Two Peaks and an Arch - 11/19/18

From Northern Calico Hills to Kraft Mountain

View from Climb to Calico II Overlook

Bright Winter Sun hitting Yellow Sandstone

First Stop - The Arch

We have been scrambling around in the northern parts of the Calico Hills for many years, mostly with climbs to Red Cap, Calico Peak and Calico II Peak. These were all great scrambles and are still enjoyed in many variations. Since the spring of 2012 with my introduction of the Tank Discovery Scramble, the surrounding yellow sandstone has been added to our rep. Today, we made an effort to include a lot of that really fun and beautiful stuff in a scramble rated as "High Moderate." Admittedly, it ended up being a "Moderately Strenuous" scramble due to the endurance factor. Four miles is a long way to scramble! Perhaps future "Moderate" scrambles should be shorter in distance. Nevertheless, all scramblers who attended today, professed to have had a fantastic time (some doing something they had not done before). We stayed at a slow pace making sure everyone had a chance to get from point to point.

Sandstone Layers

 We started with twelve scramblers. A few participants knew that it would be possible to leave the hike midway since the route crossed the Calico Tanks Trail three times.

Descending to Calico Tanks Trail

 By the mid-point of the scramble, we were down to ten. But, both hikers left with smiles on their face and happy that they made the effort.

Sun Rises on Calico Tanks Trail

Scrambling into the Cool Shade

 The trailhead was Sandstone Quarry off of the Scenic Loop. We headed into the quarry rocks and hugged the sandstone in the neighboring wash until reaching the obscure entrance to the arch canyon. Our first stop was to introduce a couple of newbies to the hefty low spanning arch that hides away from the trails. From there, we crossed the sandstone over a hill and dropped on a steep sandy path to the Calico Tanks Trail. There is a very interesting layered sandstone formation at the top of this path as seen in one of the photos above. Now, on the familiar trail, we trudged through the sand and climbed the trail until we reached the next junction for the scramble found just after the second set of CCC made steps.

David catches the Group as they Wait

 Turning to the right on a highish point of the trail, we climbed up into the white rocks and plateaued out near Rooster Rock. We crossed the plateau and started climbing up the steep sandstone on the ridge above.

Enjoying the View while they wait their Turn on a Scramble

 Just as a side trip, we hiked over to the Pretty Tank Overlook. We didn't scramble down since we saw that the tank, along with all the other tinajas that we passed, was dry. Bone dry!

Climbing up to the Calico II Overlook Ramp

From Calico II Overlook to North Blue Diamond Hill

We'll leave the beauty of the tinajas for another scramble, perhaps Tony's "Sixteen Tanks" hike! So, we crossed over to the west side of the sandstone and made the rocky, brushy traverse south. A few of the bushes in this area need a haircut. (That scrub oak is painful!) After the traverse, we veered to the right and scrambled our way over to Calico II Overlook for a 5 minute break. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was very bright and the temperatures were settling into the perfect range. From there, we followed Tony up the canyon wash on the other side of Calico II Peak that we saw above us. His version of the climb removed the dangerous exposure factor that we were trying to avoid. Then, we summited Calico II Peak for a few photos.

From Calico II Overlook to White Rock Hills and La Madre Range

 The group separated for the descent down to the main tank area. (The main tank was also bone dry.) Mike led the more strenuous scramblers down the cliff descent and I led the others down the crowded canyon wash. Fun was had by all!

Traverse above the Canyon Wash

 The proposed route turned left when we returned to the Calico Tanks Trail at the main tank. We descended the many CCC steps of the trail until we reached the junction with Mass Production Wall.

Approach to Calico II Peak

From Calico II Peak to Calico Hills South

 Mass Production Wall was named by rock climbers a long time ago. Next to the wall, there is a steep climb through small boulders. Then an even steeper climb on slab sandstone continues straight up the hill until it culminates in a hop over a wall to the top tank level. The group again separated for their break. Six scramblers continued up to Red Cap while four others stayed below at the junction. We could see the Red Cap summiters when they reached their goal and we enjoyed a nice rest. As the Red Cappers came down to join us at the junction, they chose a variety of scrambles down the wall. Very creative bunch!

Canyon Wash Descent from Calico II Peak

 It has been a while since the club has used the West Side approach to Red Cap for an ascent or a descent. Bravely, we headed down!

Junction on Calico Tanks Trail with Mass Production Wall

 It starts with a scramble down a crack next to a wall with the bottom being a slab rock that requires crab walking to descend.

Steep Climb up from Mass Production Wall

Three of Six Red Cap Climbers

 Staying to the right, we traversed around to the next sandstone plateau. Stay right until you pass through some big boulders and the dirt trail ends. Here, descend steep slab as seen in photos below. Here's where I got in trouble. I should have followed Tony but I just didn't recognize the transition. So, I took eight of the hikers on a wild goose chase and had to return to the point in question. (We learned something anyway.) So, then, we followed Tony's route down on a dirt trail among rocks then veered right and found our sought after crack slot. From there, everything was familiar again and we descended to an area very near the Calico Tanks Trail in redstone.

Choices!

 Sorry for the extra mileage folks. Nevertheless, Mike found a new way to descend the sandstone from that detour!

Starting West Side Descent from Red Cap Area

Fun! Fun! Fun! All together again, we followed the back trail around to connect with the Rattlesnake Trail.

Steep Slab (Freeze!)

Steep Slab (Okay, go!)

