Hiking The Needles Lookout (part 1)
Ponderosa, CA - Sat, 22 September 2018. 3:30pm.
We arrived at the trailhead for The Needles in the Southern Sierra Nevada around 2pm today. It was a later start than we ideally wanted... but everything today has been later than ideal. We slept in and enjoyed ourselves at the hotel this morning, then stopped to appreciate the views on the drive up the canyon. So, we're late... and we're happy anyway. It's vacation!
A plaque at the trailhead shows The Needles LookoutIt's worth pointing out that our hike here is four years in the making. That's how long ago I saw this hike in one of our guidebooks and saw The Needles themselves from atop another mountain nearby- Dome Rock, which we hiked in May 2014- whereupon I said to myself, "I really want to hike that." We weren't able to do it that weekend, and we didn't manage another trip back to this area for just over four years, but I did remember and I did come back for it.
Getting to the trailhead entailed a drive of 2.8 miles on a dirt road. We were happy we had our 4x4 as it made utterly trivial work of the route, though I'm confident I could've nursed any ordinary sedan through. Still, it's good to have excess capability on tap just in case- and to feel like we're getting some use out of our 4x4.
The trail starts off just below 7,800' elevation (2,375 m) and climbs gently for the first two miles. A plaque at the start offers a glimpse of what lies ahead. A sign just beyond this plaque lists hours when the fire lookout is open to visitors. Great news: it'd be open when we arrived!
The trail rises gradually a few hundred feet in elevation over the first 1.5 - 2 miles. The grade was gentle enough that we didn't struggle much with the altitude. ...Which was good, as we have no acclimation today.
Just as I kept thinking, "We've got to be close to the top now," a sobering view came into sight. The lookout is atop another mountain.
The hike to The Needles Lookout is a gradual ascent... until the last part, when you see the lookout is atop another mountain!
Descending to the saddle between peaks we'd give up all the elevation we'd gained, then climb a steep 400' to reach the peak 8,245' (2,513m). Doubling our ascent and then doing it again on the way home wasn't ideal but we'd allowed ourselves plenty of time for the hike so we weren't worried. And the beautiful views sustained our energy.
Looking across the Southern Sierra Nevada mountains from near the top of The Needles
Along the first two-thirds of the hike we'd been overlooking a deep valley to the north. In the far distance we could see the ragged, bare peaks of the Eastern Sierra Nevada. They looked pink. Possibly among them we could see Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental US. But as we climbed The Needles we enjoyed the view to the south at least as much, with lower ridges of the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada tapering off in the far distance to the Mojave Desert beyond.
Continued in next blog: Uh-oh, where's the lookout??!
We arrived at the trailhead for The Needles in the Southern Sierra Nevada around 2pm today. It was a later start than we ideally wanted... but everything today has been later than ideal. We slept in and enjoyed ourselves at the hotel this morning, then stopped to appreciate the views on the drive up the canyon. So, we're late... and we're happy anyway. It's vacation!
A plaque at the trailhead shows The Needles LookoutIt's worth pointing out that our hike here is four years in the making. That's how long ago I saw this hike in one of our guidebooks and saw The Needles themselves from atop another mountain nearby- Dome Rock, which we hiked in May 2014- whereupon I said to myself, "I really want to hike that." We weren't able to do it that weekend, and we didn't manage another trip back to this area for just over four years, but I did remember and I did come back for it.
Getting to the trailhead entailed a drive of 2.8 miles on a dirt road. We were happy we had our 4x4 as it made utterly trivial work of the route, though I'm confident I could've nursed any ordinary sedan through. Still, it's good to have excess capability on tap just in case- and to feel like we're getting some use out of our 4x4.
The trail starts off just below 7,800' elevation (2,375 m) and climbs gently for the first two miles. A plaque at the start offers a glimpse of what lies ahead. A sign just beyond this plaque lists hours when the fire lookout is open to visitors. Great news: it'd be open when we arrived!
The trail rises gradually a few hundred feet in elevation over the first 1.5 - 2 miles. The grade was gentle enough that we didn't struggle much with the altitude. ...Which was good, as we have no acclimation today.
Just as I kept thinking, "We've got to be close to the top now," a sobering view came into sight. The lookout is atop another mountain.
The hike to The Needles Lookout is a gradual ascent... until the last part, when you see the lookout is atop another mountain!
Descending to the saddle between peaks we'd give up all the elevation we'd gained, then climb a steep 400' to reach the peak 8,245' (2,513m). Doubling our ascent and then doing it again on the way home wasn't ideal but we'd allowed ourselves plenty of time for the hike so we weren't worried. And the beautiful views sustained our energy.
Looking across the Southern Sierra Nevada mountains from near the top of The Needles
Along the first two-thirds of the hike we'd been overlooking a deep valley to the north. In the far distance we could see the ragged, bare peaks of the Eastern Sierra Nevada. They looked pink. Possibly among them we could see Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental US. But as we climbed The Needles we enjoyed the view to the south at least as much, with lower ridges of the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada tapering off in the far distance to the Mojave Desert beyond.
Continued in next blog: Uh-oh, where's the lookout??!