Day: May 27, 2011

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Vikingsholm Trail Emerald Bay State Park California

If you have the time, you definitely want to take the 1 mile hike down Vikingsholm Trail at Emerald Bay state park to the the water’s edge. While there won’t be any issues getting down the trail, you will eventually have to hike back up and the grade is fairly steep. You definitely need to be in decent shape to do it, but the rewards are well worth it.

As you begin to hike down Vikingsholm Trail, you will quickly get closer to Emerald Bay and see some wonderful views of Fannette Island:

View of Fannette Island in Emerald Bay from the Vikingsholm trail

The different colors within Emerald Bay will also begin to show themselves:

The wonderful colors of Emerald Bay

The view of Emerald Bay isn’t the only thing to keep your eyes glued to on your way down. There are a number of birds and small animals to see including a beautiful blue jay that is quite common:

Blue jay seen on the Vikingsholm trail to Emerald Bay

When you reach the bottom of Vikingsholm Trail, you will be next to the rock cliffs that you were moments before standing upon and you will quickly realize how far you descended in that mile walk down.

View of the rocks toward the bottom of Vikingsholm trail looking up at the view point

Once at the bottom of Vikingsholm Trail, you will be at the visitors center. From there you have the entire beach at Emerald Bay to explore as well as some other hikes to take if you are up to it.

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Hole In The Wall Mojave National Preserve

One place that I would definitely recommend when visiting Mojave National Preserve (CA) is Hole-in-the-Wall which is perfectly named. A few million years ago, the eruptions of a nearby volcano covered the area with a mixture of lava, gas and ash. As the ash cooled and the gas began to dissipate, the gas bubbles within the cooling lava expanded forming large holes. These large holes in the lava, which have been further enlarged through natural wind and water erosion, give the site its appropriate name.

Hole in the Wall Mojave National Preserve

The best place to begin your exploration of this area is at the visitors center where you can learn about the 1.5-mile loop Hole-in-the-Wall Rings Trail, nearby camping, nearby picnic areas and other activities in the area. The visitors center has running water and bathrooms and the park rangers were extremely helpful. Best of all, there are no fees to explore Hole-in-the-Wall.

If you do nothing else, you will definitely want to take the Hole-in-the-Wall Rings Trail. The Rings Trail trail-head is at the far end of the visitor center parking lot. While you can also begin the loop trail near the camping area, I would recommend doing in this direction to leave the best for last. This will lead you first through the desert shrubland to a rock with petroglyphs, then around the back side where you will get a wondrous view of the lava rocks that give the site its name which you will ultimately climb through with the help of metal rings drilled in the rock to make it possible to get through. You will emerge at the camping site and then it is a short walk from there down the main road back to the visitors center. definitely worth doing to see the interesting rock formations and you will want to give yourself some extra time to explore all the nooks and crannies that make the area so interesting.