BIRDS EYE VIEW

We returned to Mount Charleston for the Cathedral Rock Hike. During Ryan's orientation week at school, the class did this hike together and since I was still in Albuquerque when it took place, Ryan thought it would be fun to show me what I'd missed. When I first saw the monolith that we were planning to scale, I was convinced that Ryan had lost his mind; it is an intimidating sight. It didn't take me long however, to see why it was a hike that he wanted to re-visit.

According to the guide book, the trail 'ascends steadily' through a forest of Ponderosa Pines and White Fir. Maybe there has been some serious erosion since the book was printed; with an elevation gain of 950 ft over a one mile distance, the ascent was anything but steady. Thankfully, Ryan had offered to carry the Charlotte backpack, otherwise I'm not sure that my legs would have carried me all the way to the top of the peak.


Steep as it was, the view was enough to stop me from doing any complaining. Even before we reached the peak, our surroundings were pretty spectacular. Pines and Aspen trees lined the trail, arching above us and shielding us from the sun. We noticed that a lot of trees had been uprooted and were curious to find out why. We found our answer a little further up the trail.


The hike is dissected by an avalanche chute, and we gingerly made our way across the snow pack to continue along the trial. We took a minute to play in the snow, throwing snow balls and making snow angels. It was an unexpected twist to the hike, and fun to have a minute to cool down. Even that kind of elevation isn't enough to take the edge off the desert sun by the end of May, and I went home with the sunburn to prove it.



Further along the trail we were amazed by all of the water we found along the way. We thought that the most opportune time to catch the seasonal waterfalls was earlier in the year, but water poured in torrents down the mountain side. It was difficult to believe that the series of falls we passed would dry up completely in just a few weeks.



A steep final ascent and we sat atop Cathedral Rock and we took in of the Canyon below us, and the mountains that rolled off into the distance. We sat there at what seemed like the top of the world, and while we powered up with Mars Bars and Gatorade, we surmised that it was a morning well spent.


This time Charlotte was just as worn out as we were by the time we arrived back at the car.