The first desert road trip of the season had me heading to Las Vegas and Death
Valley to meet up with some of my usual partners in crime. It's a long eight
hour drive to Las Vegas, so I broke it up with some easy peakbagging on the
way. I had gotten up before 5a so I would have a few hours of daylight in the
shorter afternoon we get post-DST. The three summits are all located on the
northern edge of the Mojave National Preserve, just south of Interstate 15. All
unnamed, the peaks were climbed by Andy Smatko back in the 1970s, so I was
hoping to find a few old registers.
Peak 2,820ft
I used the Halloran Springs exit off I-15, 10mi northeast of Baker, now a ghost
exit with no services where the
used to serve travelers. Behind
the restaurant site is an old, sandy road called Park Ave on Google Maps heading
southwest. It seems a bit sketchy to start, but gets better and has little
encroaching brush. I followed it for a few miles before taking a left fork and
then a left turn after a few more miles. Now heading southeast and south, I
drove another 2-3 miles until I was almost of the peak, only
half a mile distance. It took only 20min to hike up a subsidiary ridge to
, or what I expected to be the top per LoJ. There are two
summits, and the eastern one I stood upon is shown on the topo map as 4m higher
than , but it sure didn't look like it. I decided to
visit the western one about a quarter mile away, first taking a reading from the
GPSr on the east summit. The west one proved to be about 9-10ft higher, judging
by the GPSr and , so I had to conclude that the topo map
is in error. I found no register on either summit, but I did find an old 7-UP
bottle and a very . I left one of my
on the west summit before heading back via an alternate route that skirted
around of the east summit. I
spent just over an hour and a half on the effort.
Peak 5,459ft - Peak 5,715ft
Access to these two summits is a bit tricky. They are located southwest of
Mountain Pass. The peaks are part of the Mescal Range, whose other summits I
had visited on previous occasions.
The topo map shows a dirt road originating from the Mountain
Pass exit going under an overpass a few miles west of the exit. It does not
appear that this route is driveable any more, but it could be hiked on foot. I
believe it is now intended as an animal corridor under the Interstate. A close
inspection of the satellite view shows a point just west of the underpass that
might allow vehicle access from the truck lane on the east-bound side. The
tricky part is that you have to slow quickly and get off the pavement rather
abruptly, careful to be sure there are no trucks right behind you. I then found
that had to be untangled, moved aside, and then squeeze the Jeep
through the opening with only an inch of clearance on either side. Though there
are no signs, I wondered of the legality of this and was happy to get through
the fence and away from the highway. The topo map shows a road heading southeast
on the northeast side of the first summit, and another looping around to go up
the wash between the two summits. I had intended to use this latter option, but
found no sign of recent use on it, and suspect it is no longer viable. Instead
I followed the first road southeast until I was abreast the first summit,
. I would make a 2.5mi loop going over both summits,
starting from here.
It took less than 20min to reach the first summit via the NE Ridge, finding
a nice view to Clark Mtn, and views of
the Mescal Range. I looked around for a Smatko register, but found none and
of my own. I then had to into
where I'd hoped to park. I had some measure of satisfaction
in finding no evidence of anyone driving up the wash, at least in recent times,
justifying my choice of starting points. I then to Peak
5,715ft, taking about 50min between the two summits. Again I looked for a
register, but came up empty, almost. I dug out a few last rocks, deeper than
seemed reasonable, and discovered the small blue pill bottle that proved to be
the Smatko register I was looking for. There were no other
signatures
save for he and his pal, Ray Nelson, some 44yrs earlier. I now suspected there
was probably a similar register on the first summit and I had simply not dug
deep enough, but I was not going to go back to find out. Instead, I
back to the wash and skirted around the south side of
to go over a low pass that would take me
by 5p. The sun had set almost
half an hour earlier, but it was still sufficiently light to go without a
headlamp. I drove back out to the highway as it was growing darker, going
through a similar routine to get the Jeep through the narrow gate opening. I
then had to wait a nervous minute for a gap in the traffic wide enough
to drive onto the the pavement and get up to speed without causing an incident.
Once back in the flow of traffic, I relaxed and continued on my way to Nevada
where I was to meet up with Tom that evening...
Continued..