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| Lewis Flax in the Kyle Canyon Desert (4800' elev.) - Charleston Peak's south Ridge |
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| Twilight Ridge |
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| Kyle Canyon Road below Trail |
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| Charleston Peak, Fletcher Peak & Mummy Mountain |
The lack of wind led us to the Twilight (Zone) Trailhead for this hike,... believe it or not. Up Kyle Canyon Road approximately 9 miles on the right, there is a large parking area. In years gone by, there were horses here that visitors could ride. After they were moved out, the mountain bikers took over. Now, the trails are used by hikers, also. On this hike, the great attraction was the abundance of Lewis Flax (among other flowers) growing all over the desert in the Twilight area. It was magical. Our own little Death Valley super bloom! We dropped down the hill and followed the trail across the wash and up the other side.
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| Trail leading above Kyle Canyon Road and Wash |
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| Group of nine enjoying the Weather |
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| View back to the trailhead near the High Point |
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| Heading to other end of Twilight Ridge |
The next 1.5 miles were high along the embankment of Kyle Canyon wash with nice views of Charleston Peak and the rest of the Spring Mountains NRA. The snow remains in the highest elevations. Our route crossed Lucky Strike Road, a notoriously bad HCV road, and circled around to the right heading toward the southwest end of Twilight Ridge. Watching the GPS carefully, we finally found the Winter Twilight Trail junction leading east. It is marked with a few rocks lining the turn. This is another bike trail but it is less worn and more picturesque as it follows along a small wash for most of the way over to Cut Wash Trail. We took a break at a place with rocks to sit on then followed our trail to pass a large wash on the left.
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| Winter Twilight bike Trail |
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| Break Time |
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| Trail leading beside Wash |
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| Flowers & Critters |
Winter Twilight Trail vaguely veers to the right and doesn't cross the big wash. This part of the trail is also vague so we chose the next large gravel wash to follow east until we junctioned with the Cut Wash Trail. Here, we turned to the right and undulated until we dropped steeply into Kyle Canyon Wash about 1.5 miles from the trailhead. Our usual route up the wide gravel wash is laborious so we took a burro trail that traverses up and around the hillside on the left. It was interesting! We might do that again! After taking a side trip to a memorial, we finished the hike by climbing up the dirt/gravel road and down to the cars. The weather was great and the hike was fun. Great group!
Stats: 6.2 miles; 850' gain; 3.5 hours
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| Steep downhill Negotiations |
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| Opting for the Burro Trail |
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| Nearing the usual road from the burro Trail |
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