Nature Travelers
Contact Us​
  • Welcome
  • About
    • About Us
    • About NatureTravelers.com
  • Our Travels
    • USA Travels Overview
    • 31 Days In Iceland
    • 15 Days In The Galapagos >
      • Galapagos Resources
    • 28 Days In South Africa
    • 43 Days In Costa Rica
    • Travels In Canada
    • Cruises
  • Travel Journals
    • USA Journal
    • Iceland Journal
    • Galapagos Islands Journal
    • South Africa Journal
    • Canada Journal
  • Photo Galleries
    • USA Photo Gallery
    • Iceland Photo Gallery
    • Galapagos Islands Photo Gallery
    • South Africa Photo Gallery
    • Costa Rica Photo Gallery
  • Future Travels
  • Welcome
  • About
    • About Us
    • About NatureTravelers.com
  • Our Travels
    • USA Travels Overview
    • 31 Days In Iceland
    • 15 Days In The Galapagos >
      • Galapagos Resources
    • 28 Days In South Africa
    • 43 Days In Costa Rica
    • Travels In Canada
    • Cruises
  • Travel Journals
    • USA Journal
    • Iceland Journal
    • Galapagos Islands Journal
    • South Africa Journal
    • Canada Journal
  • Photo Galleries
    • USA Photo Gallery
    • Iceland Photo Gallery
    • Galapagos Islands Photo Gallery
    • South Africa Photo Gallery
    • Costa Rica Photo Gallery
  • Future Travels

Painted Canyon Ladder Loop Hike - Mecca Hills, California

12/4/2012

0 Comments

 
While staying in the Desert Hot Springs area of southern California, we learned about this hike which is about an hour away. It sounded interesting, so we joined some friends and made the drive over. The hike has scrambling, ladders, a slot canyon, and a high-walled "painted" canyon. It's a fun, diverse hike.
Picture
Painted Canyon Ladder Loop Hike - Mecca Hills, California

We were in Desert Hot Springs, California, and we decided to join our friends Esther & Steve for We got ready and piled into Esther & Steve's Jeep at 8:00 this morning for the 45-mile drive to Painted Canyon near the town of Mecca in the Mecca Hills Wilderness Area managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

Actually, on the trip down, we added about 20 miles and exited I-10 east at the Joshua Tree National Park exit.  But we turned right instead of left and drove through a very pretty area on Box Canyon Road.

Eventually, we came to Painted Canyon Road and drove another four miles back the washboard, dirt road that had some deep sand mixed in just for kicks.  Around 9:30, we were parked and preparing for the day's five-mile hike.

 

 

I printed out this map (not to scale) from the Hiking In Palm Springs website.

 

 

Our plan was to hike up the canyon to the right of the parking lot, ....

 

 

take a left and go up the Ladder Canyon, hike to the trail junction at the top of the map and return down the right side through Big Painted Canyon.

Just inside the mouth of the canyon, Linda spotted a tarantula.

We gathered around, ....

 

 

and then I knelt down for a close-up.

 

 

That was pretty much the extent of the wildlife sightings.

We continued on following some other hikers between the high walls.

 

 

A little ways into the canyon, we were looking for a sign on the right that pointed to the left and the entry into Ladder Canyon. Well, the sign was there, but it was very hard to see and you couldn't really read it or see the tiny arrows pointing to the left.

 

 

Fortunately, I had read that you couldn't really tell it was a trail due to the rock-slides, but the webpage I linked to above assured us there was a trail to the right of the fallen rocks.

 

 

Also, Steve had some waypoints plugged into his GPS that helped confirm the path.  Somehow, we missed this big rock arrow pointing the way (until the return trip).

 

 

As you will see later, we weren't very good about following big rock arrows.

So, we scrambled up through the rocks ...

 

 

 

and walked into some narrow openings until we came to the first ladder.  Steve was our ladder tester, and we had to climb down the first one.

 

 

Some of the aluminum ladders were pretty beat up and there were some sharp edges, so we went up and down them with caution.

 

 

The next ladder was the only wooden ladder of the bunch.

