One of the most popular hikes in Anza Borrego is Borrego Palm Canyon. But just a short drive south of this canyon is Hellhole Canyon. Hellhole has a similar Palm…
On the northern side of Anza Borrego there are the remains of an old calcite mine. In operation around WWII, they mined optical calcite for use in gunsights. It didn't…
We left Palm Springs on Christmas morning, ready to head back out to the desert for some hiking. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooporating and most of the surrounding ranges…
On December 26 we awoke to the coldest morning of our trip. It was in the mid 20s and the wind, though it had died down from theprevious night, was…
As part of our trip to the desert we decided to join the Southern California 4x4 Geocachers on a run. The target was the Dale Mining District, just north of…
Our last full day of the annual Thanksgiving Trip to the desert was an adventure! We decided to do the run up Warm Springs canyon into Butte Valley, but instead…
Sheephead Mountain
We had some turkey and pie to work off on the day after Thanksgiving, so after a morning of hot breakfasting around the cabin’s wood stove, we headed towards Ibex Peak, the highest peak in the small Ibex range in southern Death Valley. It’s not a biggie, but it did have some great views of the surrounding ranges, as well as towards the snow-covered Telescope Peak and Mt Charlston.
We’d scoped out the route on National Geographic Topo the previous night at had an approach plan. After a few miles of two track driving, we left the trucks at a side road closure and continued towards the peak on foot. After climbing slowly across the desert along the old miner’s road, we finally reached the base of the peak and scrambled up to gain a ridge. It was a simple climb from here – an easy ~1000 feet of gain up the ridge straight to the summit. We enjoyed views towards Sheephead Peak the entire way.
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I don't have a lot to say about Thanksgiving day in terms of exploration, but I can't go without mentioning the incredible food and friendship that we find in the…
Our fourth day in the desert was a half day since we had to get to Vegas. We headed out of the park to the east, towards Searchlight, and took…