Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Callville Summit Loop - 2/21/17

Lovers Cove & Fortification Hill

Callville Bay

Callville Summit Ridge

Trail
The quiet community of Callville Bay has flown under the radar as much as they possibly could. But, there is a trail listed on the Lake Mead NRA's newspaper called Callville Summit. Three hikers braved the windy weather to drive down the 4 mile Callville Bay Road and see what that hike had to offer. What we found was a small treasure; a quiet group of folks nestled in the folds of the Lake Mead shoreline. We were sure that on holidays and summertime, Callville Bay was bustling with excitement. Boaters and campers everywhere! But, today, it was just us and the residents of the trailer village.

Taking in the View
We were greeted by the "man of many hats." An extremely nice old gentleman came by the Ranger Station where we parked to say "hello." Wearing a National Park hat, we assumed he was either a ranger or a caretaker.

Heading out the Ridge
Either one, he smiled and welcomed us saying we could park there and enjoy the hike, apologizing that the trail had not been maintained for "a while." He was easy with the jokes and even flirted a little! We liked him!

Blooming Brittlebush

Ridge Trail
We crossed the road and began hiking up the hill. The trail was clear but there were a few spurs heading out here and there. Soon, we realized that there were a minimal number of cairns built to guide the way. We passed the first cairn but came back to heed its call. In this area, it was always possible that the trails that caught your attention were really game trails. But sheep probably didn't build the cairns ... so,. This trail led us to a junction where there were two cairns.

Hiking the Ridge
Hmmm. We decided to take the cairned trail that seemed more worn. This turned out to be the ridge trail that led out to Callville Summit, an overlook between two lake coves.

Dropping down to the Lake
On out the ridge, we decided to turn down to the left and forego the continuation to the Summit. We wanted to go down to the lake! There was a trail for this.

Shoreline at Lovers Cove

Blooming Phacelia
After standing next to the lake over a ten foot cliff, we turned to find the trail that we had seen on the Bay side of our hike. A little improvising brought us right over to that trail which led us back to the second of those two cairns. Even though our hike was only three miles, we enjoyed finding a different place to hike. If we had included the hike out to the Summit, it would have added another mile to our three. The "man of many hats" smiled and waved at us when we returned as he rode by on a small front loader thing. Windy but enjoyable morning.

3 miles; 600 feet elevation gain; 2 hours

Callville Bay

Looping Around

Quiet Community of Callville Bay





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