For this weeks Show Us Your California contest by Hive account@thesocalhive my buddy and I head out into the mountains to explore...

The Domeland Wilderness!

My buddy Juan and I headed out into the Domeland wilderness for a few days of hiking and camping. This was gonna be his first backpacking trip ever, so that made it an extra special trip! We met in Bakersfield, got our packs all packed up, and then drove up into the mountains. It was a fairly long drive, but we finally got up to the trailhead at Big Meadow and started hiking. The trail started by climbing up and over a big and fairly steep ridge. Once over the top it was an easy cruise down to Manter meadow. We hiked around the north side of the meadow and then made our camp on the far side where Manter creek flows out.

Big Meadow

Old cabins near Manter meadow

Hiking around the northern side of the meadow

Manter meadow

Manter creek

Evening views from the rocks above our camp

Chillin' at camp

We enjoyed our first night and in the morning after some breakfast we packed up our day packs and headed out to do some exploring! We hiked back up to the north end of Manter meadow to the junction with the Woodpecker trail. We hiked up the Woodpecker trail through a burn scar from an old wildfire. It was a bit sad to see all the burned trees, but it also opened up great views of all the many granite Domes and rock formations. Eventually we got up to a saddle where we left the burn scar and met the junction with the Domeland trail. After a quick break we started hiking out the Domeland trail and the scenery just kept getting better and better! We made our way out to Bart Dome, one of the largest Domes in the area. While there was no way for us to climb Bart Dome as it's highly technical climbing from any route, we did climb up onto another broader and easier to climb dome just east of Bart Dome. The views from it were spectacular in every direction! We were overlooking a huge portion of the Domeland wilderness from Rockhouse basin to Bart Dome to Rockhouse peak. We enjoyed a nice long break on the dome before starting our trek back to Manter meadow.

Hiking up the Woodpecker trail

The junction with the Domeland trail

Climbing the Dome

Views of Bart dome

Views looking across Rockhouse basin

We got back to camp feeling good and Juan was stoked that he had just done his first ever 10 mile hike with no problem! We enjoyed our second night of camping and then in the morning we packed it all up. We headed back across Manter meadow and back over that big ridge (which seemed even bigger on the way out) and back down to the trailhead at Big Meadow. It was a great trip and I'm looking forward to getting Juan out into the mountains with me again someday!