The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

Peru’s Ausangate Circuit Trek

When last minute cancellations by other clients put paid to my plan to trek to the Incan site of Choquequirao, I signed up instead for an extended Ausangate Circuit trek in the remote Cordillera Vilcanota range of the Andes, south of Cusco, a city I hadn’t visited since 2009. After two days of acclimatization near Cusco, we commenced our nine day trek. Our group of seven clients, one guide and a horseman with his “sag” horse hiked about 90 km (56 miles) and ascended more than 3700 m (12,100 ft). While the distances and elevation gains were not great, the altitude certainly was: five high passes which ranged from 4850 to 5200 meters (15,900 to 17,060 ft).

The Cordillera Vilcanota boasts several 6000m peaks, including the sacred Ausangate, at 6372m (20,900 ft), the highest mountain in southern Peru. This high and wild trekking circuit wound its way on quiet trails through this rarely-visited range, following lovely alpine valleys and traversing a series of passes connecting them. After a lovely soak in the Pachanta town hot springs one afternoon, the usual end point for the Ausangate Circuit trek, our trek continued another 2 1/2 days, highlighted by the remote and stunning Laguna Singrenacocha.

Enjoy some of the hundreds of photos that I took!

View of the Sacred Valley from Parque Arqueológico Pisac, our first of two acclimatization walks
Banana passionfruit flower
A view of Incan farming terraces from Parque Arqueológico Pisac
A Cyclopian-style Incan wall at Sacsayhuaman above Cusco, where we did the 2nd of our two acclimatization walks. The stones weigh up to 200 tons.
Approaching Ausangate from near the Tinki trailhead on Day 1. The trailhead was a leisurely 4-hour drive south from Cusco.
Our first night’s camp. The orange tents on the left side are ours.
Glacial melt-water serenades our group of 7 clients early on Day 2. Our group included five Brits and two Americans. Can you spot them in this photo?
Laguna vista with Ausangate
Old Man of the Andes cacti (Oreocereus celsianus)
View from the pass Abra al Arapa, 4850 m, the first of the five high passes we would cross on the trek. The needle-like peak is Sorimani.
Laguna Pucacocha
Our group down-climbing above Laguna Pucacocha
Our horses grazing near our 2nd camp in the late afternoon
Late afternoon light on Ausangate
Hatun (Great) Pucacocha and alpaca herd early on Day 3
Ausangate with Hatun Pucacocha on the left here
Th Vagabond Hiker with our horseman, Rozes, on the Apachita Pass (4920m)
Painted Mountain, a popular day hike from the opposite side.
Llamas
Our 3rd campsite
Pano with clients on Day 4
Rozes and our guide Evr (r), on Abra Paloman (5100m)
The Vagabond Hiker on Abra Paloman
Pycnophyllum molle moss
Landscape with Senecio leucophyton (in the daisy family)
Lodge, tarn, and Ausangate, seen on Day 4. The usual climbing route ascends from the red-roofed lodge seen in the lower left.
A Northern Viscacha, a type of chinchilla. Over a couple of days we saw (and heard) numerous Viscachas near streams.
Nevado Ausangate in all its formidable glory
Lupinus weberbaueri, seen on Day 5. We saw several different lupines. . .
Lupinus alopecuroides. None of the flowers I saw seemed to have common English names, hence I’m sticking with the Latin binomials for this post.
Some of our pack horses on Day 5 near Abra La Campa (5060m). Jatunhuma (6100m) is in the background.
Puka Punta (5600m), Pachanta (5950m), and Callangate (6110m) seen to our east on Day 5.
Nototriche obcuneata, in the mallow family
View descending towards our Day 5 camp
Sunset view on Day 5. Puka Punta (“Red Point” in Quechua) is on the right.
Laguna Pucacocha in the morning of Day 6.
Grasses and blue pond with reflection of a portion of the Ausangate massif.
A remote village with Callangate behind, seen on Day 7
Some dry stone walls testify to the ubiquitous alpaca and Llama herding over the centuries
Perezia pygmea, in the daisy family
Landscape with glacial stream
An alpaca herd
Closeup of five alpacas. The 2nd from the left looks to me like a character in the Wizard of Oz.
Our “sag” horse, Ausangate, being encouraged to cross a stream
Day 7 sunset vista with horses and alpenglow on Callangate
The turquoise Laguna Singrenaccocha, seen early on Day 8
Gentiana sedifolia
Another view of Laguna Singrenaccocha, which we essentially circumambulated this day, camping near the southwest corner
Hatun Q’ampa reflected in a small, unnamed lake
The main river feeding into Laguna Singrenaccocha, which we crossed downstream, near its entrance to the lake
An view upstream of that river
Yet more alpacas (and some llamas)!
Mark crossing one section of the river near the outlet of Laguna Singrenaccocha
Our scenic Day 8 campsite and our horses
Our support crew (our cook, two assistants, and muleteers), Day 9
Still morning reflections in Laguna Singrenaccocha
Our final canyon descent to the roadhead near Malima on Day 9.

