Smith Lake (Nevada)

Smith Lake

2.5 miles round trip, 800 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy-moderate

Access: Paved road to trailhead, no fee required

Nevada's Ruby Mountains hide a number of watery gems just outside the dusty desert town of Wells on I-80 and the hike to Smith Lake is an easy way to see two lakes in the beautiful setting of the Rubies. This is a short hike with a big payoff and while it may not be worth a trip out to this corner of Nevada just to see this lake, Smith Lake is a great leg-stretcher for drivers tackling I-80 and is a good side trip for hikers visiting Lamoille Canyon and the more famous parts of the Ruby Mountains (Angel Lake is technically in the East Humboldt Range, but this range is geologically related to the Rubies just to the south and are often lumped together with them by many local hikers). 

I hiked Smith Lake during a weeklong autumn road trip through Nevada. The trailhead at Angel Lake is just outside the town of Wells off of I-80, which makes this hike easily accessible by a drive on the interstate from the nearby town of Elko, the largest populated area in northeast Nevada. Salt Lake City is the closest major city and is a three hour drive away. No matter which direction you come from, you can reach Angel Lake by taking exit 351 on I-80 in Wells. Upon exiting, turn south onto Humbolt Ave and then immediately turn right onto Angel Lake Road. This road- Nevada Route 231- leads 12 miles to Angel Lake, an alpine lake in the Ruby Mountains. Along the way, Route 231 passes some beautiful scenery as it climbs into the Ruby Mountains, including forests of aspens that turn golden in the fall and views of the sharp peak of Chimney Rock and of the Ruby Mountains stretching to the south. 

Chimney Rock rises above the byway to Angel Lake

The turnoff for the trailhead comes shortly before the road ends at Angel Lake; I turned right at the turnoff for the Angel Lake Campground and then immediately turned right again into a large day use parking area. If you drive this far, though, be sure to stop at the very end of the road to see Angel Lake itself, a pretty alpine reservoir at the foot of Greys Peak.

Angel Lake

The trail started from the day use parking lot just outside Angel Lake Campground; the parking lot was not signed separately from Angel Lake Campground. The trail itself was completely unmarked, just an obvious path heading north from the parking lot. The trail started out by crossing the flat bottom of the valley, which is one of many valleys in the Ruby Mountains that was sculpted by glaciers in the past. After a hundred meters, the trail turned to the right and began a steady but fairly gentle climb to the northeast up the side of a brushy ridge. As I hiked up this ridge, views opened up of the small valley below. Downstream of Angel Lake, the valley was filled with deciduous aspens that had now turned bright yellow in the autumn. Beyond, views started to open up out of the Ruby Mountains to Independence Benchmark on the other side of Clover Valley. 

Aspens in the valley near Angel Lake

Views of the Ruby Mountains also improved as I ascended. After passing through a gate in a cattle fence, I looked back and saw impressive views of Greys Peak and the sharp profile of nearby Chimney Rock rising above Angel Lake. After hiking a third of a mile from the trailhead, the trail started turning around the ridge. Here, I came to a trail junction: the right fork was unmarked and led towards Greys Lake, a destination on the other side of the range, while the left fork was signed for Smith Lake. I took the left fork, which began a steeper ascent.

Chimney Rock and Greys Peak rise above Angel Lake

Over the next 2/3 mile, the trail climbed steadily through sagebrush mountainside, delivering consistent views of the Ruby Mountains and the Basin and Range. On a clear day, hikers should be able to gaze east from here along I-80 to Pilot Peak near Wendover on the Utah border; unfortunately, the skies were hazy on the day of my hike as winds brought in smoke from the California wildfires, limiting views to just the closest mountain ranges.

The trail ascended onto one of the northeast ridges of Greys Peaks and then swung into the Clover Creek watershed, one mile from the trailhead. Here, the trail crossed steep mountain slopes high up in the Clover Creek valley to reach the Smith Lake outlet. This stretch was the most difficult part of an otherwise fairly easy trail: the trail was steep at times and a bit rocky. Views here were quite nice: the Clover Creek valley was filled with aspens and opened up to the flat plains of the Great Basin and the town of Wells.

Looking down from the Ruby Mountains to the town of Wells

The ascent ended when I rounded a low ridge and dropped into the Smith Lake basin. The trail deposited me at a flat area near the outlet stream of the lake that is probably occasionally used as a campsite. From here, two paths branched out: the path to the right headed across the outlet stream and then into a difficult boulder field and did not seem to lead to the lake. The path on the left was less immediately obvious but headed up and over some rocks and vegetation to reach the lakeshore.

