Hiked January 11, 2026. Parked in the Barker Dam lot. Walked around the nature trail to the dam, then headed southwest, nearly back to Park Blvd. I saw a "Cyclops Rock" thing on Alltrails that looked interesting, like a stone arch. But after circling that rock, decided it must be something you need to climb technically to get to. In any event, I don't think I saw it, though I did see lots of caves, so it's possible that was it? Not sure.
Lots of water behind the dam, but it looks like it could fill another eight to ten feet or so, based on where the stones were. Also, I don't see an overflow for this dam, so I don't know what happens as the water rises. Does it just seep through, or is there a pipe or other opening that is breached at a higher height, or does it go around the dam some other way. Not sure. Also not sure how full it might have been a week or so ago, during the heavy rains.
I got there mid-morning, probably around 8:30am or so. The lot at that time was pretty empty, with maybe three or four cars. I parked at the end of the front row, backing in so I could put my windshield towards the sun. Deployed my sunshade inside my window. Not that it was going to get all that hot, either way.
Temperatures may still have been in the 40s when I started, but warmed into the upper fifties before I was done. I first donned, then quickly removed a shell over my hoodie. The hoodie and long pants were plenty enough insulation, once I started walking.
I've hiked here before, but it's been a while. Might have been as long ago as 2014, when, apparently, the water was low.
I don't recall looking at this inscription at the top of the dam. Apparently, the people who built it didn't call it, "Barker Dam." It says "Bighorn Dam," and was built be many people with "Keys" in their names, presumably the same ones who Keys View is named after.
The photos are in no particular order, and it looks like I didn't pick any from my southernmost reaches. I did pass lots of Joshua tree and rock formations. One Joshua tree looks like it's budding nicely, and I expect the bloom will be good for them, this year. Not sure about the other wildflowers. The early rain could mean invasive grasses get a headstart on the wildflowers. As of today, there are very few flowers, but lots of grasses. The desert floor is greenish, and the non-desert parts of the Inland Empire I drove through to get here were even greener.
Lots of rock climbers. It's a climbers paradise. Lots of rocks, lots of fissures, cliffs, and so forth.
Interestingly, I saw a lot of big "pillows," too. They were maybe eight feet by eight feet in dimensions, and over six inches thick.
That's just for the ground-level, practice pitches, I'm sure, where you're just scrambling over a boulder, as opposed to going up a cliff. I'm not sure, but I imagine once you fall more than six to ten feet, even the cushioned landing has got to be pretty rough.
Most of the cliff climbers were in groups of two to four, and most wore helmets and were tied on to ropes.
Meanwhile, I needed to do a bit of low-grade scrambling as I made my way through the area. I wasn't aiming to rock climb, but my wandering took me off trail and into an area with lots of boulders. Nothing risky, although even on an easy path, a stumble could hurt. I managed not to stumble seriously enough to take a fall.
Mostly, I just walked, and snapped photos of some of the rock climbers I passed. Not a lot of wildlife was seen.
It felt good to walk! Clear, brisk, but not too cold, and walking at a good pace, I enjoyed the moment to clear my head and wander, with no particular goal. My Alltrails recording shows a little over 6 miles for the morning, and a few hundred feet of vertical gain. With the weeks of rain and not a lot of time, I often still manage to reach my step target walking around home, but it's a lot more pleasant to walk in a national park, versus a suburban sidewalk, or even an urban park.
This was following a night of astronomy, which is also usually pretty enjoyable. Out at Sky's the Limit, again. The visitors were grateful, and the seeing was surprisingly good, despite the wind, earlier in the evening. Got some good views of Jupiter, a brief peak at Saturn and Uranus, and some of the regular showpiece objects: Andromeda Galaxy, Pleiades, and so forth. I'm enjoying my just-over-one-year anniversary of using my Skywatcher 350P. Brings a whole new dimension to seeing my old friends in the sky, and brings several "new" objects into range. Last night, I ended with a view of the "Intergalactic Wanderer," NGC 2419, a globular cluster about 300,000 light years away. That's even more distant than the Magellanic Clouds. It is still bound gravitationally to the Milky Way, however, so not actually wandering the intergalactic void.
A less pleasant part of the night was one of the other volunteers backing his truck into my parked car. It made a terrible noise, but, in the dark, I did not see damage so I didn't try running the guy down to get insurance info. Upon closer examination, I could see some damage to my grill, and I'm concerned that the loud noise may mean that some of the compression material inside the bumper has been compressed. At the moment, I'm just hoping the cosmetic damage is it. Not sure when I'll have time for a collision specialist to take a look at it.
Little thing like that just put a damper on my otherwise-enjoyable night, followed by a day of good hiking.
Debating on if I'll be heading out again, this weekend. Got some other stuff going on, including, possibly, trying to get my car looked at.
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