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| Hiking | 4.45 Miles |
2,258 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.45 Miles | 2 Hrs 24 Mns | | 2.05 mph |
| 2,258 ft AEG | 14 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Second hike of the day for me. Still really windy, but the skies had mostly cleared up. This one was recommended to me by an employee. I wasn't sure about it at first since it was a lot of things I wasn't thrilled about: short, fairly popular, dirt road the entire way; but I had time to kill so I headed out there. As soon as I parked, I was feeling a little better about the hike, the mountain looked pretty cool, and the road I wasn't happy about looked steep. And it was. From the parking area, the road immediately started climbing. And climbing. After a short distance, the road curves to the left around the mountain, and you get a good view of the climb awaiting you. The road heads pretty much straight up for a while, the switchbacks up to a saddle. The only drawback was the amount of graffiti on the rocks.
I was enjoying the almost sheer lack of vegetation on the entire mountain. With a little imagination, it really felt like walking in tundra. I had been somewhat shielded from the wind through this part, but when I reached the saddle, it started back up again with a vengeance. Over the saddle, I lost a lot of the elevation I had just gained, but could now see the summit, and the very steep road that went up to it. Again, steeply straight up for a while, then switchbacking near the top. At the top, I decided to head for the south summit first; the road ends at the fence, then a quick & easy scramble up the rocks. Be careful when you reach the top of the rocks, because it drops straight down on the other side. With the wind gusts, I decided to sit and take pictures rather than stand on the rocks. After the pictures, I headed back north to the north summit, found a place sheltered from the wind, had a quick lunch, took some pictures, then headed back down.
The hike back down was fairly easy but a little rough on the knees. I had trekking poles, but my knees were still hurting by the time I was less than halfway down. If the hike up was a calf burner, the descent was a quad killer. Luckily the stark scenery was a nice distraction. If I ever had the misfortune of living in Vegas, this would be a good workout hike. |
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| Stop crying and just go do the hike. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Not a fun descent to the valley below and it gave me a foreshadowing of what was in-store for me on the return trip. As I was hiking up this last major climb I was thinking of the warnings they provide at the Grand Canyon…..what goes down, must come up. Only I was thinking to myself….what goes up, must come down 
. I had already determined, from that brief descent, that I much preferred the uphill portion of the hike. Made it to the top, but only went to the first tower. It appeared to be higher of the two. The drop-off to the east was extreme. Funny. You have no idea what the other side of the mountain looks like until you get to the top and look over the rock ledge. Great views from the top. I had Las Vegas at my feet. Only spent about 5 minutes on top before attempting my descent. It took more time for me to go down, than up. Hiking poles would have been nice. Ironically, I avoided the rock-free tracks and tried to find the embedded rocks or more commonly the larger rock sections. Probably being overly cautious, but at my age…. A few slips, but no falls. 
