After the Mithcell Caverns tour we made our way north to Mid Hills Campground where we met a few others from the So Cal Hikers Yahoo Group. That night it was very windy so we ate dinner and retired early. The wind created all sorts of wailing and moaning sounds in the night and we joked that it was a ghost. The next morning I looked up on the hillside where the noises were coming from and up there is some sort of metal weather station.
In the morning more of the group arrived and we drove a few miles southeast to a roadside turnout where we began our hike up to Table Top. This flat-topped mountain is composed of 1-billion old granite capped by a 20-million year old lava flow. The hike to it is about 6 miles round trip with about 1,100' elevation gain and loss. There is no developed trail but instead you can either hike along the ridge, boulder hopping in some spots along the way. Or you can hike south of the ridge and then straight up one of the washes to the top. Or you can do both like we did. We hiked out along the ridge and then back on the sandy flats. The ridge route was at times tricky as we found a way through the huge boulder piles. And near the top the going was very steep and the footing bad as there are lots of loose rocks. But the view from the top is incredible. You can see most of the 1.6 million acre preserve from up there since it's about in the middle of the preserve.
After we got back from Table Top Todd and I went back to the campground and took a bit of a nap. That evening we had a potluck and shared a campfire with Wingding, Sierra Steve, Norma, Tihi, and Larry from the So Cal Hikers group. That night the wind died down and the moon was just past full so it was very nice.
In the morning Todd and I made our way down to Hole-in-the-Wall. We went into the visitor center just as the ranger there was about to start a geology talk so we listened to it and learned about the varied geology of the area. Then I wanted to show Todd some petroglyphs Jeffrey and I saw back in 2006. So we hiked a little ways south of the visitor center to them but I couldn't find the little bighorn sheep petroglyphs I saw in '06. I hope that they didn't wear away... Then we hiked around Hole-in-the-Wall itself, ate lunch, then headed back to I-40 and back home. |
