July 16, 2024
Today I’m Hiking with five other people. We are going to Castle Peak and basin Peak. I’m expecting some amazing views
Our trail starts on this mountain logging road and will eventually connect to a more traditional trail just prior to the CastlePeak Saddle. We already have nice views of the Castle Peak across an open meadow.
Large Seeded Forget Me Nots, with large Mules Ears as a backdrop, and Sub Alpine Fleabanes provide color along the trail
We have joined the PCT just below the Castle Peak saddle. We have another great view of both Castle, Peak and basin Peak from the saddle along with stunning a 360° views all around us.
I’m always amazed at the way foliage grows on these very exposed rocky volcanic areas. There are small pine saplings growing up amongst the rocks along with this yellow Sulfur Buckwheat.
The Mountain Coyote Mint is similar in appearance to the Sulfur Buckwheat, but has a white flower with purple tint instead of the yellow.
The Leichtin’s Mariposa Lily is a beautiful white flower that stands alone amongst the rocks
It amazes me to see Snow still present in the middle of July. Although last year, when I came through here it was mid August and there was much more of it.
Down below us is a beautiful meadow, the peter grub hut, which we will pass by later in the hike, sits just off of its edge
This light purple Lewis Flax is a new flower to me. It amazes me how often I come across species I have not seen or photographed previously.
Volcanic rock always amazes me with the forms that it takes and the way it just jets out of the mountain
The pink Slender Tooth Skyrocket is another new species I am encountering today.
As I attack the slope of Castle Peak I continue to get more amazing volcanic rock views.
As we head up, there are many beautiful multicolored patches of wildflower on the mountain side
I was able to get a picture of a high mountain butterfly just before this small rock scramble ahead of me
We are at the top of what we are going to call Castle Peak. It’s actually a false peak next to the actual Castle Peak, but you have to go back down a little bit and then up a pretty steep scramble. Mostly for time purposes we are stopping here. We have absolutely incredible 360° views from the top of this peak. We are at 9070 feet currently and have climbed 1752 vertical feet from our cars.
As we come off Castle Peak we will be walking along the Ridgeline of the saddle and back up to Basin Peak. Looking out across the meadow, you can just make out the roof of the Peter Grubb Hut
As we walk along the Ridgeline, we have beautiful vertical cliffs off to our right side and sloping vegetation to our left, each offering another example of nature’s awesome diversity of terrain
I smile when I pass rocks with the black and dark green moss. I can’t help but think of the camouflage that my two sons dressed in during their army service. One is out the other is active duty currently deployed overseas.
The trail is now passing through some more really neat volcanic rock formations
Looking back it’s amazing how far away Castle Peak looks, although we were just there
I’ve reached the top of Basin Peak. A great place to drop the pack, open up the trail register, look back at some of the entries, and have some lunch amongst the amazing 360° views
We’ve come to another damp area that supports, beautiful wildflower growth mid slope on the side of Basin Peak.
Our Castle, Peak Trail has joined the Pct, which we will now follow back down past Peter Grub Hut and back up over Castle saddle where it will branch off of us about 100 yards after the saddle. When I get on a section of PCT I feel at home with a sense of calm. It is a neat feeling.
Alongside the trail is this neat large very smooth slab of rock that has a nice lookout at the top
After a very comfortable uphill section, we have reached the Castle Peak saddle again. This is where we branched off and went right up over Castle Peak, Basin Peak, circled back around the Peter Grubb Hut, and then came up this trail to the saddle completing the full circle. Now it’s just another quick downhill portion to our cars.
We made it back to the cars total mileage today was 9.9 miles and our elevation gain was 2323 vertical feet so not a bad bad day of Hiking.
No comments:
Post a Comment