Taking a unique approach to capture both a prominent peak and see a well known canyon, Charlie came up with the brilliant plan to one-way hike down most of Tuber Canyon. We parked up Wildrose Canyon Road and first hiked up almost 2,000 feet to Tuber BM. After reaching the summit, we dropped into Tuber Canyon near the 2nd major spring (as marked on topo maps). We found flowing water there, and then enjoyed the hike down canyon. After passing by one smaller spring, we then reached the 1st major spring and bypassed the gorge on the left side by following the trail along the cliffs. The cliff trail is not for the faint of heart and it is also not a place where you would want to lose your balance, because it would be a long slide and fall off the edge into the gorge below. I am enclosing a Google Earth map below which will help you to visualize the route we took on this one-way journey (click to enlarge).
Parking area along Wildrose Canyon Road. We headed towards the rocky peak marked by the red arrow. Tuber BM is not visible, but it is directly behind this rocky peak:
We hiked cross-country briefly and connected with this old 4wd road:
We didn't stay on it for very long, but began heading towards the base of the mountain leading up towards the rocky peak:
Steve heading steeply uphill and gaining elevation on a very cold March morning:
Charlie keeping warm during the steep climb up the mountain:
Looking further up Wildrose Canyon and the road heading for the Charcoal Kilns:
The rocky peak with patches of snow just ahead:
Can you spot Charlie in this picture making his way up to the summit of the rocky peak?:
Looking off into the distance along the ridgeline:
From the rocky peak, we had to navigate around the snow and over to this next ridge a short distance away:
Final stretch to the Tuber BM summit:
We found this survey marker once we reached Tuber BM:
View of Telescope Peak from Tuber BM:
View looking south down Panamint Valley from the summit:
View looking directly to the west down Williams Canyon:
View to the northwest of Panamint Dry Lake and the Sierras:
View north from Tuber BM of the rocky peak we had been standing on earlier:
Picture of Charlie and Steve with Telescope Peak in the background:
We headed east along the ridge for a while, looking for a perfect spot to cross over into Tuber Canyon:
Finally we found a side canyon which looked like it would go through. Charlie is beginning to descend in the next two pictures:
The going was relatively easy all the way, with a few slightly tricky areas:
This was one dry fall which we had to bypass. You can see Steve coming down in the upper left corner of this picture:
View looking west down Tuber Canyon from the trail we were on:
We followed an old mining trail that went from the side canyon over towards the upper spring of Tuber Canyon. This is the view looking east up Tuber Canyon:
Finally arriving on the floor of Tuber Canyon after a long, cold hike:
We immediately began exploring the upper spring. There was a lot of brush and growth, as seen in the next four pictures:
It was a bit hard to reach, but we managed to find flowing water at the upper spring:
It was just a small stream flowing through some grass and under the branches:
Looking back up towards the head of Tuber Canyon, which was all snowed in:
This massive rockslide poured down the mountain and into Tuber Canyon:
It was a fairly steep hike down most of the time:
The next three pictures show some of the scenery in between the upper and middle springs. Tuber Canyon does not have a whole lot to see scenically, but there is an interesting old road to try to follow and a few mining relics along the way:
Up ahead is the middle spring, which was not marked on our topographical map:
A tree growing out of the dry middle spring:
Some more of the trees at middle spring with a large cone-shaped hillside in the background:
Heading further down canyon while trying to follow the old road which was closed long ago:
Finally arriving at lower spring. There was no surface water here, but there were a lot of trees:
We began bypassing the spring and gorge area on the left side (south side):
Looking back up the lower spring from the bypass trail:
And looking down the lower spring as it enters the gorge area in the distance:
Once again looking straight across the lower spring and up the northern hillside:
Finally we arrived at an overlook point which had a magnificent view down the canyon:
Check out the cliff trail along the middle of the picture. It was a menacing sight, but we would have to follow this trail in order to keep going:
At the white spot towards the bottom of the picture, you can see Charlie walking carefully along the cliff trail:
Charlie continuing to make his way down the cliff trail while enjoying the view:
He paused to look back and take this picture of Steve looking down the canyon:
One more picture of Steve as he begins his own walk along the cliff trail. The views along here were really spectacular and reminded me of the trail which bypasses the gorge of Johnson Canyon. But this trail is a little bit more scary:
Looking back up towards the first spring and gorge area once we had arrived back on the canyon floor:
The next four pictures show you some of the high rocky cliffs in the lower part of the canyon containing white bands:
Heading out of Tuber Canyon after a very fun one-way hiking adventure: