I chose to ascend Table Mountain not for its lofty heights or for its physical demands, but for its boulders. From start to summit, Table is chockablock with boulders. I probably saw more boulders here than on my last fifty trips put together. Piles and piles of boulders, some larger than a house. The mountain is a wonderland of rocks.

After Dinah and I parked at the trailhead, next to a pile of boulders a few stories high, we set off up a road in search of a windmill, the first landmark described on Summitpost. But after hiking for several minutes, the road veered away from Table Mountain with no sign of the windmill. So we left the road and headed north across the desert. We found the windmill 600 m northeast of the trailhead, hidden behind a ridge.

From the windmill we started up the long ridge that leads to Table, but soon we became distracted by the wildlife. Dinah spotted a rabbit that fled and she tried in vain to get a photo of it. I, on the other hand, tried to take pictures of roadrunners and quail. All the creatures, however, easily darted away and hid among the rocks and creosote bushes. After spending thirty minutes chasing the critters – I only managed a few distant pictures of quail – we gave up and hiked up the boulder-strewn ridge.

The length of the ridge was a hodgepodge of boulders. In some places they were spread out and we travelled easily through them, but in other spots they rose in great piles in front of us and we had an interesting time navigating up through them. Eventually, however, we made our way to the base of the summit. We ascended the steep slope below it. The flat top of Table Mountain stretches several hundreds of metres across but fortunately the summit is at the nearest end. After reaching it, we hiked a short way along the mesa before turning back.

Instead of following the ridge back, we simply dropped down to the desert floor on the south side and walked back to our car. The flats, scattered with boulders, was as interesting as the ridge.

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