I chose to spend this summer in the Rocky Mountains of southwest Colorado and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada range of California. If I get some decent photos, expect one or two blog posts from some of my numerous day hikes. In early September I will be traveling around Europe for about 5 1/2 weeks, trekking across the Picos de Europa in northern Spain and the Julian Alps in Slovenia (yes, I know they are not particularly close together!), and doing a series of walks on São Miguel Island in the Azores. Expect three more blog posts this autumn from those adventures!

In the meantime, enjoy as much of the summer outdoors as you can,

The Vagabond Hiker

Travels with Clifford

As long-time followers of this blog may know, my youngest brother, Clifford, has both graced many photos and been behind the lens for quite a few more. Beginning with Maui in 1990, Clifford and I explored Belize in 1993, Wales with our dad in 2000, and coastal California and the Southwest US numerous times since 2007. More recently we traveled and hiked together in Tasmania and mainland Australia in 2017, Malta in 2018, Ireland in 2019, and Costa Rica in 2022. Clifford’s innate curiosity, far-reaching knowledge, boundless enthusiasm, and child-like sense of wonder for the natural world enriched my travels in so many ways. Here are some recent fond memories. . .

Posing with stringy bark eucalyptus, Franklin River Nature Trail, Tasmania, Australia, 2017
Scratching an alpha male Forester kangaroo, Tasmania
Smiling from inside a hollow eucalyptus, Notley Gorge, Tasmania
Investigating a termite mound, Bed Boyd National Park, New South Wales, Australia, 2017
Admiring the vista at Kalarranga Lookout, Finke Gorge National Park, Northern Territory, Australia, 2017
Enjoying the strata, Kings Canyon, Northern Territory
At a cliff-edge along the south coast of the island of Gozo, Malta, 2018
Kayaking on Dwejra Bay, Gozo
Admiring the cliffs from his kayak, Dwejra Bay
Looking up into the canopy from under a Dragon tree, San Diego Botanical Garden, 2022
Standing with an impressive yucca, San Diego Botanical Garden
Posing with an endangered Elephant tree at Torote Bowl, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California, 2022
Under California Fan Palms, Anza-Borrego
At the trailhead of the Domelands Loop, Coyote Mountains Wilderness, California, 2022
Making empanadas with Valerie, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, 2022
At Toroweap Overlook on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, 2023
Smiling with our brother, Mark (c), and me, the Dingle Peninsula, Ireland, 2019

Clifford Blizard

1970-2024

Carpe Diem!

Kent Blizard, the Vagabond Hiker

Scrambles, Walks, and Archeology in Jordan

Jordan was one of many hiking trips I booked for 2020, before the pandemic put paid to virtually all travel. After nearly a four year delay, over the holiday I finally managed to get there, joined by Maggie for most of the trip.

Hiking and scrambling in the Wadi Rum desert with local bed​ou​ins, visiting the magical Nabataean city of Petra, and exploring some of the archeological ruins in the east and north of the country, as well as taking a dip in the Dead Sea (the lowpoint of my trip!) made for an active 2 week vacation. Here are some of the highlights.

My journey started in the ancient city of Madaba, dating from the middle Bronze Age and renowned for its Byzantine mosaics. A three night stay near the historic center of Madaba gave me at least a little time to adjust to the 11 hour time loss on the nearly 30-hour trip from California. In addition to wandering around the city one day, I spent much of my final day there visiting three of Jordan’s eastern desert castles.