Smith Lake was a serene and beautiful sight- in my mind, far prettier than Angel Lake, where I had begun the hike. The lake was quite shallow but served as a nice mirror, reflecting the peaks rising behind it. Greys Peak rose behind the lake, along a line of rocky cliffs on the crest of the East Humboldt Range. Smith Lake is at the very northern reach of the range: Greys Peak is the last peak in the range, which fades into the desert just a couple of miles north of here. A few trees dotted the opposite shore and the low-lying brush growing across the lake displayed beautiful fall colors.

Smith Lake

After gazing at the lake for a while, I spotted a number of trout in the lake. While I'm uncertain whether the trout in Smith Lake in particular are stocked or native, one incredible thing about Nevada is that many streams and lakes here have native trout, despite the watersheds being endorheic and connecting to no other lakes or rivers. How, then, did fish end up in these mountain lakes? Lahontan cutthroat trout, which are found throughout lakes in Nevada, once inhabited the massive Lake Lahontan, a prehistoric lake that connected many of Nevada's basins during a wetter period in our Earth's climate. Lahontan connected much of the current Great Basin; at the greatest extent of the lake, the Truckee, Walker, and Humboldt Rivers flowed into a common watershed. Today, Pyramid Lake and Walker Lake are remnants of ancient Lake Lahontan. As the lake shrunk with the changing climate, some populations of Lahontan cutthroat trout adjusted to living just in mountain streams and lakes and eventually these populations were wholy cut off from one another.

Trout in Smith Lake

I started this hike at 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday and had Smith Lake to myself for the entire half hour that I was by the lake. However, by the time I started my return hike, I ran into about 5 other groups of hikers. The lake is certainly not overrun but you may not be able to find solitude here, either. Nonetheless, I found this to be a very enjoyable hike, with excellent scenery reached after just a mild effort from a trailhead that is easily reached by any car.

Slickrock Foot Trail

La Sal Mountains rise above the Colorado River Canyonlands

2.5 miles loop, 150 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Easy-moderate
Access: Paved road to trailhead, Canyonlands National Park entrance fee required

Slickrock Foot Trail is a short but enjoyable hike with views of Island in the Sky in the Needles District of Utah's Canyonlands National Park. The Needles District of Canyonlands sees far fewer visitors than the visitor areas closer to Moab but has plenty of gorgeous Canyonlands scenery. Although in the Needles District Slickrock Foot Trail does not approach the eponymous rock formations but offers views of the spires from a distance; instead, the hike delivers views over Big and Little Spring Canyons and of the high canyon walls that surrounds this area on many sides. It's a relatively easy hike, although most of the trail is across slickrock and there are occasional spots where there are relatively tall rock steps or uneven rock surfaces.

I hiked the Slickrock Foot Trail with my mom during a November road trip through the Utah canyonlands. We stayed in Monticello the night before and reached the trailhead from there, although it is far more likely that you'll be visiting from Moab. From Moab, take US 191 south for 40 miles to the turnoff for Route 211 to the Needles District. Here, turn right and follow Route 211, passing the incredibly preserved petroglyphs at the excellent Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument on the way into Canyonlands National Park's Needles District. Upon entering the park, we followed the road to its end at Big Spring Canyon Overlook. The trailhead is 200 yards back along the road from the Big Spring Canyon Overlook but the parking areas between the overlook and the trailhead effectively overlap.

View from Big Spring Canyon Overlook

The trail leaves from the northeast side of the road and, true to its name, almost immediately hits the slickrock. There was some initial gentle elevation gain as the trail climbed up onto a plateau between Big and Little Spring Canyons. Here, excellent views opened up in most directions: the Needles were visible to the south, an unruly skyline of red and white sandstone towers over 400 feet tall.

The Needles

The trail soon stuck closer to the east side of the plateau, delivering nice views across the sandstone benches below us to the canyon walls that define this section of the Canyonlands. The two Six Shooter Peaks rose in the distance, the eroded remants of Wingate Sandstone towers. These two peaks, which lie outside Canyonlands National Park in Bears Ears National Monument, have been mistakenly captioned as the Bears Ears Buttes in multiple prominent national publications; the actual Bears Ears Buttes are much farther to the south, rising above the Cedar Mesa area.

