The past month and a half since last posting anything remotely cool has been a non-stop whirlwind of climbing and skiing adventures- from Red's Meadow hotsprings to the traverse between June and Mammoth Mountains, Lakes Basin powder days and pulling on pockets tailor made for climbing out in Clarks Canyon, I am stoked as ever on my decision to move over to the Eastside.
Until my Dad called me up and said he wanted some fun in the sun...
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| From this |
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| To this! |
I hadn't been to Joshua Tree in several years, and he'd never been, so we resolved to make that our first stop after he flew in to Mammoth from Seattle.
JT was great- some spring break crowds hogging some of the classic climbs, but very easy to ditch when we when off on hidden hikes through deep washes like Lucky Boy, Desert Queen Mine and the Willow Hole. I even got the Old Man on his first roped rock climb!
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| "I gotta CLIMB that??" |
After leaving JT we headed up into Death Valley, hoping to climb up Telescope Peak but finding persistant snow past Mahogany Flats. The campsite was amazing though, looking down at a vertical relief surpassed only by Mount Rainier and Mount Fairweather. Thw following day we headed down and scrambled inside Mosaic Canyon, finding cool shade and ancient dolomitic sea floor.
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| Near Desert Queen Mine |
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| View from Mahogany Flats |
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| Charcoal Kilns |
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| Lone Pine Peak from the Alabama Hills |
We finished off the trip by winding back through Lone Pine on our way to Mammoth, of course stopping at the Alabama Hills Bakery for breakfast!
It was a nice little diversion from the typical program, and got both of us really excited about going back and seeing more of what Death Valley has to offer.
