Mount Minerva Hoyt and Quail Mountain

HPS Star Emblem Peak
Hiked: 3/29/2019
Distance: 10.8 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 5405' (Minerva), 5813' (Quail)
Prominence: 2293' (Quail)
Elevation Gain: 1935'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.5
Round trip time: 6 hours
Recommended water: 72 oz.
Parking/Fees: $30 National Parks (per car, good for 7 days)
Difficulty: Moderate

Mike Martin invited me to Joshua Tree to hike Mount Minerva Hoyt and Quail Mountain. Quail is the high point in Joshua Tree and a P2K. Both are HPS peaks. It had been four years since my last visit to Joshua Tree, sweeping up LPC peaks. We left early enough to start at sunrise. Every camping spot was full and the park was very crowded. But, we didn't see anyone once we started cross country toward Minerva Hoyt, named after the "Apostle of the Cacti" and key person to get Joshua Tree declared a national park.

We parked in a paved turnout just north of Cap Rock. It was 37F at the trailhead and there was frost on the plants. We started west across Lost Horse Valley, flat for the first couple of miles. The valley was filled with tiny wildflowers and knee high grass and scrub. Joshua trees were scattered and blooming, but cactus was sparse. In the distance, a wall of rock towers and boulders stood between us and the direct line to Minerva Hoyt. We aimed for a low gap in the wall. When we arrived, we scrambled through a couple of boulder filled gullies, emerging at the base of the mountain. Part way up the ridge, we noticed a faint use trail that led up to the top. The final bit was quite steep ending in what looked like dark volcanic outcrops near the summit. We found multiple small registers in a glass jar, full of recent visitors. The views into the park were exceptional, maybe the best of the day. Quail Mountain rose several hundred feet above, and looked to be only a mile away, though the connecting ridges were not direct. The wind had picked up on the higher slopes and kept me on the uncomfortable side of cool. We rested behind some boulders and had a few snacks before pushing on to Quail.

From the turnout

Flowering joshua tree

Mike scrambling through the wall of rocks

Minerva Hoyt

Minerva Hoyt summit view

Quail Mountain from Minerva Hoyt

We dropped off Minerva Hoyt to follow the connecting ridge to Quail. The 15mph wind was blowing steadily north to south and we were pelted on the ridge. We got some respite on the final approach as Quail blocked the wind. The summit was long, with the high point and HPS register on the south side. The benchmark (stamped Jo) is on the north side. We went to the high point first and signed in, then sat below the rocks for a break. The filled register books attested to the popularity of Quail, just not today. Minerva Hoyt looked small from this vantage point. Juniper Flats stretched out to the south. We walked to the benchmark where another register lived in a white can. We signed in again, then packed up for the descent. We took the long east ridge all the way down to a wash that we followed a good distance, eventually veering back into Lost Horse Valley. Returning this way, we completely avoided the wall of rocks. Another idyllic day in JTNP.

Quail summit

San Jacinto in the background, hard to see

Airplane wreck pieces collected on the summit

"Jo" benchmark on the north summit

In an unnamed wash on the way back

Wild Things Anza-Borrego v1

For a six week period, I had a trailcam set up by the Blue Spring guzzler in Anza-Borrego. It can be reached from Bighorn Canyon about 8 miles south of highway 78. If you want to visit the area, take highway 78 to Pinyon Wash and drive south on the jeep trail about 2 miles. Take the side trail into Nolina Wash about 2 more miles. High clearance vehicle recommended. You can park anywhere along Nolina Wash and hike up Bighorn Wash or cross into Bighorn Wash from Nolina Wash. Because of the large concentration of bighorn sheep and deer bones, I was hoping to capture a cougar and was delighted to get one. I also got a grey fox and my first ever ringtail. Ringtails are strange animals related to raccoons and can survive with little water. I had no idea they lived in such a desolate part of the desert. I was sort of surprised to NOT get a coyote, deer, or bighorn.

Nolina Peak and Blue Spring Guzzler

Hiked: 3/15/2019
Distance: 8.4 miles round trip cross country
Summit Elevation: 3858'
Elevation Gain: 2896'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 2.3
Round trip time: 5 hours 30 minutes
Recommended water: 88 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free in Nolina Wash
Difficulty: Moderate

On my first trip in this area, I climbed Bighorn Canyon Peak and visited the Blue Spring Guzzler. I found an amazing collection of bones there. I would have climbed Nolina Peak then, but I placed a trailcam at the guzzler so I postponed Nolina for the trip to pick it up. I drove as far up Nolina wash as I could, about a mile further than where I parked for Bighorn. I hiked to a place that looked reasonable to leave the wash and would get me to a major ridge. The start was steep but bighorn scat convinced me I was on track. I could not tell which bump above was the summit, but once I gained the ridge, it was just a matter of following it higher. The slopes were similar to Bighorn, but the agave got thinner near the top. The small summit boulder was obvious and the register was a glass jar inside a red can. The most recent register was placed by the Monday Maniacs, made from cut strips of a chemistry worksheet or test. I found the same kind of strips on Moonlight Peak. A much older register was inside a small plastic film roll container. It went back to the 1980s. Nolina had superior views looking out over Harper Flat toward the Vallecito Mountains. I took a break on the summit to enjoy the surroundings. The round trip to Nolina without the side trip to Blue Spring would probably be about 5 miles.

Leaving the wash

Looking back from near the top

Summit

Sunset Mountain

Harper Flat

Register

On the way down, I tried to angle toward the south end of Bighorn, hoping to reach the wash closer to the intersection with Bighorn Canyon. I dropped down a steeper slope into a side canyon. I thought the side canyon drained into Nolina, but in fact, it drained into another side canyon. I followed the wrong side canyon south a short distance until it was clear that I not in Nolina. I had to backtrack north to find Nolina, then continued on to the Blue Spring guzzler. The storms since my last visit had pushed the bones around, but the full bighorn skull appeared to be gone. The deer carcass was also gone. I had set up my trailcam on some rocks near the guzzler and didn't know it had survived the storms or other hikers. Thankfully, it was there and still in position. When I got home, there were only a few videos on the camera, but I did get a grey fox, my first ever ringtail capture, and a healthy looking cougar. The ringtail was a real surprise. The cougar only visited the guzzler one time in six weeks.

Dropping into a side wash

Pulling cholla needles out of my knee

Pipe feeding the guzzler tanks

One of many painted lady butterflies migrating north

Nolina Peak from the upper wash