Cholla Forest via Seven Falls - 2/8/20

Teddy Bear Cholla

Bacon Canyon

First Sighting of Lamb this Year

Climbing the First Dry Fall

Cylindropuntia bigelovii, the teddy bear cholla (choy-ya), is a cholla cactus species native to Northwestern Mexico, and to the United States in California, Arizona, and Nevada. 
  Cylindropuntia bigelovii has a soft appearance due to its solid mass of very formidable spines that completely cover the stems, leading to its sardonic nickname of "teddy bear" or "jumping teddy bear".
  The teddy-bear cholla is an erect plant, 1 to 5 feet tall with a distinct trunk. The branches or lobes are at the top of the trunk and are nearly horizontal. Lower branches typically fall off, and the trunk darkens with age. The silvery-white spines, which are actually a form of leaf, almost completely obscure the stem with a fuzzy-looking, but impenetrable, defense. The spines are 1 inch long and are covered with a detachable, paper-like sheath.

First Dry Fall

 The yellow-green flowers emerge at the tips of the stems in May and June. Flowers are usually 1.4 inches in length. The fruit is 0.75 inch in diameter, tuberculate, and may or may not have spines. These fruits contain few if any viable seeds, as the plant usually reproduces through a dispersal strategy of dropped or carried stems.

Second Dry Fall with Rabbit Hole

 These stems are often carried for some distance by sticking to the fur or skin of animals, and are known to be especially painful to remove. When a piece of this cholla sticks to an unsuspecting person, a good method to remove the cactus is with a hair comb. The spines have microscopic barbs, and hold on tightly. Often small "stands" of these chollas form, most of which are largely clones of the same individual.

Bacon Vein in Seven Falls Canyon

Climbing small fall in Seven Falls Canyon

 Like its cousin the jumping cholla, the stems detach easily and the ground around a mature plant is often littered with scattered cholla balls and small plants starting where these balls have rooted. 
  Desert pack rats such as the desert woodrat gather these balls around their burrows, creating a defense against most predators like kit fox and coyote, however several species of snake feed on the rat keeping its population balanced.
  The cactus wren can be found perched on the cholla and other cacti. They also use a variety of cacti for nesting purposes.
~Wikipedia

Fourth Dry Fall

From SR-93, turn onto Lakeshore Road near Lake Mead's Alan Bible Visitor Center. Go 2 miles while passing the fee booth. Turn left onto a dirt road. This dirt road is 1/2 mile leading up toward the base of the mountains ending near a large water tank. This is the trailhead where seventeen hikers started out on an absolutely bee-utiful day!

Fifth Dry Fall Go Around

We hiked into the large wash to the north and started our westward trudge up the loose gravel while funneling into the mouth of a canyon. Right away, someone in the back of the long line spotted bighorns very high up on the top of the mountain next to us. When I got home and enlarged the photo, I noticed there was a lamb standing next to the ewe we could see from the wash. The first one I have seen this dropping season.

John finishes the Go Around

Sixth Dry Fall

Very quickly, the canyon forks into two canyons. Straight ahead is Bacon Canyon and, to the right, we turned into Seven Falls Canyon for our ascent. The first and second dry falls come immediately. We scrambled up the slippery rock on the right side then returned to the wash to reach the bottom of a rabbit hole climb. All the dry fall climbs are challenging but there is always one or two of our hikers that want to increase the difficulty levels by taking the "straight up" routes. The rabbit hole climb is difficult enough for most of us so we helped each other get up the initial step then each of us found our strength to emerge through the hole at the top. With seventeen hikers, some of them newbies, some of these climbs were time consuming. But, it was a beautiful day and patience was plentiful.

Reaching the Saddle - Lake Mead in Background

After some more hiking and scrambling up through the wash we came to the third and most formidable ascending dry fall of the day. Sometimes this one is too much for one or two hikers and they find an up and around to do the job. The remaining hikers are required to climb along a wall about 6 feet off the ground before solid ground at the top is reached. Fun!

Descent off Saddle

Numbers four, five and six are nice climbs up rock face. Number six has a fun up and around to the right. Number seven? Well, either it is part of a previous double dry fall or it is the one that you climb right after the left turn at a three-way canyon junction.

Healthy Cholla Forest

Taking our Break at Cholla Forest

The shallow canyon we turned into is a gentle climb up to the ridge saddle above. We waited for the rest of the line to arrive while enjoying the distant view of the lake and a welcomed gentle breeze. After the pause, we descended the other side of the hill on a trail and crossed the wide wash and power line valley to the entrance of the Cholla Forest Canyon. We took our break with a view of the "puffy" lime colored cacti getting plenty of photos. Afterwards, the hike continued by climbing up the canyon to a saddle. We dropped down the short hill on the other side and turned to the right to start down another canyon that contained the most formidable descent dry fall of the hike as seen in the photo below. One of our most experienced hikers commented that it seemed that this drop had changed over the years ... for the worse. I don't know but it is very awkward!

First Dry Fall on Descent

As we hiked down the gravel wash along the edge of the rock walls, someone in the back with binoculars for eyes spotted more bighorns way up on the edge of the mountain top. There were at least four with more traveling along the ridge below toward them. They were all ewes and I didn't see any lambs peeking out on the photo magnification.

Eight Eyes are Watching - Maybe More!

We continued down past several side canyons that flowed into the wide valley. The route continued up the side canyon with the large red rock outcropping high to the right of the wash. Usually, there is a small cairn here to indicate the leftward junction. We turned and climbed the gentle canyon, went straight at the top of the first hill then veered to the right to gain the next hill.

Following the Trail to Bacon Canyon

Top of Bacon Canyon

A game trail leads down, up and around from here until you come around a corner and have a nice view of the lake in the distance. (See photo to left.) You have arrived at the tip top of Bacon Canyon. Our favorite way to descend into this final canyon is to follow the trail to a nice gentle ridge that leads down to the left. You can see which ridge it is when you stand at this junction. Once down in the canyon, the fun continues! Even before you reach the "bacon vein" of colors, it is a pretty canyon with a lot of small and medium scrambles. Further down, the scrambles become larger. There are a couple of dry falls that require a circumvention unless you just want to show off your skills at ignoring exposure!

Descending Bacon Canyon

The last of the precarious dry falls isn't that high but it requires a side step to the right at the same time you are sliding down above a four foot drop. Fun! Our great group of hikers loved these challenges and we all enjoyed watching and helping.

Yes, Max! We're going down here!

This dry fall started us into the bacon color vein of rock. It was somewhere around here that we came across a two to three week fresh kill of a male bighorn sheep. Only the skull and the spine were still there and there was just a little bit of skin on its face. (Word is this kill was a lot more bloody 2.5 weeks ago!)

Seventeen Hikers in Bacon Canyon Descent

I think rigor mortis has set in. Just a guess.

Dropping down through the bacon vein is a lot of fun. Nothing too dangerous. We stayed on the left side of the canyon and the drops were moderate in nature. Finally, we hiked into the fork area where we had begun up Seven Falls Canyon. Counting to seventeen one more time, we started down the gravel wash and headed back to the cars. Always a great hike, this is a staple for many Las Vegas hiking clubs. Please leave historical artifacts where they lay for others to enjoy and ponder on for future generations. 

6.2 miles; 1350 feet elevation gain; 4.25 hours; average speed 1.4 mph

One of many Small Falls in Bacon Canyon

Down and to the Right!

Final Descent through the Bacon