Sunday, April 21, 2013

Hike 2013.019A -- Keys View, Joshua Tree National Park


This one doesn't count as a hike by itself, since it's only about 1/2 mile - 3/4 mile roundtrip. However, it, along with the little Bajada Nature Trail, were enough to add to my other structured hikes of the day to make me feel I did six miles for the day, or two separate "hikes," total. That's my arbitrary 3-mile rule for a hike to count towards my annual total.

Keys View itself is pretty much a drive-up, with a concrete walkway to take you to the overlook.

After walking around the overlook, I then hiked up a use trail to the rise just north of Keys View. It's definitely quieter here.

Sad to see evidence of a somewhat recent fire here. It's distressing how much of the Mojave you see evidence of wildfires, which didn't used to happen.

Snapped a few shots there before others came up the use trail, and my private revelry ended.

After this, I drove on down to a flat area and planned to set up my telescope. However, I inadvertently left a vital part of my mount at home, so I did no astronomy on this day.

Thankfully, the many hikes of the day made the trip worthwhile, even without any telescope observing

2 comments:

  1. Nice views, and even a 1/4 mile or so of climbing gets you away from 90 percent of the crowd. Kinda wish they'd make an official trail up here, though, to minimize the number of alternate use paths up to this hill.

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