Volcanic Tablelands, Near Bishop, CA

Hiked May 17, 2026. Twentieth hike of the year. This was supposed to be part of a dark sky weekend, where I was going to try an extended period of astrophotography. However, for various reasons, I ended up not even setting up the telescopes.

I arrived at the Ferguson Group campground about 6pm on May 16. But my group had already vacated the site, due to anticipated poorer seeing conditions. And, for various reasons, I wasn't up for setting up and camping there by myself, so I drove back down to 395, and booked a reservation once I had a signal. Once i was checking my messages, I also discovered that I had been at the right place on the right date, but the friends had already vacated.

So I checked in, moved some stuff up, and microwaved my dinner. Took an evening walk around the motel, to reach my step count. That's the two shots at the end of this post, so they would have been May 16, 2026, but not an actual hike. Pretty, though.

After I got back, I did some Internet searching to decide on my morning hike. The plan was going to be for a short hike among the Volcanic Tablelands in the morning, then resting up, and taking a longer hike into the eastern Sierra in the afternoon, once the light turned golden.

On Sunday morning, May 17, 2026, I got a relatively early start, leaving the motel before 7am, and got back, just before 10am. The goal was "skyrock" and then what ever else I could find.

I had read that my intended trailhead was some distance past "Happy Boulders," off Chalk Cliff Road. Turns out my gps actually knew how to get to "Happy Boulders," so I followed those directions, then just continued past, looking for a parking area with a trail heading up into the Volcanic Tablelands.

A good part of the road out here is dirt, and somewhat washboarded. Still easily managed by a typical sedan, if you find the right speed to go and the right lines for the washboarding.

Turns out there's a portapotty at "Happy Boulders," by the way, so you may have one restroom option between Bishop and the Volcanic Tablelands. I didn't notice any actual signage calling this place, "Happy Boulders," though, so you'll just have to know it, when you see it.

I think it's likely that you could hike up the trail near Happy Boulders, then just wandered to the west. But because I wasn't sure, I just continued on Chalk Cliff Road until I found the next small parking area, with a distinct trail head up the cliff.

The trail up is short and steep, but easier coming down than I expected it would be. Great views over the winding waterways south of the Volcanic Tablelands on the way up, as well as views of the Sierra, to your west, and the White Mountains, to your east.

Once at the top of the highlands, there's a line of boulders to your right. As I undestood it, skyrock would be visible from somewhere at the top of that mesa, looking downward, so I intended to find a way up to the top of those boulders, and keep peeking back over to the west, looking for Skyrock.

The strategy proved sufficient. After checking between various rocks, I finally did find the skyrock petroglyph, pictured at the top. I continued poking around these rocks. Just east of the boulders, by the way, maybe 1/8 of a mile from the southern cliff, was a jeep or atv trail, with a turnaround area. The trail came from the north. Just before the turnout area was a small wide area for parking or turning around. The Skyrock was not too far from that area.

Across the jeep trail, and across the arroyo, was another set of boulders. A relatively distinct use trail lead across the arroyo, to where I could see some ambiguous markings on those rocks -- maybe indigenous, maybe not.

Near those ambiguous markings was another rock face, with what looks like bullet markings all over. Thirteen Moons was right near that.

So I'm not providing gps coordinates, but this should get you close enough to find the petroglyphs. It's actually more fun, this way, when you "discover" them only with a little bit of effort on your part.

In retrospect, I learned that you'd either want to get here shortly after sunrise, or in the early afternoon, to put both sets of petroglyphs either fully in sun or fully in shadow.

With lots of wandering and crisscrossing, I made a bit over three miles of walking for the morning, so enough to qualify as a formal "hike."

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve

Posting out of order. I hiked this over two months ago, March 14, 2026. Twelfth hike for the year.

Only been here once before, and it was a long time ago. Not sure how I managed never to come back, but I hadn't, until this March.

This trip was a spring trip, with quite a bit of flowers in bloom, even away from the watery bottom of the seep in Big Morongo Canyon.

