Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / Fall 2011: Route 66 bicycle-camping—Cady Mountains, Sleeping Beauty and Kelso Dunes Wilderness / Day 4: Hyten Spring hike, Kelso Dunes Wilderness 39
I'm back! I wanted to do this hike to Hyten Spring last year. I see no other humans today. 19 hiking miles and about 2200 feet of easy elevation gain. Kelso Dunes Wilderness does not contain the Kelso Dunes, but it's a nice, remote area to explore on foot.
I'm up early this morning for the hike to Hyten Spring that I didn't get around to doing last year
Before reaching the wash that leads up to the Hyten Spring area, I hike cross-country around the left end of the mountains ahead
I turn for a look across Crucero Valley as I stumble across the rocky landscape
And here's one of those Goldfields-like flowers of which I saw several while hiking Sleeping Beauty a couple of days ago
I think this is a little Claret-cup cactus sprouting an early blossom
I start hiking up Hyten Spring Wash and encounter several coyote melons left from earlier this year
I pass a number of cholla cacti on the way up the wash into the Bristol Mountains
I pass through a forest of Smoke trees on the way up Hyten Spring Wash
It's easy to miss little piles of cactus droppings like these as you walk over them in the Mojave Desert
I hear some noise, look up, and notice an owl, noticing me
This hike is progressing slowly; I'm finally entering the mountain zone as I walk through this gateway
A number of small barrel cacti adorn this rock wall in Hyten Spring Wash in the Bristol Mountains
The Lewis (Lew) Carpenter Guzzler, Kelso Dunes Wilderness
I follow the tire tracks a short distance off my Hyten Spring hiking route and find that they end at a guzzler
The rocky terrain gets more interesting as I slowly get higher up this Bristol Mountains wash
Another cool rock wall in Hyten Spring wash
I pass a deflated barrel cactus in Hyten Spring Wash that lost its footing on the steep adjacent hillside
I notice several hawks and ravens flying around as I continue hiking up the wash toward Hyten Spring
I'm enjoying the hike up this part of Hyten Spring Wash with its occasional little dry waterfalls to climb over
I climb up a small dry waterfall in Hyten Spring Wash and look back down
I've just passed an open area where I had to choose which route I'll take to Hyten Spring
This is the high-elevation point of my day, at roughly 3000 feet in the Bristol Mountains, a bit above nearby Hyten Spring
After climbing over a couple of hills, I drop down into a little canyon ahead where I should find Hyten Spring
On the way down the hill to Hyten Spring, I stop to look at some of the Desert holly plants that grow here
And here it is: Hyten Spring, Bristol Mountains, Kelso Dunes Wilderness
As for a pool of water at Hyten Spring, this litle tank in the rock is all I find today
A few pink buckwheat flowers near Hyten Spring, Kelso Dunes Wilderness
For the return hike back to my tent, I follow a different wash down to the powerline road from Hyten Spring
A bird's nest in a catclaw bush in Kelso Dunes Wilderness
A series of cavelets is clustered in a hill along this wash in the Kelso Dunes Wilderness
Interesting rock spikes along the wall of the wash, Kelso Dunes Wilderness
On my way down out of the Bristol Mountains, I pass a few Rush milkweeds in flowers
Further down in a Bristol Mountains wash are a number of low, reddish buckwheat tufts
Further down Hyten Spring Wash, I get expansive views across Crucero Valley
Back on the powerline road, less than two miles of hiking to go
I spend a lot of time snapping photos as the sun goes down on the powerline road
To my surprise, I'm back at my tent at 16h40, before total darkness; I was expecting to need my flashlight on the way home
Time to boil water for tonight's instant meal: Mountain House Teriyaki Chicken and Rice
Hyten Spring hike elevation, Kelso Dunes Wilderness