Home 7119
- After seven miles, I arrive at the stop sign: I arrive at Searchlight, Nevada, population 576
- I pull in at one of Searchlight's two gas-station convenience stores, but no propane bottles are sold here
- Of course, there's a casino next door (this is Nevada!) and it has a McDonald's, the only fast food in town
- At the south end of Searchlight, Hwy 95 leaves town for the open desert
- Sweet! I stumble across another, smaller, general store and gas station that carries the propane bottle I want!
- A lot of the older houses in Searchlight have a bit of old-style character, but need some work
- Across the road from the little general store is Searchlight's laundromat
- The hills in Searchlight provide a terraced effect in some neighborhoods
- It makes a lot of sense to reduce the speed limit where it goes through town (crossing such a busy road can be interesting)
- I decide to check in for a night at Searchlight's only motel; I'll check out that old miner's cabin across the road tomorrow
- My room is clean, though the mattress rather worn-out, and it's bicycle-friendly
- A billboard next to the Searchlight motel advertises a "luxury" motel elsewhere
- After a bla meal at McDonald's, I settle in for an evening of TV and writing notes in my brick-walled room
- Breakfast in Searchlight means McDonald's again (ugh); I admire the old Colton Mine headframe on the way back to my motel room
- Looking down the street in Searchlight, I can see the forecast rain clouds hovering over the mountains where I'll be headed soon
- I think I'm leaving the Searchlight motel early, but the cleaning woman also arrives early, reminding me that check-out is 10h
- My first stop upon leaving the Searchlight motel is the old mining residences just across the road
- Nearby is a second building, a small cabin: all this in "downtown Searchlight"
- In the backyard sits a small outbuilding
- A major luxury...
- Another luxury: an old hot water heater
- And perhaps the biggest luxury of them all: electricity
- From behind the old miner's cabin, I look across the highway to last night's Searchlight motel
- OK, time to start today's ride; I start riding down Nevada 164 into the grey clouds
- I spot a nice clump of pink buckwheat flowers along Highway 164 on the way out of Searchlight
- From Nevada 164, I zoom in across the valley and see some rain clouds over the Castle Peaks, my destination today
- As I head into the clouds on Nevada 164, I see a little sunny spot on the road ahead
- Indeed, the sunny spot on Nevada 164 stays put and I ride into it
- I reach Walking Box Ranch Road and it's time to ride up that way and leave pavement for a few days
- A row of 6 SUVs has stopped by the Walking Box Ranch, apparently preparing for a ride into the rain clouds ahead, like me
- I take a short break over by the Walking Box Ranch entrance; it's not open to the public, but it's nice to look at
- I pass the stationary 4WD folks and begin my ride up Walking Box Ranch Road; they soon depart too and pass me, one by one
- After half an hour, I take a short break at an old corral on Walking Box Ranch Road where I've stopped before
- I'm often looking back behind me toward Nevada 164 and the Highland Range to take in the cloud formations
- Though mostly gradual, Walking Box Ranch Road does have a few short rolling hills
- Looking back on Walking Box Ranch Road, it looks stormy over toward the McCullough Mountains where I camped 2 days ago
- As Walking Box Ranch Road approaches the California border, I pass another old corral
- Here and there on Walking Box Ranch Road are bits of residual old pavement
- I'm feeling happy now that I'm seeing views of the Castle Peaks, Mojave National Preserve
- Walking Box Ranch Road is a "Road Not Maintained" on the California side of the border
- I pass the Castle Mountains area, just outside Mojave National Preserve, and remind myself to visit this area in the future
- I'm going to leave Walking Box Ranch Road here and follow this smaller road at my left toward Castle Peaks
- My new road, which I've not been on before, immediately drops into a sand-and-gravel drainage area
- Phew, my road rises out of the gravel onto a smooth surface and passes a "Entering Mojave National Preserve" sign
- I reach a brief detour down and around a washed-out section of this road and it occurs to me that this is an old railway grade
- A close-up of the wash-out reveals buried posts that supported the old Barnwell and Searchlight Railway grade
- I pass an old road leading toward the Castle Peaks area, now closed by Wilderness markers
- The Barnwell and Searchlight Railway grade is a great mountain-bike ride today, 100 years after the rail line was decommissioned
- I take a quick break in the joshua-tree forest to enjoy the silence and try my cell phone; I also remove my sweater
- I zoom in behind me for a closer look at the old Barnwell and Searchlight Railway grade that I've been riding for a while
- I haven't seen many wildflowers along the old railway grade, so a patch of paintbrush really catches my attention when I pass by
- Suddenly, I have a view across Lanfair Valley all the way to Tabletop Mountain (the distant flat-topped hill, of course)
- I take the detour around another wash-out on the old Barnwell and Searchlight Railway grade
- I pass an old OX Ranch water tank, so I'll be leaving the Barnwell and Searchlight Railway grade shortly
- I start riding, and sometimes walking, the 10-ton bike up Castle Peaks Road, the final leg of today's trip
- As I rise slowly, the views across Lanfair Valley become increasingly expansive
- Castle Peaks Road heads across the land toward a slot between the rolling hills at upper-left
- 10 minutes later, I'm almost at the next landmark, where Castle Peaks Road arrives at the slot in the rolling hills
- Between the rolling hills, Castle Peaks Road rises up a short steep hill onto a man-made berm overlooking a dry reservoir
- The short, rugged descent down the hill off the dam on Castle Peaks Road would require high clearance
- Castle Peaks Road beyond the dry reservoir continues to deteriorate
- Immediately after the little detour on Castle Peaks Road is another sandy stretch, too deep for me to ride the 10-ton bike
- My wish is granted when I reach a well-used campsite a short distance ahead, just off Castle Peaks Road
- I go for a short walk as I try to decide where to erect my tent, and I discover this luxury outdoor toilet
- I have to laugh while walking around my new campsite; I discover that I'm at the end of Castle Peaks Road without realizing it
- I set up camp next to a juniper tree, hoping that it might provide a bit of a wind break should I need it
- Since I'm between a couple of hills, I don't get to see a full sunset here at the end of Castle Peaks Road
- Morning at Castle Peaks Road means I get to try out the deluxe facilities while listening to the quail; it works well!
- I notice bird activity near my tent and locate a nearly invisible bird's nest in an elbow of this joshua tree at centre-right
- I start today's hike by climbing up a hill and looking down at my tent in the little valley at the end of Castle Peaks Road
- Someone has a nest here sheltered against a boulder on top of the hill above my tent
- I pass a few brilliant Indian paintbrush plants as I further climb the hills above my tent
- I'm now at one of the high points of this ridge in the Castle Peaks area, at about 5225 feet elevation
- Good views over to the New York Mountains peaks from this Castle Peaks ridge
- From this ridge, the only way is down, so I continue eastward down into the canyon below
- To my surprise, I find a small stream in this unnamed Castle Peaks canyon
- I climb up the next hill and down into a juniper-studded valley
- I encounter a nice patch of Mojave asters on the way down into the valley below Castle Peaks
- In this little valley below Castle Peaks, I reach an old closed road, a perfect trail after a bit of cross-country hiking
- The cool rocks formations in the Castle Peaks area are endless; this one harbors a small natural arch
- I crouch and walk through this little rock arch in the Castle Peaks area
- On the other side of this Castle Peaks arch is a rock formation that looks like a tortoise, with its head extended
- I climb over the next hill (a 75-foot rise), upon which I find a boulder with a tuft of cactus on its head
- I find a few Gooding's verbenas blooming in the wash
- Now that I'm in a smooth-bottomed wash in the Castle Peaks area, my hiking speed is picking up a little
- In this Castle Peaks wash, I encounter my first stray balloon of the day, trapped in a desert sage bush
- In this Castle Peaks wash is the most lush Desert four o'clock (Mirabilis multiflora) that I've seen so far on this trip
- Six minutes after my first balloon discovery, I stumble across a second one in the same Castle Peaks wash
- Hiking down this Castle Peaks wash is fun (it's a bit downhill), and then I reach this fairly recent barbed-wire fence
- A nice juxtaposition of pink cactus flowers and orange desert mallows in this Castle Peaks wash
- Yellow Eriophyllum wallacei flowers are scattered intermittently in this Castle Peaks wash
- A few stretches of this Castle Peaks wash have a lot of thorny Catclaw acacia bushes to avoid
- A few rather large Chia sages grow in this Castle Peaks wash
- I climb out of the wash and crawl under the barbed-wire fence again, in order to continue hiking toward Indian Spring
- Near the barbed-wire fence is the brightest blooming desert sage I've seen yet on this trip
- I drop down into the next wash that my route randomly crosses
- I continue hiking more or less along the barbed-wire fence
- I climb over several low hills on my cross-country route toward Indian Spring
- I notice a nice little "pineapple cactus" on my cross-country trek over the low hills
- As I drop down into yet another wash, I realize I'm quite close to Taylor Spring (dry), where I hiked last year
- I climb up another hill on the way to Indian Spring and recognize the valley of junipers and joshua trees in front of me
