Trail Option

A personal geography of landscape and place, art and geo-science.

great basin

Nevada High Points #96 – Sahwave Mountains

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Rains leave a playa lake at Bluewing, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

Juniper Mountain

7475 ft (2278 m) – 1960 ft gain

2021.11.27

Juniper Mountain – Sahwave Mountains Collection

Desna, my wife and partner, was at Planet X for the weekend, it is winter sale time. Although the forecast remained stable with blue skies as far as any meteorologist could see, I figured it was a good day to get into the Black Rock area and explore the Sahwave Mountains. This small but interesting range is tucked into what I call the Bluewing Triangle, that expanse south of the Black Rock playa, east of the Nightengale Mountains, northwest of Interstate 80 and the Humboldt River. There are lots of little ranges in here, and very few people.

There are many access points with roads often straight-lining across the long and wide valley bottoms. I work up to Kumiva Pass, a west-to-east route north of Winnemucca Lake. It has been a while since I was across this road. It is a little worked over from recent rains but a nice route into Kumiva Valley where the Bluewing playa spreads before me. I have a future target peak over there; I look forward to it because I have used the Bluewing drainage on the east side of Kumiva Valley as a model landscape for alluvial reworking of dust – it might be good to walk it for real!

Juniper Mountain – Sahwave Mountains Collection

Straight-line roads lead from Bluewing to the Black Rock Desert, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

I turn south and find some good, grus-packed two-tracks leading to the mountain-front. The walk up Juniper Mountain is straight-forward. Small outcrops and benches of plutonic granite are struck through be volcanic dikes, but the slopes are generally open and grussy. There is evidence of sage grouse but I see no birds. A herd of horses curiously follows me, cuts my path, and then wanders down a drainage.

Jump off point. The truck sits on the fan below Juniper Mountain, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Juniper Mountain. A good walk in Sahwave Mountains, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

For a few moments I think I have veered toward the wrong summit. The map seems correct, and I consider why so many ranges have often discrete summits that reach a similar altitude, as if there is a control on the buoyancy of the mountain block, plutonic intrusion, or erosion. I think of these things walking around and forget to delve into the questions later.

Trinity Peak. The Trinity Range rises above Granite Springs Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Sage Hen distance. The southern view from the summit of Juniper Mountain, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

The summit has open views into Granite Springs Valley to the east, nice overlooks of Bluewing, and fading ranges into the Sierra to the southwest. Snowy peaks rise from the Sweetwaters to Mount Rose, looking more like clouds on the horizon than mountains where I have stood.

The drop back to the rig is quick. I have yet to see another car, not a dust trail in the distance. There is no one out here – a gift of the triangle. Back in the truck I work my way northward to the Black Rock Playa, finding the first of several little crowds at Frog Pond at the playa margin. I am not in the peaceful setting of Planet X soon enough.

Juniper Mountain – Sahwave Mountains Collection

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands. #naturefirst #keepgoing

Nevada High Points #95 – Palmetto Mountains

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Sierra view from the Palmetto Mountains, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

Harvey Peak

9285 ft (2830 m) – 1775 ft gain

2021.11.12

Harvey Peak – Palmetto Mountains Photo Collection

I had planned to get out early for Second Friday, but because my brother, Darren, could not join this weekend and my back had spasmed oddly yesterday, I slept late. The schedule had changed anyway. I now planned to meet colleagues in Owens Valley for a drone mapping project in the Inyo Mountains, so my journey into the Palmetto Mountains and their high point of Harvey Peak is a prelude to that.

I take the ‘fast’ route to Fish Lake Valley, through Yerington and Hawthorne, then around the Candelaria bypass. The length-wise traverse of Fish Lake Valley, below Boundary Peak (Nevada’s highest summit) and the White Mountains of California, is always longer than I remember, and I was just through here on my way to the Spring Mountains a month ago. I am pulling the trailer, and not looking to camp in the Palmettos, I stash it in a turnout along the two-lane highway. The rig now works its way through straggled mining camps, Harvey Peak rising in the northeast. I am running out of daylight, but it is a perfect day otherwise – clear and bright, not so perfect for landscape photography, of course.

The Garmin map is inaccurate, so foregoing the indicated road, I take a good turn that I soon think is a wrong turn, back out and turn around, go further east. That is no good. I go back to find my original instinct was correct and continue up-fan, parking below steep slopes. There are clearly roads to the top, but I always want to be at least 1.5 miles from and 1500 feet below from a summit, even if I could drive the entire route. That is no way to experience a mountain.

Evening light on Clayton Valley, Palmetto Mountains, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

I begin in a thick band of pinyon, a broad apron on the slopes of the Palmettos – the range’s name comes from a slightly inaccurate description of the region’s Joshua Trees, a few of which gather on slopes to the south. The sun is fading as I make open slopes near a bumpy ridgeline that wanders up-and-down as it climbs to a rocky summit. Groves of Curl-leaf Mountain Mahogany shelter in alcoves and indented swales in the hillslopes. Two beautiful mule deer exit as I enter a protected grove that had drawn my attention. I have exposed their hideaway.

Montezuma Peak from the slopes of Harvey Peak, Palmetto Mountains, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

I regretted my trespass as I turned around an outcrop to find a pair of trucks and several pedestrian hunters scouting the ridge, looking in scopes, or, in one case, sleeping in a truck cab. The sleeper’s truck was not parked on a road but looked as if it had just rolled to a stop like any other local, slope-stalled boulder. I crept past the slumbering man and approached the several other scouts, impressed that all their scopes were pointing in directions other than that of the tip-toeing deer I had so recently flushed. My secret seems safe as I say hello and, heavily out-gunned, wave shyly, the oddity of a camera-toting hiker strolling out of the blue hour.

