The Orocopia Mountains are situated right on the famous San Andreas fault ("Rift Zone") in south-central Riverside County, about 25 miles southeast of Indio and about the same northeast of the Salton Sea. The range has a deceptively low appearance to it, mainly because it is a spread-out range whose summit only rises maybe a hundred feet higher than its nearby peaks. It is often viewed by travellers along Interstate-10 between Indio/Coachella and the Chiriaco Summit exit. From this vantage, the range does seem very low and spread out, but it does in fact have over 2,000 feet of clean prominence above all surrounding lands. When viewed from the lower elevations around the Salton Sea, however, the range does show off its grandeur, rising over 4,000 vertical feet above the stinking shores of the great Salton. This is no small trick given the summit is just 3,815 feet in elevation. However, since the Salton shoreline is usually about at 230 feet below sea level, their sum differential is just a shade above 4,000 feet.

I was planning a visit to my brother's place in Southern California over my winter break, and I figured this would be a good opportunity to work in this little peak, given that any other time of the year is too hot (and snakey), and that I don't get to this part of California much any more. Also, it would break up the long drive over two days very nicely. I had hoped to do this trip closer to Christmas but I got sick, then my wife got sick, then we did some trips of our own, then some storms came in ... anyway, it put me off over a couple weeks before I could get this little journey started. I would be doing this one by myself. A major Pacific storm had come in over the previous few days, clobbering most of California with lots of rain and snow, but the weather reports suggested it would clear out when I wanted to be there. So it cleared out to Phoenix. When I left home the day before, it was a steady rain and very unsettled in the Phoenix area. Fortunately, traffic was gentle and I had no trouble. The rain finally cleared out (or I should say, I cleared out of the rain) in around Quartzsite in western Arizona. I stopped for groceries in Blythe then set out for the Joshua Tree/Mecca exit on Interstate-10, in the middle of nowhere but very near the Orocopia Mountains. The plan was to camp at the Joshua Tree campground north of the highway, but they wanted me to pay the full entrance fee plus camping fee, and since I wasn't going to be doing any Joshua Tree sightseeing, I decided to camp in the desert outside the park instead for free. I found a neat site a few miles north of the Interstate up on the sloping bajada at the base of the foothills. Even though it was open territory, I was all by myself and in a place very few people seemed to bother visiting. The road I drove in on had a badly-worded sign mentioning the road was a "Water District Private Right of Way, Enter at your own risk". Well, B.S., I thought - this is BLM land, so I entered at my own risk and found my neat little site, which had fire rings so others have obviously been there. The passing storm left some clouds that made for a gorgeous sunset. I slept in the bed of my truck - it was cold enough overnight to leave a small frost on my truck.

I waited a bit the next morning for the sun to rise over the eastern mountains for some good lighting for some photographs (and to warm myself up a little bit, too). I finally got tired of waiting and drove back to the paved road (The Joshua Tree/Mecca Road) and going south over the Interstate. On the south side the road is called Box Canyon Road and we've driven it a few times as a short-cut toward the Salton area and on into Anza Borrego. The town of Mecca is a tiny and uninteresting place, but Box Canyon Road is very interesting with many cool formations and side canyons. In any case, I went just a short bit - about 3/10 of a mile - to the a left turn onto old Pinto Road (the old US-60 highway?) for about 0.6 mile, then south on a dirt road for just under a mile then left just after some powerlines for another 2.9 miles, always staying left as the road approached the foothills of the Orocopia Range. The road was sandy but solid. In time I was at a small steep 4-wheel drive section that I chose not to challenge, so I parked where I was, a nice sheltered area set about 3 air-miles south of the Interstate, well within the foothills. It was about 8:30 a.m. and the weather had warmed up nicely. There were still some remnant clouds in the sky and it was fairly humid and hazy. The sun spent a lot of the morning behind the clouds.

