Great day for a hike. Sunny, few scattered clouds. Started From First water around 9am. Quickly got to Black mesa trail in Garden valley and headed up to the top of black mesa. What a great view of the needle from there. Also would be a great place to camp overnight. I had never seen so much cholla, it would be impossible to get off trail up there. Headed down to the juction of lost Dutchman and took that east to Bull pass trail to attempt to reach black top mesa, but running short on time I only made it half way up it until I turned around and took the dutchmans trail back to Firstwater. It was a great loop, with awesome views of the needle.