Well, after an extended hiking drought, this should be my Hike #28 for the year. Hike #27 was another short jaunt up to Mount Hollywood, which I won't separately blog since I've done it so many times.
There was a trail registry on top of Panorama Peak, so I went ahead and wrote in it, then placed it back where I found it. That's why we have two shots of a can on a rock. Apparently, I didn't face the can the same way as I found it, and I shot it from slightly different directions, but, close enough!
This trailhead is out of Black Rock Canyon campground, which you'd reach by taking Joshua Lane south, out of Yucca Valley. Joshua Lane is part of a signaled intersection in Yucca Valley. CA-62 goes east-west through town. Heading in from the north at this light, it's CA-247, also signed as "Old Woman Springs Road." Heading down to the south is Joshua Lane.
There is currently (as of August 24, 2026) substantial construction along Joshua Lane and some of the other roads south of CA-62, which slows the drive. Still, it's only about fifteen minutes from the Super 8 in Yucca Valley, to the Black Rock Canyon campsite.
I hiked Warren Peak in the spring (April 18, 2026), but never managed either a blog post or even a facebook post on my personal account. However, I did make mention of having made this hike, here, and I did find the photos I took. So there's a hike I need to go back and blog.
This trip, like most of mine here, wa in connection with a night of astronomy at Sky's the Limit. That part of my trip proved a little complicated, as my Skywatcher 350P had a major malfunction. Still, it's functional even without all the electronics as a perfectly usable 14" Dobsonian telescope. It just lacks goto and tracking, so it wasn't a total loss. People still got to see some pretty cool stuff. And after it was over, I used my Telrad and some patience to track down Comet Tempel 2, the 10th comet for which a periodic orbit was calculated. It was pretty faint and tiny, and probably would not have photographed well, which is good, because I forgot to bring my counterweight for my tracking equatorial mount. So the astronomy side of the trip was far from perfect, but still somewhat enjoyable, if not necessarily what I had planned.
The next morning, I got up, ate my breakfast, drank my coffee, and left the motel some time around 8:30am, later than intended. Parked near the nature center. Got started on my hike a little before 9am.
In the summer, a lot of the campsites are closed off, and the nature center up there is only open on the weekends, and closed for an hour for lunch in the middle of the day. Although it is part of Joshua Tree National Park, you are not required to pay an entry fee or display a permit to park in the day use areas.
There are several potential starting points for hikes here. I just headed south from the nature center, and started my hike at the south end of the campground. The trailhead was signed, with mileage indicators, and other signage along the way.
There's quite a bit of Joshua tree, juniper, and pinyon pine along the area, as well as lots of creosote. The area burned significantly not too long ago, so there are also areas of stading dead trees and what not. It's a slight incline, and somewhat sandy in places, but a quick walk, and, again, well-signed.
After about 1.8 miles, the trail splits. The next three miles or so is a large "lollypop" loop. If you go right (counterclockwise), you' shortly hit another right, which would take you to Warren Peak (WP, on the trail signs). To make it different, I headed left.
About halfway through that loop, the trail approaches, but does not ascend, Panorama Peak. But its location is obvious when you're there, and several use trails leave the main loop to head up to the summit. There are plenty of nice views along most of the loop.
Shortly before you finish the loop section, you've pass the Warren Peak trail, coming in from your left. If you have the time and inclination, you can add that as part of your day. As for me, because I still planned additional hiking or photography that evening, I just continued through the intersection, and walked back to my car.
When I got back to the nature center, it was closed for its 11am - noon lunch break. So I took a seat on one of the plastic Adirondack chairs on the porch of the nature center and ordered Subway. I had a perfectly usable cell signal from here. There's a Subway right at the 247-62 intersection, in a gas station, about as "on the way back" as it could be," so I could easily pick that up on the way back to the motel. Ordered two footlongs, on account of a coupon. Ate one for lunch, and saved the other half for either a later dinner, or to eat, the next day.
Just about seven miles for the day, including an extra 1/5 of a mile or so to walk down to the restroom near the nature center and back. 1,211 feet of verticle. Turned out this wiped me out pretty good, and I lacked the motivation for either astrophotography or a sunset hike. I did manage a short wander around the Desert Christ thing. Not sure if I'll blog that. We'll see.
