Calipidder

Black Mountain is the southernmost peak in the White Mountains, most commonly known as the home of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine forest. On the northern end of the range is White Mountain, the third highest peak in California at 14,246 feet.
Black Mountain, while ‘only’ checking in at 9,083 feet, is still an impressive peak when [...]

Growing up, I always learned that it was bad to give into peer pressure when it comes to drugs, smoking, etc. They didn’t warn me about hiking. Some friends have gotten it into their heads that they are going to complete the Bay Area Ridge Trail one way or another, and I’ve been mercilessly sucked [...]

Many times we have driven south out of Death Valley and passed the signs for China Ranch Date Farm, but it took us until 2009 to stop. We had spent the previous night at a wonderful old miner’s cabin in Death Valley and were working our way towards Las Vegas to get some fresh food [...]

After Saturday’s visit to Fossil Falls, Cerro Gordo, and the U2 tree we didn’t have a lot of light to find our campsite outside of Death Valley. We like to primitive backcountry car camp in the BLM lands outside the park since there are fewer restrictions (i.e. we can cook over a campfire with the [...]

I’ve been meaning to visit Cerro Gordo for a long time and it was with great excitement that we turned up the dreaded road on Saturday afternoon. I have heard that the road condition is anywhere from an easy Sunday drive to a 4WD nightmare. Truthfully, the answer lies somewhere in between, depending on the [...]