Saturday May 3, 18.5mi/29.8km

Black Tank Wash (365.0/3820ft) to Halloran Summit (383.5/4100ft) (CA)

It was a peaceful night sleeping in the wash, though I thought I’d heard voices at some point. I hiked the last mile down the wash, before exiting it.

As I was looking for the exit point through the cliffs, I heard voices again. There were people out here! And they were looking at the pictographs on the rocks.

Ron, Charles, and Emily were out on a trip looking for these artifacts.

They were fun to talk to about all the local desert stuff. And I never see people out here, so I asked them to take my photo.

And this arch was a complete surprise, as it was not mentioned in the guidebook.

From there, the rest of the day was walking across lava fields of varying degrees of rockiness.

Usually I was staring at my feet so I didn’t look up much, but when I heard hooves I saw this friendly burro in the distance.

I was slowly climbing the lava field, weaving through cinder cones, and eventually was up on a rim.

The views were great but it was rapidly getting cloudier.

It was a very scenic walk along the rim all afternoon. Especially in the north direction, which is where I’m heading.

Looking west:

The volcanic rocks lessened, so it was a little easier to walk without tripping, but I still had to stop to really enjoy the views.

And then after 3pm the sky got really dark and I started hiking faster.

I was about 10 minutes away from the point where I would exit the plateau and descend down through the rim, and I heard thunder overhead. I moved faster though my pace was limited by all the little bushes (blackbush and brittlebush). I made it down below the rim and then the thunder and wind really increased. I was down lower now, so I waited behind a large creosote bush for the wind to diminish. I had a good view of this flowering little cactus while I was waiting!

An hour later, I arrived to the interstate 15 crossing and found my water cache.

Yup, after a very beautiful 5 days I was finally leaving the Mojave National preserve.

I hiked by this abandoned old gas station which felt really creepy with all the graffiti and vandalism.

Crossing the interstate, looking north towards Las Vegas direction.

I don’t like camping near roads, but there wasn’t much choice in this area so I got myself a half mile from pavement and setup under some high voltage power lines.

I could see more clouds coming, so I quickly got my tent set up and it started lightly raining a few minutes afterwards. Perfect timing. Tomorrow, depending on weather, I may exit the trail here, or continue north for another 3 days and exit at Tecopa.