2010-01-15 Whale Peak Summit - North Approach
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:40 am
If anyone is interested in joining me on this hiking trek please PM me for meeting arrangements. I want to be setting foot on the trailhead around 7:30 am.
Distance: 4 Miles, Out and Back
Hiking Time: 3-4 Hours (roundtrip)
Elevation Gain/Loss: 1500'/1500'
Difficulty: Moderately Strenuous
Notes: TOPO Navigation required. Terrain condition is difficult.
The entrance to this route is off Pinyon Mountain Trail (near the Jeep Squeeze).
Trail Decription as taken from trails.com
Whale Peak is probably the most visited major summit in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Hundreds of people every year day-hike or backpack into this serene, wooded island in the desert sky. Whale Peak yields to approaches from nearly every direction. The area around it, however, can prove distressing from a navigational point of view. the peak lies within a complex of similar-looking hogback ridges and gentle valleys, and the peak itself remains hidden from view until you are almost upon it. Count on no sources of water along the way - even storm runoff sinks immediately into the porous, decomposed granite soil.
Image below taken from SummitPost.org:
Distance: 4 Miles, Out and Back
Hiking Time: 3-4 Hours (roundtrip)
Elevation Gain/Loss: 1500'/1500'
Difficulty: Moderately Strenuous
Notes: TOPO Navigation required. Terrain condition is difficult.
The entrance to this route is off Pinyon Mountain Trail (near the Jeep Squeeze).
Trail Decription as taken from trails.com
Whale Peak is probably the most visited major summit in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Hundreds of people every year day-hike or backpack into this serene, wooded island in the desert sky. Whale Peak yields to approaches from nearly every direction. The area around it, however, can prove distressing from a navigational point of view. the peak lies within a complex of similar-looking hogback ridges and gentle valleys, and the peak itself remains hidden from view until you are almost upon it. Count on no sources of water along the way - even storm runoff sinks immediately into the porous, decomposed granite soil.
Image below taken from SummitPost.org:
- This picture is looking north from the summit of Whale Peak. 10 March 2007
- 278013.jpg (61 KiB) Viewed 1668 times