The 'Bad Place" Made a Nice Wilderness Exploration: Wandering at Malpais Mesa Wilderness

Date: November 22, 2021
Place: Malpais Mesa Wilderness, Lone Pine, California
Coordinates: 36.381688, -117.804109
Length: 3.5 miles in and out
Level: easy to moderate (cross country hiking with no established trail)

 

 

December 2020 was closing a year of COVID-induced closures. Just as things seemed to be opening up again earlier in fall, all of a sudden both the federal government and the California governor issued a new set of travel restrictions and closures. We had pans to do winter break in Death Valley National Park but by the end of November the park closed to the public and we had to look for an alternative, which we did in the area of Las Vegas. When Thanksgiving of 2021 came around and Pappa Quail asked me where should be go for vacation my answer was clear - we would go to Death Valley.  What we did eventually, was to plan the first half of our vacation in the Lone Pine area and go to Death Valley for the later part. 

Plans are all good but reality has its own say on how things go. On the first day of our vacation we had nice day in the Alabama Hills area, but on the second morning the elder chika woke up with fever and some other symptoms. I spent the entire morning with her at the local hospital where they found her negative to COVID, and anything else they could test her for, and told her to sleep it off. After being all morning in our lodge the younger chika was already very restless and Pappa Quail volunteered to stay with the elder chika while I took the younger one to explore the area. So early in the afternoon me and the younger chika went out to the desert looking for adventure. 

After wondering around a bit near Olancha I found a pullout along hwy 190 at the closest point of the road to Malpais Mesa Wilderness. This designated wilderness area doesn't have any established hiking trails. At least none that were marked on my map. This would be a 100% cross country path finding hike.  

Our hike as captured by my GPS

 Going into the wilderness just like that, on unbroken earth without a trail, has a great deal of charm. I don't know how much modern exploration has been done of this area and what was the reason it was designated wilderness, but I could see any established trails marked on the map or on the ground wherever I looked. Once we got a bit away from the car I also didn't see many evidence of any human activity. 

We took a backpack with water and headed east towards the mountains. I had little hope that we'd actually reach those beautiful colored mountains (see header photo) because they were too distant for the time we had, but I did tell my chika that I'd like to get there. 

Malpais Mesa

From our pullout parking spot we dropped into a deep wash, then started making our way up that wash. I gave my chika on some tips on desert pathfinding, basically stressing the importance of using dry creeks and washes as guidelines. Going upstream one needs to chose which creek to follow when reaching a confluence point, but going downstream is easy - one simply goes down the main wash without much regard of the joining points of other tributaries. 

We followed this line for the most part, occasionally switching  the wash we were following in order to get a better view and improve our heading toward the mountains. The ground was covered in large broken rocks and loose stones that were somewhat unstable under our feet, slowing us down. The vegetation wasn't thick at all but much of it was spiny, so there was a lot of cacti-circumventing on that hike. We were there late in November so I didn't expect to see any wildflowers, and indeed I didn't see any. 

Cottontop Cactus

Not having wildflowers doesn't mean that color was lacking in any way. The rocks themselves were very colorful and pretty. On top of the basic color of the rock there was the paints added by lichen, many of which were very bright. 

By the time the chika got tired of what she deemed as aimless wandering through tough terrain we were only a little closer to the beautiful mountain. It was close enough to get a good view of the canyon opening where I would have gone uphill had I reached it. Perhaps on my next desert-immersion trip. For this hike it was the turning point. It was time to head back. 

We dropped down the nearest shallow wash and started making our way downstream. There wasn't much navigation or pathfinding to do on our way back other than avoiding thorny vegetation. We used our quiet mother-daughter time to chat about nearly everything. Mainly my chika chatted and I listened. 

A few times our conversation was interrupted by loud fighter jets that passed over our heads with supersonic booms. I remembered that there was an air force training area in the Coso Range Mountains, south of Malpais Mesa Wilderness, where I had camped alone on the previous year. We didn't hear any explosions though. These fast birds were really hard to catch on camera.  

A fighter jet over Malpais Mesa Wilderness

The immediate area we were walking on was an alluvial  slope of soil and rocks that eroded from the main mountain mass and carried down by the wash when flooding. Thin lines of finer sand were only at the very bottom of the wash beds. Everywhere else the ground was made of coarse gravel and broken rocks. Many of the non-cactus shrubs that decorated the scenery were completely dry and yellow.

One of these yellow, dry shrubs had a very interesting and unique stem ...

Not everything was dry however. Gray desert holly shrubs dotted the dark desert ground. The holly weren't blooming, but they were very much alive. 

Desert Holly

On the way back we didn't climb out of the wash toward the pullout where I parked but continued downstream to where the wash crossed the road. The road was built over the wash and we had to climb the gravel base on which the asphalt was paved and then walk a bit along the road back to the car. 

 This little, unplanned exploration of Malpais Mesa Wilderness gave my chika and I a nice time together in a very desolate and beautiful desert area. I had a mild regret of not reaching the mountain itself but going up and down the washes and their alluvial fans had a very relaxing effect on me and the one-on-one time wit me had a very good effect on my chika. When we returned to our lodge we found my older chika well rested and in a much better mood. She would be ready to venture out tomorrow, doing easy stuff, she said.