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
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