Ryan Mountain and Hall of Horrors, JOTR National Park, CA

Hiked February 8, 2026. My seventh hike of the year.

This was following another night of astronomy at Sky's the Limit. I stayed in Twentynine Palms overnight, then got a couple of really short hikes in, before returning to the motel to check out and drive home. There are a few shots I took the previous night in my last post.

I've hiked this mountain many times, including at least once in the last six months or so, though it looks like I didn't blog my last trip up here (nor my hike around Lost Horse Mine, also within the past 4-6 months, I thought). If I have the time, I'll need to find those photos and write up a post.

Ryan Mountain is one of the few official "mountain" hikes in Joshua Tree, proper (the others "mountain" hikes I've taken in JOTR are Eureka Peak and Warren Peak, both accessed from the Black Rock area of Joshua Tree, south of Yucca Valley).

The parking for Ryan Mountain is a designated stargazing site, and I've used it or the area around it for astrophotography on several occasions, which is why I know I hiked here recently. I took photos of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, in October 2024, and Comets SWAN and Lemmon, in October 2025.

It's a large paved parking lot with a vault toilet, where headlights won't usually shine directly into the parking lot. The ground also slopes down, to the west, so good for looking at things near the sun, after sunset. Conversely, it does rise somewhat to the east, and you've also got Ryan Mountain blocking a bit of your south, so it depends on which way you want to look. For looking to the east, before sunrise, I have observed from the Arch Rock trailhead parking area. For the south, Sky's the Limit would work fine, although it's slightly less dark, due to its proximity to Twentynine Palms.

For this hike, I was up a little earlier than planned, and needed to get back to town moderately early, so I settled on this one. It's a very easy trail to follow, which meant I could, if I got an early enough start, have hiked up in the dark, with a headlamp. I ended up not getting that early of a start. The sun hadn't risen at the base of the mountain, but the sky was plenty bright by the time I started.

Just prior to sunrise, if you look to the west, you'll see a banding in the sky -- darker near the horizon, transitioning into orange, then white. That's the Belt of Venus, which is the result of the shadow of the earth on the atmosphere. Sunlight hits the upper atmosphere, making it brighter. The lowest part is still in darker shadow. Because the atmosphere scatters light, the transition from dark to lighter color is gradual, rather than sudden.

You get the same thing in the east, after sunset. Since I'm often up and wandering about around sunset, I see that, often. I'm less frequently having time to wander and admire a sunrise, so seeing a morning "Belt of Venus" was kind of cool.

Because of my relatively early start, I had few people heading down as I went up, although one couple was already switching out their boots and getting into their car when I got to the parking lot. Three people were already at the top when I got to the top, and several more arrived within a few minutes of me. Still, relatively quiet, up there. Wandered around the summit, and took some pictures. Did not bother trying to scramble up the pile of rocks at the summit, which would have given me another five feet or so of altitude. What's the point?

The return trip was faster than the way up. Overall, my Alltrails recording gave me 3.2 miles and 1078 feet of altitude gain for this segment.

Even as I walked down, I was considering my next step, which I decided would be the Hall of Horrors. I've parked and walked around there, before, but hadn't found the actual "Hall," before. Decided to look for that. Alltrails helped.

This parking lot was also pretty empty at the time. Funny thing was the trashcan, with all the trash sprawled about. Ravens have figured out that people toss their fast food garbage into the trashcan, and so the birds hop into the trashcan and take out bags and boxes, then open the box or wrapper to eat the prize, inside. And, of course, they don't bother putting the trash back inside. :D

For the hike, I walked in a counterclockwise direction. Impressive rock structures all over. Relatively dense Joshua tree growth, too.

Every now and then, my phone buzzed, and Alltrails told me I was off-track. Not really much of an issue, when you're just wandering. But I did use the app to find the actual hall, which is a narrow gap between two large slabs of rock. Actually walking between them would require shimmying under rocks, which I could have done, but opted not to.

More poking around, later. At one point, I reached a place where I would again need to shimmy under boulders. This time, I did go under. Bad decision.