The The area has several defined trails. One heads down the main canyon. One runs along the east side of the preserve. One runs to the west. Numerous trails criss-cross the central, wetter area of the preserve. I wandered somewhat aimlessly, but not very far down the canyon, as I didn't have time to do that.

The spring bloom was still going strong, with a wide variety of flowers along the paths: Desert mallow in the wash, brittlebush on the hills, a patch of Mojave aster near an overlook, chia, yucca, and a very few larkspur and lupine.

I zigged zagged around enough to hit my three mile minimum, plus a little bit.

This would have been a Saturday afternoon, a stop on the way towards Yucca Valley/Twentynine Palms, and a night of astronomy outreach at Sky's the Limit. I was still on a decent roll, as far as hiking, getting out once or twice a week. It's been slower, recently, but two hikes this last weekend: Volcanic Tablelands near Bishop, for Hike #20, on May 16, and Red Rock Canyon State Park, near Cantil/Ridgecrest for Hike #21.

That was supposed to be surrounding a nice astrophotography outing, but that fizzled out for me. Only managed two short hikes, so I think that means I have, I think, three hikes to blog.

Big Morongo Preserve has a webpage on the San Bernardino County website. Apparently, it's owned by the County, as part of Big Morongo Regional Park, but there's also a non-profit partner that shares in management.

Free entry. No pets. No smoking. No collection of plants or animals. Open 7:30am to sunset.

And, of course, it can get *really* hot in the summer, so it's more of a three-season park, although it does remain open year round, and an early or late hike in summer would still be comfortable. Trails are a mixture of regular dirt and boardwalks, because the trails crisscross a seap, where water bubbles up due to the San Andreas Fault. That makes this a literal oasis in the desert, but even an oasis can be hot in the summer.

If you do hike in the summer, wear proper sun protection, bring liquids, and carefully monitor your comfort, especially if you're with kids. They overheat quicker and don't always signal you before they *really* overheat, so, can not stress this enough, if you go in the summer, take it easy, and don't over do it!

Mount Hollywood Trail, After Dark

Hiked May 3, 2026. This would be Hike #19 for the year. I haven't blogged Hike #18, which was Warren Peak, two weeks ago. Apparently, I still need to blog Hike #12, Big Monorogo Canyon Preserve, as well.

I've hiked this innumerable times, but it's been a few years since I've hiked it at night, when I can get the nice "Griffith Observatory in Front of the DTLA Skyline" shot. In this case, I got to the Observatory early, worked a bit, then headed up to Mount Hollywood. Once there, I headed back down, stopping near the big bend in the road that heads up the south side of Mount Hollywood, and waited for dark.

Two second exposure, f/11, ISO 1000, then cropped somewhat to produce a zoomed in image. My lens was a Nikon 24-120mm zoom, which isn't quite enough for what I wanted to do, here, so I had to crop.

The flowers were, in order, sacred datura, sticky monkey flower, and thistle (both blooming and spent). The sticky monkey flower was pretty common, but not right next to the trail. Only a few plants were well-placed for photography.

There were other flowers, but it's well past peak for wildflowers in this area, although the cooler temperatures this week have helped.

As previously noted, it's about a three mile hike from the Charlie Turner trailhead (far northern end of the lot in front of Griffith Observatory) to the summit of Mount Hollywood. If I was more motivated, I had time for a longer walk, and considered going to the Hollywood sign. But I forgot to bring my prescription medication, which was due to be taken around 8:30pm. I wasn't sure how long I'd need for the longer hike, so figured I'd stay close, so I could get back home by around 9pm, not too late, at least in my mind.

It was a little chilly by the end, but not too cold. Good way to get some extra steps, and I do enjoy time out on the trail, when ever I can manage it.

Comet PanSTARRS C/2025 R3

PanSTARRS is one of several astronomy photography programs that searches continuously for things that are changing in the sky. It discovers nova, asteroids, and comets. Comet C/2025 R3 was discovered by PanSTARRS in September, 2025, and made its closest approach to the sun on April 19, 2026. In the last few weeks before perihelion, it was a binocular or borderline-naked eye object. However, it's now likely too close to the sun to be viewed. It'll next be visible in a few days, in the evening sky, but likely only in southern latitudes.

