This is a fairly easy trail. It's about 3 miles round trip. It isn't very steep (except for a few feet at the very beginning). It's popular so you will almost always encounter other people out there. On this hike, a couple passed me on the way up. Later, when they passed me again on their way out, they were running. Sure, it's downhill, but in some spots it's very rocky. You would have to have great ankles to run on stuff like that. The first time that I hiked it, I thought it was a strenuous trail. I didn't know at the time that a few months of aerobic exercise was just the beginning; I thought I was in shape. It used to wear me out, though. Maybe it doesn't now because I stop to take so many pictures.
The parking lot is huge, and paved. No, I don't have a porta-potty in the back of my truck now. I'm just a bad photographer.
The main reason I came out here was to get pictures of clouds.
There wasn't anybody else at the end of the trail. I had all the gnats to myself. I guess they like to hang out near water. There's a spring there so there is almost always water. This was the first place I ever came across water in the desert, and I was astounded to see it just sitting there.
Spring-fed pools of water.
I took my time on the way back to the truck. It had been a cool day (probably below 95 when I started the hike) and it felt great outside as the sun sank. Some nighthawks flew around making their strange, monkey-like mating calls. Sometimes I'm glad when it gets too dark to take pictures because then I don't feel like I might be missing an opportunity for a great shot.
I didn't try to get pictures of the pink clouds that came later. I just enjoyed them.
I took a lot of pictures of the petroglyphs. Click below to see those and other stuff.
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| 2009_06_17 |
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