March 2024 trip

[MojaveGeek]

Day 4 had clearing weather and cool temps.   We drove just a bit toward Towne Pass and hiked up a canyon which has apparently been tagged "Sculpted".  Years ago we walked in to the giant dryfall.  This time we followed a Kauri rout on a long bypass, totally skipping the lower canyon.



Once we got up to the top of that ridge, we could see down into Sculpted and that's the entrance route (it's a bit easier just left out of the pic).   It looks like a fascinating canyon, with some rough spots.



But having spent a bunch of time getting over the ridge from 190, across a series of washes, and then climbing up the proper wash and eventually the ridge, we didn't feel too inclined to drop down... only to have to climb back up to the spot from which we took the photo.  So we ad libbed, and decided to descend via Black Point Canyon.   It looked pretty promising...



With a connecting ridge and descent into that brown rock looking good.



Well there was a steep loose descent at the end but it wasn't very long and then we were in the canyon bottom.  We'd been here before and knew we could get out OK, though things seems to have been re-arranged slightly with the storms.  We also saw a person in there, the only person we saw away from roads for the rest of the trip.








Day 5 was sunny with nice temps still  so we went up one side of Moonlight.  We ended up seeing the best flowers here - it was the only place we saw five spots and gravel ghosts.  Nice visibility.






Getting in to day 6, the temps were rising, so time to get off the valley floor.  We went up Ryan BM.  It looked real easy but there's a bunch of places where you have to thread a route between rocky parts.  The original plan had been to do a second peak but we really didn't have time, after taking a nice break on top.







More to come...