{"id":26186,"date":"2025-03-09T20:45:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T02:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=26186"},"modified":"2025-03-11T14:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T20:23:15","slug":"peak-of-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=26186","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

For almost 35 years, I’ve hiked to the plateau above my land in the Mojave Desert, a beautiful oasis with a prehistoric ceremonial site, and considered that the most dangerous hike I do. It requires climbing 400 vertical feet straight up a 67 percent grade on a surface of loose dirt, loose boulders, yucca spines, branching cholla cactus, and big, spreading acacia shrubs covered with thorns. I sometimes step on boulders heavier than me that I expect to be solid, and have them tip over under my feet. In places the easiest route is up ramps of crumbly granite bedrock, where a slip would result, at minimum, in torn flesh and broken bones. And I almost always make that climb alone, in a place with no cell signal.<\/p>\n

On the way to one of my favorite hiking areas along the Arizona border, I pass a small mountain range with low granite peaks, cliffs, and boulders that reminds me of my mountains in the Mojave. The peak of the range has always intrigued me, because from the highway it looks unclimbable, a spire of solid rock. And while researching the area online, I was surprised and excited to learn there’s a population of desert bighorn sheep there.<\/p>\n

\"Area <\/a>
Area near AZ border that looks like the Mojave <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The map shows a dirt road running up a southwest canyon toward the foot of the peak, and I wondered if maybe I could climb from that to the base of the spire and traverse around to the back, to see if it might be climbable on the north side.<\/p>\n

We’d had a dusting of snow in town the previous day, and as I drove over there, I was surprised to see quite a bit of new snow on the high mountains peeking over the horizon. The drive includes about 15 straight miles on the interstate, which was a good test of the Sidekick’s recent alignment. And the unmaintained dirt roads to the foot of the peak turned out to be a good test of the bigger tires and suspension lift.<\/p>\n

\"Yesterday's <\/a>
Yesterday’s snow on 8,000′ peaks south of town <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"From <\/a>
From basin south of town, looking north to new snow on our high mountains <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking east toward granite spire I’d love to climb <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking west through pass to new snow on range of canyons <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Down <\/a>
Down through pass, granite cliffs on right <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

I’m under so much stress that I’m barely sane, and shortly after turning off the highway, I mindlessly took the wrong road toward the peak. It ran up a wash lined with deep, dry sand where I was immediately afraid of getting stuck, so I shifted into low range 4wd. I plowed a mile up that sandy wash, on edge the whole time, not realizing it was the wrong road until I’d reached the very end.<\/p>\n

\"Turnoff <\/a>
Turnoff onto ranch road, with spire rising at right <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Wrong <\/a>
Wrong turn into sandy wash <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Back on the main road, I tested the Sidekick lift on deeply eroded and rocky stretches, and never bottomed out. It was great not to be stressing over the right line to take all the time. The road I needed, up the canyon to the foot of the peak, hadn’t been driven recently, and turned out to be as bad as the abandoned mine roads in the Mojave. As in the Mojave, the alluvial fan was lined with creosote bush, and there was even a deep dry wash next to the road just like in the desert. The peak loomed higher and more forbidding as the walls of the canyon closed in, but the road kept climbing and climbing, much farther than I’d expected.<\/p>\n

\"Zoomed <\/a>
Zoomed in on new snow on sky island 75 miles north <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Finally <\/a>
Finally reaching the correct turnoff <\/div> <\/div>
\"Like <\/a>
Like one of our abandoned Mojave mine roads <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Even <\/a>
Even has a deep wash lined with creosote bushes <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6794\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Road <\/a>
Road gets sketchier nearing head of canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

I finally sensed the end was near, and backed off into a small clearing to scan the slopes ahead. They looked far too rugged to climb, and that deep wash, lined with big prickly pears, separated me from them anyway.<\/p>\n

But farther up the canyon it looked like there might be a more gentle slope I could traverse left toward the sheer base of the peak \u2013 the direction I was hoping to explore.<\/p>\n

