EISPIRATEN

For Queen Cecelia's birthday this year, I took her to Queen Mountain in Joshua Tree National Park. It's a Sierra Club peak, and we used their directions, so I won't go into much detail. I should say, however, that this is a beautifully rocky mountain, and we thoroughly enjoyed the loop route, taking the old road and contouring path up, and the gully and wash straight down. Also, we hit both bumps, Queen Mountain proper and Queen Benchmark. Each one is special and worthy of bagging. Queen Mountain has a slab ascent and small dome top. The Benchmark is a wide, flattish summit with small trees and boulders scattered about. The views in every direction are amazing.


(On the old road trail)


(Scrambling up)






(Queen Benchmark summit)






(The slabs on Queen Mountain)




(Coming down)




(The elusive jack rabbit)

After Queen Mountain we headed over to Jumbo Rocks and did some climbing.

(This was the highest rock in our corner of the area. A solid class 3 scramble.)





We then finished the day with a visit to nearby Skull Rock.

I loved Queen Mountain! Thanks for an awesome day!

Queen Mountain will be remembered by me because I met the most beautiful woman on the top hiking solo. We hiked down together. On the ridge there is a spot where the trail splits as climbers go to the backside of Queen for some climbing routes. I was so enamored with her company that I led her for about a 1/4 mile along the wrong route.

Wow! Great story David.