RATtreks

Bucket List Cliffs – 1-2-2021

Happy New Year ! Good riddance to 2020 and high hopes for 2021. I normally try to hike on new years day each year but, this year due to the weather and other obligations, it had to wait a day. This ended up a good thing as there would have been no views on my destination of choice had I not waited. Still working on getting back into shape, I chose another local area to reduce the amount of drive time as well as a short hiking distance but, with enough climbing to get a good workout within the time allotted. For these reason I chose to go to a place I am now calling ‘Bucket List Cliffs’ . The reason for choosing this name has nothing to do with them being super spectacular or of being anything of great importance as most things on ones bucket list would not be so close to home and, would be something really unique or special. These cliffs are not really a bucket list type location yet, they are worthy of experiencing. Well, that and ‘Rats List Cliffs' does not sound that good ! The real reason is that despite the fact that many of my inner circle hiking friends have been there several times over the past 40 years, and driving by them myself for even longer, it seems I had never actually taken the time to go there ! I did attempt to go there back in Sept. of 2014 but, there were some hunters blocking the access point so I chose a different location farther down the mountain instead. It was not until now that I would actually be able to stand upon them.

After some coffee and a late morning start waiting on the cold temperature to rise, my son Tyler and I was happy to find the extremely limited parking area (enough for one maybe two vehicles !) empty when we arrived. We secured our place, donned our packs and jumped the guardrail to enter the drainage gully that would be our steep ascent to the top of the ridge where the voluptuous rock formations reside. Pretty much a solid rhodo tunnel all the way made for an enjoyable climb. Once on the ridge top, a known trail is used to get over to the exit where a climbers trail continues upwards towards the cliffs, some of which begin to become visible. I was not expecting any form of trail to exist and had planned on a bushwhack through briers and scrub so, you can imagine my surprise ! I was also happy that we did not see any trash or graffiti the entire day there.

The goat trail was actually very nice and made short work out of a climb that would be really nasty without it. The first thing we came to was a large set of rocks with a large walk-through crack in the center. This would be the grand entrance to this series of rocks. Once through that the main spine of the cliffs is waiting and we quickly found a way to boulder our way to the top. They were taller than I thought they would be and when I saw the more vertical and even higher backside, I was really surprised.

The cliffs continue up the narrow, spine-like ridge until they eventually reach the highest point. There are a couple of gaps where you have to get down off them and climb back up to get there. Also some likens are growing in spots that can be very slick so, like any rocks you must take caution when climbing around on them. It was awesome standing on the high point of these impressive cliffs and the views were magnificent.

We ended up checking out every square inch of these rocks going down the top and front side then finding a way to get down off them to the higher backside to follow the base there back to almost where we started. They actually get much taller on the backside back towards where we began. So much in fact we had to stop just short of the end so we could find a crack to climb to get back to the front where we had started. Once back to that point we could see the sun making its way to its dropping point in the West. Although it was still a couple hours or so away from the sunset, I could tell that it was going to set in the sweet spot of the majestic mountains in the distance. It would be a breathtaking event. Sad part was we couldn`t stay to see it as I can not be away from my dad for too long when there is no one else at home which was the case on this day. That and we wanted to stop and get some post hike grub. You can bet that we will be coming back for a sunset event here very soon.

We spent as much time as we possibly could enjoying this beautiful area but, all good things do have to come to an end. As much as I wanted to stay for the sunset, we had no choice, we had to go. It was all downhill back to the truck so it would not be long before we would be enjoying our after hike meal and then hurry back home in case there were any needs or emergencies there.

It had been another amazing day spent in Nature at another fantastic location that I can now check off my personal list. That list is extremely long so, until next time,,,

Tags: cliffs, hike, rat