Devils Postpile National Monument Highpoint Trip Report
Date: May 2009
Author: Dave Covill
This was a most interesting place, for sure ! Snowshoed in all the way from the ski area,
starting early. I was of course the only person in sight all day.
I walked all the way down the road to the monument, crossed the bridge
and got onto the W side of the creek, and gained the granite dome on the far S end.
I followed a trail (more or less, ~3-4' of snow down low) to where it turns and heads SW.
I bushwhacked N on the dome, getting steeper, until I crested it.
I took a break here and began to assess what the heck was going on.
Yes, many more knobs and fins than the map would lead one to believe.
I walked the crest of the dome N to about where it started to head downhill steeply.
I made my way due E down a steep embankment, looking for any sign at all of the
monument boundary. Nothing.
I went down into the main hollow between contours, and found a National Park sign on a tree,
facing S I think, away from where I was walking. I was lucky to spot it.
It appears to be placed perhaps 100' too far to the E, in the center of the valley,
but what can you do? It is either right, and the map is misleading, or it is wrong,
and they stuck it on the first tree they could find of any decent size.
Regardless, I climbed the NE contour hill, slightly challenging, and handlevelled
across the valley to the W where I had come from. I spied a noticeable outcrop,
and walked back across and up to it, and placed a cairn there.
Not sure why, just to denote where the HP probably was, or perhaps just up hill from it.
Then, I went back down into the valley, to the SE contour, but it was lower.
I walked due S in the valley looking for more signs, but found none
(as far as I can recall - my notes are in the our files at John M's house).
I made my way back the way I had come, and got out to the car well into the afternoon.
Long day. I think it's the better part of 8 miles into there,
and then a big climb up the dome.
Sure is a pretty place. I did not go up to the volcanic postpiles;
too tired, although of course I could see them easily.