- My cross-country hiking ends temporarily when I hit the old closed road to Indian Spring, which serves as a nice trail
- As I approach Indian Spring, I notice a balloon fragment tangled in a catclaw bush
- Well, here I am at Indian Spring, New York Mountains, Mojave National Preserve
- Just like last year, bees are buzzing around the shallow water where it overflows from the Indian Spring trough
- I leisurely filter 3 1.5-litre bottles of that greenish water from the Indian Spring tub and it tastes pretty good
- I leave Indian Spring and start my way cross-country up to a saddle between two sets of pinnacles in the Castle Peaks
- The climb up to this Castle Peaks saddle is about 500 feet elevation in about 3/4 mile from Indian Spring down below
- I'm almost there; just a little further and I'll be on that saddle between the two Castle Peaks pinnacle `groups`
- Great views back down into the valley behind me from this Castle Peaks saddle
- Arrived! I sit here on the Castle Peaks saddle for a good 15 minutes, with pinnacles in front of me, and behind me
- From the Castle Peaks saddle, I can zoom in across the valley and just barely make out the Searchlight area
- As I plot the continuation of my hike, I look down into a secluded valley on the other (west) side of the Castle Peaks saddle
- Instead of dropping down into the valley, I decide to skirt along this hill and hike over to the next Castle Peaks saddle
- I get close to the slot in the hills and will hike up to the little pass between them at upper-right
- Looking to the south, I'm now in the upper part of that small valley between two Castle Peaks pinnacle `groups`
- I walk up a boulder-strewn drainage area toward that pass in the Castle Peaks
- The views behind me, toward Walking Box Ranch Road to the south, are striking in the late-day sunlight
- I reach this pass in the Castle Peaks and have an unexpected view to the north across the Ivanpah Valley
- One short, steep hill and I'll be up at the next Castle Peaks pinnacles
- To the west, I get a view I haven't seen before, with the New York Mountains peaks at upper-left
- Phlox flowers on the north side of the Castle Peaks hills
- My hike up to the pinnacles quickly gets a bit steep and slippery due to loose rock, so I veer to the right a little
- I'm happy to reach the top of the hill; it's pretty steep here
- This Castle Peaks set of pinnacles is just as awesome as the last one; the one in front of me is Dove Peak
- Well, I guess I'll drop down into the valley between these Castle Peaks hills and start heading back to my campsite
- I notice a natural arch in the Castle Peaks pinnacles as I start my way down the hill
- A few nice rock outcrops dot the hike down the wash into the valley below the Castle Peaks
- Oh, another little hole in the Castle Peaks rocks
- I take a look behind me as I walk down the hill away from the Castle Peaks
- A fallen joshua tree lays in this wash below the Castle Peaks
- This pinnacle in the Castle Peaks is rather phallic
- Oh, that barbed-wire fence; I forgot I might encounter this again
- I'm now walking up a wash that I hiked down earlier today, but this time I'll go all the way to the crest ahead
- The sandy wash radiates from the golden end-of-day sunlight
- After another 20 minutes, I reach the top of the wash and locate the old Castle Peaks road
- The old Castle Peaks road leaves the pinnacles area and dips down between rolling hills on the way back to my campsite
- Some stretches of the old, closed Castle Peaks road are quite eroded
- Erosion is so severe in a few spots on the old Castle Peaks road that the roadbed is almost unrecognizable
- I reach the Wilderness boundary and exit onto the part of Castle Peaks Road that is still open to vehicles
- Home for the night at the Castle Peaks trailhead
- I don't get sunset between these hills near Castle Peaks, but I do see good sunset colors on the clouds
- Morning #2 at the end of Castle Peaks Road is warm and sunny
- Insect webs (caterpillars?) on a Desert almond bush near my tent
- Today's hike begins by walking about 1/3 mile down the non-Wilderness section of Castle Peaks Road
- I veer to the west (right) when I reach the dry reservoir 1/3 mile down Castle Peaks Road, instead of staying on the 'main road'
- I hike past another set of Wilderness markers on the west side of the Castle Peaks Road dry reservoir
- A few Mojave asters are still blooming in this joshua-tree forest
- The former ranch road cuts across a wide-open area in the New York Mountains foothills
- I reach another dry reservoir with a Desert four o'clock blooming on the "shoreline"
- I've seen these tiny pink flowers so many times, but can't remember what they are
- Miniature high-Mojave flower garden
- I start walking up a wash away from the dry reservoir and inadvertently scare a few quail into a joshua tree
- I'm heading up a small drainage now toward that rounded hill on my way to the Bathtub Spring Peaks area
- Does one ever see enough scarlet Indian paintbrush while hiking in the Mojave Desert?
