White Rock Canyon Wash
I Found this information pretty early last year that there will be a big lantern festival event happening in the Mojave area in October. According to the website, “RiSE elevates hope, ignites dreams, and creates memories you will never forget.” I thought it must be amazing to see thousands of lanterns being released into the sky just like the Pixar movie Tangled. I told all my friends how much I want to see it and make it a birthday present for myself. Although no one remembered my wishes, I was still lucky enough to get one day off last weekend, and having one of my most supportive friends – Jennifer who signed up to drive up to Nevada with me over midnight.
Instead of keeping on driving the next morning, we decided to pick a hiking trail before going to the festival. The only one we could find with water around this city was White Rock Canyon Wash.
White Rock Canyon Trail
- Route : Out and back
- Length : 6.6 mi
- Elevation : 1312 ft
If you are coming from north from the town, go slow and watch for a paved road leading to the parking area. It’s very easy to miss the entrance and if you do, continue south on 93 and you will find a place to make a U-turn.
we put boots on Tiru to ensure her better performance.
Due to extreme temperatures, this area was closed from May 29- October 1st. Many hikers had required rescue here although it’s almost mid October…
It is still crazy HOT ! Think twice if you plan to visit.
We went up the wrong direction not long after we started the hike, it was uphill hikes with slippery rocky slopes. I thought it’s going to be another Hollywood sign hike tragedy… lucky we figured our way out 40 minutes later. I tripped once when walking dowhills, a falling rock almost hit one of the pups. :\
This route runs down a spectacular deep narrow volcanic canyon for about 3 miles all the way to the Colorado River below Hoover Dam. If you are looking for a geologically interesting landscape to hike with your dog, I will highly recommend this trial and also Alabama Hills.
The wash cuts into pyroclastic flow materials and becomes a matrix of reddish brown rocks.
This trail is a mixture of sand and small rocks, If you are planning for a visit, except for heat, hours of beach walking and goat skeleton on the way. All our pups were trying to take a bite when they found that mysterious skull lying on the side.
After all our water bottles went empty and desperately needed for more, Jennifer spotted the river! Woohoo!
The canyon opens up onto the Colorado River. I dropped down all the gears and rushed towards the river. The water was chill and rewarding, suddenly everything was just worth it.
We stayed there for a while and saw some boats passing by with casual tourists enjoying their nice afternoon. We two were like exhausted refugees compared to those cheering happy people. Jennifer stared at them for a few seconds and said:
DO THEY HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD IT WAS FOR US TO EVEN GOT HERE!?
People who hiked here all went to the other side of the river bank (we only met 4). We stayed here for shade.
It’s time to leave, but Tiffy and Tiru felt like staying
Air became stuffy after the sun started to sink. It’s tiring on the way back due to walking up hills in deep loose sand, everyone was exhausted.
We started the hike here around 1pm and left at 6ish. When we were driving on our way back to town, we passed by a huge board saying:
WELCOME TO NEVADA
It made an odd silence in the car for a few seconds…
Me & Jennifer : …WHERE WERE WE??
We two crazy women drove across 2 states in one day without noticing.
I got a hot stroke after the trip, the headache didn’t go away even after the dinner. Another unfortunate mistake was we went to the wrong spot for the Rise Lantern Festival. While it’s too late to go to the correct location, I missed the event. Attending the festival was my purpose to come here in the first place. Even if I didn’t get to see the lanterns, I had this wonderful pre-birthday trip with my best friend and all the pups. Jennifer pointed into the sky, there were millions of stars following us back home. We almost jumped out of the car in the middle of nowhere to take photos but decided not to because we saw a big “Ghost Town” sign. It’s technically not ghost town ghost town, but we had no intention to make the end of our trip sound too much like the beginning of any horror movie: 2 girls trying to take photos at night around a ghost town, hummm… no thanks!
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