\"Head <\/a>
Head of canyon, with deep wash in center <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking out mouth of canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Creosote <\/a>
Creosote bush <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Hoping <\/a>
Hoping to climb slope across wash at right, toward base of spire <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

I set off up what was left of the road. It soon ended \u2013 without space to turn the Sidekick around, so I was glad I’d stopped early. Here, floods had left a wall of rocks above the wash, but I could see some kind of narrow, overgrown corridor leading up to the right of the rock wall. I tried to follow what looked like an old mule trail, but in many places it was choked with cactus.<\/p>\n

In the meantime I was scanning that slope across the wash that I’d hoped to climb. No dice \u2013 the lower part was too steep, and the wash was blocked by spreading prickly pears.<\/p>\n

Above, I could see a little pile of mine tailings, and suddenly I emerged into a clearing that featured the rusted steel frame of a bench seat from a pickup truck. The path continued, and soon I saw a gap where I might be able to cross the wash between prickly pears, and hopefully climb to the mine tailings. It looked like I might be able to use that to bypass the slope I’d originally hoped to climb.<\/p>\n

I immediately discovered this was dangerous terrain to climb \u2013 as dangerous as that plateau hike I make in the Mojave, with the same features. The slopes here were loose dirt and loose rock alternating with steep ramps of rough bedrock, and the way was blocked again and again by shrubs with inch-long thorns, prickly pear, and big agaves that would impale you if you happened to slip on a loose rock.<\/p>\n

But atop the tailings pile was a flat ledge and the mouth of a mine.<\/p>\n

\"Base <\/a>
Base of slope I wanted to climb is too steep and loose <\/div> <\/div>
\"Can't <\/a>
Can’t cross wash through those cacti <\/div> <\/div>
\"Interesting <\/a>
Interesting rock <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Truck <\/a>
Truck seat, with mine tailings above <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Panorama <\/a>
Panorama from outside mine <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

It was a shallow mine, and fairly recent, with oxidized plastic containers and a rusty old can of insect spray \u2013 maybe from the 60s or 70s. Like most mines, it had some interesting rocks piled outside the opening \u2013 surprisingly similar to rocks in the Mojave.<\/p>\n

\"Old <\/a>
Old timers always slept in their mines <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Dead <\/a>
Dead ends fifty feet back <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6826\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Old <\/a>
Old mosquito spray <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"View <\/a>
View down canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"More <\/a>
More interesting rocks outside mine <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Familiar <\/a>
Familiar from the Mojave <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The mine was on a slope opposite the one I’d hoped to climb, across a deep, narrow gully choked with boulders and cacti. As I picked my way from the mine toward the gully, I could see that this slope was much rockier, and got rockier still higher up. And the rock looked exactly like the rare metamorphic rock in the canyon on my Mojave land, which I’d never seen anywhere else.<\/p>\n

If I wanted to continue this hike, I was going to have to climb this steep, thorny slope. The metamorphic rock has a rough, sharp texture which can be good for climbing, but at this level it was too steep, so I had to climb the loose rock \u2013 exactly what the bighorn sheep had been doing. Sometimes I was able to follow their route, but the higher I climbed, the more dangerous it got.<\/p>\n

I was hoping to climb above the gully and traverse left onto the easier slope, but above the gully my way was blocked by a broad ramp of bedrock at about 40 degrees. It was just too dangerous to traverse.<\/p>\n

\"Wait <\/a>
Wait – we have this in the Mojave <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"And <\/a>
And this – deja vu <\/div> <\/div>
\"Thorns <\/a>
Thorns are longer here than in the Mojave <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"More <\/a>
More Mojave-style metamorphic rock <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This is what I have to climb <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"That's <\/a>
That’s the way I was planning to go <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Just <\/a>
Just too dangerous to traverse, especially alone <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

