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| Eagle Mountain - Joshua Tree NP, CA | |
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| | Eagle Mountain - Joshua Tree NP, CA | | | |
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Eagle Mountain - Joshua Tree NP, CA
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| Hiking | 12.56 Miles |
2,926 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.56 Miles | 7 Hrs 57 Mns | | 1.80 mph |
| 2,926 ft AEG | 58 Mns Break | | | |
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none
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| no partners | | This hike had been on my radar screen for a while and I decided to hike it on my 3rd and last day of hiking in Joshua Tree National Park. This one is a Sierra Club Desert Peak Section (DPS) peak so I knew that it would not be easy, but it was more strenuous than I thought it would be. In a way this hike reminded me of hiking Hayes Peak in the Sierra Estrella, although it is not quite as difficult as Hayes.
The starting point for the hike is at Cottonwood Campground, but technically I don't think that you are supposed to park there unless you are camping. There were some parking spaces marked for a picnic area, and I started to park there; but I decided to park at Cottonwood Spring instead, which added 0.6 miles of roadwalking each way to the hike.
The hike starts off across the desert floor for a good 3 miles. Part of the walking was easy, but in some sections there was some vegetation to deal with, while other sections had some rock outcroppings. The floor wasn't flat the entire way, as there were some arroyos and gullies to deal with. I started early and was initially heading east, and the early morning sun was right in my eyes and I had a difficult time looking ahead in order to pick out a good route.
I eventually made it to a gully and boulder hopped and rock scrambled my way for 1.5 miles or so to a ridgeline. I don't care too much for this type of boulder hopping, so this section was not very enjoyable for me. Once at the ridgeline there was a basin between me and the summit. Rather than dropping all the way down into the basin and climbing back out, I looped around to some rock outcroppings and boulders to make my way over toward the summit. As it turned out, I would have been better off going down into the basin, even though I would have had to regain a bit more elevation. From the basin I made my way up to a false summit, and from there went to the summit.
Views at the summit were great -- you could look down on the Salton Sea to the south, and to the west were snow-capped Mount San Jacinto and San Gorgonio Mountain. On the way back, I decended down to the basin from the false summit, and then went directly up to the ridgeline. It was very, very steep and slippery going from the ridgeline back down into the gully; almost too steep to be safe.
Going back down the gully to the desert floor was a bit tedious, but I made it. Once on the desert floor, without the sun blinding me, I was able to pick a better route to get back to the campground.
There was no trail whatsover on this hike, and no cairns that were useful. In the gully there was really only one way to go, so route finding there was easy.
It was a really windy day -- the forecast called for 15-20 mph winds with 25 mph gusts, and I imagine that it was every bit of that.
This was a challenging hike with some great views at the summit, and I am glad that I did the hike. However, I don't think that i will repeat it anytime soon, although if I lived closer I might. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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