Sixshooter Peak rises above the Canyonlands

A half mile into the hike, we came to a junction with the Slickrock Foot Trail loop. We chose to hike the loop counterclockwise, taking the right fork at this junction. This right fork kept us on the east side of the plateau. The trail continued making its way across slickrock, the route forward marked by cairns. At two points, there were spur trails that broke off to the right, leading out to overlooks over Little Spring Canyon. The views of the great Wingate Formation cliffs that rose behind the canyon and the lofty La Sal Mountains beyond that were quite impressive.

La Sal Mountains and Wingate formation cliffs

We continued to follow the slickrock plateau as it narrowed; at a third overlook, we gazed north to the confluence of Little and Big Spring Canyons. After the canyons joined, they cut progressively deeper into the sedimentary layers of the Colorado Plateau as they approached the Colorado River itself. Looking farther to the north, we could see Island in the Sky and Junction Butte rising across the Colorado River. We could make out a layer of burgundy cliffs beneath the Wingate Sandstone: this was the Organ Rock formation, which was topped with a thin layer of the White Rim Formation. These burgundy cliffs and towers across the river made up Monument Basin, one of the most scenic areas of the Canyonlands when viewed from Grand View Point from the Island in the Sky.

Just as the Big and Little Spring Canyons joined here, we were only miles from the point where the Colorado River meets its greatest tributary, the Green River. The confluence of these rivers marks the geographical and spiritual heart of the Canyonlands: the joining of two of the most incredible canyon-carving rivers of the North American continent, which combine after having separately carved the Flaming Gorge of Wyoming, the Gates of Lodore in Dinosaur National Monument, Utah's Desolation Canyon, and Colorado's Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Downstream from here, the combined waters of the mighty Colorado carve Cataract Canyon, Glen Canyon, and then the greatest of all the canyonlands- the Grand Canyon. The Colorado River upstream of the confluence was initially known as the Grand River; the Grand and the Green are of similar size at the confluence, although the Green is longer (having originated in the Wind River Range of Wyoming), while the Grand- the modern Colorado- has a slightly higher flow rate.

Junction Butte and Island in the Sky rises over Big Spring Canyon

After leaving the third overlook, the trail rounds the northern end of the plateau, descending to a slightly lower rock layer as it began to head south again along Big Spring Canyon. From this stretch of trail, there were some excellent views directly down into Big Spring Canyon itself as well as out to the Needles to the south and the buttes and cliffs rising to the west across the Colorado River in the Maze District. The Wingate Formation mesas that make up Island in the Sky and the Needles Overlook also bound the Canyonlands to the west.

The Needles rising above Big Spring Canyon

Canyonlands

Leaving the rim of Big Spring Canyon, the trail ascended slightly to regain the top of the slickrock plateau. Cairns marked the route across the plateau, which had constant views of the Needles rising ahead. We made our way over the rolling slickrock terrain for a half mile from the overlooks over Big Spring Canyon to close the loop and then followed the last half mile of trail back to the trailhead.

View of the Needles from atop the slickrock

While not the most spectacular hike in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, the scenery along the Slickrock Foot Trail is enjoyable and the trail as a whole is fairly easy to hike despite some minor terrain difficulties. Visitors to the Needles District looking for some varied scenery but uninterested in embarking on the longer hike to Chesler Park will find this to be a satisfying hike.

Chesler Park

The Needles from the pass above Chesler Park

6 miles round trip, 1100 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Moderate
Access: Gravel road to trailhead, Canyonlands National Park entrance fee required

The hike to Chesler Park visits the heart of the Needles District in Utah's Canyonlands National Park, a maze of red rock spires and sinewy canyons. This is an excellent hike with great views that grants access into the depths of this red rock wonderland; besides the hike to Horseshoe Canyon, this is perhaps the best day hike in Canyonlands National Park. The hike passes many sandstone spires and leads to Chesler Park, a wide and scenic grassland encircled by the Needles. The Needles District of Canyonlands is accessible by a paved but long drive from Moab and sees far fewer visitors than Island in the Sky or Arches, though many of the visitors who make it out here will choose to hike to Chesler Park. While I'm just describing a round trip hike to Chesler Park in this post, many hikers continue onward to make a loop near the grassland by hiking through the narrow canyon known as the Joint.

I hiked to Chesler Park with my mom during a November road trip through the Utah canyonlands. We stayed in Monticello the night before and reached the trailhead from there, although it is far more likely that you'll be visiting from Moab. From Moab, take US 191 south for 40 miles to the turnoff for Route 211 to the Needles District. Here, turn right and follow Route 211 for 37 miles, passing the incredibly preserved petroglyphs at the excellent Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument on the way into Canyonlands National Park's Needles District. After passing the visitor center and then the Wooden Shoe Overlook, we turned left onto the Elephant Hill Road, turning right at the next two junctions after that to get onto the gravel road that led us to the Elephant Hill Trailhead at the bottom of a canyon. The Elephant Hill Road is open to passenger cars up to the trailhead but is for 4WD vehicles by permit only beyond that point.