Knowing the short window available for viewing, I made plans to try for it on the morning of April 12, after an outreach event at Sky's the Limit Observatory, in Twentynine Palms. Unfortunately, it was totally clouded out. So I made plans to come out this way again the next week. As the forecast was more favorable for Saturday, April 18, versus Sunday, April 19, I drove out on the 17th, and headed into Joshua Tree early on the morning of April 18.

I took some shots with my 50mm f/1.8 lens on a my Nikon D3500, and some with my Nikon D780 and my 80mm f/7 refractor, with a focal reducer, for an effective focal length of about 450mm and f/5.6. Same set up as for most of my non-telephoto shots. Short exposures, no more than 15 seconds.

Because I concentrated so hard on bringing my astrophography rig (the one I used, and the set up for my larger refractor, , I forgot to toss a pair of binoculars in the car. So I only saw the comet with my eye briefly, at the end of the morning, when I swapped an eyepiece in for my camera. By then, it was barely visible. Would have been beautiful in binoculars.

PanSTARRS was no Lemmon, and definintely no Atlas-Tsuchunshan. But it did have a nicely formed tail, and was easily photographed, if somewhat thin and hard to see without optical aid. It also had a much shorter period of visibility, and only in the morning sky.

After my comet shooting, I went back to the motel, slept for a bit, then took a hike to Warren Peak. That night, I did another outreach night at Sky's the Limit. So there's still that to blog, too.

Black Mountain, Trail 404, Sloan Canyon NCA, NV

Hike #16 for the year. I hiked this on April 3, 2026, the day before I hiked my last blog entry hike, Hike #17. I previously hiked Black Mountain in May 2024, and undoubtedly many times before that.

It's a favorite of mine because of the amazing view from the top. Of course, that also makes it a big climb, which makes this hike relatively tough. It took longer than I recalled, that's for sure.

Seven and two-thirds miles, and 2,100 feet of altitude gain. With my other walking that day, I cleared 35,000 steps on my fitbit.

As you might infer from the name, this mountain is dark, the result of volcanic activity. Exposed volcanic boulders and volcanic layers are visible pretty much the entire hike.

This leads to a thin layer of soil most of this hike, with lots of protruding volcanic boulders to kick. Still, the area was still relatively greenish. At the higher altitudes, the creosote was still in bloom, though it had gone to seed at lower altitudes.

Even before you get to the top, you can look to the south and see the top of the solar generating towers in Ivanpah.

Once at the top, you can see far in nearly all directions, including the Las Vegas Valley in one direction, Boulder City in another, and a slice of US-95's route to the south, toward Searchlight, in a third direction.

You can make this a loop hike. But the loop that goes over Black Mountain runs along the ridge to your north, before then going west, towards the detention basin where this trail begain. That means lots of ups and downs, and the exposed boulders are even more common along the ridge route than they were below the incline. I kicked and tripped over lots of rocks, the one time I went that way. I didn't like it, so I haven't done it again.

Instead, I just returned the way I came. Even then, I did plenty of tilting over on the way up, due to the whipping wind. Because you're on the highest peak in the area, it's gusty up there even when it's not generally windy, below. When it is generally windy, it's super windy up top.

Still enjoyed the views, and got a fair variety of wildflowers photographed. And, as usual, a flag waved atop Black Mountain, albeit a rather ragged-looking one.

I still have my Big Morongo Canyon Preserve hike to blog. I still have a Mount Wilson Trail to First Water hike, as well, but I'm not sure if I'll blog it, because it's a recent repeat.

On an unrelated note, it's now over nine weeks since my brush with hantavirus. That was while I was scrambling amongst the Hall of Horrors, and slid under some rocks, kicking up plenty of dust, in an area where seed husks and rodent droppings were very piled high.

