Black Butte and Three Sisters
Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2024 10:58 am
Often I've stood atop a peak in the Gabes and looked across the Mojave Desert at the various buttes that pop up here and there. Sometimes I'd even daydream about putting in the effort to drive here and there, and actually climb them. Well, Cecelia and I finally efforted our way to a couple of them.
We were staying in Hesperia, relaxing after our big hike with Jeff to Barber Peak the day before. Our backs and feets were sore, so I figured we might find an easy butte to climb nearby. (We didn't want too much efforting.) Black Butte seemed to fit the bill, as it's a short hike with only 600 feet of gain. So we drove forty minutes westward from Hesperia, to 235th Street E, a wide, washboarded dirt road. After vibrating our bones for a few minutes, we turned onto a jeep road to park at the southeast foot of Black Butte.
This area is popular with people who enjoy shooting guns and dumping trash which they use for targets. In fact, during our climb to the summit, we were entertained by people shooting metal targets on the other side of the low ridge, a mere hundred yards from where I parked.
Basically you follow a very steep 4WD road to the top. It doesn't look like this road sees much action but it's there. Colorful rocks litter the path. We picked a few to take home. I suppose the hill is named for the many black rock outcroppings.
After a mile or so we reached the summit and had fun looking for benchmarks while drinking 805 beers. The several piles of wood might be remains from old triangulation stations. I was surprised by how much wood remained up there.
We still had energy, so we drove to nearby Three Sisters, just across the road, seen in the background here...
The shooting spot at Three Sisters is dangerously close to the route you'd want to take to Sister BM, which is the highest of the sister buttes. Thankfully nobody was shooting at the time, but we did notice a couple people raking and scanning the ground, perhaps collecting bullet shells. Is that a thing?
The climb to Sister BM is very steep on rough terrain. It's a short, "choose your own adventure" scramble with only a few hundred feet of gain. The rock is pretty solid and makes decent holds. The route becomes easier just below the summit. Unfortunately someone stole the USGS benchmark, leaving only the county ones.
We were staying in Hesperia, relaxing after our big hike with Jeff to Barber Peak the day before. Our backs and feets were sore, so I figured we might find an easy butte to climb nearby. (We didn't want too much efforting.) Black Butte seemed to fit the bill, as it's a short hike with only 600 feet of gain. So we drove forty minutes westward from Hesperia, to 235th Street E, a wide, washboarded dirt road. After vibrating our bones for a few minutes, we turned onto a jeep road to park at the southeast foot of Black Butte.
This area is popular with people who enjoy shooting guns and dumping trash which they use for targets. In fact, during our climb to the summit, we were entertained by people shooting metal targets on the other side of the low ridge, a mere hundred yards from where I parked.
Basically you follow a very steep 4WD road to the top. It doesn't look like this road sees much action but it's there. Colorful rocks litter the path. We picked a few to take home. I suppose the hill is named for the many black rock outcroppings.
After a mile or so we reached the summit and had fun looking for benchmarks while drinking 805 beers. The several piles of wood might be remains from old triangulation stations. I was surprised by how much wood remained up there.
The climb to Sister BM is very steep on rough terrain. It's a short, "choose your own adventure" scramble with only a few hundred feet of gain. The rock is pretty solid and makes decent holds. The route becomes easier just below the summit. Unfortunately someone stole the USGS benchmark, leaving only the county ones.