Continued...
The Ivanpah Mountains are found in Mojave National Preserve, south of
Interstate 15 and Mountain Pass, about 15mi from the Nevada border. The area
has seen extensive mining and prospecting back in the day, leaving a network of
legacy roads, structures and detritus from the mining activity. I had been
to the range back in 2012 with Evan Rasumussen when chasing down peaks found
in Zdon's Desert Summits, and then again on a few other visits. I was
back to collect the remaining seven unnamed summits to fill out the collection.
The biggest obstacle was that the most convenient access, Cima Rd on the west
side of the range, was closed for extensive reconstruction and paving. The
NPS has had it closed all winter and recently extended the closure to late May.
There is 4WD access
at Mountain Pass, at it was this that I
would use to enter and exit the area. It's a lot of
, but I
had all day and it wasn't much of an issue. None of the hikes were very long,
all of them standard class 2. Much of the effort was in the driving, something
I minded not a whit since it gave me a nice break between stints.
Peak 5,846ft
I approached this from ,
at the end of leading to some
prospects. The hardest part was the rough driving down the narrow wash between
the summit and Kokoweef Peak to the north. The longer drive around the west
side of Kokoweef has better roads. It took about 20min to reach
where I found the first of several MacLeod/Lilley registers
on the day, all . There were a handful of visitors in the 80s
& 90s, as , looking for another entrance to the cavern.
This is a reference to
a fantastical legend from the 1930s, claiming the existence of a 5,000-foot
deep cavern in the limestone of Kokoweef Peak, with untold placer riches called
the River of Gold. Not surprisingly, there has been no news of its rediscovery.
And it seems since the advent of the Internet, folks stopped believing the
legend.
Peak 5,784ft
I entered Mojave NP on my drive to this second peak, marked by
that prohibits non-street legal vehicles. I took a spur road that goes up the
drainage between this and the next peak, parking when I was
, about half a mile distance. This one took about
25min to reach . A was found in a plastic
film cannister, inside a Lite beer can. My first instinct was to give Smatko
credit, but I was surprised to find it was the same
as the previous summit register. The only
other entry was from 2005, so about 20yrs between visits, this one.
Slingshot Mtn
at the Jeep, I drove a bit further to the end of the spur road
where it on a saddle on the crest of the range, about half a
mile .
This one also took 25min to reach . There was a Smatko register
as well as a booklet from the MacLeod/Lilley party the
following day . This had a few more entries, including the likes
of Adam Walker, who probably visited it because it has over 500ft of prominence
(the most prominent of today's peaks). Smatko gave the name for this summit,
so I've included it here - sounds better than Peak 5,921ft.
Peak 5,918ft
I had about 50min of driving to this next one, taking me past J Riley Bembry's
grave along the main Kessler Peak Rd, and then a spur road past
on the northwest side of Peak 5,918ft. Bembry was of the Lost
Generation, having
served as a medic during WWI, a butcher afterwards, and then some 50yrs as a
prospector in this part of the Mojave. His camp has been maintained by
volunteers since his death in the 1980s, with a rather .
The Internet has numerous stories about the man, well worth a read. I stopped at
the camp to tour the after visiting the peak - one of
such camps I've found in the Mojave. There are old
and
throughout the area, an outdoor museum to mining efforts of a bygone era. The
hike took only about 20min, probably the most interesting of the day with a
reminiscent of Joshua Tree. Smatko had recorded a climb
on this summit in 1978, but I failed to find a register he might have left.
Peak 5,849ft - Southpah Mtn
More driving south had me about a mile west of these two summits. No spur round
is found to get one closer. I parked within the eastern boundary of the 2020
Dome fire, one of the largest ever to burn in the Mojave Desert. With little
rain, there are few signs of recovery. The large Joshua Tree forest was almost
completely wiped out within and I saw no sign of new
growth as could be seen with the yuccas. The cacti varieties were similarly
wiped out within the burn zone. The fire was spread easily by the tall grasses
that grow here. I hiked up the drainage between the two peaks, with
spared in the fire, Southpah not so. There is a pretty
clean delineation of even four years after the fire. I
climbed Peak 5,849ft from first, taking about 50min.
Outside the burn zone during the ascent, I managed to carelessly brush against
a cactus with and spent the next 10min carefully
extracting the tiny needles from my glove and hand. features
some easy . I found no register on this one
either. I next spent about 45min getting to , this
time bumping an ankle into a cactus on the way down from Peak 5,849ft - you'd
think I'd be more careful - and so another 5min were spent on extracting more
needles (different variety, similarly nasty). Smatko had dubbed the second
summit as Southpah Mtn in the register he left .
This one had no other signatures for 46 years, though someone appears to have
scratched out the
First ascent line after their three names. It would
take an additional 35min on to the Jeep. Since the entire
return was within the burn zone, I had without concern
for the cacti - maybe fire in the desert isn't so bad...
Peak 5,324ft
I hadn't planned to do this one, but since it was only 4p, I still had three
hours of daylight. The peak is located south of Kessler Peak (which I'd already
climbed) and I would have to drive some distance on Cima Rd to reach it. I knew
the road was officially closed to the public, but figured I could get away with
a mile of driving on it. The bigger problem was where to park. The east side of
Cima Rd is the site of managed by the NPS,
for
No Trespassing. There were several vehicles parked
there, and I couldn't tell if folks were inside working, or just storing their
vehicles. I decided to on the west
side of Cima Rd, off a BLM road heading in that direction towards Cima Dome.
Presumeably, I could have come in that way legally, so I didn't see any reason
I shouldn't be able to park there. From there, it's about a mile east to Peak
5,324ft. I walked through the government area (there have been newer buildings
erected since the fire), then across before ascending
of the peak. This is mostly straightforward with a bit
of class 2-3 where the granite blocks get bigger and
more numerous. It was about 30min to where I left
before the same way.
It was 6p when I returned to the Jeep. I thought briefly about driving back to
I-15 via Cima Rd, but didn't want to take the chance of either an LEO encounter
or a section of road blocked and undriveable. I still had plenty of daylight,
so I showered, changed to fresh clothes, opened an adult beverage, and spent
the next hour driving back out on the dirt roads (avoiding the nasty bits from
earlier), a most relaxing bit of further adventure around . I
would end up camped behind the Whiskey Pete's at Primm, same place I'd camped on
the last night of my previous trip to Las Vegas...
Continued...