Distance: 6.6 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 1952'
Elevation Gain: 1730'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.4
Round trip time: 4 hours 15 minutes
Recommended water: 64 oz.
Parking/Fees: $27.95 admission (adult) to Living Desert Zoo
Difficulty: Moderate (cross country scramble)
I celebrated New Years Day by getting Eisenhower Mountain, another peak along the La Quinta ridge. The approach was a trail in the Living Desert Zoo. Admission was not cheap, but this was by far the easiest route to Eisenhower. I got to wander around the Zoo after the hike as a bonus. I was customer number three on the day when the park opened at 8 AM. I stayed left from the entrance to reach the start of the desert trails. I planned to do the complete loop, up the Canyon Trail and down the Ridge Trail. The Canyon Trail dips in and out of a wash and the second exit was not easy to find. I had to make a course correction. Somewhere along the trail that cuts across Eisenhower, I planned to leave the trail and scramble up. I almost went up the first major gully I came to, it looked like it could go, but the trail climbed a little higher before I needed to leave it. I continued all the way to the picnic table, about the half way point on the loop.
I picked a line left of a big outcrop and took that to gain the north ridge. The ridge rose 950' in about 0.4 miles. It looked steep enough to hit class 3, but remained class 2 all the way. I was surpised to find some useful cairns marking a path up. The summit was flat with a couple of competing boulders, one standing a few feet above the others. There was some black PVC tube that had fallen down and some broken boards. I didn't find any marks or a register. I took a short break on top, but it was cool and windy so I didn't linger. I did look down the other side where a trail heads down to a private golf club (shown on Openstreet Map). The view down the ridge to LaQuinta BM looked fun, but would have taken too much time to get there and back the same day. Also, there was no good bail off point from LaQuinta without coming out in a private gated golf club. There may be a way to leave the Living Desert trail and approach LaQuinta. Research for another day. I returned down the north slope the way I came up. It was slow coming down due to loose rocks and the angle. Once I got back to the trail, I continued around the loop on the Ridge Trail. I stopped the GPS when I got back to the Zoo, then roamed around looking at animals. It was a fun hike to start 2022.
Geez, hiking is getting expensive these days.
ReplyDeleteMadision,
DeleteInflation! Admission was less than $20 the previous time I was there about 4 years ago. It's worth it for access to Eisenhower, though. Other approaches are difficult and take a lot more time.