Hidden Way - 3.1.2024
We parked in a paved pull-out just south of the paved parking lot for rock climbing at 'Hemingway'.... the Hemingway rock formations are in the right-center of the photo.
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Entering the north end of Hidden Valley... a much less traveled section of Hidden Valley than the very popular Hidden Valley Loop.
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Hiking south in the really hidden section of Hidden Valley... heading for the very popular Hidden Valley Loop Trail located in the south section of Hidden Valley.
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Still hiking south in the really hidden section of Hidden Valley... and we are getting close to the popular section of Hidden Valley.
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This is part of the reason this section of Hidden Valley is not visited nearly as much as the popular section of the valley... there are two ways to get over to the popular section of Hidden Valley... Star Dancer does the little climb... while Denali Girl does the crack.
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I did the little climb in the previous photo... and I'm watching Denali Girl finish coming through the crack.
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There is one more challenge in getting over to the popular section of Hidden Valley... and rocman makes himself small to crawl through this area.
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Denali Girl took this photo of me after I had crawled through the crack.
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Star Dancer came over and took this photo of me sitting on my rear end and leaning back on my pack while I get ready to take a photo of Denali Girl crawling through the tunnel.
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Denali Girl crawls through the tunnel.
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We have dealt with the two cruxes of this hike... and are almost ready to enter the very popular section of Hidden Valley.
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After hiking a total of one-half mile we are getting ready to enter the very popular section of Hidden Valley... and one of today's targets is the 'Holy Enchilada' rock formation out there in the center of the photo.
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We have entered the very popular section of Hidden Valley and are on the one-mile Hidden Valley Loop Trail... the rock formation on the extreme far left is the 'Great Burrito'... with our 'Holy Enchilada' target on the extreme far right.
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Hiking on the Hidden Valley Loop Trail... looking over at the 'Holy Enchilada' in the right-center of the photo.
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Continuing to hike on the Hidden Valley Loop Trail as we work our way over to the 'Holy Enchilada'.
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I took this photo of Denali Girl in the middle of the photo... and I noticed a rock climber on the 'Sports Challenge Rock' over there on the far left of the photo... and I'm gonna head over there to watch him.
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I have hiked over to the 'Sports Challenge Rock'... and the climber might be hard to see... but he is in the lower right section of the rock where there is a lot of climber's chalk on the rock.
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The climber is doing the 5.12a 'Leave it to Beaver' route on the 'Sports Challenge Rock'.
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The climber is doing the 5.12a 'Leave it to Beaver' route on the 'Sports Challenge Rock'... and he made it to the top with no problems.
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We have left the 'Sports Challenge Rock' and are continuing to hike on the Hidden Valley Loop Trail... heading for the 'Holy Enchilada' in the right-center of the photo... it is hard to see Denali Girl in the photo... but she is a speck on the horizon as she heads up toward the top of the 'Holy Enchilada'.
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We have left the Hidden Valley Loop Trail and making a very short hike over to the SE ramp section of the 'Holy Enchilada'.
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Heading up the ramp section of 'Holy Enchilada'... rocman is right in front of me... with Star Dancer half way up... and Denali Girl even higher.
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Star Dancer is taking a break while rocman continues up the ramp... heading up to meet Denali Girl.
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Star Dancer took this photo of rocman and me on a very gnarly section of the 'Holy Enchilada'... getting ready to round that corner of a huge rock... Denali Girl is watching us from up there on the right.
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Denali Girl took this photo of me rounding the corner of the huge boulder.
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Yes... rocman and I got around the boulder okay.
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rocman continues to scramble up 'Holy Enchilada'.
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I hiked through a couple of huge boulders near the summit and fould this nice bench on the north side of 'Holy Enchilada'... looking down on the very popular one-mile Hidden Valley Loop Trail... on the far right I am looking beyond the Wonderland of Rocks to Queen Mountain on the horizon... with Lost Horse Valley on the far left.
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rocman is at our high point on 'Holy Enchilada'.
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Time to come down from our high point on 'Holy Enchilada'.
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Denali Girl took this photo of me rounding the corner of the huge boulder near the summit... and I can see rocman's hat on the other side of the boulder.
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Coming down from our high point on 'Holy Enchilada'... rocman is rounding the corner of the huge boulder up above me.
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rocman is coming down.
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rocman is coming down.
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One last step remains to get back on really secure ground.
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Denali Girl and Star Dancer heading back down the ramp on the SE side of 'Holy Enchilada'.... with Ryan Mountain on the left horizon.
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Still on the ramp on the SE side of 'Holy Enchilada'... here looking over at the 'Run for your Life' route on the left-tower that rocman did 50 years ago.
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Back on the Hidden Valley Loop Trail... passing by the north side of the 'Holy Enchilada'.
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Continuing to hike on the Hidden Valley Loop Trail... here looking back at the 'Holy Enchilada' in the center of the photo.
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Hiking left-to-right on the Hidden Valley Loop Trail.
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Still on the Hidden Valley Loop Trail... and we can see the 'Great Burrito' rock formation out there in the right-center of the photo.
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We didn't get back over to the 'Great Burrito' because we left the Hidden Valley Loop Trail and entered the much less traveled section of Hidden Valley... but we aren't going to have to deal with the two cruxes that we dealt with when we entered the popular section of Hidden Valley earlier in the day.
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Hiking NW in the more hidden section of Hidden Valley... looking for a place to get over to close the loop portion of our hike.
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Now hiking NE... heading for the treed gap over there in the right-center of the photo.
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Heading for the treed gap in the left-center of the photo.
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Heading through the treed gap... getting ready to close the loop portion of our hike.
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We have closed the loop portion of our hike.
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Looking back down the more hidden portion of Hidden Valley that we went down earlier in the day.
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Hiking back into the 'Hemingway' section of our hike.
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We can see our cars... the total hike was 2.5 miles, gaining 312 feet of elevation.
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