Sunday, March 12, 2023

Bead Mountain

Today Noelle, Sierra and I went for a short drive out to Bead Mountain Ranch to make the short hike up to the area's namesake Bead Mountain. When we arrived at the parking area, we were surprised to find another vehicle in the lot. This isn't a very popular area.

Anyway, we immediately started our hike. 


There's not a trail here, so we merely walked through some cattle pasture towards our objective.


On the northeast side of the "mountain" is a small area of eroded badlands. 


We hiked towards the badlands, then traversed the base past some boulders that have eroded out of the mountain.


Then, we made our way up the slope that led to the saddle between the two summits.


Looking back towards the parking area, were great views of Scotts Bluff.


Once we had reached the saddle, 


we opted to hike to the shorter western summit first. It was a pretty steep climb.



The western summit is covered with pipy concretions of limestone. 



There were great views in all directions. 

After a short time exploring, we made our way back to the saddle and started the ascent up to the eastern summit. 


Again, there were great views in all directions. 




This eastern summit is part of a long flat ridge that extends about 200 yards east. We followed the ridge and started to descend.


At the end of the ridge, we started our final descent down some steep loose slopes. We were all relieved when we had reached the flatter terrain at the base of the mountain. 


From here it was a short hike across the pastures back to the car. We ended our day with beers and lunch at Flyover.

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