This hike has been on my bucket list for awhile so me and a few guys scaled it this weekend. We came in from El Paso and stayed the night in Carlsbad prior. They have a strange kink in the time zone out that way with El Paso and all of New Mexico being on Mountain Time but the National Park itself being in Central time. Just an FYI for anyone heading there as it can screw up your start times.
The drive in from El Paso is just absolutely beautiful. The ranges start well before the park and you find yourself just taking in the beautiful backdrop as you drive in.
We hit the trail at 8 the next morning, which was actually 7 per the time zone change. I was warned about the leg burning nature of the first third of the hike and it is really true. The switchbacks are very steep and just go on and on and on and are rather repetitive. The view of the parking lot keeps getting smaller while you repeat the same process over and over and over again. Also. it is not the cleanest of trails. The grade is pretty steep already and you have to step up over rocks that can be a foot or more in height.
But eventually (mercifully) you get to the flatter stretch that is marked by more of an evergreen forest and much more trail room. My buddies and I were observing that there is no way to even take a piss much less a deuce if you had to on the trail. There were decent crowds and no private space whatsoever. This changed on the wooded section which still was primarily a climb but at least had flatter stretches. This section had what I considered probably the most dangerous conditions as you would be humming along and then step by a sheer drop of 300 feet with little warning.
Eventually the flatter forested stretch gives way to a bridge over a very steep gorge and then a bend around the lower mountain peak. You reach the camping site for the mountain and past that you start the final ascent to the top. This is the turn back point from what I was told by the folks on the trail as there is a deceptive lower peak that blots out the actual peak and you think you are there and then learn you have another hour or so to go.
That last hour was actually the most challenging for me as I was starting to get tired and the trail kind of vanishes and gives way to just tricky, slippery rock that you have to climb up. There is also a final stretch to the top where you lean against a rock wall with a really sheer drop to your left. It did not seem alarming at the time but looking at photos later I realized that it was something I should have paid a lot more attention to. The actual peak surprises you. You are wondering when you will get there and then your turn a corner and the steel pyramid is right there.
The bummer was that cloud cover was ruining the view from the top in every direction when we reached the summit but thank the Good Lord that the clouds burned off about a minute before we started to head back and we got to see that iconic view of El Capitan from the peak.
And going back I got to see much of the beautiful backdrops that were shrouded by the clouds on the way up.
We made much, much better time going back down but then we hit the damnable switchbacks and that really stretched out the last few miles back to the finish line. I have pretty weak ankles and had to focus to make sure I didn't roll one or both of them. Also, those foot high rocks mentioned stepping over coming up meant jumping down and after about a hundred of those jumps my lower back started really yelling at me.
The various profiles I read before the hike painted a fairly accurate picture of the trail with the exception of the last mile or so. I initially thought he 6-8 hour time range estimate for the hike seemed way too long, but we indeed finished it in 6 hours and 30 minutes. There are too many obstacles to just burn through the thing, from crowded and narrow stretches of the trail to the necessity of going pretty slow on the downhill stretch of the switchbacks to avoid hurting yourself.
We each packed a gallon of water and we drank it all through the hike. There were a ton of day trippers trying to walk the thing with no water and tennis shoes and most everyone of them ended up turning back. It is doable hike for sure if you take your time and take breaks, but it is also a challenging leg burner that is not for the couch potato just out to try something.
So that is that . . .bucket list item crossed out and I would encourage everyone to do this for the sheer beauty out that way.
The drive in from El Paso is just absolutely beautiful. The ranges start well before the park and you find yourself just taking in the beautiful backdrop as you drive in.
We hit the trail at 8 the next morning, which was actually 7 per the time zone change. I was warned about the leg burning nature of the first third of the hike and it is really true. The switchbacks are very steep and just go on and on and on and are rather repetitive. The view of the parking lot keeps getting smaller while you repeat the same process over and over and over again. Also. it is not the cleanest of trails. The grade is pretty steep already and you have to step up over rocks that can be a foot or more in height.
But eventually (mercifully) you get to the flatter stretch that is marked by more of an evergreen forest and much more trail room. My buddies and I were observing that there is no way to even take a piss much less a deuce if you had to on the trail. There were decent crowds and no private space whatsoever. This changed on the wooded section which still was primarily a climb but at least had flatter stretches. This section had what I considered probably the most dangerous conditions as you would be humming along and then step by a sheer drop of 300 feet with little warning.
Eventually the flatter forested stretch gives way to a bridge over a very steep gorge and then a bend around the lower mountain peak. You reach the camping site for the mountain and past that you start the final ascent to the top. This is the turn back point from what I was told by the folks on the trail as there is a deceptive lower peak that blots out the actual peak and you think you are there and then learn you have another hour or so to go.
That last hour was actually the most challenging for me as I was starting to get tired and the trail kind of vanishes and gives way to just tricky, slippery rock that you have to climb up. There is also a final stretch to the top where you lean against a rock wall with a really sheer drop to your left. It did not seem alarming at the time but looking at photos later I realized that it was something I should have paid a lot more attention to. The actual peak surprises you. You are wondering when you will get there and then your turn a corner and the steel pyramid is right there.
The bummer was that cloud cover was ruining the view from the top in every direction when we reached the summit but thank the Good Lord that the clouds burned off about a minute before we started to head back and we got to see that iconic view of El Capitan from the peak.
And going back I got to see much of the beautiful backdrops that were shrouded by the clouds on the way up.
We made much, much better time going back down but then we hit the damnable switchbacks and that really stretched out the last few miles back to the finish line. I have pretty weak ankles and had to focus to make sure I didn't roll one or both of them. Also, those foot high rocks mentioned stepping over coming up meant jumping down and after about a hundred of those jumps my lower back started really yelling at me.
The various profiles I read before the hike painted a fairly accurate picture of the trail with the exception of the last mile or so. I initially thought he 6-8 hour time range estimate for the hike seemed way too long, but we indeed finished it in 6 hours and 30 minutes. There are too many obstacles to just burn through the thing, from crowded and narrow stretches of the trail to the necessity of going pretty slow on the downhill stretch of the switchbacks to avoid hurting yourself.
We each packed a gallon of water and we drank it all through the hike. There were a ton of day trippers trying to walk the thing with no water and tennis shoes and most everyone of them ended up turning back. It is doable hike for sure if you take your time and take breaks, but it is also a challenging leg burner that is not for the couch potato just out to try something.
So that is that . . .bucket list item crossed out and I would encourage everyone to do this for the sheer beauty out that way.
