyon Wash tree Puzzle

A different species of Desert Paintbrush