Cathedral Rock - South Loop Trails Opened (5-27-2013)

Both the Cathedral Rock and South Loop Trails are now open for hiking. Many other Campgrounds and picnic areas are not.

Forget the old trailheads to Cathedral Rock and South Loop they are gone! No bathroom, no stairs, no parking lot. Now, just dirt.

 

Old trailhead

To reach the new trailhead for both Cathedral Rock and South Loop Trails

Drive past the old trailhead and into the very well signed Cathedral Rock Picnic Area and continue to the large parking lot. It has two flush bathrooms and running water! This is nice!

Entrance to Cathedral Rock 

Large parking lot!

To find the trailhead for Cathedral Rock and South Loop Trails

This is the tricky part. There's only a very small sign located near the start of the parking lot on the right side. I believe in the future there will be a much larger sign.

The hard to find trailhead

This is a connector trail. In about 50 yards you come to a divide and a sign. Go left for the South Loop Trail. In about 100 yards you will be on the real South Loop Trail. Go right to continue to Cathedral Rock Trail.

Left: South Loop- Right Cathedral Rock

Continue another 75 yards to another divide: Veer left for Cathedral Rock. Going right takes you to Echo Trail. You are now on the original Cathedral Rock Trail. Follow it about one mile to the final divide where you veer right.

Veer right to the summit

As of today (5-27-2013), there's no fee booth. The photo below is where I think the fee booth will stand.
This is just past the large parking lot, so there's no reason to drive beyond the new parking lot. There are no other trailheads for Cathedral Rock and South Loop Trails beyond where the fee booth will stand.

South Loop Trail is Opened

South Loop Trail, one of the most popular trails in Mt. Charleston, is opened. Cathedral Rock Picnic Area, where the South Loop trailhead is located, is closed for at least a year.

How Do I Hike On The South Loop Trail?

This is convoluted, but it works. Take the stairs by the bathroom and turn left at the McDonald's. Couldn't resist, but the real route is almost as crazy. Ascend the stairs by the bathroom; go left on the connector trail to the official Cathedral Rock Trail; descend the Cathedral Rock trail to the road and walk south 10 yards to the signed South Loop Trail.  I spoke to the recreation planner today and that is what he said, so this is official.

Cathedral Rock Picnic Area

The Cathedral Rock Picnic Area will be closed for at least a year, maybe longer. It is being remodel. Eventually there will be one trail leading from near the bathroom to both trails. Initially, the picnic area was to be closed at the start of the summer.

Until next time...

Great Hike in Mt. Charleston

Now is the time to drive up to Mt. Charleston, which is only 35 miles west of Las Vegas. Why? It's about 25 to 40 degrees cooler in Mt.Charleston. This is due the the elevation, which is 5,000 to almost 10,000 feet higher than Las Vegas, NV. You lose about four degrees for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain. Mt. Charleston starts at 7,000 feet and tops out at 11,918 feet.

Looking for a Great Hike?

Cathedral Rock seen from SR 157

Currently, this is the best time in years to do the Cathedral Rock hike. Why? All the water from the snow melt has turn this normally dry hike into something that looks like a hike in the High Sierra. The normally dry falls is flowing and the pipe that runs under the trail gushes water out like a fire-hose.

 Stats:
This hike is suitable for those hikers in descent shape and strong children.
Here are the stats:


Distance: 3 miles — round trip (from the picnic area); 2.5 miles — round trip (from before the picnic area).
Elevation gain: 900 feet
Elevation peak: 8,600 feet
Time: 2.5 hours — up and back
Difficulty: 2
Hurry and do this hike before the water is gone.

Cathedral Rock Picnic Area Closed

In my post yesterday I wrote about the closure of Cathedral Rock Picnic Area. Today, as he promised, recreation officer Dave Reis called me with an update. Although the picnic area is closed, hikers can still walk the road through the picnic area to either Cathedral Rock or South Loop trailheads.

Bottom line: the closure only applies to cars and those who wanted to use the picnic area.Hikers can access either trailhead as usual.

Cathedral Rock Trail to South Loop Trail - Mt. Charleston

This is a little known hike in Mt. Charleston. Once it intersects the South Loop Trail you can hike to Griffith Peak or even Charleston Peak. Hurry if you want to do this hike. Snow is coming soon and as you will read, it's getting cold in Charleston.


On Oct. 14th, Paul A did this hike. Here is his trip report:

Inspite of the weather, I decided to solo hike the Cathedral Rock Trail to South Loop Trail. The directions on the members only section are right on. Probably could have chosen a better day to do this and I forgot how cold it is up there with the clouds, rain and wind. I was prepared however, and I always tend to overpack my Kelty for worse case weather. For navigation I used the trail guide from the members only section, USGS 1:24000 Map, and a Garmin HCX GPS with the Topo Map software. This trail offers a lot of solitude.

The cairns on the trail are fairly easy to find and they really helped. Without them, it would be easy to loose the route if you don't pay attention. It appears that the path actually follows the base of three different walls from the same ridge - first wall, then steep climb, second wall, then steep climb, and finally paralleling third wall, steep climb. Where the trail hugs the first wall is a good place for a break and shelter if need be. The route is for the most part, mostly a steep climb with just a couple of segments that are somewhat level.

Some parts of the trail, are very slippery - it seems even on a dry day the trail would have quite a few areas where footing could be poor. Today the trail was damp/wet and I slid a couple of times, but caught my balance. I would recommend hiking poles for this trail.

I had a hard time finding the trail halfway between waypoints 2 and 3. In fact I didn't really see a trail and it seems that, if there were cairns in this section, many of them have fallen down - or I just missed them. I basically hiked straight up the hill, following "center mass" through Waypoints 3 and 4 until I intersected the South Loop Trail. I contemplated descending back to the start point via South Loop but the wind, cold and low clouds/rain convinced me not too. Much to my benefit, this route sheltered a lot of the wind today. I hiked down the same way I hiked up. Even then, it's easy to lose track of the exact route that I hiked up. On the way down, after passing the last "wall" I had to think hard where to join the trail back to the metal cover (Waypoint 2) because the trail fades away. I skirted the edge of the ridge towards the drainage and luckily found it quickly.

On this route, I counted 17 deer , all on the descent back down which was around 4-5pm. Most of the deer I observed were vicinity Waypoint 2 (metal cover water). I also spotted about 5 deer on the Cathedral Rock Trail just past the first wooden cut-out bench on the left as you're hiking down. These deer were around 50 yards from me and just stared back at me, probably wondering who in their right mind wanted to hike in the wind, clouds and rain today. Interestingly enough, the weather calmed down quite a bit towards the late afternoon. Other than chipmunks, I didn't see any other animals.

Even though its a "quick 2.5 miles" one way, this is a tough hike. This was my first time attempting this hike, and I did this one solo. I am always extra cautious when I hike solo and spent more time being deliberate on the trail. The sleet and rain did not stick and I did not see any snow up there. At the summit ridge today the visibility was rather poor with the clouds blowing through at that elevation. The mist blowing through the bristlecones was eerily beautiful but telling at the same time. Season is changing. It is, as I previously mentioned, getting cold up there. All in all, a great hike! I enjoyed this one.


BW: This trail is indeed steep and actually I would call it a hiker's path. Once leaving the Cathedral Rock Trail, it's not maintained by the Forestry Service. A GPS is very useful for this hike. Come to think about it, I also have seen deer on this hike.

REI has an in-store sale going on through this Sunday and it's a good one!