The parking area was nearly full during our visit on a November weekend, as this is perhaps the most popular hike in the Needles District. From the trailhead, the trail immediately began a steep ascent up dirt and slickrock as it ascended out of a canyon and onto a shelf above. Once the trail reached the top of the shelf, we found great views of the surrounding Canyonlands country. The La Sal Mountains rose to the west- one of the tallest mountain ranges within the Colorado Plateau. The Abajo Mountains lay to the south, a lower range near Monticello. The many of the layers of the Colorado Plateau formed the dramatic canyons around us: in the needles, lighter layers of caprock topped columns and canyon walls of red sandstone. In the distance rose the mighty canyon walls of the Wingate Formation, which forms the high mesas of Island in the Sky and Junction Butte. One of the more notable eroded remnants of the Wingate cliffs was Six Shooter Peak, one of two buttes near the Needles District just outside the park in Bears Ears National Monument, which have been mistakenly identified as the Bears Ears Buttes themselves by multiple publications. 

La Sal Mountains and the Canyonlands

Junction Butte and Island in the Sky

Six Shooter Peak

Abajo Mountains

Two-thirds of a mile of hiking brought us through a narrow gap in the sandstone on Elephant Hill. Emerging on the other side, we had better views of Elephant Hill, a cluster of spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone near the trail. The trail stayed fairly flat as it continued traversing the bench, with occasional sections that required scrambling up or down rock steps or angled slickrock. As we hiked through this section, my mom pointed out that a few of the rounded, stout outcrops of Cedar Mesa Sandstone looked like hamburgers, which I was couldn't unsee after she pointed it out.

Elephant Hill

Hamburger rocks

At just over a mile into the hike, we crossed a pass through Elephant Hill and came to a stunning view of the Needles spread out ahead of us. From this viewpoint, a city skyline of sandstone rose before us, the spires sporting the bands of red and white rock that is the signature of the Needles. Hikers looking for a short hike might turn back here but the best still lay ahead.

The Needles

Leaving the pass, the trail descended just slightly and then crossed through a grassy plain dotted with junipers. At the end of the plain, the Elephant Hill trail intersected with a trail coming from the Squaw Flat Campground, 1.4 miles from the trailhead; here, we took the right fork to continue onward towards Chesler Park. After passing the junction, the trail immediately passed through a narrow cut in a sandstone fin and entered a valley sandwiched between ridges of Needles. The trail descended just slightly as it circled around the next set of rock spires.

The Needles

Rounding a corner, the trail suddenly dropped into a narrow and very straight joint of fractured Cedar Mesa sandstone. This joint- like the better known stretch known as the Joint beyond Chesler Park- is formed by the very same fracturing that resulted into the individual spires of sandstone in the Needles. As in nearby Arches National Park, the sandstone layers here are underlaid by the Paradox Formation, a body of salt lying beneath the many sedimentary layers that form the Canyonlands. Deformation of this salt layer contributes to fracturing of the surface sandstone layers above, which have cracked into a grid-like layout that erodes into the pinnacle shapes and rock joints that we see today.

Trail passing through narrow rock joint

Continuing down the rock joint, it opened up into a small canyon with trees. Here, the trail began to descend more as it hugged the sides of the canyon. Soon, the small side canyon opened up into the larger Elephant Canyon and the trail descended steeply down to the wash at the bottom of Elephant Canyon. At the bottom of the wash, I came to a trail junction at 2 miles from the trailhead: the trail heading to the left up the wash led towards Druid Arch, so I crossed the wash and continued following the trail ahead towards Chesler Park.

Descending into a wash

The stretch of trail climbing out of Elephant Canyon was one of the most difficult of the hike, packing in over 200 feet of elevation gain after 2 miles of generally level hiking. The slickrock terrain here made the elevation gain much harder. As I climbed out of the canyon, I enjoyed the views of a colorful ridge of the Needles on the other side of Elephant Canyon.

The Needles

After the trail climbed out of Elephant Canyon and back onto a grassy plain on the shelf layer, I found views of some of the most impressive spires of the Canyonlands. Massive rock pinnacles rose ahead of me, marking the eastern wall of the ring of pointed rocks bordering Chesler Park.

