Painted Canyon - 2.23.2019
From the city of Mecca, California... drive east on 66th Avenue (aka Box Canyon Road)... shortly after crossing over the Coachella Canal, turn left onto Painted Canyon Road... then drive 4.5 miles to the end of the road and park.
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Heading up Painted Canyon... the canyon is very broad at the beginning.
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After hiking a little over a quarter mile this obvious arrow says to go to the left... however, today there was a group of 12 boy scouts in front of us... so we just said no... and crossed over the arrow and continued on up the canyon... at the end of the day we will come down the route that the scouts are using on the way up.
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Continuing up Painted Canyon.
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The first two ladders.
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Heading up the first ladder.
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Heading up the second ladder... notice that at the top of the ladder there is still a bit of scrambling to do before getting to level ground.
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Continuing up the canyon.
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Dottie near the top of the third ladder.
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Another hiker offered to take a group shot... and we took him up on his offer... left-to-right... Kerry, Dottie, Terry, Gail and me.
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Terry nears the top of ladder #4... ladder #5 is a short distance behind Gail.
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Kerry nears the top of ladder #5.
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Desert Sun Flower... there are many varieties.
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Desert Yellow Cup.
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The canyon has definitely narrowed since we began.
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Go Huskies!
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Looking up from the canyon floor.
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Here comes Gail and Dottie.
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Terry is leading us up the canyon.
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Ladder #6 will get us about half-way up to level ground.
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Kerry and Terry scramble up above ladder #6.
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Another scramble spot along the route.
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Terry stands above a dried up waterfall.
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We have come up out of the canyon to broad views in the Mecca Hills.
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The Salton Sea is on the left horizon... the Santa Rosa Mountains are on the center horizon... with the snow covered San Jacinto Peak and San Gorgonio Mountain on the right horizon.
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A nice lunch spot.
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The Salton Sea is huge... with the Santa Rosa Mountains on the right horizon.
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Heading down into another canyon that will take us back toward our car.
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Down in the canyon that we will follow toward our car.
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We could have continued back to the car, but I talked the group into exploring a canyon that neither Gail or I had ever visited... there were lots of foot prints, so it wasn't like we were the first visitors to the canyon.
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Continuing up our new canyon... we can see some towers on the horizon.
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Shortly after seeing those towers in the previous photo, this large arrow shows an obvious trail that we will follow.
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Up out of the canyon and continuing on the obvious trail.
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Looking for the next canyon that will take us back to the car.
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Still looking for our next canyon.
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Dropping into our next canyon.
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Down climbing ladder #7.
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Continuing down our final canyon of the day.
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Heading down.
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Down climbing ladder #8.
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Tight quarters here.
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Terry and Kerry in the slot.
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We are scrambling down to the top of ladder #9.
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Terry is getting ready to come down ladder #9.
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Out of the narrow part of the canyon.
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Out of the narrow part of the canyon, but there are still some big boulders to deal with.
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Terry down climbs ladder #10... our last ladder of the day.
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Almost down on the canyon floor... this is where the 12 boy scouts went up earlier in the day... in other words, we have closed the loop portion of our hike... and only have a quarter mile hike to get back to the car.
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The parking lot is in view... our hike was 7.4 miles, gaining 1000 feet of elevation.
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Terry took this photo of us conducting a debriefing meeting after the hike.
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