After starting under, and kicking up lots of dust, I realized I was moving over a large collection of rodent droppings and seed husks. So now I have hantavirus on my mind. I'll have to monitor my health for the next few weeks, which will be complicated by the circulation of flu around town. If I do start getting flu-like symptoms, I'll need to go to urgent care and see about testing for hantavirus, too.

Alltrails says I walked 1.1 miles around Hall of Horrors, so 4.3 miles for the day. Pretty short bit of hiking, but at least a decent start to the day, with a significant climb. And, as noted, seventh hike of the year. Staying on track for my target. Hoping I didn't kill myself, in the process. If my blog posts suddenly stop, you'll know why.

A few shots from Sky's the Limit

Along with doing some astronomy outreach at Sky's the Limit, on February 7, 2026, I also took some astrophotographs.

I have long-owned a 152mm Explore Scientific triplet, which I have used for sharp, color-free views of the moon and planets. The focal reducer/field flatner for this telescope was somewhere up over $500, with tax, however, so I never felt tempted to buy one. However, it recently went on sale for $300 (plus tax). Still not cheap, but no longer extravagently so. That, plus my middling level of success with my 80mm setup, persuaded me that I could spend an additional $300 to see if I take astrophotograph with the 152mm, at least for brighter, larger objects.

I think they might be clearing out their stock of a lot of items, including the 152mm triplet and associated accessories, because they have been aggressively cutting prices. The current price on the 152mm triplet is just a bit more than half of what I paid for my telescope, about twelve years ago.

The focal reducer yields a focal length of about 850, with an f/5.6 focal ratio. So same "speed" as my 80mm setup, but with almost twice the focal length. It's also a lot longer and heavier, however, so I wasn't sure if, even on my Orion Atlas mount, that would be steady enough. The answer seems to be, not really. Even a little wind and you get streaky stars. But, keeping the exposures really short (10-20 seconds), and with ridiculously high iso speeds on my Nikon D780, you could get something at least recognizable. I mean, I'm not going to win any astrophography awards, but, as with a lot in my life, I do it because I enjoy it, and not to win awards.

The increase in satellites orbiting the earth is obvious, and I've got plenty, crossing Orion, at least. Orion is near the "celestial equator," and where satellites in geostationary orbits are parked. They show up as streaks because the telescope is tracking to compensate for the earth's rotation, slowly slewing to the west. That makes the satellites appear to move east, relative to the stars.

My targets were the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33), the Pleiades (M42), and the Orion Nebula (M45). The results, for me, at least, were not hopeless. I'll keep fiddling around with this set up, and I'm willing to try it out on things like brighter comets and what not, similar to what I've been doing with my 80mm, but with a bit more magnification. So, depending on how (apparently) large the object is, and the weather conditions, I may use this setup in future, or stick with my 80mm setup. The latter is a lot quicker and easier to setup, and more resistent to wind.

Seventh Ave (Hacienda Hills) Trailhead - Ahwingna, Schabaram, and Coyote Trails, Puente Hills Habitat Authority

Hiked on February 2, 2026. Happy Groundhog Day!

Sixth hike of the year. I've hiked this area many times, starting with my first serious hiking year, in 2010. Especially early in the season, the Puente Hills lend themselves to hiking when it's colder at higher altitudes. Also, it's a relatively close, 30 minute drive from my house to the Seventh Avenue Trailhead. The Puente Hills Native Habitat Authority refers to this trailhead as the Hacienda Hills Trailhead.

There's a small parking area at the trailhead, room for two accessible vehicles and about three non-accessible (non-ADA) vehicles. But across the street, on Seventh Avenue, adjacent to the field for Orange Grove Middle School, is room for many, many, many more vehicles, so parking is not usually an issue. In the past, there were soccer matches on the field, however, so if that's the case, parking may be more limited.