 The Rattlesnake Trail connects with the Calico Tanks Trail and we followed it back to the cars. The parking lot was filled to capacity and visitors were everywhere! All scramblers were accounted for and everyone had a great time. We must do more of these somewhat easier scrambles! They are a great workout whether or not you include a bunch of exposure elements or hang by your fingernails! Scrambling is a full body workout. Today's slow 4 mile scramble took just over 4 hours.

With Red Cap: 4.3 miles; 1200' gain
Without Red Cap: 4 miles; 1100' gain

Finally, we found the slot!

Connecting with the Rattlesnake Trail

Returning to Calico Tanks Trail on the Rattlesnake Trail

Graph without climb to Red Cap - (Red Cap is slightly higher than Calico II Peak)

Graph with Climb to Red Cap

Fern Canyon - 11/15/18

Pools in Fern Canyon

Leaf-covered Pools in Fern Canyon

Wilson Gate - Fern Canyon to Right of Mescalito (Redhead)

Hiking Pine Creek Canyon

 Fern Canyon is located in the Rainbow Wilderness of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Although we usually have between ten and fifteen hikers on our Thursday hikes, we had nineteen show up today. Still, gee, we had a great time! We parked at the Pine Creek Trailhead off the Scenic Loop and started down into Pine Creek Canyon. The trail maintenance volunteers have done an excellent job with the long downhill trail by taking out some of the steps and flattening out the bedrock. Past this, the trail still had its sections of rocky terrain.

Mescalito from the Wilson House

 We arrived at the Wilson House foundation and took a couple of photos. The tree that still had yellow leaves hanging on was an Ash Tree. A lot of the yellow trees had already lost their leaves.

The "Bermuda Triangle" of Pine Creek Canyon

 We continued, from the house, on the right fork that headed toward the north canyon next to Mescalito Peak. This is the redhead peak that points upward in the middle of the larger Pine Creek Canyon.

Climbing up to Canyon Entrance Trail

Counting 19 Hikers

 The trail comes to a rocked-off triangle area. We joke that it is the "Bermuda Triangle" of Pine Creek since hikers tend to lose their way here. To get to Fern Canyon, it is important to keep to the right here. Then, take the trail that bears right into the trees. The proper trail soon heads up the hill and climbs around a very large boulder before connecting with a good trail that traverses along the north hill into Fern Canyon. (Try not to drop into the canyon too early.) As we neared the canyon, we saw climbers on the Dark Shadows climbing route. It is a difficult route that seems to always have someone on it. We dropped into the canyon right at the staging area for this climb.

Two Rock Climbers on Dark Shadows Route

 We made our way over to the left (south) wall of the canyon and began our scramble. Right away, we saw several of the ferns for which Fern Canyon is named. These are big and very healthy right now.

One of Fern Canyon's Ferns

 Then we started seeing water. A lot of dark deepish water that was sometimes covered with brown and gold fallen leaves. We had to be careful where we stepped! The leaves made the trail a bit deceptive.

Leaf-covered Pool in Fern Canyon

Climbing a Steep Rock

We stayed on that left wall as much as absolutely possible. A couple of times, we had to go toward the center of the wash to get around obstacles but we came right back to the wall. At the top of the pooled areas, we came to the up and around and/or the rabbit hole junction found right at a big pool. The up and around didn't look like it had seen much use lately. Several hikers took the difficult scramble below. After this, we climbed a steeply sloped boulder relying on our shoes for traction. Jacob's Ladder is, perhaps, the second named obstacle. It is found on the side of a huge boulder next to the same left wall. It is a great way to get up to the next level.

Climbing up the Sandstone Slab

 There are a few boulders that require aid to surmount. The main problem is that these scrambles have no handholds whatsoever and the rock, itself, is worn smooth. One of these comes right after the Ladder.

Counting 19 Hikers

 Continuing up the canyon was a slow but deliberate adventure. The next counterintuitive change of route is marked with a small cairn that leads back into the center of the canyon; up and over a natural wall of rocks and trees.

The Top of the Waterfall

Looking out from the Top of the Waterfall

 Not long after this is the Sandstone Slab section where the canyon is closing in to a narrow point. We climbed up the slab and followed it along deeper into the canyon. A few more scrambles that end up on the left wall again, and we were walking into the base of the twenty foot dry waterfall that marks the end of the regular Fern Canyon scramble. We take it just a little further and climb the vertical scramble on the right side of the waterfall to get to a left turn that goes around the rock protrusion and down to the top of the waterfall. There was no water falling but there were three small pools in the area on top. We sat up here in the coolness to take our break.

Taking a cool Break

 The light is difficult here for taking photos but it is a nice overlook to the canyon. We didn't sit too long since it was cold so we got up to begin retracing our steps.

We're just fine right here!

 Of course, everything looks different from the other direction but we did pretty well going down anyway. Still slow but deliberate.

Jerry descends Jacob's Ladder

Inching down a Steep Rock

 There was only one spot we didn't do the same thing. On the way down, we tiptoed across the tops of some large pointy rocks in the water, a route I had followed someone on before. No one fell in the water. Yep, we bad. We found the trail out that we had come in on and counted hikers for about the tenth time! Still nineteen. Out of the cool canyon and into the warm November sun! Fantastic hike and even better group of hikers!

5 miles; ~1000 feet elevation gain; 4 hours

Alternate to Up and Around

Taking Trail out of the Canyon

Returning up the Pine Creek Trail