Hiked May 18, 2026. Twenty-first hike of the year.
This was not the original plan. My 21st hike was supposed to be in the eastern Sierra, on the afternoon-evening of the 17th. But as the 17th moved from morning into afternoon, I saw what looked like a huge bank of dust, to the north of Bishop, and coming our way. By about the time I would have headed out for a hike that would end with the soft afternoon-evening light, the winds were whipping, dust was heavy and tree branches were breaking. I siren wailed.
So, yeah, no hike above Bishop on Sunday afternoon. After a few hours, the thick dust blew by, but the winds continued. The building shook. So I just hunkered down in the room, and hoped things would be better, tomorrow.
The next morning, it was still windy, but the air looked pretty clear. I considered a hike locally, but that would have meant a long, unbroken drive home. So I figured I'd try to leave relatively early, then stop and hike a bit around Red Rock Canyon State Park.
Red Rock Canyon State Park is about two hours from my home, so it's a little long for a day trip, but too close to feel like making it an overnight trip. Basically, it's Joshua Tree far, but withot a convenient gateway town to stay in. Also, the campsites are exposed, which would be a problem if it's windy, and potentially hot. In any event, I never managed to hike here, before, despite many trips through the area on the way to or from Bishop.
[Lancaster is about 45 minutes from Red Rock, but that's not enough time saved to be worth an overnight stay; Mojave is just twenty minutes away, but it's a pretty desolate area, with basically nothing but gas stations and fast food, although there is a Stater Brothers (market) in town. Overnight for Joshua Tree only makes sense because I usually stay late for astronomy.]
Stopping on the way back from Bishop broke up the drive, and let me stretch my legs for a few hours.
With no particular idea of where I would walk, I just drove to the visitor center, which, it turns out, was not open on the day I arrived. There was a roofless vault toilet in the parking lot, however, and an electronic ticketing machine. So I used the restroom, then spent a few minutes figuring out how to pay ($6 for general admission, $5 for seniors over age 62), grabbed what I needed, then started walking. I could see a very obvious far off to the south, along a ridge, so I headed that way.
At the top of that ridge, was a sign pointing to the left, saying, "Whistler's Ridge," so I headed up to that viewpoint, then came back down, and headed further south. Ran into a steap dropoff through volcanic rocks, so I turned back, again.
Then tried to make my way back towards some cliffs I saw on my way out, far to the west. This led me to a couple of box canyons, so I wound up having to backtrack all the way back to the pass I took to get here.
Once back on the CA-14 side of things, I headed a bit west, running briefly near a cliff, before arching back towards my car.
Total distance for this walk was 4 1/4 miles, according to my Alltrails recording. 584 feet of altitude gain.
Interesting formations were I walked, but not too much color. That was more near the offramp from CA-14, and further north, but on the opposite side of CA-14. Because I still had a fair walk remaining, and work, the next day, I didn't want to walk too far on this walk, anyway. So, less than two hours of walking, and a nice break. Could defintely take at least one more similar walking day to see the other areas of the park, though.
Two more hikes this week, in addition to anything I haven't blogged from earlier, yet.