That was basically the recipe for contracting hantavirus: Inhaling dust where rodent droppings and rodent urine is collected, and may contain hantavirus. It led to a period when I was pretty concerned over my own mortality. But, as the weeks went by, I started feeling a lot more confident that I was not yet at the end of my story.

I was concerned because the early symptoms for hantavirus are you usual flu-like symptoms: cough, body aches, etc. You can't tell if you have a regular flu or corona virus, or something much more deadly.

The incubation period (between exposure and symptom onset) is given as between one and eight weeks, which is a long time to have something hanging over your head, particularly if the actual flu and coronavirus is circulating, and people are coughing all around.

But, here I am, finally on the far side of the upper range for infection, so, YAY!

Haven't had time for much hiking recently, unfortunately. Hopeful for at least some astronomy this weekend, and at least one hike.

Teutonia Peak, Mojave National Preserve, CA

Hiked April 4, 2026. I've hiked Teutonia Peak in the past, although I only found two entries of previous visits on my blog. My first visit was blogged here.

It's a short hike, listed as three miles roundtrip, but measuring a little longer than that on my Alltrails recording. I forgot to turn the recording off when I got back to the car, but my recollection was it was near four miles by the time I got back.

I was still tired from my last Black Mountain hike, the day before, so, despite the short distance, I was pretty tired doing this one.

Not sure when my actual last visit was here, but it's been a while. There was a major fire in August 2020 (the "Dome Fire.") that killed many Joshua tree, and had the area closed for an extended period. Then, following a relatively brief reopening, the road was closed for rehabilitation. Apparently, that project continues. But, for now, the section of Cima Road from I-15 to the Teutonia Peak trailhead is open and in excellent condition. It's wider and smoother than it was, and now there's a nice, small, paved parking lot at the trailhead, with room for about eight cars.

From I-15, the Dome Fire damage wasn't that obvious. Joshua tree were singed, and, yes, some were killed. But most seemed to be standing and surviving.

The view as I headed south on Cima Road was quite different. Along the way, and at the trailhead, the Joshua tree forest was completely devastated. In some areas, nothing stood. In others, only a few dead skeletons stood. The effect was dramatically different from previous trips, when you walked through a lush (for the Mojave Desert) forest of Joshua tree, pinyon pine, and juniper.

Despite the turned forest, the shrub-height growth was good. Pretty good showing of wildflowers. Not rolling hills of flowers, but that's pretty rare in the Mojave Desert. But lots of individual plants, and a good variety.

I'm pretty sure this shot is actually from my Black Mountain hike (which I haven't blogged yet), but I did see several beavertail cactus in bloom in the Mojave Preserve, as well.

There were also a number of "King Cup" or "hedgehog" cactus in bloom. They're the last shot and the third from the last shot in this post.

The other splash of red were the Indian paintbrush, which seemed especially scarlet in color.

Elsewhere in this posts were some more desert dandelion and Dorr's (purple) sage. Then there area few plants I'm not sure about, although my plant identfication app seems confident.

The trailhead for this hike is about 13 miles south of I-15. There are no restrooms or other NPS facilities along the way, and none at the trailhead. There is a Shell station just south of the freeway. Also, normally, the Valley Wells rest area is just a few miles west of Cima Road, on I-15, but it's been closed for reconstruction for a while, and does not look like it will be opening any time soon (this, as of April 2026).

Dogs are allowed on leashes on the trails. No drones!

All paved roads are officially open, but there were cone along the way, and a sign warning of dropoffs adjacent to the road. Flooding during the winter has apparently cut close to the road, so if you go of the pavement, you'll slide off and drop a bit, which would be bad for you and your car. There's a large electric sign and occasional orange cones to warn you of that.

Kelso Depot visitor center is closed, but, even when it was open in recent years, no food was available in the Preserve.

Ah, an evening primrose. :D Other common plants may have been tackstem, brittlebush, and tidy tips, goldenbush, desert marigold, and a few banana yucca.

This was Hike #17 for the year. Hike #16 was Black Mountain, in Sloan Canyon NCA (not yet blogged). Hike #15 was the Mount Wilson Trail (again) to First Water. Those both still need to be blogged, too.