Continued...
My last day in Lake Mead NRA had me camped at the highpoint along the dirt
Boathouse Cove Rd, south of Northshore Rd. It was a quiet location off the main
road, near where I planned to hike the next morning. Once again, the peaks
were selected from Purcell's Rambles & Scrambles, a collection of more
than 900 summits around the greater Las Vegas desert regions. I've been
plugging away at these rather slowly over the years as there's far too many
to do quickly. I couldn't even manage to get all the peaks in this small area
over the past three days as there's so many to choose from. I'd already made
one pass along Northshore Rd back in February and I'm sure there'll be a few
more in the future.
Manganese Peak/Manganese Southwest
is the highpoint of the Jimbilnan Wilderness with
almost 800ft of prominence. is a lower, but still
worthwhile summit half a mile from Manganese, though it does not appear in
Purcell's guidebook. The two
are separated by a deep wash descending southeast into Lake Mead. I parked off
Boathouse Cove Rd right where it crosses this wash,
about 0.6mi from both summits. Though I
combined them in one hike, they are almost two separate hikes since one has to
drop down to the wash between them. I to Manganese Peak first,
climbing one ridgeline heading northeast up from the wash, then onto the
NNW Ridge, a good class 2-3 effort. The summit has fine views
less than 2mi away, though overcast weather
today muted most of the day's photos. , dating from 2010,
had more entries than I would have guessed. When I saw the likes of
and in it I was a little puzzled
until I realized it was a Wilderness HP. I got this one without even realizing
it. I descended a dropping to the northwest before
curving west to drop into the main wash. This had some
along the way, a good bit of fun. I came across a small
that had been sent aloft via balloons
back in September from Las Vegas. I had its own postage-paid bag
for mailing it back to NOA. This is the second time I've come across one of
these. I
and climbed Manganese Southwest from the northeast
side, bypassing a false summit around its north side and eventually getting to
a ridge that led nicely to a saddle on the west side, and from there up a short
distance to the summit. It, too, had ,
but only three entries in six
years. For the descent, I headed down a ridgeline to the northwest, then turning
northeast to
to the road very close to the jeep. I covered almost
3mi and 1,700ft of gain in just over 2hrs' time.
Stock Ridge
This summit is about a mile northeast of Manganese. I moved the jeep about the
same distance along the road, starting off about 0.6mi from the summit. I went
up one drainage and down another in a small loop, summiting the peak from a
high notch on , class 3. Easier options can be found on
the south side of the peak. Lower to the northwest are a collection of
Purcell describes as a fun bit of scrambling.
I let them be since I didn't have an audience to entertain.
Peak 2,674ft/Pellet Peak
These two made for an enjoyable combination. Located a couple of miles north
of Stock Ridge, I moved the jeep once again, from the
west for Peak 2,674ft first. I headed up a wide drainage where I found a
series of excellent sheep trails that took me within a few hundred feet of the
summit - nice! After , I
then backtracked a short distance before to follow
a sometimes indistinct ridgeline connecting the two summits. Not such good
sheep trails on this leg, but it's easy class 2 for the most part. The SW Ridge
of Pellet Peak is rugged and class 3 if you stick to the ridge proper, but one
can bypass this if desired on one side or the other. After summiting Pellet Peak,
I dropped down a steep gully on the west side before turning southwest once
off the mountain to follow back to where
. I covered
three and a quarter miles in less than two hours - not much elevation gain on
this one.
White Basin Overlook
This P1K is located north of the NRA, in the Muddy Mountains between Valley of
Fire State Park and the NRA. There is a 26 mile-long Backcountry Byway passing
through White Basin between Northshore Rd and Valley of Fire Rd.
the
entire length of this sometimes rough route, chewing up hours of daylight. It
took me two hours to drive the first 18mi and get me within a mile of White Basin
Overlook where I started up just after 2:30p. I had hoped to combine this with
nearby Buffington Peak, but I was worried about running out of daylight and
having to negotiate steep limestone slopes in the dark. The scramble involved
1,000ft of gain over the course of a mile, most of this in the
from where I'd parked. There was a fair amount
of class 3 limestone scrambling until I reached the
where difficulties eased considerably. There was a bit more
just before reaching from the north.
here in a broken plastic container showed I was only
in eleven years - not bad. Purcell was among the last to sign the
register before I arrived. Not wanting to give up on Buffington Peak just yet,
I followed the
to the saddle between the two. Here I
decided the remaining half mile of ridgeline looked to be slow-going and might
make for a return in the dark. I played it safe and descended down from the
saddle,
that had a few surprises and made me glad with my
decision to forgo Buffington - it would be there for another visit.
I showered where I'd parked in the remaining daylight, the overcast skies
making things even darker than they'd be otherwise. I then drove the remaining
7 miles or so of the byway to reach Valley of Fire Rd where I decided to spend
the night. I'll have to look for some peaks to do in the state park for
tomorrow...
Continued...