| rev:text
| - Holy Smokes Batman, this was quite the challenging and fulfilling hike! My hubby and I had been talking about doing this hike for quite sometime, but every time we were going to do it something came up. This time we planned to do it this past Sunday morning and I am so happy we did!
We got up early and hit the trail by 7:30am. The trail is marked very well in the beginning and it starts out with a moderate climb. Once you get past a half mile, it all changes very quickly. You are climbing up, up, up! The trail is a mixture of gravel and rocks. There is also some rock scrambling involved. As you are climbing, watch for the rocks marked with the painted light blue/green circles. These help you to know you are staying on the main trail as there are several other paths that go off in other directions and it can throw you off. Once you reach the saddle, the views looking down are amazing from this vista. Brownstone Canyon is in front of you and you start to feel accomplished. No, not yet, keep going to the right as you still are not at the top.
Now your adrenaline is really flowing, you are determined to get to the top and know you will. I kept checking my watch monitoring my heartbeat to determine just how hard I was working. You will see other people coming down on random paths that have been created we, however, stayed on the main trail wanting to respect this area and leave as little damage as possible. As we came around the corner after a bit more climbing, we were rewarded with another incredible view. This time a peak of the valley floor and the city but we still were not at the top. We made our last ascent and then we knew we made it. Thankfully, there was only us and two other people which made it very special. We made it over to the little trough that had a book in it to sign, an unopened beer bottle, dog collar and a few other trinkets. These were obvious mementos that previous hikers had left. I signed the book although the ink ran so who knows if my signature will remain. We spent at least an 1.5 hours up there taking in every view and enjoying an early lunch. My favorite view was facing the beautiful peaks of Red Rock and a snow capped Mt. Charleston in the distance. My watch determined it took us almost two hours to get to the top, this would be including rest breaks and there were many.
The hike down is much more grueling and hard on the body. I came down the chute sideways trying to prevent myself from slipping, however, there were a couple of times when I still heard myself saying "WHOOOAAA" as I slipped a little. We met some cool people on our way up and up at the top but people were not quite as friendly going down. We continued to be friendly and encouraging knowing what they still faced. Once we got down to the bottom, I kept looking back up at the peak with a big smile across my face!
So remember the following if you plan to conquer Turtlehead Peak:
1. WATER, WATER, WATER is a must (I couldn't believe the naive people that had one little bottle of water - What???? This is the desert people no matter what season it is!
2. Safety should be your main concern. Watch your footing.
3. This hike is not for beginners, it is HARD and difficult as other reviewers have stated.
4. I do not recommend this hike for young children under the age of ten. If you are plan on taking your kids, then be sure to watch them as there are edges where they can slip and fall.
5. Take snacks or sandwiches. Your body will thank you for the nourishment.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)