Colorful Twilight - 3/23/26

Snow-Covered Spring Mountains (Charleston Peak)
with Blooming Joshua Trees

Amora near Goodwater Canyon 

Small peak at break Point

Forest Road at Red Rock NCA Boundary

Still looking for a cooler spot to hike, we went up Kyle Canyon Road to the Colorful Twilight Trailhead, a spot on the side of the road that grows a lone juniper tree on the right side. Wading through the grasses that have grown up between the road and the escarpment, we made our way to the burro trail that climbs up the escarpment diagonally to the right. The burros don't seem to have started their residence in Kyle Canyon yet so the trail up was a little hard to pick out. After we reached the top of the escarpment, the trail was clear and we descended to the forest road below. The trail continues across the road and through the desert making its way to the Lucky Strike Canyon Road where we joined the trail leading to Grapevine Springs. This trail crosses the dirt road again and leads up above the springs and around the neighboring peak to the left. For lack of finding a better way yet, we climbed up to our left after reaching a wash. The bike trail continues to the right but our messy trail also goes up through the wash and on up the hill. We chose to bushwhack up the hill to the left.

Pointy Peak Target

Susan finds something Interesting

Trail above Grapevine Springs Valley

Amora above Grapevine Springs

There isn't much of a trail up to the ridge's saddle and it is quite a struggle but we made it up to the ridge with little left to spare. (The altitude needs a little getting used to!) We arrived on the ridge where a burro trail starts down the other side on a long diagonal (to the left) to a trailing ridge and on down to the canyon wash below. We arrived at the burro bone that kinda marks that we were at the right spot. From here, the trail continues up the other side of the canyon in the red dirt on a diagonal to the right. At the top of the red ridge, we turned to the left and climbed the ridge to a rocky place to sit for a break. The trail that we just left, appears again, here, passing by right to left. After the break, we joined the trail again by taking a left turn. This trail leaves the red terrain and goes into the limestone terrain. The view of the canyon to the left is one of the best views of the hike. See the two photos below.

Canyon that flows into Goodwater Canyon

Sheep Mountain Range Beyond

Climbing up to West Saddle

Hiking and Talking

Next, we found ourselves climbing up to a saddle I'll dub the West Saddle. If you look at the maps below, you might figure out why! The best burro trail continues straight down the other side of the small ridge and the following wash. When a good trail leads down to the wash, we followed it. (One time we stayed up on the hillside and missed the trail at the bottom.) This trail finally spit us out into the canyon wash at the bottom. Turning left (if you are in the right place), takes you very shortly to a cairned turn to the right. We followed this trail up to the top of the ridge above. On the ridge, our route (without a trail) ran diagonally down to the left where we eventually junctioned with the trail we had used to get to this area in the beginning. A couple of times here, we had to make our diagonal less sharp to finally find the original trail. Nevertheless, it is there and we used it to return to the car. All three of us were beat after this hike due to a little warmth and new altitude heights. But, it was beautiful and quiet.

Stats: 4.5 miles; 1150' gain; ~4 hours

View to south on West Saddle

Approaching West Saddle

Charleston Peak's south Ridge