Owens Peak and Mt. Jenkins

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Sunrise at the trailhead

Leaving the drainage

After spending the night in Ridgecrest, Sarah and I drove up to the Owens Peak trailhead in Indian Wells Canyon planning to summit Owens and Jenkins. The driving directions at climber.org were right on, and we had no problem making it to the trailhead in my 4runner even in the dark. Like some reports online said, high clearance is probably good idea, but 4WD is probably not required. It took us around 30 minutes to get the trailhead from highway 14. From there, we enjoyed an amazing sunrise at the trailhead then started hiking around 6:30. I recalled the saying "Red skies at night sailor's delight. Red skies in the morning sailor take warning." I learned it on the JMT. 

Icy conditions

It was in the mid-thirties as we headed out. We followed the trail up the drainage and it eventually led us to the right and up the south ridge of the peak. Obvious cairns marked the entire route though a well-beaten trail wasn't always present. Around 7,600', the conditions turned abruptly wintery. The final 800' to the summit were marked by snow, ice, and wind. We got to the top after about 2.5 hours of hiking, spending only a few minutes there since it was so cold. 

Heading down the ridgeline toward the PCT and Jenkins

The beginning of the route down the southwest ridge to the PCT wasn't immediately obvious from the top. We initally started down a gully a bit too far west but eventually traversed east and picked up a trail of cairns that followed the ridgeline. As we followed the cairns, conditions alternated between moderate with little snow (on the east side of the ridge) and wintery (on the west side of the ridge). Fortunately, none of the downclimbing was too tricky. We reached the PCT about an hour from the summit. 

On top of Jenkins

We followed the PCT for a couple of flat miles to the point where I had marked on my GPS that we should leave and ascend to the east ridge of Jenkins. It looked a bit improbable from below with all of the snow. The first part of the ascent was steep, but once we were up on the ridgeline, we were able to follow an obvious use trail with cairns all the way to the summit. By this time, it had started to rain/snow a bit and there were no views to be had in any direction. We got to the top about 3 hours from Owens and 5.5 hours from the trailhead, again not spending too much time at the top on account of the weather. 

Descent from Jenkins

Back at the car

The descent to the car was quicker and easier than I had expected. We walked all the way down the east ridge straight to the car getting there an hour after being on top. The entire loop took 7 hours including breaks.