Painted Canyon and Point 1460 - 3.15.2024
We parked at the end of Painted Canyon Road in the Mecca Hills Wilderness... down near the Salton Sea.
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Hiking up Painted Canyon... very wide at the beginning.
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Continuing to hike up Painted Canyon.
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Continuing to hike up Painted Canyon... in less than a half-mile of hiking we found this huge rock arrow in the middle of the canyon pointing over to where those people are heading... but we won't go where the masses go... instead, we will continue hiking up Painted Canyon.
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Continuing to hike up Painted Canyon.
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After hiking approximately one mile we have found two ladders... Denali Girl is on the first ladder and BarbE is above her... with the second ladder behind BarbE.
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tomman has just ascended the second ladder and using a conveniently placed rope to finish up the ascent.
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After hiking a total of 1.4 miles we have reached a place where Painted Canyon goes to the left... but we will take the less traveled unnamed canyon that goes out of the photo in the right foreground.... and later on we will close the loop portion of our hike by coming back down Painted Canyon on the left.
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Heading for that very large ladder out there in the distance.
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Denali Girl is coming up the large ladder we saw in the previous photo... our third ladder of the day.
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tomman ascends the fourth ladder.
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Very shortly after ascending the fourth ladder in the previous photo tomman heads up the fifth ladder.... this was a challenge because the second and third steps of the ladder are broken... and notice that the top of the ladder is at least 4 feet below where we would like it to be.
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tomman and I helped the ladies get up the broken ladder.
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The ghost flower.
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Continuing to hike up the unnamed canyon.
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Continuing to hike up the unnamed canyon.
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Continuing to hike up the unnamed canyon.
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Brittlebush.
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Continuing to hike up the unnamed canyon.
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Continuing to hike up the unnamed canyon.
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Continuing to hike up the unnamed canyon.
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Dealing with our sixth ladder of the day... a piece of cake compared to the fifth ladder.
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Continuing to hike up the unnamed canyon.
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Continuing to hike up the unnamed canyon.
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Continuing to hike up the unnamed canyon.
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After hiking a total of 2.3 miles it was time to leave the unnamed canyon.
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Above the canyon... with the Salton Sea behind us.
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Denali Girl took this selfie... left to right... tomman, BarbE, Denali Girl and ragman.
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Desert Gold Poppy.
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I took this pano showing the Salton Sea and a lot of the Mecca Hills Wilderness.
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We will stay out of the canyons for awhile... heading over to the dark bump in the foreground.
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Someone made a dragonfly with quartz rock.
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BarbE and tomman on our second bump.
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Looking back at the gang as I head over to Point 1460.
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I'm heading for Point 1460 in the foreground.
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After hiking a total of 3 miles I am standing on Point 1460... my high point for the day... time to head down to Painted Canyon and join the gang.
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Heading down to Painted Canyon.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Chuparosa.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.... here looking back at tomman... and it looks like the weather is trying to chase us out of the canyon.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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Back in Painted Canyon and working on closing the loop portion of our hike.
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After hiking a total of 5 miles we have closed the loop portion of our hike... and it is time to trace our steps back to the car.
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Denali Girl uses the rope to get down to the top of that second ladder we climbed up earlier in the day.
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tomman uses the rope to descend to the top of the ladder that BarbE is descending as we trace our steps back to the car.
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Denali Girl is descending the first ladder that we ascended earlier in the day.
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Returning to our car as we hike out of Painted Canyon... the hike was a total of 6.4 miles, gaining 830 feet of elevation.
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