After getting properly dressed and my pack in order I walked up the road to the little steep bit then another 0.4 mile to the Orocopia Mountains Wilderness boundary - just two plastic signs set on either side of the road, which itself continues into the range for another half mile or so. There is no gate, and tire tracks of past ATV visitors suggested that although motorized traffic isn't allowed, the rule is ignored sometimes, unfortunately (The lands north of the wilderness are open to ATV riders, judging by all the roads I saw). I continued walking southerly along the road, which made for a good footpath, and I made excellent time. The road then dips into a gully and up the other side, turning left at this point and now paralleling a huge wash on the wash's east bank. A large blocky summit looms high but this is not the peak, but a smaller subpeak roughly 3,500 feet in elevation (it would prove to be a useful navigational item, though). The road parallels the wash until it (the road) climbs up onto a short but very prominent little rock outcrop, about 20 feet high. I scampered up this section and got a good overview of what was ahead of me. The actual summit was now visible - a flattish top sloping to one side (a trick of the perspective actually) with a small 'point' visible, even from my vantage point. This was the cairn atop the summit. Now having a clearer idea of where to go, I went on my way - and promptly walked up a minor dead end path.

I knew to drop into the wash and to follow it into the range, but for some reason I thought I better climb up the other side and follow that route a bit, but within minutes I realized I had gotten too high and had blocked myself from the right route by some steep-walled canyons. All of this cost me about 15 minutes. I returned to the wash and dropped back in, then started hiking up the wash, which quickly narrowed into a proper canyon about 6 to 10 feet wide and walls about 10 to 30 feet high. This part was fun. The brush was minimal and there were a few dryfalls to clamber up and over. I stayed in the canyon for about a half mile and maybe 15 minutes until coming upon a junction where another canyon met up with the one I was in. This was my clue to leave the canyons and scamper up a steep slope to gain a bench of land hemmed in by these two little canyons. Now I was on the right path. I was still less than an hour from leaving my truck - everything was going very well so far.

From here to the summit I followed a system of ridges and subpeaks, always hiking by sight toward the nearest higher land. Many times the summit would come into view then disappear again behind one of the ridges. To my surprise I found some very scant paths that seemed to be human-made, and since they seemed to go where I was heading I would follow them. When I topped out on the first subsummit I had a good view of the remaining hiking I needed to do. I mostly stayed high, opting to go up and down instead of bypassing the subsummits on their sides, although in a few cases I had no choice. At worst I had to descend maybe a hundred feet to a saddle then regain it back up the other side. In time I was on the last saddle below the summit. From here to the top was probably the only really steep part of the climb, but even then it went very well with no trouble. Actually I thought I was lower than I was and when I topped out over a rise was very surprised to see the cairn, right there - I was on top! No complaints from me. The summit cairn stands about four feet high with a stick on its top. The register was in the rocks and I signed in, the first (I think) for 2008. The weather was breezy but the sun was out, and I had tremendous views in all directions. The best views were to the southwest looking down onto the Salton Sea. To the west the snow-clad summits of Mts San Jacinto and Gorgonio stood above the cloudy haze like islands in the sky. Given the storms had just passed within the last day, both peaks were totally white, and utterly beautiful. I could see the trucks on Interstate-10 to the north, and countless desert ranges in all other directions. It had taken me about two hours to make the summit, and I stayed up top for about 15 minutes. The steady breeze, though, started to give me a chill. I figured it was time to get moving down.

Given the nice slopes and mostly gentle terrain I had coming up I figured the descent would go very quickly, and it did. I was back down into the canyon within 30 minutes, and back to my truck in less than an hour total, for an overall hike of almost three hours exactly. I was very pleasantly surprised how well (and easy) the overall hike had gone. I guess I was expecting more bushwhacking and tricky sections. Back down to my truck I brought out the chair, changed into drier clothes and enjoyed the warm sun (everything was relative - the temperature was only in the high 50s, and I had to stay out of the breeze). I had time to kill so I just relaxed there for about an hour. The drive out to the highway went well, although I got confused on one turn and took a slightly more 'scenic' route, although as long as I was heading downhill toward the powerlines all was well. I drove into the San Bernardino/Fontana area and visited my old buddy Schneider for a bit at his job, then drove on up for a night with my brother's family and some late Christmas gifts for the little ones.