Approaching the Chesler Park pass

As I continued the gentle uphill along the trail, great views opened to the northwest of the dense field of rock spires known as the Devil's Kitchen. This was one of my favorite parts of the hike; many of the Needles soared over 400 feet tall, making this scene truly seem like a city of stone.

The Needles

At 2.7 miles, the Chesler Park Trail split from the Devils Kitchen Trail. Here, I took the left fork, following the Chesler Park Trail as it began a short ascent, climbing a hundred feet up to a pass in a wall of the Needles. Crossing the pass, I found a wide grassland laid out before me, bound on all sides by red and white sandstone spires. I had arrived in Chesler Park.

Chesler Park

Descending slightly from the pass, I arrived at a junction at 2.9 miles: here, the trail split apart for the Chesler Park Loop. I took the left fork and wandered a bit farther down the trail to a nice high point with views across the grassland itself as well as back towards the pass that marked the entrance into Chesler Park. While many hikers chose to complete the loop- which adds about another 5 miles of hiking- I ended my hike here, soaking in the views of red rock spires all around me.

Chesler Park

Chesler Park

Temblor Range

San Andreas Fault runs through Carrizo Plain at the foot of the flower-filled Temblor Range

5.5 miles round trip, 1400 feet elevation gain (variable length and elevation gain)
Difficulty: Moderate-strenuous; off-trail experience and route-finding skills necessary

Access: Rough dirt road to access this range (high-clearance recommended), no entrance fee

The trailless wilds of California's Temblor Range in Carrizo Plain National Monument, hidden in the Coast Range between the Bay Area and Los Angeles, explode with some of the densest and most spectacular wildflower blooms on the continent after rainy winters. Although no trails lead to any of the peaks of the range, the treeless Temblor Range beckons to be explored during these superblooms, promising mountain slopes overflowing with daisies and phacelia as well as sweeping views over the isolated grassland, home to pronghorn and kit foxes, that's been nicknamed "California's Serengeti." Running through the heart of this plain is the source of those temblors, the mighty San Andreas Fault, which is more physically apparent on this arid plain than anywhere else. If you've seen photos of aerial views of the San Andreas Fault rupturing through a desert, then you've seen photos of the Carrizo Plain.

Despite being part way between the two largest metropolises of the West Coast and just over an hour off I-5, Carrizo Plain National Monument is one of the least known and visited federally preserved parks in the state of California. Established during the Clinton Era under the Antiquities Act and overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, this national monument preserves a dry grassland- at 5 inches of annual precipitation, a desert, really- sandwiched between the Caliente and Temblor Ranges. Despite being just miles from San Luis Obispo and the ocean, rainfall in the Carrizo Plain never reaches the sea, instead flowing into the endorheic Soda Lake at the heart of the plain. This great grassland today is a last refuge for many species which in the past wandered the Central Valley and other parts of coastal Central California; this is the only land wild and big enough for them to call home now.

I first came to know about Carrizo Plain by happy accident: during a flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, I looked down from my window seat and saw the great San Andreas Fault cutting through the heart of a flat desert valley. I had enjoyed studying geology as a kid and immediately recognized this as the iconic view of the fault found in textbooks- perhaps the most recognizable view of an earthquake fault in the world. Checking my map of the state of California later, I found that I had been looking at the Carrizo Plain; I thought about visiting constantly until six years later, during a superbloom, I finally made it a reality.

The San Andreas Fault cuts through Carrizo Plain

Short of viewing the San Andreas Fault from the air, the high ridges of the Temblor Range in the southeastern part of Carrizo Plain National Monument is the only place wher you can really see the fault's unique ruptured, straight-line appearance; the fault runs closer to the eastern side of the plain, making it more easily visible from the Temblor Range than from the Caliente Range on the other side of the valley. The rupture is more pronounced near the southern end of the plain than at the northern end, where the fault is noticeable at Wallace Creek but doesn't look quite as dramatic as it does by Traver Ranch. Hiking in the southern part of the Temblor Range also has less red tape: along the northern part of Elkhorn Road, private land is intermixed with public land while the southern Temblors west of the ridge crest is entirely public.

