Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Owens Peak question

I need some info. about Owens peak. I know some of you out there are Bakersfield and/or Kern County residents such as I and would probably have a lot of good info to offer on this peak. I welcome all useful info from anyone who has climbed it. I'm planning on climbing Owens peak sometime in June and I'm torn about the approach. One option I'm considering is to hike it from Walker pass via the Pacific Crest Trail. Is the trail easy to follow, or does it gradually fade into oblivion? The topo map that I've studied shows it as going slightly south of the summit. The other option is to drive off-road as far as possible from one of the dirt roads that branch from the highway 14 and approach from the East. This would be a shorter hike and the map shows that there are two petroglyph sites on the way to the summit. Are they easy to find, or worth checking out? Both routes seem very interesting. It's hard to decide which one to do. Please help!

Rafael...

Hi. I haven't climbed Owens Peak yet but I, along with two friends, attempted to locate the petroglyph rocks without success. We had a topo map, were familiar with likely petroglyph sites, and spent several hours searching, but alas failed. Maybe you will have better luck.

Goody, You made an interesting point. I've heard of relic hunters taking rocks or pieces of rocks that have petroglyphs as well as other Pre-Columbian relics. I hope that this was not the reason you couldn't find them.

Rafael...

Have summited Owens Peak both ways. The Walker Pass pct route is easy to follow. Once you reach the saddle between Mt Jenkins and Owens, there is a short cross country scramble to the summmit. This is about an 18 mile round trip.
If you drive up Indian Wells Canyon, the hike is much shorter (albeit steeper) from the trailhead.

Hi again rafael. I have seen the damage done by relic hunters at other sites and I don't recall seeing that type of damage on any of the rocks we inspected in the area. For relic hunters there are sites that are a lot easier to access, so I don't think that's the reason we didn't find them (at least I hope not). Good luck!

Nice photos Bob, I imagined that it would be more barren than it really is. Thanks for the info everyone. I think I will take the PCT. The distance would be good to lose the last few pounds I'm trying to drop. When I do Muir and possibly Whitney in July, I should be about 20 pounds lighter than last year when I climbed Whitney. I hope it helps. Thanks again.

Rafael...

maybe will see you tomorrow - doing jenkins - supposed to be hot - leave early and bring lots of water