2024 peakbagging and other activities

[DAW89446]

I've never been on Willow Creek Road, but I was thinking about going around the tip of the Last Chance Range to explore that area near the CA/NV border. How are the road conditions out there?

I haven't been over those years in 16 years. When I lived in Big Pine, that was my backyard and I spent a lot of time in that area.

The road through Willow Wash and canyon between Eureka Valley and Fish Lake Valley is a county maintained road. The road in from Willow via Cucomungo Canyon is generally bladed annually. The confluence of Willow/Cucomungo is often washed out deeply and impassable. Years ago people have modified the sign to say "DANG! WASHOUT." Once you hit Cucomungo Spring, roads run seemingly everywhere. They vary from dim two track to semi-maintained.

A dim two-track north from Cucomungo Spring connects with the maintained road coming south from NV266 at Pigeon Spring. A road heads east from the spring and flirts all along the rim where Uncle Sam and Cottonwood creeks plummet into northernmost Death Valley and eventually connect with the Tule Canyon road, which drops back into Death Valley and connects with the Big Pine-Death Valley road at Crankshaft Crossing. Or you can access Oriental Wash, Gold Mountain and Gold Point.

None of the roads will pose any issue to a stock 4WD vehicle.

The rim country and upper Tule Canyon is above 7,000 and higher thus can hold deep snow well into spring due to dense piñon forests.

[Brice]

Another week, another round of peaks.  I went up south pass and up hunter mountain road as far as I could before a stretch of snow and mud made me stop.  Unfortunately, not everybody stopped at this point and so the road has been deeply rutted with muddy tracks which will be no fun to drive once the snow receeds.

Down the spur road to Hunter spring there was this old signpost.  It was sporting some newish graffiti but I couldn't see anything else on it.  Something in my brain said these signposts have been discussed before on this forum but I can't remember or bother to search for it.



It was a moderately annoying bushwhack to Hunt benchmark once I left the road.  There was a neat rock outcrop just before the summit (left) that would be perfect for ritual sacrifice, or presenting a newborn baby lion to the world.



View from the benchmark looking south into Panamint valley.  Lake hill is center.



Then it was off to the Hunter mountain high point.  Ubehebe peak and the racetrack is visible right of center.  My finger is in the upper left.



The first summit the next day was the Nelson range highpoint.  This time Ubehebe peak and the racetrack is on the left.



And I think this is Cerro Gordo Peak right of center.  Looking pretty good.



The three other summits that day are not worth mentioning.  Next day was the modestly named Zinc Hill.  Zinc Hill is the rather large mountain behind panamint springs.  With the Darwin Springs road being closed, I had to do it on the hard difficulty setting.  I parked at the RV campground for $5 and took a ridgeline all the way up.  It worked out great.  View from the summit of Zinc hill.



You can see the stretch of flowers blooming in the center of the valley.  I travelled across that intersection 4 times this week.  Each time there were a bunch of people barely pulling off the road, making U-turns, and wandering into the 65 mph traffic to take photos of the flowers.  It's a bit of a hazard.

[John Morrow]

I think I am headed to Utah soon. These photos make me feel the need to consider a significant detour....

[DAW89446]

And I think this is Cerro Gordo Peak right of center.  Looking pretty good.

Cerro Gordo Peak is left of center (which I annotated your photo, below). The peak you refer to is not named on the topo maps, but locally known as Pleasant Mountain. GE calls it Pleasant Point.



The view of the flowers in Panamint Valley is cool. Interesting the sharp cutoff on the north.

[Brice]

Cerro Gordo Peak is left of center (which I annotated your photo, below). The peak you refer to is not named on the topo maps, but locally known as Pleasant Mountain. GE calls it Pleasant Point.

Thanks for the correction!