Calico II Overlook Loop - (Northern Calico Hills Scramble Photo Essay) - 3/3/22

                     
                                                                         The Long Pool

Calico II Overlook

The Deep Dive

Approaching the Arch

In November of 2012, I led the Around the Bend Friends on a new hike/scramble that I had just explored. Being fairly new to the Calico Hills, the many tinajas (aka tanks) fascinated me. Not only did they add a certain lushness to the desert and promise that the wildlife had plenty of water to drink, but they were also excellent photography subjects. With some research off of Google Earth under my belt, I took a couple of hiking buddies and we went to figure out how to reach the tanks that I found via satellite in the hills above the Calico Tanks Trail. We had a bundle of fun getting stuck, cliffed out and dead ended. In the end, we had devised a route that visited nine larger sized tanks that we didn't normally pass by on any of our regular hikes.

A visit to the Arch

Climbing Up to First Overlook

Where am I and how did I get there?

Approach to first Overlook

I also nailed down the route to the bulky arch located near the Sandstone Quarry and added a fantastic new overlook to the mix. As the original hike morphed, we added the Long Pool and Calico II Overlook. Since then, Tony F. has taken the route under his wing and added several more tanks that we knew from earlier hikes. Now, we surmise that when it rains, the wildlife have many drinking holes to survive on even though they may not visit them during the day since this is a well-populated segment of the Red Rock Canyon NCA. 

Well, that's the history for today's route. Eight hikers came for what sounded like a simple Calico scramble that turned out to be so much more!

Group on First Overlook

Descending to Calico Tanks Trail

Calico Tanks Trail (first water)

Leaving the Calico Tanks Trail

We haven't done a couple of the Tank Discovery segments in years. So, we started by leaving Sandstone Quarry and hiking up the wash to a tree-covered turnoff to the right. A couple of minutes later, we were looking at the thick arch that left some hikers wondering if they had seen it before! Probably around half had seen it. From there, we climbed up to the first overlook peak. One hiker exclaimed, "Where are we?" Next, we dropped down to the Calico Tanks Trail and followed it out until we reached the top of the CCC-built steps. A hint of a trail takes hikers up onto a sandstone plateau to the right. Previous exploration presented a way to get to the top of the sandstone plateau above this where most of the tanks are found.

Climbing on Up ... to the Big Time!

Group at the Exclamation Point Tank

Many tanks had water.

We wondered how many hikers could
stand on the old log!

We omitted two of the tanks that were on the original route and headed straight for the Exclamation Point Tank where we found a surprising amount of water. We took another group photo and hiked over to the Hidden Tank to find more water. The next segment of the route involved climbing down through a brushy wash that had not been maintained for years. We took out our tools and started to work so that future hikers could get through the passage without getting scratched up. The passage led up to the base of the Sunken Tank which we decided to take a look at ... And, yes, there was water there, too. The hike from there to Calico II Overlook takes a bit of scrambling but, happily, we found that the Long Pool is quite full of water and beautiful as ever! My favorite!

Sandstone Bluffs from the Old Log

Descent from the Sunken Tank (... and pile of waiting sticks!)

Scrambling above the Long Pool

The Long Pool ... again! (My favorite!)

We hiked up onto the Calico II Overlook "Peak" and took our break. It was a beautiful morning with great temps but that would change before the end of our hike and over the next couple of days. Here, we had a choice of retracing our steps and climbing up to Calico II Peak but I chose to go up the way that I haven't been for some time. We found the wash on the right and climbed all the way up to the top frozen dune that overlooks the main Calico Tank far below. On the other end of this small summit ridge, we dropped down into the wash chute that many hikers use to and from Calico II Peak. Someone else had done some trail maintenance within the wash and we would like to thank them for cutting some of the scratchy brush that we had run into on a hike last year.

The Long Pool Visit

Climbing up to Calico II Overlook Breakpoint

Scenes from Calico II Overlook

Dropping off of Calico II Overlook

At the bottom of the chute, we each dealt with the slippery slabs by using the adjacent small tree trunks for support. We dropped down and hiked over to the other side of the main Calico Tank. Surprisingly, this tank also had a decent amount of water in it. It has been a while since I could say that. On the east end of the main tank, we began the Calico II Descent. There are so many trails in this area that it is difficult to find the right one(s). A good rule is to stay high as you curve around to the right and start the steep downclimb. Every once in a while, we ran across a familiar scramble that reassured us that we were on the right route. Although, Jerry and Cheryl had the most straight forward route and we should have followed them in the beginning.

Mike climbs the next Crack

High above the Main Calico Tank

Descending the Chute

Precarious end of Chute

After we managed to angle our scramble to go between two high large boulders, we were good to follow the dirt and scree trail down. Finally, we came to a place where there were boulder islands in the descent. We descended to the left of the first "island" and crossed between to continue our descent on the right side of the second "island." Mike took over and promised a fun time in a narrow canyon descent. ("No 3rd class, I promise!" After it was over, Jerry said, "No 3rd class ... just 4th and 5th class!!) Seriously, we gave Mike a hard time but in retrospect, it was really fun and almost totally doable! Would I do it again? Maybe.  Anyway, we came out in the Angel Carving wash near the Grand Circle Loop Trail below Calico II Turnout.

Starting down the Steep Calico II Descent

Are Jerry and Cheryl coming this way?

All together Down, Down, Down

Small pause before the Deep Dive

We were pretty tired by then but we still had to hike a mile up a gentle slope back to the Sandstone Quarry Trailhead. Our simple, trail maintaining scramble of less than 4 miles had turned out to be quite the epic workout ... of less than 4 miles! One for the history books! Enjoyed by all and what a fun time! I might be sore tomorrow.

Stats: 3.8 miles; 1450' gain; 5.5 hours

Scenes from Deep Dive Canyon

Heading out of the canyon to the Grand Circle Loop Trail

Calico Hills from Loop Trail - Vibrant and Serene