So I turned right, where across a rockfall of sharp boulders, I could see a long, steep bedrock ramp leading up to the horizon, where there appeared to be a juniper beckoning me. I picked my way carefully over the boulders, and stepped out onto the ramp. The surface was like a really coarse carpenter’s rasp \u2013 a fall would tear your skin off down to the bone, and sand your bone down to bone meal. Traction was really good for climbing up, but how would I get back down? I blocked out the thought.<\/p>\n

The ramp only took me part way \u2013 the rest of the climb was in loose dirt and loose rocks, winding my way between thorny shrubs, cacti, and agaves. I was more and more convinced this was a terrible idea and I’d end up badly injured or dead, but I was on autopilot and couldn’t give up.<\/p>\n

\"Alternate <\/a>
Alternate climb, toward little juniper on horizon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Featuring <\/a>
Featuring long bedrock ramp <\/div> <\/div>
\"First <\/a>
First need to cross these sharp boulders <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking back after crossing boulders <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Reaching <\/a>
Reaching ramp <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Vertical <\/a>
Vertical base of spire looming above slope of loose rock and spines <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

I finally passed the little juniper, and emerged on a small ledge with a killer view. There was still a higher slope leading up to the sheer base of the peak, but I wasn’t going any farther today. I had little hope that I’d be able to get down from here intact.<\/p>\n

It was lunchtime, and I snacked on homemade trail mix. I’d hoped to reach the cafe in the Arizona mountains across the big basin, but I was half convinced my life would end below this peak.<\/p>\n

\"View <\/a>
View from ledge where I stopped climbing <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sheer <\/a>
Sheer base of spire, which rises more than 600 feet above <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking down canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sidekick <\/a>
Sidekick is down there <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6870\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ledge <\/a>
Ledge sits on narrow outcrop with sheer sides <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I climbed up along base of that cliff <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Spire <\/a>
Spire in all its majesty <\/div> <\/div>
\"Bedrock <\/a>
Bedrock of spire <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Today's <\/a>
Today’s route <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

I’ve never been so cautious on a descent. I inched down that long ramp on my butt. I never want to tackle a climb like that alone again \u2013 but taking a slightly different route, somehow I got down without slipping or falling once.<\/p>\n

\"There <\/a>
There are a few more junipers like this on upper slopes <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"View <\/a>
View back up the canyon from vehicle <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The Sidekick did really well on the drive out. It makes a hell of a noise, but I wore my noise-cancelling headphones and drove faster as a result.<\/p>\n

\"Road <\/a>
Road out <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ocotillos <\/a>
Ocotillos budding <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6904\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Last <\/a>
Last look back at peak <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I'm <\/a>
I’m heading into canyon over there for lunch <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

It was after 2 pm when I reached the cafe. Starved for protein after working out during the week, I ordered the steak instead of my usual burrito. My knee was killing me, so I took a pain pill.<\/p>\n

This was not the kind of hike I’m supposed to be doing, to recover from the knee injury. Like I said, I’m barely sane. It’s like I’m on autopilot, blindly doing the same dangerous things I did at half my age \u2013 but now my family depends on my survival.<\/p>\n

A half moon was rising in front of me as I drove home in late afternoon. I’d only hiked four fifths of a mile out and back, with 566 feet of elevation gain. An incredibly dangerous place, but incredibly beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"Approaching <\/a>
Approaching mouth of canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Walls <\/a>
Walls of canyon <\/div> <\/div>
\"Driving <\/a>
Driving west into New Mexico, with half moon rising at left <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Approaching <\/a>
Approaching granite hills, with peak at left <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For almost 35 years, I’ve hiked to the plateau above my land in the Mojave Desert, a beautiful oasis with a prehistoric ceremonial site, and considered that the most dangerous hike I do. It requires climbing 400 vertical feet straight up a 67 percent grade on a surface of loose dirt, loose boulders, yucca spines, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,143,91,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","category-peloncillos","category-rocks","category-southwest-new-mexico"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_6847.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26186"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26307,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26186\/revisions\/26307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}