Overview

This trail runs for about 8 miles between Hole-in-the-Wall (HW) and Mid Hills (MH) Campground. In June 2005, this area burned in the 71,000-acre Hackbury Fire. The first mile or so (to the pass on the horizon in the photo at left), remains unburned, but the rest of the trail runs through the burned area. Although different now, this still is an interesting hike with astounding spring wildflowers in 2006 and many resprouting shrubs. It will be an interesting study in how desert vegetation responds to wildfire.

As described here, the trail runs uphill from HW to MH, with a net elevation gain of about 1,265 feet (total gain of about 1,710 feet). This long, but fairly easy trail traverses a variety of habitats and vegetation types (burned), climbs through rocky passes, follows sandy washes, and runs through big open country that gives the feeling of being "way out there." The trail crosses three dirt roads that could be used as early-exits from the trail to Wild Horse Road. As described here, this is a one-way uphill hike that requires shuttling vehicles; the trail could be hiked up and back (all or in part), and it could be hiked downhill from MH to HW.

Link to map.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this is a fairly safe hike. You could stumble into one of the many Banana Yuccas, Buckhorn Cholla, or Woodrat nests along the trail, but these concerns aren't unique to this trail.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. Also, this is a long hike in a remote area, so be sure to bring the 10 Essentials.

This hike is located Mojave National Preserve, about 2 hours south of Las Vegas.

From town, drive out to the Hole-in-the-Wall Visitor Center (Table 1, Site 502), which is about 85 miles from Las Vegas. While driving south on Black Canyon Road, you will pass MH Campground Road (Site 834) about 7 miles before getting to HW. Leave a vehicle at the MH trailhead (Site 835) if you are going to do a shuttle from there. From the Visitor Center, continue west on the Visitor Center access road for a minute or so to the picnic area at the end of the road (Site 846). Park at the western-most point on the road; this is the trailhead.

The Hike

From the Rings Trail trailhead (Table 2, Waypoint 1), the trail starts on the Rings Trail and descends through a cleft in the cliffs to the desert floor below. For details of this section, see the description of the Rings Trail.

From the bottom of the Rings Trail cleft in the rocks, the HW-MH trail runs southwest (initially following an old road) to get around the south side of the striking promontory crag that can be seen from the bottom of the hole-in-the-wall cleft. Watch for a trail marker on the southeast side of the promontory crag. After about 0.75 miles, the trail reaches a junction (Wpt. 2) with the trail that comes up from Wild Horse Road. The road, about 0.3 miles south of the junction, is an alternative trailhead.

From the trail junction, the trail turns right and runs north for about 0.7 miles to what appears to be a pass on the horizon (Wpt. 3), but which actually is a narrow gap between the mountains. To get there, the trail follows a bench between a broad sandy wash to the west and distinctively banded volcanic cliffs to the east. The vegetation on the bench is low-growing Mojave Desert Scrub with lots of Mojave Yucca and Buckhorn Cholla, and there are many cholla-spine-fortified Desert Woodrat (packrat) nests among the yuccas. The fire burned the entire mountain across the wash to the west. About 200 yards before getting to the narrow gap, the trail passes two tree-sized Mojave Yuccas as it runs around the east side of a rocky knob with lots of Barrel Cactus. The trail then goes above and to the east of the narrow gap, passes through a gate (sign says 6.2 miles to MH), and drops into the sandy wash north of the narrow gap and into the burned area.

The trail starts up the wash, then quickly leaves the wash and follows old roads northwest for about 0.5 miles to a fork in the road below the Opalite Cliffs (Wpt. 4), which is a light-colored cliff capped with black lava. The vegetation along here used to be relatively lush in the wash and on the north-facing slopes (species including Single-leaf Pinyon, Utah Juniper, Desert Almond, Catclaw Acacia, and other large shrubs). I would imagine that the shrubs are resprouting, but the trees don't seem to do so well in the fire.

From the Opalite Cliffs, the trail runs almost due north towards a saddle on the horizon about 2 air-miles distant (entirely burned). From the fork beneath the Opalite Cliffs, the trail follows an old road northeast (not northwest) for about 190 yards, turns north (Wpt. 5), quickly crosses another road, and then starts up the gentle bajada towards the saddle on the horizon. The trail runs up a wash for a ways, then leaves the wash and runs up onto low ridges. The vegetation through here used to be dense higher-elevation Mojave Desert Scrub with Big Sagebrush, various cholla, Mojave Yucca and Banana Yucca, Nevada Ephedra, and California Buckwheat.

If you've gotten a late start, there is a large flat granite outcrop about a mile before the saddle offers an inviting place to lie down, stretch out in the sun, and eat lunch.

Farther up the trail, just before getting into the hills, there is another gate with a sign (4.2 miles to MH, 3.1 miles to HW). From the gate, the trail follows old roads north to the saddle (Wpt. 6). The view from the saddle is great, and with binoculars, you can see the entrance to the MH campground (the end of the trail). The route from here runs far to the east of where you would expect by looking at the lay of the land, and it runs over the hills that you can see about 2.7 air-miles due north of the saddle (all burned).

From the saddle, the trail runs downhill on old roads and angles slightly to the west before reaching another gate and a road (Wpt. 7). A sign on the fence says that it is now 3.1 miles to MH and 5.0 miles back to HW.

From the gate, the trail crosses the road and heads northeast, dropping into the wash in the bottom of the valley at a point to the east of some bluffs (Wpt. 8). The vegetation in the valley was Single-leaf Pinyon, Utah Juniper, and Big Sagebrush on the slopes, and Desert Almond and Catclaw Acacia in the wash. In the bottom of the valley, the trail follows the sandy wash uphill to another east-west road (Wpt. 9) that crosses the wash.

Two signs at the road seem to give conflicting information. One sign indicates that you should continue up the wash to the northwest (straight ahead) to get to MH, and the other sign indicates that the trail climbs out of the wash to the north (right). Both routes lead to the MH trailhead. The route in the wash connects with an old road and runs directly to the MH trailhead, while the trail runs off to the north, climbs over some mountains, and eventually descends to the trailhead.

Leaving the wash, the trail runs north out of the wash and follows low ridges towards a canyon on the south side of the mountains ahead. Before starting to climb over the mountain, there is another gate (1.2 miles to MH, 6.1 miles to HW). From the gate, the trail runs up the canyon (Wpt. 10) and finally crests out on a saddle (Wpt. 11) with a great view of the New York Mountains to the northeast (burned country). The trail then turns to the west, crosses a low saddle, and drops off the mountain to the MH trailhead (Wpt. 12).

From MH, drive back to the HW trailhead.