Ladder hike in the Painted Canyon

So we wondered, were we physically in shape to tackle the Ladder hike in the Painted Canyon east of Mecca and thought lets give it a try.
I worried all night as I read articles that the road in was so sandy that everyone was getting stuck but Ron promised me if it looked bad we would turn around.
As you turn off the highway onto the Painted Canyon road it says 4 x 4 access only, oh what were we getting into, well it was just fine, there were lots of soft spots but we had no troubles and when we got there the parking lot was full of 2 wheel drive vehicles, some arriving were hooting "Hooray we made it".

The hike is only 5 miles but 5 miles of hard work so that it felt like you did double that.

Here is Ron at the start of the hike, we head up this canyon a half a mile before turning off into the Ladder Canyon.


The article said you may miss the entrance to the canyon as it is covered with rocks but we were lucky so up and over the first pile of rocks.

We weaved through the rocks getting into the canyon.



Here was our first ladder, apparently there had been a bad storm in September and the water rushed down the canyon and destroyed many of the ladders, some have been replaced but others we had to work around. This one was a little wobbly

Second set of ladders, a little steeper, I needed a little help getting off the top.

Here goes Ron.

Straight through there, yes that is the way.

We caught up to a group from Orange County Hiking Club and the leader said, "You are sure brave coming in all alone" Hummmm what does she know that we do not.

However we made it through the first set of ladders and got up on the ridge to look back over the Salton Sea.

The wash below is our trail that we will eventually get back down to to enter into the Painted Canyon.

The trail behind us and again a little bit of the Salton Sea in the far background.

Once down into the wash the walking was hard as the path was soft sand so you were always turning your ankles. In about a mile we entered into the Painted Canyon and the pictures do not do it justice, it was unbelieveably beautiful. A different scene around every corner.

The rocks were so colorful.

It is hard to explain all the different shapes and shades.

Look at all the different formations and colors on just one corner.

So here we go again with the second set of ladders, this one was so steep that I slid part way on my butt then caught onto the rope to get onto the ladder.

From the bottom looking up

We had planned to get a few geocaches along the way but you became so engrossed in the hike that we forgot until we got down to the botton and then picked up a couple on the way out.

What a wonderful area to find, it was a real treat, we are a little sore but made it to happy hour and when the hockey game is over I will be hitting the bed.