Bouncing Marty

About 20 minutes of freeway driving from the house brings us to the entrance to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, a giant parcel of land that the government decided needed some protection and conservation from the ever growing Vegas Valley. The DNWR was designated way back in 1936…and I’m sure glad they did. The area encompasses six major mountain ranges, peaks that reach close to 10,000ft, and hidden forests that protect mountain and desert wildlife. And its only a short drive away. We’ve just begun to explore it, and our first stop was some hiking in Deadman Canyon this weekend.

Rattling through the desert on roads like the one above for about a half hour dropped us on the North side of the Sheep Mountains, and the trailhead at the end of Hidden Forest Road. The Joshua Tree forest on the desert plains was blooming which was very cool, but I didn’t manage to snap a photo of much of it. The sun was shining but the desert wind was blowing, so we bundled up and headed up towards the limestone canyon.

The terrain quickly turned from desert flatlands into juniper pines and scrub brush; the trail in the center of the canyon gradually rising up into the mountains. The canyon walls continued to get tighter and tighter the higher we hiked, and after several miles we were almost surrounded by trees.

The elevations for the hike started around 5,500ft, and after three hours of hiking we were close to 7,500ft. There was even some snow remaining in the shaded areas. About four miles into the canyon is a nice hanging valley that would be an awesome place to camp out for the night. We were just spending the day, but we’ll be back in the summer when the temperatures start getting unbearable to enjoy the trees and shade again.