- The drainage wash has fizzled out and I find my self hiking uphill and cross-country amidst some gangly joshua trees
- To my surprise, the crest of this anonymous wash in the New York Mountains foothills overlooks some of the Ivanpah Valley; wow
- From this overlook above Ivanpah Valley, I'll hike to my left a bit to avoid the gulley, then to the right up the big hill
- When I reach the base of the higher hill ahead overlooking Ivanpah Valley, it doesn't look like it will be as steep as expected
- Climbing this hill toward the Bathtub Spring Cliffs requires some care to avoid the rocks and ground-hugging cacti
- I'm high enough now that I can see behind me to the Castle Peaks (center-left) and the Castle Mountains (center-right)
- I arrive at the top of the hill, which I'll call 'Bathtub Spring Peak,' since it has no official name
- From this spot on Bathtub Spring Peak, I get a view of Cima Dome's distant, gentle curve that I haven't had before
- It's a steep drop from Bathtub Spring Peak down to the badlands below
- I'll walk over to the high point of Bathtub Spring Peak, that big rocky lump ahead
- Looking across Ivanpah Valley from Bathtub Spring Peak, I can make out a distant road leading up into the Ivanpah Mountains
- Willow Wash, where I'll be hiking in a while, is in front of that hill in the middle ground
- Another steep drop on the north face of Bathtub Spring Peak
- Looking back from Bathtub Spring Peak, I can see over to the Castle Peaks pinnacles where I hiked yesterday
- Walking along the crest of Bathtub Spring Peak, I begin thinking about the next part of today's hike
- From the west end of Bathtub Spring Peak, I can see clearly down to Ivanpah Road, and over to the New York Mountains peaks
- I examine the southward view from Bathtub Spring Peak, since this will be my downhill route in a few minutes
- One more glance from Bathtub Spring Peak toward Ivanpah Dry Lake, then it's time to start heading downhill
- I begin the short steep hike from Bathtub Spring Peak down to Bathtub Spring itself, following a drainage corridor
- The hike down the slope to Bathtub Spring is not fast, since it's steep, but it's enjoyable
- On my way down to Bathtub Spring, I look back to hear several noisy hawks hovering in the sky
- I'm almost down in the Bathtub Spring canyon now
- A few barrel cacti greet me as I arrive in the Bathtub Spring wash
- I always enjoy hiking down winding, rocky washes like this one on the way to Bathtub Spring, New York Mountains
- Nice, a little natural arch near Bathtub Spring, New York Mountains
- At the lower end of Bathtub Spring wash, a lot of small, loose rock makes hiking a little slower
- I check my GPS and climb over a small hill to reach Bathtub Spring; there it is, in a wire cage!
- Bathtub Spring in the New York Mountains is true to its name and has a bathtub, inserted into an old rusted cistern
- New York Mountains' Bathtub Spring is home to hundreds of happy bees
- I walk a short distance down the old road that leads away from Bathtub Spring to meet the old Ivanpah railway grade
- I pass a patch of those tiny purple flowers I've been seeing occasionally
- I arrive at the bottom of Bathtub Spring Road and exit the Wilderness boundary
- Here I am now at the old Ivanpah railway grade, which I never got around to visiting while passing by on previous trips
- It obviously required a lot of work to slice the old Ivanpah railway grade through the hills a century ago
- Piling the earth for the raised Ivanpah railway bed in low areas would have been as much work as cutting through the hills
- As I continue hiking along the abandoned Ivanpah railway grade, I notice that the road deteriorates
- I've seen a lot of lizards scurrying around today, and finally I manage to photograph one!
- Vegetation is slowly encroaching on the old Ivanpah railway grade
- On some stretches of the abandoned Ivanpah railway grade are good views into the old Vanderbilt mining district
- Ooops! A total wash-out of the old Ivanpah railway grade
- I climb back up onto the Ivanpah railway grade after the wash-out and it's another slice through the rocks
- After a fun, level half hour on the old Ivanpah railway, it's time to climb down and hike cross-country over to Willow Wash
- But first, I'll stop to finish off this last delicious piece of orange-flavored chocolate
- Purple phacelia flowers (Desert canterbury bells) as I approach Willow Wash
- I'm now in Willow Wash, Mojave National Preserve, at the lowest point of today's hike: 4175 feet elevation