After camping at the Wheeler Geologic Area, I climbed back to Halfmoon Pass and then up a short ascent onto the Palmer Mesa. For miles, I hiked over flat to slightly rolling alpine tundra on the top of the wilderness area at an elevation above 12,000 feet. It was an endless flat landscape of short grass with views of distant mountains in all directions. The trail was not clear on the ground, and instead, I followed a series of weathered wooden poles. When I found one pole, I had to scan the horizon for another, one-half a mile or more in the distance.