There's a portapotty just inside the gate. Many, many signs near the gate warn that the gate is locked from 5pm until 9am from October 1 through May 31, or 6pm until 9am the rest of the year. So don't get started too early or too late. They also warn you may be cited if you're in the area during the closed period. The trails also close after rain or on Red Flag days.

In my opinion, the hours are far too limited, especially in the summer. Sunrise can be over three hours earlier and over two hours later than the area's open hours. It didn't used to be so restrictive.

Once inside the gate, you have the option of a wild dirt/gravel road or a winding, somewhat sheltered hardpacked trail, to the right of the road. Both merge together about a 1/3 of a mile from the gate, after the dirt road turns to the west.

Near that merger, the Coyote Trail heads south from the dirt road. The Ahwingna Trail continues to the west. That's the path I followed.

The dirt turns to pavement as the road begins climbing. A wooden fence is on your right, providing privacy to the neighbors below, and a canvas for the local gang taggers.

As the pavement ends, the Ahwingna Trail becomes a single-track dirt path, to heading off to the left. It's mostly single track the rest of the way, but with occasional intersecting use or defined trails. About 1/2 mile after the Coyote Trail junction, there's a junction off of Ahwingna trail, for the Native Oak Trail. That trail heads off to the right. Again, I continued on the Ahwingna, bearing left.

After an additional 1/2 mile, the Ahwingna Trail ends, as it intersects with the Schabarum/Skyline Trail. There is a chainlink fence in front of you, so you need to turn left or right. Because I didn't quite recall my previous path here, I first walked a little right, then a little left, past where I first intersected with the Scharbarum trail. There's a designed opening in the fence a bit to the left, which I passed through. I turned right after the opening, and eventually followed the dirt road there up Whittier Hill, where there's a large, empty, graffiti-covered watertank that is now the base for many microwave transmission antennas. Stopped up there and took some pictures.

This area overlooks a bit of the farthest southern and eastern bits of Rose Hills Memorial Park. The large Chinese temple thing is visible, down below. Meanwhile, left of that, at the base of the hill, would be Whittier. Several potential trailheads are down there.

You can also look north, towards the San Gabriel Mountains, northwest, towards the 605 freeway and the San Gabriel River, and east, along the Puente Hills. Further off that way would be Chino Hills, which I kind of wanted to hike this day, but got too late of a start to do.

I then headed down from the watertank, determined to make it over to the Nike missile area. But, again, I did not entirely recall where it was, so I just headed in the direction I needed to go. This put me on the southside of a barbed wire-topped chainlink fence. The actual Schabarum-Skyline trail is on the north side of the fence. The barbed strands atop the fence leaned north, to keep you out of the Rose Hills Property. There were no "No Tresspassing" signs, however, so I continued walking west, looking for a place where I could easily get myself from the Rose Hills side to the Skyline trail side of that fence.

I overlooked Rose Hills as I made my way over. They own all this area, and will eventually expand pretty much all the way to the fence, I assume. They also have a huge watertank for reclaimed water, to irrigate their vast property. No picture of that tank posted, but it dwarfed the graffiti-covered tank.

Lots of green grass, and lupine growing on the Rose Hills property. I took a few shots of those flowers as I continued heading west. That shot is still several pictures down below.

Finally, as I reached the section with the eucalyptus trees, where the trail is basically just the tree-lined road wide, with the Rose Hills fence on the south and a fence to keep you out of the former landfill to the north, there was a chained gate section of fence, with a wide enough gap that I could pass through. I checked carefully to be sure neither my head nor my hips nor my chest would get stuck in the gap. Once so confirmed, I slipped on through to the other side.

The area north of the Skyline/Schabarum trail will eventually be a large regional park. Ground breaking hasn't happened, yet, so I imagine this is far off in the future. For now, it's just a fenced off area with many signs telling you not to mess with the equipment there, or face prosecution.

