We took a day trip to Mineral King. Because the road is closed and the gates were locked, it was the perfect time to pull over next to Bird Poop Rock and inspect it. Since last year’s fire, it is very visible, and it is apparent that it is not bird poop, but a large erratic boulder of white rock (quartz? I don’t know) with lots of dirt and soot and who-knows-what staining the white. It is also broken up and has many pieces scattered along the bank. I slammed a small piece to the ground to see if it is white throughout, and sure enough, it is.

We were fairly busy, retrieving paintings from the Silver City Store, photographing a cabin that I will be drawing soon, and didn’t do any hiking*. The colors were faded, we still saw the small plume of smoke across the canyon on the way up (above Lookout Point), and it was in the mid 50s.

Cabin closed. Shutters up. End of season.

BUT THE JUNIPER IN THE PARKING LOT HAS BEEN SPARED!! Only the dead red fir behind it was removed. (It was marked to be removed, and if you scroll down a bit in this post, you can read about it.)

Hiking buddy and I walked down the road a ways from Atwell Mill.

This is a mystery to me. These 2 peaks appear almost touching from Silver City. Someone has called them Hengst Peak; someone else told me they are Mosquito Peak. “They” is actually two separate peaks, and perhaps one is Hengst and the other is Mosquito. Anyone know??

Then the Husbands caught up to us in the big pick-’em-up truck, and we headed back down the hill.

*The 2023 calendar Mineral King HIKES” is now sold out.