At one time, I would drive out to the El Paso Mountains once per month, either for the day, or in combination with camping at Red Rock Canyon State Park. I came to know the area quite intimately, and I could not get enough of it. The history and the varied geography of the El Paso Mountains entranced me, and I spent much of my free time during the early 2000's here.
But, as the years wore on, I began to feel the need to explore other parts of the Mojave Desert. So, over the past 6-7 years my visits to the El Paso Mountains have been few and far between.
However, earlier this month, my wife and I decided to spend the night at Red Rock Canyon's Ricardo Campground, so that we'd have some time to spend in the El Paso Mountains the next morning.
Our night in Red Rock Canyon was spent in the "Forester Hotel." We've given up on tent-camping, finding that inflating our Luno air mattress, and "making the bed" takes much less time than putting up a tent. Plus, the air mattress is much more comfortable than sleeping on the ground!
After a dinner of hot dogs roasted over the fire, we turned in. With the temperature in the 40's, we kept the sunroof closed, but we were still able to see plenty of stars through the glass.
We were up at 8 AM the next morning. The temperature was 56 degrees, and the winds were gusting up to about 20 mph. Still, we sat at the picnic for a little while, enjoying hot coffee from the thermos, and munching on power bars.
Afterward, we deflated the air mattress, re-organized the cargo areas in both vehicles, and headed out of the campsite.
I mentioned "both vehicles." Both of our vehicles are relatively small- mine a Subaru Forester, and hers, a Suburu Crosstrek- so we use the Crosstrek as the storage vehicle, and the Forester as the sleeping quarters.
After paying a short visit to the Visitor Center at the campground, where they were continuously running an old Huell Howser "California's Gold" episode about the park, we headed north on Hwy. 14 to the trail head- which is designated EP-15 by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Incidentally, this is the trail that takes one to Burro Schmidt Tunnel, although we did not go to the tunnel on this day.
After pulling off the freeway, we traveled about 500 feet along EP-15 (which is just basically a sporadically-graded dirt road at this point) before pulling into semi-circular RV camping spot.
Here, I decided to launch the drone in order to secure some photos and footage of Black Mountain which was approximately 5 miles distant.
The stuff of legend in the El Paso Mountains, Black Mountain is rumored to have been the site of trading between Indian tribes ages ago, and there are supposed to be ruins at the top of the mountain. Further, some 19th century prospectors were alleged to have seen strange lights at the top of Black Mountain.
Whether these legends contain even a grain of truth or not, I've always wanted to see the top of Black Mountain. However, the only way to do that is to hike, as there is no vehicular access to the mountain.
So, all I had to do then, was launch the drone, and fly it over the top of Black Mountain, right?
Wrong.
There are rules governing the fight of drones. One of those rules is that drones are prohibited from flying over designated Wilderness Areas. Black Mountain lies within the Black Mountain Wilderness area, whose boundary was a little over 300 feet from where we were parked. No problem; just fly the drone high enough to get an "overhead" view of the mountain. Wrong again. The regulations prohibit drone flight above 400 feet Above Ground Level ("AGL" in aviation parlance.)
So, I was limited to flying 300 feet horizontally and 400 feet vertically from the launch point.
Here is the video that I shot from this location:
Above: The mountains shown at the beginning of this video are the distant Sierra Nevada's.
Black Mountain appears at 1:10 in the video.
Above: Due to the limitations on drone-flying in this area, I had to rely on the DJI Air-3's telephoto lens in order to capture this footage of Black Mountain. One day, I hope to hike to the top.
Unfortunately, the winds were making things very difficult. Ironically, the drone handled the winds with no problem, but it was difficult for me to stand outside for too long.
So, we decided to shorten our trip by skipping our trip through the interior of the El Paso Mountains.
Instead, we decided to head over to Iron Canyon.
Once the site of numerous gold-diggings, Iron Canyon largely deserted, with the sounds of the pick-axes having long been replaced with the sound of the wind whipping over the jagged rocks.
Iron Canyon is at the southern end of the El Paso Mountains, and is accessible via trail EP-11 off Garlock Road.
We were parked near the mouth of Iron Canyon when I shot this drone footage.
This was our last stop on this trip.
But, we will be back.
