Pinyon Ridge and Wilson Benchmark

Pinyon Ridge and Wilson Benchmark©

February 23, 2013, Joel Hawk

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

 Chris "Warrior" Hogue and I decided to bag another couple peaks on our way to completing the San Diego 100 Peaks list.  Chris has not committed to completing the list, but she has done a couple of long hikes with me over the past couple of weeks.  Pinyon Ridge and Wilson were burned last year in August 2012.  At last count, 11,669 acres were burned per the NBC website.  It has only been 6 months since the fire, but it only takes a few minutes to get a glimpse of just how devastating fire is. 

This is a relatively easy 9 mile hike along a trail if you follow Jerry Schad's directions.  If you use my track below, you're in for 11.2 and a little cross country.  The fires made the cross country trek very easy.

Chris was a bundle of energy when we first started.  It was just a little cold with some small patches of snow on the ground from the week before, but we were bundled up nicely.  This is officially her first open country scramble.  I told her all my open country hikes are this easy...ok, I lied, but let's keep it our secret or I'll never get her to go with me again.

After a little trip up/down and through some small run-offs, we made the ridge and received our first sighting of Pinyon Ridge.  Chris was a little concerned about the distance and the rocks that she could see from here.  I did my best in explaining it may look easier once we get closer.

Part of my journey is to always look around and see what's going on along the horizon.  Here is a nice shot with snow capping the Volcan Mountain ridges.

Another gorgeous view.

It was a great day for a hike and I'm looking forward to our adventure.

Although the fires destroyed so much, there are signs of life returning to the desert.  We saw signs of big horn sheep and heard a pack of coyotes howling, but never saw any of them.  We did see birds, rabbits and ground squirrels.  I thought I saw some deer print, but it may have been a baby sheep.  Tough to tell.  In this picture, Chris said we're not alone and up on the ridge to the left of the rock, it looks like two people walking.  It ended up just being cacti, but it sure looked real for a while.

There were a lot of natural things to wonder about and then some not so natural...

Chris loves the snow and though she could have opted to walk around, she walked right through it.  Tough to take the kid out of the adult when you're enjoying the great outdoors.

Following the well-used trail, we finally found ourselves at the turn-off to start our ascent up to Wilson Benchmark.  Honestly, with the vegetation being burned off, it's a real easy scramble up the face of Wilson vs. walking around to the other side.  We descended off the front face with ease.

Some forever views from a lookout point and the summit.

After a quick snack and signing the register, we pushed off to retrace our steps and bag Pinyon Ridge.  This benchmark was placed here in 1939.

I saw this rock formation on the way back and I just know I've seen a bird like this before, but the closest I can come up with at the moment is it's similar to a chick-a-dee.  If anyone knows a better likeness to a different type of bird, please let me know.

In just a short while, I climbed up Pinyon Ridge.  Although I did not find a register nor a benchmark, Garmin told me I had summited.  I plotted a backup coordinate and my track went right over it as well.  I did not climb these rocks.  I felt I could get up, but the getting back down would have been more of a challenge than I really needed at the time.

Taking a different path back to the jeep, it was a lot of joy to see new signs of life returning to the desert.  All things must have balance in order to survive.  I'll bet the rains will really bring out some new growth over the next month or so.

At the 11 mile mark, Chris had had enough fun and was ready for the hike to be over.  We climbed the last ridge and she remarked, "I've never been so happy to see a jeep before."  I did promise her a wine tasting adventure as part of her reward for being such a good sport on the hike, so that helped keep her happy.

Once packed up, we headed off to Hawk Winery just outside of Warner Springs.  Great people there and of course, add a little wine and people start doing crazy things.  Oh wait...I do this on every hike.  But today, the winds were so strong I couldn't stand upright on just one leg.  I thought I was going to get thrown out striking a Captain Morgan pose, wearing a Jack Daniels ball cap and hanging out in a winery.  But it was all good.

This is a very cool sign and with my last name being Hawk, I'll need to find one for myself.

Once we got home, I saw that we had brought back a lot of the desert with us.

All cleaned up and ready to go again.

When we going
...When we going
......When we going???

Our little trek is one we'll always remember.  That's what I love about hiking in our countryside - we always come away with fun and different memories.

Be safe, enjoy living and appreciate our lands.   ~ Joel

Directions and the numbers:

Travel to Ranchita on Montezuma Valley Road just before dropping down the grade into Borrego Springs.  Exit on Yap to the South for about .5 miles or so and turn left onto a jeep road (can't remember if there was a street sign or not, but it's called Old Wilson Road).    This is in the Anza-Borrego Desert and there are lots of dirt bikes on the trails so be careful.  You will come upon a circle four-way and if you wanted to add a little mileage to your hike, you could turn South on Jasper Trail here or if you want to go only around 9 miles or so, press forward on Culp Valley Road to the trailhead. Total round trip the way we went is appx 11.2 miles, 3234 total ascent with a max elevation of 4623 ft.   Overall this took us about 4:45 hours.

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