Return to Ladder Canyon

Ladder Canyon 

February 12th 2021

Location: Mecca CA

Distance: 4.5 miles

Hiking Partners: Colin and Uncle J

Ladder Canyon is one of my favorite hikes in CA. It's only a four hour drive from Phoenix and it takes you on an adventure most never get to take. 

Only about a half mile up the trail you'll see a giant arrow made out of rocks pointing you in the right direction. Once you take that first left into a rock fall the fun begins. There's a small hole in the rocks to follow with a ladder if you look closely.

Once you get past this part its smooth sailing the rest of the way.

We found the first official ladder!

Time to climb!

In order to get from the bottom of the canyon to the top you'll have to climb these ladders to make it to the next shelf of the canyon. Don't worry the ladders are their pretty safeish!

There's a couple spots that don't have ladders but are easy to traverse.

There's also a couple small ladders to look out for as well.

Once you get to the top of the canyon you can see for miles. You can even see the Salton Sea.

On the way back you get to hike through what they call the Painted Canyon.

There's one side ladder to look out for. It looks super sketchy from a far but its actually bolted to the rockface. I've been up this canyon in the past and it doesn't lead anywhere except for a dead end. Highly recommend climbing up just to check it out!

One the way back to the trailhead we were able to enjoy giant Sandstone cliff faces. Awesome!

We had a Great time at ladder canyon!

But wait! There's More!

Being that we drove out to Palm Springs for the hike, the next day we made our way up to the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. Took the tram to the top of the mountain. We decided to take a little hike around to check out the sites and guess what! There was snow on the ground! Threw a couple snow balls, went sledding, the works! Colin had the best run of the day when he went flying down the mountain about 100 feet with no wipe outs on a broken, beat up sled. The hike is a small loop trail called Long Valley Discovery Trail. It's only a mile or two if that but its had some really nice views.

If you look closely in this picture of the sledding hill you can see all the broken sleds on the ground. It wasn't the most friendly snow as most of it was hard pack ice from the dramatic temperature changes every day but still a blast!

There's a lot of cool boulders to scramble up.

Some great scenery as well.

After our little hike around, we talked to the rangers at the ranger station at the top. The mountain range and state park is called Mt. Jacinto. People can hike the whole thing from the top or take the short cut with the tram and hike the rest of the way to the top. Pretty cool place to visit. 

We headed back down the tram and drove back to Phoenix.

This was a great side adventure and I would highly recommend it!

Until Next Time!