Our route. We started at the Homer Wilson Trailhead and went counter clockwise around the loop. Our first camp was Smoky Spring, second Dominguez Spring (at the lower right of the loop) and third at the junction of the Dodson Trail and Fresno Creek (the upper right of the loop).
View from Dodson Trail SW towards Goat Mountain (on right). Drainage in foreground is an eastern fork of Blue Creek (which passes W of Goat Mountain).We traversed out of that drainage into the upper reaches of Smoky Creek (or an un-named drainage leading into Smoky Creek) that passes just E of Goat Mountain. That traverse passed left of the distant white cliffs visible at base of small hill in front of Goat Mountain's central summit.
"Saddle" between upper Smoky Creek drainage and an eastern fork of the Blue Creek drainage.
Lee at the upper end of Smoky Creek just after we dropped in from the Dodson Trail via Blue Creek.
Possible old lion kill in upper Smoky Creek. Probably a young mule deer buck. No antlers found.
Closer view of the skull. Perhaps someone with better knowledge of mammal skulls can confirm it is a mule deer?
Ventral view of skull.
I think this is the atlas. We speculated that the two large holes could be from the canines of a mountain lion, but it is probably just as likely they are from weathering of the skeleton. So much for our forensic backpacking skills!
Brush in the area of the possible lion kill.
Nice walking in upper Smoky Creek (west fork).
West fork of Smoky Creek's northernmost pour-off! Too bad all pour-offs aren't this easy.
Small dam on W side of Smoky Creek's west fork, just E of Goat Mountain. I suspect the tank is named?
Double pour-off a bit S of the dam in previous photo. Water available at the right edge of the basalt cap above the lighter colored sedimentary material. We went around both sections to the W (left). Javalina & deer have a small trail onto the shelf between the two pour-offs that accesses the water.
Upper of the two pour-offs.
Shelf that provides access to the water at its far end. Game trail passes behind the large rock.
Water at end of shelf (see previous photo). This is where the game trail ends. When we were here, water dripped over the edge of the shelf onto the arroyo bottom below, but it immediately sank into the sand so it appears that animals come up to this spot to drink.
Water dripping over the edge of the shelf (see previous photos). As long as the wind isn't blowing, you could catch water from these drips, but it's probably easier to get it from the shallow puddles above.
Nice crystals formed inside some basalt (?).
Lee in the middle section of the Smoky Creek wash with points 4127 and 4302 behind him.
