Red Cap - 10/14/15

Top Tank Red Cap Reflection

Morning Light on Red Rock Canyon NCA Sandstone

Portal to Fun

Approaching the Traditional Red Cap Scramble

 There's nothing like a good small scramble to help begin making the transition from hiking in the Spring Mountains to hiking at Red Rock Canyon. ... If, in fact, you spent the last five months in the upper elevations. Five hikers came out for a short, beautiful and refreshing scramble up to the smaller peak of Red Cap. We parked at the Sandstone Quarry parking turnout of the Scenic Loop in Red Rock Canyon NCA. The route followed the Calico Tanks Trail and turned left at the Rattlesnake Trail junction. After hiking through the slot seen in the photo above, we turned up to the right to begin a traditional scramble up.

Climbing the Crack

 We circled behind the red rock and headed toward the first climbing obstacle. It is a 3rd class scramble up through a crack in the sandstone. The rock is worn smooth from the many feet that have found their perch.

Climbing Red Cap

Almost to the Red Sandstone

 Next, the route finds its way through another slot crack, up some steep sandstone that requires "sticky" hiking boots, around through the sandstone boulders and, finally, up through yet another crack. All of this is done while keeping the sandstone hill at or near your left shoulder. When you arrive at the top of the last crack, you have reached "the tank level." The remaining portion of the climb to Red Cap Peak is an out and back endeavor. So, up we went some more. We climbed the white sandstone up to our left, found our way over to the last slope and crack then stood for the first time on the red sandstone layer.

Scramble Up to Red Sandstone Layer

 This is where the climbing gets a little exposed to open air. Keeping a clear head allows hikers to negotiate the next difficult scrambles without losing their grip. When we all reached the peak, we took a break enjoying the gorgeous views of the clear day.

Steve Demonstrates the Red Cap Descent

 Sitting on the northern end of the Calico Hills, we could see almost all of the sandstone of Red Rock Canyon plus much of the limestone including Turtlehead Peak which was neighboring us.

Eventually, we had to start our descent. We had climbed the peak on the east side and, now, we descended on the west side. There is a small slide as seen in the photo to the left. Then, we continued down to the white rock layer. Working slowly, we descended down to the tank level where our out and back began. While four hikers toured the tanks, one hiker laid back for a relaxing break.  The tank tour involved circling an "island" of rock. There are five major tanks in this area although the largest seldom retains water. They include the Wall Tank, the Sundial Tank, the Large Tank, the Sunken Tank, and the Top Tank.

Escarpment View from Red Cap

 With the exception of the Large Tank, all the tanks were filled over half full of water.

Coming Off of the Red Layer

 First, we dropped down to the Wall Tank as seen in the photo below. Next, we hiked up to the Sundial Tank. (Yes, it used to have a sundial made of rocks in the middle of it.)

Hiking Past Wall Tank

Hiking Past Sundial Tank

 We scrambled up the steep wall when we got around to the end of the tank then took a couple of photos of the Turtlehead reflection. We saw many very small tadpoles in the Wall Tank and one tadpole shrimp in the Sundial Tank. We climbed up to the top of the rock island and gingerly made our way, jumping over a deep crevice, around the Sunken Tank and over to the Top Tank where the first photo in this entry was taken.

Sundial Tank with Turtlehead Reflection

 This area is a favorite place of the writer's to take photos and sit and "reflect."

Scrambling Up to the Top of Rock Island

Hiking Past the Sunken Tank

 At the end of the tank tour, we collected the fifth hiker and proceeded to climb over the rocks on the west side of the tank level. Sometimes hikers slide down into the Large Tank to begin their descent. Today, we avoided the holes in the britches, so to speak. This began a very steep descent down to Mass Production Wall, a popular rock climbing wall. We dropped past the loose boulders, baby stepped the sandstone slab then wound our way down to the top of the wash next to the wall on the left.

Starting Steep Descent

 Our descent next to Mass Production Wall was slow. It is a somewhat difficult down climb due to the unevenness of the small boulders.

View from Top of Mass Production Wall Descent

A Little Added Scrambling

 When we finally got to the bottom, we started down the Calico Tanks Trail but veered off quickly choosing to take another added scramble down through this layer of red sandstone. It was a difficult drop but we had fun. Lastly, we finished out by following the Calico Tanks Trail on the upper level of sandstone to the right. It was a fun morning with friends.

3 miles; 750 feet elevation gain; 3 hours

Reaching the Calico Tanks Trail a Third Time

Turtlehead Peak

Finishing on White Sandstone

6000 Lee Canyon Loop - 10/11/15

Lee Canyon Down from MM 10.5

Apache Plume in Rocky Gorge Wash

MM 9ish at 6000 Elevation Feet

Top of First Hill

 Another exploratory, today, brought us new information on an area that we did a small hike in three years ago. Our out and back hike from 2012 explored the first part of the hike we did today. But, today, we kept going! Seven hikers parked two cars at the small dirt road that forks off to the right around 9 miles up Lee Canyon Road. This is just previous to the 6000 foot elevation mark. We started hiking up this little road that proved to be very washed out. Just before half a mile, we found a trail that led up the hill to the right. The morning climb felt good.

