A few days in Mojave National Preserve Dec. 5-7, 2020

John Morrow

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Mojave is one of the most underrated National Park Service Units in the nation, in my humble opinion.

After mostly a rest day I arrived on the Aiken Mine Road NW of Baker, CA. Any SUV can make it down this road with ease, from the North, for the first 8 miles (a spot roughly between Button Mtn and Club Peak). Jeepers told me getting through to the Lava Beds is very rough. My plan was for a sunset walk up Button Mtn and then a walk across Joshua tree flats to Club Peak the following day, as well as a search for a noted petroglyph area.

Button has old cinder mine roads up it a ways which made for easy dusk walking.


Most expansive Joshua Tree forest on Earth
by John Morrow, on Flickr


Sunset on Button Mtn (a cinder cone) and its shadow
by John Morrow, on Flickr


majesty
by John Morrow, on Flickr

A pleasant walk through joshua trees and an easy scramble brought me to the top of Club Peak.


first light on Club Peak
by John Morrow, on Flickr


through the trees
by John Morrow, on Flickr


crescent shaped gully looks passable
by John Morrow, on Flickr


a opportunistic find...walk to the isolated outcrop
by John Morrow, on Flickr


distant Clark Mtn and Mescal Range
by John Morrow, on Flickr


DSC0557
0 by John Morrow, on Flickr


DSC05595
by John Morrow, on Flickr

After a rock art hunt I moved all the way down to the western edge of the park on the east side of Soda Lake following decent dirt roads south of Baker.

Made it for sunset in time to take photos of lovely evening light upon the dry lake. So many different evaporated salt and cracked earth formations on the lake bed.


Cowhole Mtn over Soda Lake
by John Morrow, on Flickr


eve glow
by John Morrow, on Flickr


camp sunset
by John Morrow, on Flickr

The next day it was a fine couple of scrambles up Little Cowhole and Cowhole Mountains.
Little Cowhole:


dryfall starts the scramble
by John Morrow, on Flickr


classic Class 2
by John Morrow, on Flickr


looking back
by John Morrow, on Flickr

On Cowhole I took a central north rib up, which had some avoidable difficult sections. I descended the northwest ridge which is more solid and interesting, though requires a bit of routefinding to detour off the ridge crest around a vertical pitch.


the North Ridge appears
by John Morrow, on Flickr


North Ridge splits the face
by John Morrow, on Flickr


toward the upper East notch
by John Morrow, on Flickr

E
by John Morrow, on Flickr


NW
by John Morrow, on Flickr


NW Ridge descent
by John Morrow, on Flickr

Full albums:
 
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Thanks for this......Absolutely love the Mojave Preserve....Been there over 30 times and so look forward to explore again once the US/Canadian border is open and it is safe to travel.
 
It is good to see that a good chunk of J Trees didn't burn. Cima Dome is apparently quite burned out from what I understand.
I was in the Preserve about a year ago, looking at your pictures reminds me it is time for another visit! Excellent TR.
 
Lovely! The preserve has been on my list of places to visit for a few years now. I shall make it there...sometime.
 
It is good to see that a good chunk of J Trees didn't burn. Cima Dome is apparently quite burned out from what I understand.
I was in the Preserve about a year ago, looking at your pictures reminds me it is time for another visit! Excellent TR.
I wish I wasn't saying this: unfortunately, probably half of the trees in the area did burn, including most of Cima Dome like you heard Reef&Ruins . I didn't have the heart to drive through it. This is a pic where you can see the fire edge as the meeting of the brown and green. Cima Dome is the slope rising to the right edge of the photo, with the top of Teutonia just appearing.


dark line below the Ivanpah Mtns is a catastrophic fire in July
by John Morrow, on Flickr
 
those are some fantastic pictures you got there
 
Great pics of one of my favorite places on earth, John! I wonder if Teutonia peak was in the burn area. I will go see if google earth has up to date pictures showing this burn yet.
 
Great pics of one of my favorite places on earth, John! I wonder if Teutonia peak was in the burn area. I will go see if google earth has up to date pictures showing this burn yet.

I thought from my viewpoint on Button Mtn that it had and this fire perimeter shows it within unfortunately. As to the fire intensity, what I saw looked like near complete consumption/mortality of the J-Trees. Very tragic.

2020_08_22-DomeFirePeri.jpeg
 
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