The day started by waking up in Sandy Valley in one of the many free camping areas set up along Sandy Valley Road. The hope was to get some nice images of the Milky Way, however the full moon ended that. I did learn that there is a name for this free camping: boondocking. Essentially, this is the practice of camping for free on public lands. It's not unlike camping in a campground, but without the amenities. It's perfectly legal on established sites, but the same 'leave no trace' rules apply. It was incredibly cold, but still a beautiful sunrise.
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| The first light over the mountain range just south of Mineral Springs. Sirius appears as the brightest object in the sky. |
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| Mountains north of Hwy 160 in Sandy Valley. |
I then drove to the conservation area, and paid $15 for my day pass. I parked in one of the parking lots, and readied my gear. I hit Whole Foods the night before, and bought about a gallon and a half of water to fill my bottles and camel bag. It was then time to start. As a side note, there are clean water fill-up stations at the visitor center, so bringing your own water is not a necessity.
There is a trail head on the west side of the picnic tables (situated next to the upper parking lot) that provides a nice start. It takes you west, then curves around north of the visitor's center, then crosses the road toward the three Calico stops. Hiking next to this ridge was really interesting. There are multiple laysers of rock here, some red-orange, some light tan, and some gray. There is a bit of up and down along this trail, but nothing more than 10 - 20 meters. There is a small bit of scrambling, but I can't see calling this section difficult. One tip: when the path ends up going over the rock, look for a washed-out path along the rock. This is where dust from the rest of the trail is deposited, and it acts as a guide when walking over the rock.
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| Starting the hike, heading toward the first Calico lookout point. |
Each of the Calico stops (Calico 1 and Calico 2) are beautiful. There is a parking lot for each, however no infrastructure. The longer section after Calico 2 takes you to the third stop, which includes restrooms. Heading north from that parking lot, you are quickly met with a sign: right for the Calico Tanks, and left for Turtlehead Peak. I started out by heading toward the tanks.
This was essentially walking through a ravine between two ridges to the north and south. As you get deeper in, you end up scrambling to multiple beautiful lookout points. From there, you can see Las Vegas, as well as the visitor's center where we started out. Looking behind, you can also see Turtlehead Peak. The return from the tanks is essentially retracing our steps out. It's important to be careful here, as sand is deposited all over the rock by the multitudes of tennis shoes going in and out of the tanks. That makes for lots of opportunities to lose your footing.
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| Hiking up in the Calico Tanks with ridges to the left and right. |
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| A view of the visitor's center wehere I started out that morning from one of the lookouts on Calico Tanks. |
Back at the sign, I turned right, and headed up toward Turtlehead Peak. At first, the climb wasn't too bad. There was a slight increase in elevation as we walk through a washout to get to the base of the mountain. Then the increase becomes more pronounced as we start to ascend up the sand and gravel mixture that has worn off the mountain over the past few hundred thousand years. At some point, we start seeing sharp, jagged rocks protruding from the ground, and the scrambling begins. This stretch was for me, the hardest part of the climb. This will get you up to the ridge very close to the peak. The entire trail is marked with orange paint (usually either a circle to indicate that you are on the path, or an arrow telling you which way to turn). Once we hit the ridge, the incline is not as bad. You work your way around to the north side of the mountain, and there are trails that follow around the peak with a slow incline, or you can head straight to the top. I selected the longer but less inclined route.
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| A view north from the ridge of Turtlehead mountain. |
Looking at Google Earth, and other maps, it appears as if the trail stops a few hundred feet short of the peak. This was not the case. If you keep an eye out, you will see small straight lines or two dots side by side in a bluish-grey color from a spray paint can. These will guide you to the top, though at this point, it's not really necessary, as it's obvious how to get to the peak.
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| A view of Las Vegas, the visitor's center, and the Calico Tanks from Turtlehead Peak. |
At the top, once I slowed down, I noticed it was significantly colder. It was probably in the upper 20s or low 30s at around 2:30 p.m. Again, the views were stunning. The multicolored rock really popped out, and the surrounding mountains quite a bit to take in. At this point, I have hiked roughly 8 miles with over 3000 feet of cumulative climb. I was extremely tired. Unlike the Bald Mountain climb, there was plenty of oxygen (altitude was only 6323 feet). That said, the steep stage of the climb really hit me hard. After a few pictures, I hooked up with a group of friends from the area doing their 'regular weekend hike' for the hike down.
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| Made it! |
Here is an important point about hiking up mountains. Hiking down is definitely easier, but it is in no way, easy. I started to get pretty tired, especially on the steep parts as it took a lot to keep myself balanced, and stop myself on each step down. By the end of the hike, my left knee was pretty sore, and remained like that for two days. This is a great place for some trekking poles to take some of the shock in stepping down.
When I got back to the parking lot, I chose to hike along the road back down to the visitor center. I was hoping to hit Icebox Canyon, but time did not allow. I took the road all the way back to the visitor's center. The hike down was 1 1/2 hours.
There is no way to describe the beauty of this area. The mountains are larger than anything I've ever seen, and stand silently, daring you to try to climb them. The sky is a beautiful shade of blue, unmarred from air pollution. The air was clean, and the silence was amazing. This is easily one of my favorite hikes ever, and definitely worth repeating, should I ever be back in the area. Here's a short video of the hike:
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| The red marks the trail I followed. It starts in the lower-right corner. |
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| Elevation profile for this hike. The first peak is Calico Tanks, the second, taller is Turtlehead Peak. |
Details:
Time: ~7 hours
Distance: 12.24 miles
Cumulative Climb: 3492 ft.
Min Elevation 3704 ft.
Max Elevation: 6323 ft.
Temp: 20s - 42 deg. F
