Conglomerate Gardens (aka Kibbles-n-Bits) v Fossil Ridge - 11/27/24

Light rain on Red Rock Canyon NCA

Bright red barrel cactus on north Blue Diamond Hill

Rain on Wilson Peak - Climbing Fossil Ridge Trail

Rain-drenched Red Barrel

Although I do not advocate hiking alone, sometimes I do it on some of the more popular trails. I also carry with me an InReach device for emergency use. On this day before Thanksgiving, I expected to see more hikers and tourists in the Red Rock Canyon area but my early morning jaunt only passed one other hiker who I knew by face and a bicyclist who was concentrating very hard as he ascended on the difficult bike trail of Kibbles-n-Bits. Some hikers name this trail Conglomerate Gardens and the bicyclists call it Kibbles-n-Bits. I hope this doesn't confuse too many. I'm fine with either name! The Around the Bend Friends call it Conglomerate Gardens for the beautiful desert dark rocks and foliage.

Fossil Ridge above Echo Canyon - Second Finger Beyond

Fossil Ridge and Turtlehead Peak in light Rain

View back at La Madre Wilderness while hiking along Fossil Ridge Trail

Over the Moon / Conglomerate Gardens Junction

It wasn't raining when I got to the trailhead but the rain was coming across SR 159 at a swift pace. By the time I got on the trail, the light rain was coming down on me! I brought the camera just to entertain myself and I was very glad I did. I hope you enjoy the photos I took as I ascended to Fossil Ridge in the opposite direction than I usually find myself doing. Up through the rain, the red barrels were amazingly red! I continued up along the canyon to my left and turned right at the junction that took me up to the Cat-n-Hat Trail. A left turn here sent me up through the desert until I reached an obvious fork where I took the right toward Over the Moon. Before hiking into the mining property, I came to the Conglomerate Gardens trail junction and turned right again. Starting down the bike trail, it is immediately clear that the trail offers a lot of fun and beautiful scenery. There is a sea of nature's conglomerate rock sculptures among the desert and washes in this area. The trail is fairly easy to follow except for a handful of places that require further inspection.

Chert nodules on top of Limestone

Heading up Conglomerate Wash

Conglomerate Wash

Bridgepoint Peak beyond Blue Diamond Hill

At one of those places as I hiked on around the hill, I went straight when I should have turned right. No matter. The trail took me in the direction I wanted to go and it wasn't so wiggly as the other choice. Therefore, it was a slightly shorter route. I'll call it the Lower Trail for now. Regardless, I learned more about the trails in the Margo Mine Road area and found the trailhead just fine. The tourists were trickling in slowly. Gorgeous morning! Worth the chilly light rain during sunrise in the first hour!

Stats: 6 miles; 1000' gain; 3.5 hours

Rainbow Peak beyond large Conglomerates

Pine Creek Canyon (L) & La Madre Wilderness (R) from Conglomerate Gardens Trail

Sun prying its way through clouds and onto Turtlehead Peak

Moonshine Spring - 11/22/24

Moonshine Spring

Wall around campsite next to Spring

Old Cottonwood trees fed by Spring

View on the way to Wooden Fence Spring

Okay. So, I did it right this time! Something I read last time led me astray and I ended up at Inscription Rock instead of Moonshine Spring. This time I really found it and it was amazing! Moonshine Spring is a prolific spring that streams out of a small canyon at the base of the north side of Windy Peak. If you view Windy Peak's north side, the long vertical crack in its wall (a wall that compares to Black Velvet's main wall) leads directly down to the spring's canyon. At this time of year, the cottonwoods in the canyon, fed by the spring water, are adorned with yellow leaves; quite the colorful sight.

Hollow Rock Peak above Wooden Fence Spring

Wooden Fence Spring

Wooden Fence surrounding Spring

Cottonwood Valley

The hike is less than 6 miles as a loop. Three of us began the hike by leaving Late Night Trailhead and heading over to Wooden Fence Spring the usual way. There were two cars parked at the Windy Peak (east side) climb. We dropped down to the spring that is surrounded by a wooden fence designed to keep out anything that might pollute the spring area. After enjoying the dark conglomerates and the colorful desert foliage, we headed over to Lone Grapevine Spring on the usual trail. Just before we started down the trail to the water trough, we started a climb up the hill in front of us on a burro trail that also had hiker shoe prints. Following this vague trail, we came to an overlook of the back side of Lone Grapevine Spring. We had never seen this side before so it was very exciting to see the large area of grass surrounded by another one of those fences. We, also, saw a large old metal skiff (?) sitting on the side of the grassy area. After a few photos, we continued around, down and up the small burro trail that had become clearer.