The good news is, whenever construction actually finishes, there will still be the Schabarum trail, linking this new park to the existing Schabarum Park in Rowland Heights, and points east of that, as well as west, from this future Hacienda Hills park, down to the San Gabriel River. From there, the San Gabriel River trails link down to Long Beach, or up to the mouth of the San Gabriel River canyon. Along the way, you'd also be able to travel up to Legg Lake (Whittier Narrows Recreation Area), or link with the Rio Hondo trail, and also the Santa Fe Dam (Irwindale), and Encanto Park (Duarte).

All of these trails are multiple-use trails, open to hikers, mountain bikers, or equestrians, although the number of horse riders is rapidly diminishing.

After the eucalyptus-lined dirt road, the trail veers left of the paved road, on a series of switchbacks that lead up to a hilltop. At the top are many antennas and some park benches you can sit at. Currently no restroom facilities up there, nor, as far as I can tell, any water, for either people or horses. Nice views, though.

Incidentally, just before you reach the top, there's a sign indicating the Schabarum trail to the right, or a trail to a scenic rest area, to your left. Ignore that sign. The scenic rest area is at the top of the hill, and the Schabarum trail will take you there. The other trail was super overgrown, and just took a longer way to the same place.

At the top is a small shack, maybe two or three times the size of a phone booth. That used to be the guard shack for entrance to this hilltop location, which was where a radar installation and launch site for anti-aircraft Nike missiles was based. During the Cold War, this would have been where missiles were launched at incoming bombers. Of course, once ICBMs were a thing, the anti-aircraft battery seemed sort of pointless, so the Nike missiles were retired.

Maybe a half-dozen people were up there when I got to the top, the largest concentration of people I saw during my hike. Other than that, it was just singles and pairs, and a few larger groups of hikers. This was a Monday afternoon, of course, but, still, it was pretty empty. Undoubtedly busier on weekends.

From here, it was back to my car. The only variation was, instead of returning entirely the way I came, I continued on the Schabarum Trail maybe 1/2 mile past the Ahwingna Trail, and returned via the Coyote Trail. No significant difference in distance. Just wanted a bit more variety to my hike.

By the time I got back to my car, the Alltrails recording said I had a little over seven miles, and gained 1237 feet. So not a bad day. Roughly the same distance, but 800 feet less altitude gain than my previous hike.

Not surprisingly, it's pretty green out there. There hasn't been any significant precipitation since New Year's, but it was a wet couple of weeks around then, and the ground still has plenty of moisture.

The warm weather since then has meant lots of growth, but it's not necessarily good for wildflowers. They'll have to compete with plenty of grasses, as opposed to their normal preference of germinating ahead of the taller grasses. Also, the heat will shorten their lives. As annuals, they want to bloom and seed quickly. Too hot, and they'll die before they can flower, or their bloom will be cut short, saving their energy for seed development in the earlier flowers.

No rain in the forecast for about another week, at least, so there's a fair chance this'll be it for significant rain in our rain year. Ten day forecast shows some "occasional showers" or "scattered showers" periods, which means maybe heavy rain, maybe light rain, maybe no rain, so I'm not expecting a lot of rain, although the long-term pattern allows for significant rain into April. This year, I fear the early spring could mean a very long fire season.

In the meantime, enjoy the greenery! Funny enough, I saw some of the greenest, largest poison oak leaves I have ever seen, so keep an eye out for that, too!

BTW, I don't always note this, but I can say that dogs on leashes are permitted on these trails, too. There are some shaded areas on this trail, but it will warm up fast. And, as noted above, no apparent water available on the trail, so if you bring a dog, bring some water for them, too.

Old Mount Wilson Trail to Jones Peak Cutoff

Hiked Janury 25, 2026. Fifth hike of the year.

The Forest Service adjusted their closure area from the Eaton Fire, moving the lower portion of the Old Mount Wilson Trail out of the closure area. It's now officially open to Orchard Camp, about 3.5 miles from the official trailhead. Since I parked a bit down in Sierra Madre, I wound up covering seven miles just to get to the Jones Peak Cutoff. Bailey Canyon Park is still closed, so I was curious if access was allowable via the Old Mount Wilson Trail. But I started too late to check up that way, so I just hiked to the sign for the cutoff.

