Located in the heart of the Mojave Desert, what stands out about this peak is its summit castle that requires some exposed class 3 scrambling. Like many desert peaks, the trailhead is barren, burned, and ugly. The trail follows an old road no longer passable by car and leads to an abandoned Copper Mine. The trail ends here, and the route runs straight up several steep, loose slopes to a long, sharp ridgeline that leads to the summit.
Making Our Ascent
There is cactus everywhere. As much as we tried to avoid it, we both got a good dose of cactus on the way up. I got the worst of it. I slid down a rock that was too high to step over and caught a large chuck of catus in my right butt cheek. I took a lot of quills, and many of them were deep and barbed. I got the tweezers out of my med kit and dropped my pants to pick them all out. I soon realized I needed help. You know you are good friends when you can ask that person to pick quills out of your bare butt. Manny was able to get most of them, but some tiny quills took a few days to work their way out. Ten minutes later, Manny put his entire palm on the head of a cactus, trying to steady himself while scrambling. He was wearing gloves, but the quills went straight through. Ouch. Fortunately, that particular cactus was not barbed.
You know you are good friends when you can ask that person to pick quills out of your bare butt.
The Summit Castle
The summit castle is truly a sight to behold. It’s beautiful and a little intimidating. The hardest scrambling is just below the summit block, and getting up is easier than getting down. From the summit, we could see other summit castles unique to this area. From our vantage point, it looked like a giant God-sized rock garden. We took in the views and met another lone hiker who also made the summit before making our descent. I watched Manny make a stressful descent off the summit block on some exposed class 3, and I regretted not giving him a hip belay with some webbing I brought. I ended up using it later in our descent, and I was glad I brought it. I call today a success. This one had fitness, beauty, with a pinch of suffering, and a little anxiety on the exposed scrambling – all the ingredients of a fun adventure day in the desert.
I watched Manny make a stressful descent off the summit block on some exposed class 3, and I regretted not giving him a hip belay with some webbing I brought.
Elevation Profile