Wooden fence and old skiff at Lone Grapevine Spring

View back at Lone Grapevine Spring from burro Trail

Following burro trail over next trailing Ridge

Burro trail heading down into Moonshine Spring Area

We followed the burro trail up and over the next small ridge as Global Peak and a smaller buttress in front of it came into view. At this point, we were having faith in the burro trail and a vague knowledge of where the spring was located on the GPS. The burros know! We kept looking up toward the base of the rock walls of Windy Peak. But, the burros know. So, we continued up a steep hill to the next ridge. (In retrospect, we should have climbed to the top of this ridge a little lower down since the trail up where we were was very steep and slippery.) On top of this ridge, we regained the burro trail and followed it down and across the next rock-filled arroyo. Up the next ridge and, more gently, down the other side, the burro trail was becoming much clearer. The trail circled around and down to the middle of the small canyon to a junction point. Hmm. Well, the grove of trees and darkness beyond the foliage wall gave us a good idea that, perhaps, we were there! A small rocky path required us to bend forward under the trees and carefully climb over a couple of fallen trees. There it was!!!

Pooling water at Moonshine Spring

Old wall built at Moonshine Spring

View from opposite end of spring Area

Moonshine Spring reflecting blue Sky

The spring had a large shallow pooling of water that reflected the blue sky and yellow foliage. We had to climb over two trees to avoid mud and water. On the other side, we hiked around the end of the embankment and stepped down to see a long man-made rock wall next to the spring. The wall surrounded an area that could have easily provided shelter for an encampment at one time. We explored a little but the vines and foliage prevented us from going very far. It was all very exciting to be in this space. We stopped for a break to just enjoy. Eventually, we exited the same way we stepped into this other world. However, at the junction, our return route headed down the ridge we were on following yet more burro trails.

Moonshine Spring from ridge descent Trail

Following burro trails down ridge and along Wash

Burro trails leading toward Black Velvet Trail upper End

Last wash crossing before Black Velvet Trail Junction

We found a main burro trail that descended on the ridge and down to the desert floor along the wide wash to our left. Making a straight line toward what we knew to be the Black Velvet Trail / Outer Loop junction, we followed those burros and connected. Having done the remaining part of the hike many times, we put our speed on fast and automatic. Up the trail and back over to the trailhead with a few junctions to deal with. Fun! Fun! Fun! And, very exciting ... did I say that already?!

Stats: 6 miles; 900' gain; 4.25 hours

Landmarks around Moonshine Spring

Temporary cairn at Road / Trail crossing on Return

Circling around hill behind Late Night Trailhead

White Rock Springs Peak (I&II) - 11/19/24

(R to L) White Rock Peak, North Peak, Bridge Mountain and Bridgepoint Peaks from Ascent

Third Class area between two White Rock Springs Peaks I&II

First peak, preparing for the transition to second Peak

Ascent to first false Peak

White Rock Springs Peak is located at the north end of the Red Rock escarpment where the cliffs seem to get a little lower and the climb gets easier. Just to the west of it is a second peak that is a little more difficult to reach. Jerry and Cheryl led the hike and wrote the narrative below.

We drove up to our meeting spot for the hike only to find that seven hikers had decided to drive up to the White Rock upper parking lot. We had decided to start the hike at the White Rock lower parking lot for two reasons. First, the dirt road up to the upper parking lot can be very rough and hard on street cars. Although the road was apparently in good condition. Two, the hike is very short so an extra quarter mile each way could add a little more to our workout. We signed in the seven hikers that decided to meet at lower parking lot and we started hiking up to the upper parking lot. Once there we gathered everyone and made introductions. We had a newbie which had just joined the club so we wanted that person to feel welcome. After some brief chitchat we got on the trail up the southeast ridge to the first of two peaks.

Turtlehead and city view from Ascent

Halfway up to first White Rock Springs Peak

Route Finding

The trail up through the sandstone boulders quickly disappears and we found ourselves following a few sparsely placed cairns and the leader's GPS track. The hike went surprisingly well even though we were apprehensive since there are several routes through the boulders but we wanted to keep the scrambling to class 2 until we reached the first peak. Well, we reached the first peak, the White Rock Springs Peak, without going off course or doing any class 3 scrambling. At this point we asked for those hikers who wished to do the class 3 traverse over to the second peak called West White Rock Springs Peak. 

 All but two hikers decided to tackle the slightly harder traverse. As it turned out no one had any trouble at the two class 3 spots and we had our snack break and photo shoot at the west summit.

On the way back we were alarmed to see a large drone flying over our heads. We picked up the two hikers who had stayed back and had another large group shot and then we headed back to the cars.

Some Goodies

On top of West White Rock Springs Peak

Returning to first peak with west peak in Background

 We had reached a tricky section of the ridge with very large boulders when we suddenly realized that three hikers were missing. Two of us climbed atop some high boulders and spotted the three hiking down the slope into the wash on the north side of the ridge. We told them we would meet them at the cars and we continued down. A similar incident happened at exactly the same place last year when a hiker got separated and continued down into the gully on the south side of the ridge. We had tried to make sure everybody stayed together but with so many people it is sometimes very difficult. Anyway, everyone made it down safe and sound. ~Jerry and Cheryl Thomas

Photos by the group

Stats: 3 miles, 1300 ft, 3 1/2 hours.

Route Finding

Oops! We should go around.

Back down to the Upper White Rock Road Trailhead (Peak in Background to L)