View of Playa Lake on First Hill

 At the top of the hill, we could see part of a lake in the playa below. This is quite unusual!

One of the Targets in this Area

 We crossed over the road that had continued up via a switchback and started seeing a few elaborate contraptions. After closer inspection, we saw that they were being used for target practice. Perhaps it would be best to watch out for shooting in this area!

Following the Trail

Trail Continues into Distant Hills

 Our small trail gained a northerly direction as we contoured around shallow undulations. To the right, we saw the Sheep Mountain Range and to the left, we saw the Spring Mountains Divide. Views were gorgeous and the weather was perfect. The trail was very easy to follow but got weak as we approached our junction with the Rocky Gorge wash, the only gravel wash we came to. We made our left turn into the wash at around 1.6 miles. The trail should continue across the wash but our cursory glance did not find it.

Rocky Gorge Area as seen from Our Trail

 Just previous to our wash junction, we got a view of Rocky Gorge in the distance. Yes, it is more like a miniature gorge but unusual for the terrain of an alluvial fan.

Starting Up Rocky Gorge Wash

 When we started up the gravel wash, it was clear that the burros use this as their thoroughfare at times. The wash is wide and mostly clear of brush.

Entering Rocky Gorge

Hiking Up through the Shadows of Rocky Gorge

We passed the Rocky Gorge Loop trail that came in from the left and began hiking up between rock walls. The rock underfoot was colored a gray and white stripe. At this time of morning, the "gorge" was completely in the shade and it was very cool. As we hiked through the rock, we searched for an easy climb out to the left side. Just as we were coming to a fork in the wash, we saw our chance up to the left. An easy but steep climb brought us up to the ridge above.

Connecting with Rocky Gorge Loop after Bushwhack Out of Wash

The ridge led us to a "bridge" in the terrain and, following an ESE projection, we junctioned with the Rocky Gorge Loop trail near a high point of the ridge we were on.

Hiking Rocky Gorge Loop back to its Blue Tree Trailhead

Next, we began hiking on the Rocky Gorge Loop in the direction of Lee Canyon Road. It brought us down off the embankment and over to a small wash. The trail continued up this wash.

Taking a Break in some Nice Shade

Rocky Gorge Loop Trailhead at Blue Tree Road

At around 3.75 miles into the hike, we stopped in some good shade and took our break. Refreshed, we continued up the trail / wash to the trailhead located at the Blue Tree Road where there is a small quarry of sorts and several felled ponderosas. There is a trail on the other side of the open area that leads up to Lee Canyon Road but we missed it. Nevertheless, a small easy bushwhack put us right where we needed to be at mile marker 10.5 on Lee Canyon Road.

Crossing Lee Canyon Road at MM 10.5

We crossed the road then took the trail down into Lee Canyon. We usually take the trail "up" Lee Canyon from here but, today, we dropped down to the left and began a first time trek "down" canyon.

Finding Burro Trails to Follow down Lee Canyon

Immediately, we looked for any trails that might be laying around. We found them in the form of burro trails. Guess how we knew they were burro trails.

Burro Trail Crossing the Wash

Castle Rock

Following the small trails, we made our way everywhere except into the gravel wash! But, most interesting, we climbed up the embankment a little on the right side and viewed up close the Pleistocene (Ice Age) conglomerate rock formations of the Lee Canyon alluvial fan. We named one particular outcropping Castle Rock as seen in the photo to the right. Surprisingly, we did not see any burros in this area that they clearly use as shelter.

Entering the Wash

After we tired of the winding burro trails, we dropped down into the gravel wash. ... Or, rather, one of the gravel washes! There were a few.

Hiking Down the Main Wash

Lee Canyon is very wide in this section. The main wash is not always the main wash. And, in a few places, washes were cut very deep from previous relatively recent floods. (i.e. like last year's)

Lee Canyon Wash Deeply Trenched in Some Places

Trail Going Up on Right indicates 4th Point

At about 5.75 miles into the hike, we started seeing points of terrain that jutted into the canyon on the left side. In retrospect, we can now say that there are 4 points that intrude into the canyon before you get to the trail that climbs up near the 6000 foot elevation level. There is a very deep trench on the left side of the canyon at the 4th point. It is best to be on the left side of the canyon already to avoid having to cross this trench. The trail takes hikers out of the canyon and leads down to go along a section of the old Lee Canyon Road. Follow this old pavement down and there is a climb up to cross Lee Canyon Road near the cars. This hike is good for cool weather and greatly improves on the short hike we did back in 2012.

7 miles; 1100 feet elevation gain; 3.25 hours

Trail that Climbs Out of Lee Canyon near Cars

Spying the Cars from "Canyon Escape Trail"

Hiking Down Lee Canyon Road to Cars

Red Indicates Today's Route - Blue is Better Route