It was a wet December and early January, so the hills are pretty green. The topography of this trial doesn't lend itself to sprawling fields of wildflowers, but there was definitely spots of color along the way. Lupine were pretty common from about 1/2 to about 3/4 of a mile up.

Canterbury Bells were more common from just around where the lupine petered out for another mile or so. Some purple and white nightshade in spots. Oh, and a field of mustard at the lowest parts of the trail. That's the yellow flowers in the picture near the end of this post.

There's a memorial stone out near where a ridge runs off from the trail. Not sure if that's what these guys were visiting.

The water was running well in Little Santa Anita Canyon. Partially because of that, and partially because of the thinner vegetation, I could see even more waterfalls down in the canyon than I recall. Unfortunately, most would require a technical approach to do so, safely. Otherwise, there are steep and significant dropoffs into the canyon.

I also saw a signficant waterfall upstream from First Water. So, on my return leg, I went back down to First Water, again, and headed upstream a bit. But the water was pretty high, and I didn't have waterboots or hiking poles to help make it through these rapids. I was sure I could hop the small distance of that first crossing, but then it would be moving along boulders that might or might not be very slick, where a slip would dunk me in the water. Not going to die or even necessarily risk significant injury, but I would get very wet. So I just turned and returned to my car. Might try again in a few weeks, when the water's lower.

As previously noted, on my uphill leg, I was aiming for the Jones Peak cutoff. The sign is still there, and there was no sign saying the trail up to Jones Peak was closed. On the other hand, the trail itself was very eroded, at least here at the bottom.

Had I left even a half-hour earlier, I might have poked around a bit, just to see if anything resembling a trail continued from what looked like a dry streambed. But I was somewhat short on time, and wanted to stop and look for the waterfall I saw above First Water, so I just drank some Powerade Zero at my turnaround point, and headed back down.

As it turned out, my detour down near First Water was pretty brief. Crossed the stream, headed up, past a bench that I don't remember seeing before, then the stream got narrow. Rather than risk a slide over a boulder into the water, I removed my boots and walked through the creek at the first barrier. Then, as noted above, I was on a boulder and could hop to the next boulder, but wasn't sure about the return.

Also, had I hopped to the first boulder, then I'd be walking over granite and fast moving water. Also as noted previously, the water wasn't that deep, but it might have been enough to knock me off my feet, for a full dunking. Probably not, but, being older, I more often turn around at the first sign of an Imperial Starship, rather than. . . .

Wait, I mean I turn around at the first significant chance of a slip and fall, even if the result would just be scrapes and an unplanned dunk. But I'm a Star Wars geek, and once I typed, "first sign," couldn't resist finishing line.

Quite a bit of baby blue eyes (the flowers one shot above) just as I made the final approach to the Jones Peak cutoff.

Nice ribbony waterfall here, somewhat past First Water, I think.

This shot was a little further down the trail, before the turn to the west. You might not be able to see, but some of those trees are burned. Further down, from First Water and below, I saw little to no evidence of fire damage. But up here, you could see some trees were burned and dead. Others were burned, but survived.

There were a few western wallflowers blooming along the trail, just above First Water. I think I've seen them growing right around here, before, too.

More inaccessible rapids and waterfalls, down in the canyon.

One of numerous morning glory in bloom.

Little Santa Anita Canyon Dam. It doesn't impound water, any more. It just slows the flow.

That field of mustard I mentioned, above.

Trailhead sign, which appears unchanged from before the fire.

Sign and gate for the Old Mount Wilson Trail. I don't remember this sign and gate, so I'm not sure when it went up.

It was a good hiking day. A little cool by the time I started (3pm or so), and cooler near the end. But it's strenuous on the way up (pretty steep), and an easy coast on the way back (for the most part). Because I parked down on Carter (rather than Mira Monte), I added a half-mile each way to my hike. My Alltrails recording said I walked just over seven miles, with just under 2000 feet of vertical gain. I hiked down and up from the main trail to First Water twice, which added maybe a hundred feet.<\p>