View of the 1 3/4 miles hike to the canyon mouth as seen from the parking area:
Zooming in on the canyon mouth, visible in the center:
The next few pictures will show you a sampling of the wildflowers seen on the early part of the hike. First, we have the Desert Five-Spot:
Second, we have Desert Sand Verbena, which was growing in abundance on all three hikes I had been on so far:
A close-up of the pink colored Desert Sand Verbena:
Third, we have Desert Gold, by far the most abundant wildflower during the Superbloom:
Fourth, we have the mostly white Brown-eyed Evening Primrose:
Brown-eyed Evening Primrose is so named for having a brown center (which sometimes looks red), along with the white petals:
I was starting to draw closer to the thick blanket of yellow up ahead:
Upon reaching the edge of the field of Desert Golds, this was the incredible view looking toward Tramway Canyon:
Ashford Peak (3,547 feet) dominated over the landscape of yellow:
Panoramic of the Desert Golds underneath Ashford Peak and Smith Mountain South:
Zooming in to take a closer look at the route through the field of yellow leading to the canyon mouth:
There was no clear walking path through this area except straight through the flowers:
Wider panoramic of the Desert Golds which shows Smith Mountain and the Panamints:
The next two pictures shows a small walking path that I finally found to help limit the yellow dusting on my lower body:
Looking off to the east, Jubilee Mountain was visible about 5 miles away:
To the northwest, Smith Mountain and Smith Mountain South (left side peaks) are located about 7 miles away:
In the last picture, this picture, and the next one, notice the height of the Desert Gold wildflowers above the ground:
Another Desert Five-Spot disrupts the blanket of solid yellow:
The Desert Gold wildflowers seen in this area were the highlight of the 2016 Superbloom:
The entire southern portion of the Badwater Road area was covered with thick yellow wildflowers similar to this scene:
These are minor peaks located at the southwestern corner of the Black Mountains:
Zooming in for a closer look at Jubilee Mountain (2,542 feet):
Ground-level view of Desert Gold wildflowers:
I was finally able to find an even more distinct wash to walk through which cut a path through the flowers:
It was enjoyable to see the various views of Ashford Peak while drawing closer to the base of the mountain:
Desert Five-Spots were growing in abundance on the fan hike up:
Twin Desert Five-Spots with their petals closed up, hiding the red spots:
The mouth of Tramway Canyon continues to draw closer, but there are more wildflowers to pass through first:
Desert Gold and Desert Sand Verbena growing together on the fan:
Notice how the Desert Golds continue all the way up the hillside until it curves out of view:
Around this area, a great variety of wildflowers came into view once again:
In addition to the four wildflowers highlighted earlier, our fifth find was Gravel Ghost:
Two Gravel Ghost wildflowers, so named because from a distance they appear to float in the air:
Our sixth wildflower find on this hike was Golden Evening Primrose:
A nice close-up showing the intricate beauty of Golden Evening Primrose:
The seventh wildflower spotted was Notch-leaf Phacelia. This was a new find on the trip, as earlier we had spotted Caltha-leaf Phacelia at Saratoga Spring:
The eighth wildflower found was Rock Daisy:
Rock Daisies are tiny but beautiful and difficult to photograph in focus:
The fan got steeper toward the end. Turning back and looking at the fields of yellow and distant Owlshead Mountains. Talc Canyon is visible on the left side:
Notice that the flowers mostly disappeared as I entered this major wash leading into the canyon:
A long piece of wood has washed down the canyon from the mining area:
First look into Tramway Canyon from the mouth. The canyon was given this informal name because of the label "tramway" which appears on topographical maps:
Two mining containers or buckets have washed down the canyon and gotten buried in gravel:
A concrete platform with a couple of retaining walls was seen on the left side of the early canyon:
A closer look at the concrete pad. It looks like it would still make for a good place to erect a structure:
The early canyon had low walls and minor sloping hillsides:
Spotting the tramway cable crossing above the middle of the canyon:
This is the tramway station. Notice that the old ladders are no longer safe or usable, so this is not a good place to climb up to the station:
I decided to climb up from the backside where there was more solid rock. This shows an overview of the tramway station:
Pulleys used to transport ore carts up and down the tramway:
Some type of old tank used for storage or perhaps as part of an engine:
How many decades has this rusted gas canister been sitting here above the canyon?:
Various wood scraps and mining relics leftover at the station:
A small patch of flowers was blooming at the tramway station:
The bottom of the tramway cable is connected to these rocks and still holding after all these years:
The next two views show how the tramway cable crosses above the canyon and heads up high on the steep hillside:
View of the ladder as seen from above it. Most of the steps are missing:
Full overview of what remains at the tramway station:
This corrugated piece of tin or metal is being used as a retaining wall:
After fully examining the remnants of the tramway station, I continued hiking up canyon:
A beautiful collage of colors on the canyon wall, reminiscent of nearby Kaleidoscope Canyon:
An abandoned mining tunnel that didn't get very far into the hillside:
Nice easy walking while progressing up Tramway Canyon:
Rock Nettle plants growing out of cracks in the canyon wall:
The tramway cable stretches way up in the sky as it heads to the upper hillside:
Notice here that there are two visible portions of the upper tramway station:
Zooming in on the spot where the tramway cable connects to the upper station:
It's hard to tell what this other wooden structure is from below. Perhaps it is an old ladder or wooden platform:
The canyon started narrowing down as the walls grew in height:
Up ahead, the canyon was transitioning into a section of tight narrows:
Entering the first part of the narrows, which proved to be shallow and twisty:
The next two pictures show a couple of easy climbs while going around bends in the narrows:
A beautiful contrast of bright sunlight and dark shadows in the narrows:
More twisting rugged narrows were just beyond:
A beautiful enclosed passage section through the narrows:
Dramatic walls close up and form slot narrows up ahead:
A picture of me on my solo hike standing at the base of the 1st major dry fall:
A closer look at the 1st major dry fall, which isn't that hard to climb but might be tricky for some hikers:
Tilting the camera toward the top of the dry fall reveals more beautiful narrows:
After climbing the dry fall, this was the view looking back down. It was a little steeper than it looked from below:
Immediately there was another dry fall to climb, but this one was much easier:
Notice the curves on the canyon walls in this section of narrows:
There were a few really nice spots located within the Tramway Canyon narrows:
After climbing through the series of dry falls, the canyon walls transitioned to a different type and color of rock:
The canyon is about to enter a small gorge. Right around here, a hiker looking to continue would start looking for potential bypasses:
Notice the red and orange streaks on the walls as the canyon closes up to only a few feet in width:
This final portion of the hike had the tightest narrows:
Looking back through the enclosed narrows of this section:
This is the 2nd major dry fall, which was my stopping point for the hike:
I didn't see any easy way to climb this and it was now 4:30pm on a February day. So that meant it would be getting dark soon:
I estimate that the 2nd major dry fall is about 22 feet tall:
In the fading daylight, I took this self-portrait on the hike back through the Superbloom of Desert Gold wildflowers:
