On June 24 2011 I went on a solo day hike to Comanche Point. This was my first significant hike since undergoing surgery to have my appendix removed earlier in the month. The hot, cloudless summer day coupled with my recent inactivity made this hike a little more difficult than I anticipated.

I began at 8:30am from Desert View, and hiked along the rim north to the point. Allowing time for a little exploring and dawdling for photos, I reached Comanche Point in four and a half hours at 1pm. On the return hike I cut cross-country to the jeep roads and arrived back at Desert View in just over two and a half hours.

Below I’ve included some of the more interesting photos with captions. Scroll to the bottom of this page to view the entire gallery. Conditions were far from optimum for good photography on this day, but I did what I could.

Comanche Point is seen here in the upper right hand corner. It’s farther away than it looks. The hike along the rim involved a lot of up and down, and offered a completely solitary off-trail experience.

the view west from below Desert View at the east side of Tanner Basin

I think the “Old Tanner Trail” goes down the route seen here. I kept my eyes peeled for a cairn, but never saw one. There looked to be one or two other route possibilities.

The sheer cliffs at the edge of the rim along the Palisades of the Desert are startling. These are honestly the highest, most abrupt, and vertical cliffs I’ve ever seen.

At the point there was cairn, some old deer antlers, and a rusty can with no register.

…and you can see Humphrey’s Peak from there.

This is a final shot from Lipan Point in the late afternoon.

Check out the full gallery with 70 photos.

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