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Owens Valley, CA. This the the view from
the along the Red Mountain Creek trail. Looking east, you can see
the green ribbon of Red Mountain Creek running through the desert.
This tree was the first big tree along the way. A tent site was right
beside me, and I had a break on a big flat rock while waiting. The
hike up to here was pretty ugly desert, sandy, steep, hot and dry.
You can hear the creek running, but it was down in a trench filled and
overgrown with trees and plants. Just getting to the 6,500 ft trailhead
was an offroad adventure! |
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Is this Red Lake? Turned out that this
is not Red Lake, just a pond with trout. It had a small waterfall at its
outlet. Then the water disappeared into the boulders. Are we
there yet? See Rick and Irene? |
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View of Split from 'red pond'. This is
a picture of the mountain we wanted to climb. That dark rock is called
mantle rock and is harder and less prevalent than the underlying, lighter
colored granite. It is a much older rock than the granite found throughout
the Sierra Nevada. The granite has lifted the mantle up. The
large, deep ravines extend up and over the other side of the mountain and
so it was named. This fourteener is an example of the sharp, rugged,
high mountains of the Eastern side of the Sierras. |
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I always wanted to do this. This picture
is three photos electronically composited. I wish I had done a better
job with the camera. Take a look and see Split Mountain and Red Lake,
the real one, as seen from the top of Mount Tinemaha. |
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Me on top of Tinemaha. Me standing in front
of Split Mountain, a fourteener at 14,058 ft elevation. Looking West.
The proposed route up to the summit would be across the base past Red Lake
up the saddle to the north (right in this picture). Then up the ridge,
just on the other side, to the summit. The saddle looked very deeply
buried in snow. |
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This is the view from the trailhead. The
end of the day. What a hike. Gotta come back and bag Split! |