 

 

Looking back at Linda and Esther as we waited for them to come up.

 

 

Sometimes, the top ladder rung was a bit far from the next step up, so we had to move slowly and improvise to help Linda up to keep pressure off her knees.  It wasn't always pretty.

Then we proceeded into the narrow slot canyon.

 

 

We love slot canyons.  There is just something about walking through narrow passageways in what appears from the outside to be solid rocks.

 

 

 

Linda took a little video in one section.

 

 

We came to another ladder, and I went up first to scout the best way for Linda to come up.

 

 

That one wasn't too bad, and she videoed Esther and Steve coming up behind her.

 

 

The slot canyon was pretty short, but still worth doing.  Then it was an uphill climb in the dry creek wash toward the canyon rim.

 

 

 

Of course, the views improved the higher we climbed.

 

 

 

I waited at the top where the trail came to a "T" intersection.  We could see the Salton Sea in the distance from up there.

 

 

Misreading my directions, we took a right instead of a left at that point.  I thought we were at a different point on the map than we were, so we walked in the wrong direction for awhile.

In fact, we ignored several rock arrows on the trail that pointed the opposite way.  There was even a rock arrow that, in retrospect, was probably a U-turn arrow telling us to go back.  But we kept going down a steep descent until the trail dead-ended here.

 

 

Oops.  With the return trip it was about a three-quarter-mile error which wouldn't have been so bad if not for the fact we had to climb back up on some steep terrain for most of the way.

Once we got back to the intersection where we made our wrong turn we saw .... you guessed it .... another big rock arrow that was pointing in the direction we were supposed to go.

So, we continued on up the hill ....

 

 

and our view of the Salton Sea expanded.

 

 

Finally, the trail started to descend and we made our way down into Big Painted Canyon.

 

 

As soon as we found a nice, shady spot with rocks we could sit on comfortably, we took a break and had lunch.

 

 

After 20 to 30 minutes, we were refreshed and ready to go.  We had about two and half miles to go.  But it was all downhill and the scenery was very nice.

 

 

 

 

The different colors of the rocks in the canyon were stunning although the photos don't quite bring out how vibrant they were.

 

 

We stopped to take in the aromas of the various plants and to feel their leaves and look at some of the tiny blooms.

 

 

There were, however, lots of thorny cat-claw acacias so just grabbing any branch was not advisable.

We came to a section that looked like the rocks had been poorly white-washed.  Even in the afternoon shade, it really did look the canyon had been painted.

 

 

 

There were some pretty contrasts and the walls got higher.

 

 

After awhile, we came upon the next ladder section.

 

 

There were two ladders we had to go down in this area.

 

 

There was an in-ground beehive at the top of the first ladder, but they didn't bother us at all.

Here's a shot looking back up at both ladders.

 

 

From there, it was a pretty short walk back to the parking area.  We returned as others were just coming into the canyon, and Linda and Esther posed for one last photo.

 

 

On the "Hiking in Palm Springs" website, they warned of cars being broken into in the parking area.  So, we made sure we left nothing of value in the Jeep and were happy to find no signs of foul play.

 

 

Well, our five-mile hike turned into almost a six-mile hike, but it was certainly enjoyable and not too tough.  Some scrambling and climbing is required in the Ladder Canyon portion, but I would call it "moderate".  The walk through the other canyons is pretty easy except for the walking in fairly deep sand which gets old after awhile.

