Geo's Journal: 2011 - 05 Ladder and Painted Canyon Loop

This is the last hike I have planned in the Mecca Hills for this winter. I was reading more about this area and was surprised to find that the hills were formed by a violent upheaval along a spur of the San Andreas Fault. This is the major fault of the merging of the North American and Pacific Plates. The rock you see in the photographs have been worked over for centuries of earthquakes and is 600 million years old.

The loop trail was about 5 miles long and had an elevation change of 800 feet.

After we walked about 1/2 mile from our vehicles we entered the Ladder Canyon. We had to do a bit of a rock scramble over the more recent rock fall.

Some of the ladders are made of wood but most are aluminium. There are many different ways that they are negotiated.

I was a little nervous about hanging my camera over the edge for this photo.

Part of the attraction is walking and climbing in such a narrow space. If you feel claustrophobic you can always look up and see the sky.

A view of the hills facing toward Palm Springs. There was also a view of the Salton Sea from this point.

We had 13 in our group and as you see by the cairn many more people have left their rock to say I made it through the ladders.

Once we made it to the top of Ladder Canyon we walked along a ridge to the top of the Painted Canyon. A short descent from there and we were at the canyon floor. The canyon has wonderful colours, shapes and in places you do get the impression that someone did paint the canyon.