If you choose to explore the Temblor Range, there will be no trails to guide you: you'll simply have to make your way cross-country up the ridges of the range from Elkhorn Road. The Temblor Range is a relatively easy place to do this, as the lack of tree coverage makes way-finding fairly easy and the terrain is relatively easy to hike on without major obstacles, but it's important to know that this is still off-trail hiking and requires some ability to read terrain and navigate. The best way to choose a place to hike, if you're focused on the superbloom, is to simply drive along Elkhorn Road and then hike into the range when you see denser and more copious patches of flower blooms on the ridges above. If you'd like to catch the best views of the San Andreas Fault, I recommend hiking the Temblor Range south of Crocker Spring Road. I started my own hike from at 35.117 N, 119.622 W, but you can probably find equally if not more enjoyable hikes elsewhere in the range. The crest of the Temblor Range runs between about 3200 and 3500 feet while Elkhorn Road generally floats around 2400 feet above sea level, so most hikes to the crest of the Temblors will put require about 1000 feet of elevation gain or more if you follow the many bumps along the side ridges. Generally, Elkhorn Road is about 2 to 4 miles distant from the Temblor Range crest, although following nonlinear ridges will obviously add to that distance. It is a good range for off-trail day hikes.

There are no paved roads in Carrizo Plain National Monument. Many of the roads in the plain can become impassable after rainstorms and the roads cutting through the heart of the plain- Simmler and Panorama Roads- are often closed through the winter and spring when the endorheic basin around Soda Lake is full. Access to the Temblor Range requires driving the Elkhorn Road, which can be accessed either from California Highway 58 in the north via Seven Mile Road or from California Highway 166 from the south from the Elkhorn Grade Road. The Elkhorn Road is quite rough in spots and while it may be passable by passenger cars at times, it is far safer to come out here with a 4WD high clearance vehicle.

Elkhorn Road is itself a tremendously scenic drive, especially at its southern end. Elkhorn Valley, a portion of the Carrizo Plain sandwiched between the Temblor Range and hills along the San Andreas Fault, has an isolated and otherworldly feel. The barren look of the Temblor Range hills contrasting with the lush valley and the colorful fields of phacelia and daisies is extremely striking.

Phacelia fields on Elkhorn Road

Multi-color blooms along Elkhorn Road

I started my hike slightly farther north, at 35.117 N, 119.622 W, when I spotted nice wildflower color along the crest of the Temblors. I set my sights on the crest of the ridge from here and set out across the grassland. Carrizo Plain is best known for its tri-color blooms of orange fiddleneck, yellow daisies, and purple phacelia (desert candle and owl's clover are two other commonly spotted flowers here). During superbloom years, the peak bloom often comes in early April; my mid-March visit was slightly on the early side and I primarily saw daisy blooms higher up in the Temblor Range, although there were some patches of phacelia on the plain itself and I found one small area where all three colors were mixing at the start of my ascent. Desert USA compiles useful reports that cover bloom status each year.

Multi-color blooms before the ascent

I picked a ridge and simply followed it up to the crest of the Temblors. While there were no formal trails here, there are many faint paths established by the kangaroo rats that lived on the range's slopes, so I followed those at times while I ascended through slopes of agave, grass, and loose rock.

Agave on the slopes of the Temblor Range

Soon, I arrived at some profusely daisy-coated slopes: the density of the blooms here was astonishing. One bump in the ridge led to the next and I enjoyed ascending through these marvelously flower-coated mountainsides. As I made my way uphill, sweeping views opened up of the steep ravines on either side of the ridge, the other flower-covered ridges and peaks of the Temblor Range, the Caliente Range across the valley, and the remarkable rupture of the San Andreas Fault running through the heart of the Carrizo Plain.

Daisy-coated slopes of the Temblors

View of the San Andreas Fault running through Carrizo Plain

Daisy-coated ridges of the Temblor Range

Temblor Range and daisies

The San Andreas Fault is perhaps the best known example of California's active geology. Here, the Pacific Plate comes in contact with the North American Plate. Although the North American plate is pushing west here, the junction between these tectonic plates is a transform boundary- one where the two plates slide past each other, rather than colliding. This boundary is expressed through a large number of faults at the Earth's crust and the San Andreas Fault, a strike-slip fault, is the largest rupture line along which these plates can slide. Movement along this fault has torn apart volcanic rock from the ancient Neenach Volcano, part of which forms Pinnacles National Park near Salinas and the other part of which is nearly 200 miles away just north of Los Angeles. On the Carrizo Plain, the San Andreas Fault has caused lateral shifts in the washes of streams that drain the Temblor Range.

Daisies and the San Andreas Fault

Once I made it to the crest of the Temblor Range, a fence on the east delineated the border of the national monument. Looking east, I had a view down the flower-coated east slopes of the Temblor Range down into the Central Valley. Below the Temblor Range, near the town of Taft, was the Midway-Sunset Oil Field, the largest oil field in California and part of a vast collection of oil fields at the southern end of the Central Valley near Bakersfield. Kern County- which encompasses most of these oil fields- is the most productive oil producing county in the United States at the time of writing. The abundant oil resources in the area have been subject to recent political contention, as the Bureau of Land Management moved to allow one drilling lease within the monument in the Caliente Range in May 2020.