It's definitely a worthwhile hike if you are staying in the area. The diversity in the loop hike keeps things interesting.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Interests - Backpacking
    Interests - Bird Watching
    Interests - Boat Tours
    Interests - Caves
    Interests - Fishing
    Interests - Hikes
    Interests - Paddling/Float Trips
    Interests - Scenic Drives
    Interests - Waterfalls
    Interests - Wildlife - Alligators/Crocodiles
    Interests - Wildlife - Bears
    Interests - Wildlife - Beavers
    Interests - Wildlife - Bighorn Sheep
    Interests - Wildlife - Bison
    Interests - Wildlife - Coyotes
    Interests - Wildlife - Deer
    Interests - Wildlife - Dolphins/Porpoises
    Interests - Wildlife - Eagles
    Interests - Wildlife - Elk
    Interests - Wildlife - Javelinas
    Interests - Wildlife - Manatees
    Interests - Wildlife - Moose
    Interests - Wildlife - Mountain Goats
    Interests - Wildlife - Otters
    Interests - Wildlife - Owls
    Interests - Wildlife - Prairie Dogs
    Interests - Wildlife - Pronghorn
    Interests - Wildlife - Seals
    Interests - Wildlife - Whales
    Interests - Wildlife - Wolves
    National Conservation Areas
    National Conservation Areas - Red Rock Canyon
    National Monuments
    National Monuments - Bandelier
    National Monuments - Chiricahua
    National Monuments - Grand Staircase Escalante
    National Monuments - Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks
    National Monuments - Vermilion Cliffs
    National Monuments - White Sands
    National Parks
    National Parks - Acadia
    National Parks - Arches
    National Parks - Badlands
    National Parks - Big Bend
    National Parks - Bryce Canyon
    National Parks - Canyonlands
    National Parks - Capitol Reef
    National Parks - Carlsbad Caverns
    National Parks - Cuyahoga Valley
    National Parks - Everglades
    National Parks - Glacier
    National Parks - Grand Canyon
    National Parks - Grand Teton
    National Parks - Great Basin
    National Parks - Great Sand Dunes
    National Parks - Great Smoky Mountains
    National Parks - Hot Springs
    National Parks - Isle Royale
    National Parks - Joshua Tree
    National Parks - Lassen Volcanic
    National Parks - Mammoth Cave
    National Parks - Mesa Verde
    National Parks - North Cascades
    National Parks - Petrified Forest
    National Parks - Redwood
    National Parks - Rocky Mountain
    National Parks - Saguaro
    National Parks - Theodore Roosevelt
    National Parks - Voyageurs
    National Parks - Waterton Lakes (Canada)
    National Parks - Yellowstone
    National Parks - Yosemite
    National Parks - Zion
    National Preserves
    National Preserves - Mojave National Preserve
    National Wildlife Refuges
    National Wildlife Refuges - Ash Meadows
    National Wildlife Refuges - Bosque Del Apache
    National Wildlife Refuges - Laguna Atascosa
    National Wildlife Refuges - Okefenokee
    State Parks
    State Parks - Adirondack NY
    State Parks - Anza Borrego CA
    State Parks - Dead Horse Point UT
    State Parks - Del Norte Coast Redwoods CA
    State Parks - Goblin Valley UT
    State Parks - Hocking Hills OH
    State Parks - Jedidiah Smith Redwoods CA
    State Parks - Kodachrome Basin UT
    State Parks - Palo Duro Canyon TX
    State Parks - Patrick's Point CA
    State Parks - Prairie Creek Redwoods CA
    State Parks - Quoddy Head ME
    State Parks - Valley Of Fire NV
    States - Alabama
    States - Arizona
    States - Arkansas
    States - California
    States - Colorado
    States - Florida
    States - Georgia
    States - Kentucky
    States - Maine
    States - Michigan
    States - Minnesota
    States - Montana
    States - Nevada
    States - New Hampshire
    States - New Mexico
    States - New York
    States - North Dakota
    States - Ohio
    States - South Dakota
    States - Tennessee
    States - Texas
    States - Utah
    States - Washington
    States - Wyoming

    Archives

    September 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    January 2015
    June 2014
    May 2014
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    May 2012
    August 2011
    July 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    October 2010
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    January 2009
    November 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008
    March 2008
    February 2008
    October 2007
    July 2007
    June 2007
    May 2007
    February 2007
    November 2006
    March 2006
    October 2005

Thanks for visiting and we hope you enjoy our website.

Contact Us

Nature Travelers  •  Howard & Linda Payne  •  Howard@NatureTravelers.com  •  www.NatureTravelers.com

All content, photos, and videos - Copyright © Nature Travelers.  All Rights Reserved.
Website Designed by: WCWDesigns