Telescope peak is the highest peak in Death Valley national Park.  The towering ridge provides a beautiful 360 degree view of Death Valley and other surrounding ranges.

From Maghoney Flats, you start off by passing by pinyon pines and climbs through the forest into a grassy meadow with great views of the valley floor.

 After the first mile, the trail rises to Rodgers peak and continues to follow the ridge. 

 The ridge flattens out and continues to meander around the ridge passing by limber pines and providing sections of great camping for backpacking trips on the ridge.

 About half way up the trail we pass by some Bristlecone pines which have been documented to live in excess of over 1000 years old.

 These incredibly solid trees have stunted growth so they are a bit thicker in size than height, given their life expectancy.

Once we approached the ridge, the trail narrows a bit and steadily climbed to the final ridge and the top of telescope peak.

We had some fantastic 360 panoramic views of Death Valley, Mt. Charleston, and the Eastern Sierras.

We hung out at the top of the peak for an hour to take in the wonderful views and hang out with the other hikers that made it to the top.

There was a guy that started at -260 feet belwo sea level in Badwater basin and hiked up to the summit, he started at midnight and had a long day ahead of him with the heat rising to 115 degrees.

There was another guy that was communicating with a mobile radio tower and he was able to communicate with people over 100 miles away. 

We could only imagine what the temps were in the basin but the cool breeze and the great conditions made this a fantastic day!

It took us a casual 4 hours to get to the summit and another three hours moving at a casual pace to get back down to the camp site.

We stopped for a bit to enjoy the beautiful bristle cone trees and the flowers that were blooming on the meadow ridge.

The hike back down was very straightforward and the trail to the peak was really easy to follow. 

I was surprised to see so many people at the campsite and on the trail but I can understand why this peak is sought after due to the relative ease of access to the trail head and to the peak. 

We enjoyed the meadow hike and the trail overall had a lot of variety as we meandered around Rodgers peak and up tot he ridge of telescope peak. 

There were also a lot of people that brought their camping kits to the ridge to camp at the top for the night which looked like a very nice option and something that I would like to experience in the future.

We got back pretty early so we had a bit of a relaxing afternoon and took off the following morning.

Viewing the sierras ignited our deep interest to visit the snow capped peaks in the summer and we are looking forward to making our way out west.

telescope peak.

The road leading up to the flats was a 2WD high clearance road. We did not have any issues getting up to the top campsite. There is one section with some deep ruts but it was maneuverable and easy to get around.

view of telescope peak.