View east towards oil fields around Taft

San Andreas Fault running across Carrizo Plain

I enjoyed the views at the summit along with the copious flower fields. As this was an off-trail adventure, I had the spot entirely to myself. You'll almost certainly encounter similar solitude if you hike in the Temblor Range. It was difficult to believe that I could enjoy such extraordinary wildflower displays and the awesome view of the San Andreas Fault alone, especially as this area is not that difficult to access from California's major cities. I watched the sun set over this magical plain when I got back to the truck and was glad I had found a way atop the Temblor Range to appreciate this magnificent landscape.

Sunset on Carrizo Plain

Mission Peak (SF Bay Area)

Mission Peak

7.5 miles round trip, 2150 feet elevation gain
Difficulty: Moderate
Access: Paved road to trailhead, Ohlone College parking fee required

Social media's impact on the outdoors is rarely more obvious than at Mission Peak, a mountain rising above the city of Fremont in California's San Francisco Bay Area that is known not only for its sweeping views but also for the crowds that line up to pose at the Instagram-ready summit pole. This is an immensely popular hike, but Mission Peak's commanding position over the South Bay and the views that provides means that this love is well-deserved. The traditionally-preferred route from Stanford Ave in Fremont should be avoided due to the limited parking from that approach, so I'll describe here the slightly longer but still scenic route from Ohlone College, where there's far more parking. 

Many novice hikers view Mission Peak as the ultimate challenge of the Bay Area, although the ascent up the peak is really not too bad for anyone with hiking experience, following wide paths for the most part and only dealing with rockier terrain in its final stretch. This hike is best in winter and spring, when temperatures are mild and the grassy hills are green. Mission Peak lies within Mission Peak Regional Preserve, operated by the East Bay Regional Parks District of Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

I hiked this trail with Anna on an early February weekend day, when an inversion layer locked some smog near the Bay but the weather was otherwise sunny. To reach the trailhead from I-880, the main artery along the east side of the sound, take exit 12 for Mission Blvd and follow Mission Blvd east and north for three miles to Ohlone College. Turn right onto Pine St at Ohlone College and follow Pine St uphill past the baseball fields and tennis courts to the large parking garage. You can buy a day permit at the kiosk by the elevator to park in the parking garage on weekends.

Exiting the garage, cross the street and follow Pine St towards the power lines to reach the trailhead for Mission Peak. A large sign for Mission Peak Regional Preserve marks the start of the hike, at a spot where a wide dirt road branched to the right under the power lines. The trail branched off at the base of a power line tower and then paralleled Pine St. We followed this wide dirt trail uphill for a fifth of a mile, passing a cattle gate and then coming to a junction with another wide dirt trail running along the base of the mountains. Here, we turned right and followed the trail towards Mission Peak.

This wide trail- a road trace- ascended at a steady grade along the southwest aspect of a ridge as it left Ohlone College, traveling through open, grassy slopes. Views opened up immediately, encompassing not just the sports fields of the college below but also much of the rest of Fremont and the Santa Cruz Mountains across the Bay. The part of the hike was also the most crowded, the steeper parts of the trail having not yet weeded out unprepared hikers. After a half mile, the trail curved into a deep notch cut into the ridge of Mission Peak. Cows grazed on the grassy slopes around us.

Passing through the grassy notch

The trail ascended through the grassy notch until leveling out as it approached some woods, passing by a pond and a watering area for the cows. At just over a mile from the trailhead, the trail left the dirt roadbed, heading to the right on a single-track through oak forest and paralleling Mill Creek Road. There's no parking at this access point from Mill Creek Road, so there's no use thinking of shortening the hike by a mile by driving to this side of the mountain. For the next 0.4 miles, the trail ascended gently through the forest along the road, passing by some nicer residences that were across the road.

Oak woodlands

When the trail reemerged in the open, it began to climb more steadily again, pushing uphill to join a gravel road at 1.8 miles from the trailhead. The next 0.4-mile stretch of the trail climbed quite aggressively along a steep slope with gradually widening views to the north until reaching the top of a plateau north of Mission Peak's true summit. Here, the trail switched to a gentler grade as it wandered through broad, grassy slopes with grazing cows. The pointy summit of Mission Peak rose from the rounded hills in front of us while to the north grassy, rounded hills stretched towards Pleasanton Ridge and Mount Diablo. Smog in the Bay had spilled over into the Tri-Valley, keeping Livermore and Pleasanton out of sight below a layer of haze.