Birds mosaic at Madaba Archeological Park (admission here, and in all other cultural sites I visited is included with the Jordan Pass)
The original Tree of Life mosaic, Madaba
A small portion of the Madaba mosaic map from the 6th century CE, the oldest known geographic floor mosaic in art history. Restoration work was ongoing at St George Orthodox Church, and the tiles were difficult to photograph.
Qasr Harrana, possibly an Umayyad caravanserai
Qusayr (“little castle”) Amra. This Umayyad desert retreat, famous for its frescoes, was once part of a much larger complex.
Qusayr Amra craftsmen fresco
Qusayr Amra bather fresco
Qusayr Amra hunting/animal fresco
Qasr al-Azraq, constructed from the local basalt. Strategic for its location near the only oasis for hundreds of miles, it was renovated and expanded by the Ayyubids in the 13th century. It was Lawrence of Arabia’s desert headquarters during the winter of 1917. I should have hired a local guide as there were no placards explaining the site.
Qasr al-Azraq arches

On my third day, I joined up with five other clients in the KE Adventures group to drive down to southern Jordan for a week-long hiking and cultural trip in Wadi Rum and Petra.

Leaving the village of Wadi Rum (not visible to the right) on our short hike to Abu Aina
Our local bed​ou​in guide, Selim, on our hike to Abu Aina
Petroglyphs
Desert vista with a cypress and Salim
Our first night’s camp. Land Cruiser’s transported most of our luggage, leaving us with only a light day pack to carry.
Sunset from our first camp
Murat, our leader, scrambling to Burdah Bridge.
Burdah Bridge. The scramble from the desert floor to the top of the bridge was for me the best hike of the trip.
View from the top of Burdah Bridge. That’s Maggie right center.
Rhona on Burdah Bridge
Maggie on the crux of the descent
An exposed ledge traverse
The view up Jebel Khasch, on the third day in Wadi Rum
Climbing some angled slabs on Jebel Khasch
Maggie on the summit of Jebel Khasch (1700m)
Jebel Um Adaami, the highest point in Jordan and our next objective, seen from Jebel Khasch.
A natural amphitheatre on the Jebel Khasch massif, which we traversed
Egyptian autumn crocus (Colchicum ritchii) near our third camp. There weren’t many flowers at this time of year, mostly just sand verbena and this crocus.
Jebel Um Adaami summit vista towards the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia is on the left (south)
With Maggie and the Jordanian flag on the summit of Jebel Um Adaami (1854m)
Desert vista on our afternoon hike following the ascent of Jebel Um Adaami
An eroded rock formation
A Belgian lace sandstone formation
Our final sunset in Wadi Rum, seen from Salim’s permanent camp, featuring real beds and hot showers, which felt great after 3 nights of wild camping.

After five days and four nights in the Wadi Rum desert, we drove north to Wadi Musa for for two days of walking and sightseeing at Petra.

The famous Treasury appears as we walk through the dramatic chasm of the Siq
The Treasury. Unsurprisingly, there were relatively few tourists at Petra.
Colorful sandstone
A ray of sun hits the tombs
The Monastery at Petra. About a 1/2 hour hike above the Siq, it it every bit as amazing as the Treasury.
The Royal tombs at Petra
Jebel Haroun, to the east of Petra. Its summit was our objective for our final hike.
Jebel Haroun chapel. Murat is on the left.
A camel striding near Jebel Haroun
Four kids hanging out near Jebel Haroun

The rest of our group of six left for England at the conclusion of our two days walking around Petra. Maggie and I instead headed for Amman where we had rented an AirBnb apartment for three nights off Rainbow Street near the First Circle. From that base we took a guided tour of the nearby old town (mostly seeing a variety of markets!) and then headed north the following day for a day of archeology.

Roman columns at Umm Qais in far northern Jordan. Although hazy, we were able to see Lake Tiberias (aka the Sea of Galilee) from the escarpment.
A hall in Ajloun Castle. I wasn’t able to get a good picture of the castle itself due to low clouds and only having my phone with me.
A mosaic tile at Ajloun Castle. I love this guy’s worried look as the the leopard is eyeing his donkey.
Maggie and I
The colonnaded Roman road toward the west gate at Jerash, one of the most extensive Roman ruins outside of Italy.
Jerash colonnades with the modern city in the background
The setting sun at Jerash. We had left it until last on a long day, which limited how much we could cover. It would be easy to spend an entire day only at Jerash.
At the Holiday Inn Dead Sea Resort. The Dead Sea is of course the lowest point on Earth, at 430 meters (1411 ft) below sea level. As with the rest of the country, tourism here has almost come to a halt since October.

This rare rainy day in the California desert enabled me to finally finish this blog post! This weekend I head down to Baja California Sur for a week of warm sun, hikes, and birding. If I get a few decent photos, I will post them in February. Until then, stay warm.

The Vagabond Hiker

PS I naughtily included one photo I took at Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada, implying that it was from Jordan. Did you spot it?