Overnight Hike to Cowboy Rock

 This one has to be in my "top 5 hikes of all time" category. Which is pretty funny, because if you were to count how many times I've claimed a hike to be in my "top 5" on this blog, well, let's just say the math doesn't work out. And just to be clear, it's not so much the hike, as the destination, and the fact that it was my first overnight backpacking trip.

For years, I had absolutely no interest in lugging a heavy pack and sleeping on the ground. But about a year ago, something changed, something clicked, and I found myself thinking how fun it might be to do an overnight somewhere. Just hike out to the middle of nowhere and sleep under the desert stars. It might have had something to do with reading "Up and Down California in 1860-1864" by William Brewer. His discription of the landscape and sleeping under the stars every night stirred my imagination! 

The big advantages with an over-nighter are [1] you can cover more ground because you're spreading the hike over two days and [2] you have a lot more time to explore your destination because you don't have to worry about getting back to your car before it's dark. The big downside is the heavy pack because of the extra gear that's needed (extra food and water, sleeping bag, etc). Water quickly becomes the heaviest thing in your pack when backpacking in the desert.

Fortunately, my friend Mitch is always up for an adventure and has a tremendous amount of backpacking experience. I told him this was a "bucket list" thing for me, and please tell me what equipment I need for an overnight backpack in the desert. I am now a card-carrying member of REI!

 

I knew where I wanted to hike. There is an area called Cowboy Rock. It's both remote and difficult to find. Because of the distance and other things to check out in the area, we really needed two days. The location will remain a closely guarded secret. So off we go, with my backpack so full of gear that I could just barely lift it off the ground and on to my back!

 

The area is a confusing jumble of boulders, and it's easy to get disoriented. After much wandering around without any luck, we finally spotted what we were looking for.

I give you... Cowboy Rock! Pictures don't do it justice. From my experience, pictographs are much more common in this part of the desert than petroglyphs. This is a large petroglyph pannel with many different motifs. The only one I've seen that rivals it might be Newspaper Rock, but it's glyphs aren't as clear and well preserved as these.

 

Besides being awe-inspiring just to see, Cowboy Rock is thought to be an important example of rock art resulting from cultural contact. There's a 2005 publication called "An Examination of Probable "Cultural Contact" Rock Art Sites in Southern California and Northern Baja California" by Jeffrey LaFave, and it lists Cowboy Rock as an example. Both the horseback riders and woman wearing a dress are thought to be a result of cultural contact.

Motifs include a rattlesnake and woman wearing a dress.

 

This large boulder adjacent to Cowboy Rock also has some petroglyphs, including another horse and rider.
  

After setting up camp, I decided I wanted to photograph Cowboy Rock as the sun set and the stars came out. I used my headlamp to light up the foreground.

Wow, look at all those stars!!! This photo was taken at 8:57PM. Just imagine how beautiful a full of stars this sky was as the night progressed!

The next morning, Mitch took this photo of me sound asleep. Dead to the world, as they say. I fell asleep quickly, but then woke up a couple hours later and had trouble falling back asleep. I watched the star constellations rotate slowly overhead, and followed the shooting stars as they sped across the sky. I listened to the absolute silence. It was a truly beautiful night! I finally fell back asleep an hour or so before daylight.

 

As I do my best to wake up, Mitch climbs up on a boulder to get some photos. He's also been busy boiling water for coffee and our freeze-dried "breakfast skillet" meal, which was surprisingly good!
 

Mitch prefers to sleep in a tent... keeps the creepy crawlers out!

Early morning light shadow selfie.

 

One of the rewards of overnight camping... the morning view! This is the first thing I saw after dragging myself out of my sleeping bag.

 

First light.

 

Would I do an overnight backpack again? Absolutely! But I would be very selective about distance and pack weight. We covered a little over 13 miles, and with those heavy packs, my joints were aching badly. Especially my hips and lower back. Long backpacking trips with heavy packs are best left to the young, or people healthy joints!

 

Thanks for joining me on this adventure!

If you happen upon Native American cultural sites, 

please respect them, and leave them exactly as you find them.

Linking with Skywatch Friday.