Open grasslands on the shoulder of Mission Peak

Summit ahead

The flatter hiking on the plateau ended at 2.7 miles from the trailhead, where we passed a vault toilet. An unmarked gravel road broke off to the right here; we stayed straight and came to another junction immediately afterwards. The trail to the right led towards the Stanford Ave trailhead, while the trail to the left continued towards Mission Peak's summit.

This wide path wrapped around the north side of Mission Peak's summit ridge before making a steeper push through the open slopes to gain the ridge. Along this stretch, we passed a side trail from which we returned after doing a short loop around the summit. The wide path has become quite eroded here as the legions of hikers who make their way to the summit have chosen to leave the main trail and walk out many parallel tracks to reach the ridge. This fairly stiff ascent ended on the ridgeline. 

Final trail to the summit

From here, a dirt single-track path followed the ridge to the summit. The trail is a bit uneven and rocky in places here- the only part of the hike that isn't on a fairly smooth, road-like surface. A final, 150-foot elevation gain push brought us to the summit, 3.5 miles from the trailhead, where the famous summit pole lay a few meters away from rocks marking the true high point. As we expected, there was a line of hikers here waiting to have their photo taken with the summit pole. Since we were here just for the views, we skipped the hubbub and settled on the rocks to take in the expansive views of the Bay Area.

Mission Peak is in the Diablo Range and so the views along the Diablo Range were quite expansive, extending to the south along the grassy ridges of Monument Peak to Mount Hamilton and its white-domed observatory in the distance. To the east were the hills of Sunol Regional Wilderness and to the north were the two peaks of Mount Diablo, rising above the smog that coated the Tri-Valley. The green hills of Pleasanton Ridge and the Dry Creek Regional Park faded down into the smog of the Bay; Fremont and the waters of the Bay itself were just visible through the haze, as were the peaks of the Santa Cruz Mountains rising across the Bay: most prominent were Loma Prieta, Mount Umunhum, and Black Mountain. Mount Tamalpais rose above the smog layer to the north, but unfortunately one of the great prizes of this view- the skyline of San Francisco and the Bay Bridge- were buried in the air pollution. Although my hike predates the SCU Lightning Complex Fires that swept through the Diablo Range, when you hike it you should be able to observe the effects of that fire on the mountains to the southeast.

Looking south along the Diablo Range to Mount Hamilton

Mount Diablo rises over the Tri-Valley

Loma Prieta and Umunhum float above the South Bay smog

Mission Peak is so named for its proximity to Mission San Jose, a Spanish mission that is actually in modern day Fremont. Mission San Jose was one of 21 missions established in California during the late 18th and early 19th century by Franciscan priests. Juniperro Serra- now a Catholic saint- oversaw the establishment of the first missions, which were strung along the coast or just slightly inland between San Diego and Sonoma. The intention of these missions was to establish Catholicism and European modes of agriculture and living for the native peoples of California; baptized natives lived and farmed on the missions. However, natives who lived in the missions were often held against their will or were forcibly driven to the missions; this erased many of the rich cultures of California Coast native peoples and subjected many of them to conditions bordering slavery. European diseases such as measles also decimated native populations.

After enjoying the summit views and reflecting on the meaning of the peak's name, we decided to descend. You can simply return down the ascent route, but we chose to make a loop around the mountain's high northern slopes, briefly getting away from the crowds on the mountain. Our return route involved continuing along the main ridgeline to the southeast, descending for 0.3 miles and joining a dirt road trace at a saddle, and then following this road 0.8 miles around the northeast side of Mission Peak to rejoin the main trail. We turned left at every junction until we returned to the main trail. The walk down the ridge to the southeast from the summit was very scenic, with constant views of the grassy uplands of Mission Peak and Monument Peak. The road trace passed the Eagle Springs backpack camp, a backcountry campsite, and then contoured along the base of Mission Peak's steep summit pyramid with great views to the north in the grassy meadows. After rejoining the main trail, we descended back to Ohlone College and had a well-deserved dinner at Arzu, a favorite Fremont restaurant of ours for Xinjiang food.

Mission Peak is an extremely popular hike, but it's still a good hike. The views at the top are outstanding and the grassy slopes and oak woodlands en route are scenic and enjoyable to hike through. Even if Mission Peak isn't on the list of things to do that I'd recommend for out-of-town visitors, it's still a classic Bay Area hike.