Friday Hike – Boulder Canyon Trail

Marilyn, Ben, Mike, Sara, Kelly, Julie, Marta, and I hiked part of the Boulder Canyon Trail starting from the Canyon Lake Marina. We hiked together out to La Barge Creek; when I’ve hiked there in the past, the creek was either totally or mostly dry.  This time, however, the creek was perhaps 30 feet wide with ankle deep water through the shallowest path to the other side. (If you purposely chose a deeper path, you might have ended up in knee deep water.) In any case, Sara, Julie, Kelly, and Marta opted to go back at this point, while Ben, Marilyn, Mike, and I continued on.

I had hoped to hike up La Barge Canyon to see the pools at the point where it starts to get hard to continue onward, but the wetness discouraged us – none of us had brought appropriate footwear for these conditions. We continued on, also crossing Boulder Creek. We found Boulder Creek to be easier to cross without getting quite as wet.  We turned around at the intersection with Second Water Trail.

The photo below shows Battleship Mountain with Weaver’s Needle behind and to the right; some of us hiked to the top back in January. Battleship Mountain is a long skinny mountain, though it doesn’t look like it from this angle. From this vantage-point, we’re looking at the bow of the battleship. Our hike to the top involved climbing up the stern and then making our way foward towards the bow.

Looking back at Canyon Lake:

Another view of Battleship Mountain as we neared La Barge Creek:

After crossing La Barge Creek, we came across some ruins known as the Indian Paint Mine.

This is a section of Boulder Creek near Second Water Trail. The water was quite turbulent here. Downstream, where we crossed, the water was shallower and calmer, though we still had to do some boulder hopping to get across. Even so, at least one of my feet got wet (again) each time I crossed it.

Looking up La Barge Canyon.  We noticed a large bird overhead and I quickly snapped a couple of shots.  I was surprised that one of them turned out.

There are other rock formations along the way that aren’t Battleship Mountain…

Marilyn, hiking back up the long hill from La Barge Creek:

The flowers had opened up for our hike back:

Another view of Canyon Lake:

Had I taken a couple more steps, I would have stepped on this snake! I’m guessing it’s a type of gopher snake. It’s definitely not a rattler.

A view of Battleship Mountain and Weaver’s Needle from (near) Frog Peak: