Continued...
I was camped along Gold Butte Rd in Gold Butte National Monument, NV. It
was the first of 3-4 days I planned to spend in the monument. I had been
here once before, briefly, to climb Virgin Peak with Matthew while chasing
DPS summits. This time I was back to do a more thorough investigation of
the fine offerings found in this corner of Nevada. It was raining lightly
in the morning which delayed my getting out of the sack. I was parked a
mile from the summit of Juanita BM which I had planned to visit first.
With the rain showing no sign of abatement, I decided to spend the time
driving further south into the monument while waiting for better weather.
It improved, such that I never got more than a few drops on me, but it
was very cloudy for most of the day (until a spectacular later afternoon
appearance of the sun) and I didn't get hiking until 9a. It was not a full
day, but my feet were needing some rest anyway.
Bitter Ridge
Found west of Gold Butte Rd, a rough spur road forks off the main road
shortly before reaching Whitney Pocket. I drove the road some 5mi to the
southwest before less than half a mile from the summit.
It turns out I could have driven even further, up to
southeast of the summit. I walked the remaining bit of road, then
limestone slopes. There was a cool
found along the way.
is found a short distance west of a false summit atop the ridgeline. With
more than 900ft of prominence, it has a
overlooking of the monument. On the
return I made a small loop by following the ridgeline some distance to
the northeast before dropping back to the road and
to the jeep.
Black Butte
is located less than two miles northeast of Bitter
Ridge. I drove back down the road about a mile to a large
near a wash on the west side of Black Butte.
is less than half a mile to the summit, but features some
, easy class 3. A register placed
had ten pages of entries, though most of these held only
one party on a page. Nice little peak.
Billy Goat Peak
This summit is found in Zdon's
Desert Summits at the south end of
the Virgin Mtns and south of Whitney Pass. I drove up to the pass and down
the other side in search of a spur road that I thought could get me
closer. I ended up driving through the
(formerly the Whitney Ranch) and briefly
before discovering this spur
road was gated closed. I then drove back through the ranch and parked north
of Billy Goat Peak, about .
It turns out there's a rough spur
road (shown on the topo map) that I could have driven if I'd noticed it,
perhaps another 1/3mi closer. Billy Goat Peak is the highpoint of Whitney
Ridge, and after some initial cross-country and road travel, I began
following
heading generally south along Whitney Ridge.
Unlike all the desert stuff I'd been doing the past week, there were
pine trees along the route at an elevation over 5,000ft. I weaved between
these, over much limestone rock (some ,
too, but it
could easily be avoided by moving to the side of the ridge). The low clouds
that had obscured the summit earlier cleared nicely, giving me
from
when I reached it. The higher peaks in the Virgin Mtns to
the north were still partially obscured, however. There was an old John
Vitz register
with Barbara/Gordon visiting three years later.
Another register shows up
with 11 pages of entries. Not sure what
happened for the 20yrs between 1983 and 2003, though. I returned via much
the same route, save for some sidehilling on the east side to avoid the
class 3 sections.
Quail Point
This is an exceedingly minor point off the road between Whitney Pass and
Whitney Pocket. I parked a quarter mile from the summit and climbed up
the steep ,
taking all of maybe 10min. I detoured a bit on the
return to take a safer route back - the north side is quite steep with
loose earth near the top.
Peak 4,413ft
This unnamed summit with more than 600ft of prominence lies above Whitney
Pocket to the northeast. I climbed the mile-long SE Ridge directly
...