Red Cathedral - 2.16.2022
We parked at the Zabriskie Point Trailhead in Death Valley National Park and will be heading for Red Cathedral which is way out there in the distance on the left... well beyond where you see two people standing on the point in the foreground.
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After hiking a very short distance we arrived at the spot where the main trail drops down into Golden Canyon... and this is the place where we will leave the main trail and follow an obvious path that will take us steeply uphill toward Red Cathedral.
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Denali Girl begins to hike up the path that will take us to Red Cathedral.
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Continuing to hike uphill on our way to Red Cathedral... the trail will take us out beyond where you see the person standing on the point to the far right in the photo... Manly Beacon stands out in the distance on the left and that will be tomorrow's target.
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Almost at the prominent point from the previous photo.
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Standing on that first prominent point that was in the previous photo... looking straight ahead toward Manly Beacon and Red Cathedral. We are hiking in the Black Mountains and looking across Death Valley to the Panamint Mountains on the other side of the valley... which houses the snow-covered Telescope Peak out there on the far left... and at 11,053 feet it is the highest point in the park.
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Denali Girl took this photo of me hiking along the ridge that will take us out to Red Cathedral on the far left.
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Continuing along the trail to Red Cathedral... looking over at Manly Beacon in Golden Canyon.
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Continuing along the trail toward Red Cathedral out there in the left center of the photo.
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After hiking one mile we are standing on Red Cathedral looking back at part of the trail that got us here... the trailhead parking area and Zabriskie Point are barely visible near the middle of the photo. We are standing in the Black Mountains and the Funeral Mountains are across the highway on the far left.
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Standing on Red Cathedral looking south to Manly Beacon... tomorrow we will park at the same trailhead... then hike down into Golden Canyon... where we will leave the main trail and follow a wash over to where we will head up to the beacon. A snow covered Telescope Peak is across the valley on the far right.
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I took this photo of Denali Girl standing on Red Cathedral as we decided to continue hiking on the trail to see where it would take us.
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Heading NW from Red Cathedral... looking at the Cottonball Basin area of Death Valley... with the Tucki Mountains on the left and the Funeral Mountains on the right... and I believe the Grapevine Mountains are way out there in the center of the photo.
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Looking back at Denali Girl as she leaves Red Cathedral.
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Continuing to hike NW from Red Cathedral... we will hike out to the little bump on the far left.
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After hiking .8 miles from Red Cathedral, Denali Girl is standing on the little bump mentioned in the previous photo... from here we will trace our steps back to the car.
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The trail actually continued along the ridge from where we stopped, but it became very faint and we decided to not go any further.
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Heading back to the car now.
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Tracing our steps back to the car.
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Heading back to the car.
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Heading back to the car.
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Looking over at Manly Beacon as we continue to trace our steps back to the car.
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Looking back at Manly Beacon and Red Cathedral as we hike back to the car.
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We can see the parking lot.
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Nearing the parking area... the hike was a total of 3.6 miles, gaining 558 feet of elevation... incredible views for such little mileage and elevation gain.
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