There are two hunters and a Toyota from Tonopah at the summit register. I have not had company like this on a summit since the summit of Mount Rose, the beautiful dog-route above Reno. We chat about other hills and I get info on a good route on Lone Mountain to the northeast. I can see Montezuma Peak above Clayton Valley, and Lone Mountain just beyond is a future goal.

Hunter Uber. Hunting scouts offering rides on the evening descent, Palmetto Mountains, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

I head down into the dark, but I am soon followed by the truck, which seems to be picking up all the other hunters. I leave the track to follow game trails, night closing in around me. Bats flicker among the pinyon as an ATV intercepts me just above my truck. “Wow, you’re getting in the mileage.” Maybe. My watch just turned over 5.0, and I could probably seem my rig if it were light.

Toward the Sierra. Palmetto Mountains, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

Harvey Peak – Palmetto Mountains Photo Collection

The photography was uninspired as I was made inattentive by all the activity along the ridge. I enjoyed the walk, noticing that my back muscles, freed from the desk and chair, had warmed to the walk and I drove into the night painfree. I camped at an artesian well on a broad alluvial fan on the Nevada-California border, ready for a short expedition into the Inyo Mountains.

Keep going.

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands.

#naturefirst #keepgoing

Fall Color – Smith Valley, NV

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Riparian colors. A minor drainage shines in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

A storm had set in; great wind and slashing rain at StoneHeart throughout the night. And yet the Sierra seemed to have caught the storm by the tail keeping it from breaking further east. When this happens, the sunrise has promise. Hunting color at the edge of the storm, I set out into the dark rain of the pre-dawn, hoping the weather radar had truth in it.

Fall Color – Smith Valley Collection

Upstream. A riparian corridor in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Pairing. Cottonwoods turning late in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Lagging. Cottonwoods hover over a lone willow, Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Catching. Cottonwoods catch first light in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Overlay. Riparian shrubs in the watershed of Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA
Surrounds. A play of orange among the willows, Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

Fall Color – Smith Valley Collection

Smith Valley is on the opposite side of the Pine Nut Mountains, east of our home. In less than an hour, I am in the calm of the valley with dark clouds scudding off the mountain ridges above and to the west. It is as I hoped, a warm glow is peaking in the east and will light the east-facing mountain front. There is color here; black cottonwoods and willows peak from riparian corridors framed by golden rabbitbrush and grasses. Sometimes plans are brilliant.

Spring memory. A promise of life as the seasons turn, Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

I arrived at Spring Gulch, a sometime well-watered cleft between the lower slopes of the Pine Nuts and the Buckskin Range, and began picking compositions around individual trees. The trees were beautiful and still, almost begging for the new light. Somewhere above me the wind howled, but its effects remained invisible at the mountain tops even as its voice rolled downslope, an ominous warning of the storm rolling over and disturbing the peace in the little woodland.

Road to nowhere. An eager two-track scars the hills of Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

Working over the course of an hour or so, spitting rain reminding me of the storm at hand, I was very happy with the reward of the riparian corridors of the Great Basin Desert. Especially pleased at being relatively close to home. I journeyed back south, the wind and rain dropping in at my back altering and erasing my presence. I had stolen a few minutes in the calm before the storm, a perfect Sunday morning in Nevada.

Pivot and tree. Another cutting done in Smith Valley, Great Basin Desert, NV, USA

Fall Color – Smith Valley Collection

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands. #naturefirst #keepgoing

Nevada High Points #94 – Bird Spring Range

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False glitter. The lights of Las Vegas, Bird Spring Mountains, Mojave Desert, USA

Peak 5695

5695 ft (1736 m) – 1050 gain

2021.10.15

Peak 5965 – Bird Spring Range Photo Collection

Thankfully, my time in Vegas was about over. Leaving the conference hotel in the early evening, I worked my way south toward Jean, Nevada, eventually turning west toward Goodsprings. I hit the flaggy cobble-strewn track cut into the carbonate fans at the western slopes of the Bird Spring Range; the track parallels a dendritic dry wash draining the southern end of the Spring Mountains, of which the Bird Springs are a southeastern extension. The road, incised by consistent travel, cuts through a rocky plan of Joshua Trees and creosote. A smoother, less-used track heads into a broad swale in the northeastern portion of the range. I do not want to drive too far, as it looks like tracks head toward the summit ridge, so I find a turn out and settle into an evening walk.

Bird Spring approach. An easy evening walk to the high point of the Bird Spring Range, Mojave Desert, USA
Cactus light. The sharp ends catch the last light of the evening, Bird Spring Range, Mojave Desert, USA

The light feels harsh until the sun is on the brink of the horizon, golden hour rushes past in mere minutes. I am, however, excited by the walk into nightfall, making way steadily up a useless vehicle trail. A few outcrops of gritty limestone punctuate the trail, where a bright waning moon is diligently chasing the sun. The upper steps of flaggy limestone are steep, and it seems the vehicles have forced their way to a rounded summit plateau. It is a dead-end drive, but I guess the lights of Las Vegas are the draw – and a cheap way to climb a mountain. Happy I am alone this evening.

Into the dark. Night settles in as I approach the steep summit trail, Bird Spring Range, Mojave Desert, USA

I find the summit cairn of Peak 5695, high point of the Bird Spring Range. Earth’s shadow has rocketed past, and the Vegas glitter shows its fleeting beauty – it does look fancy and promising from this height and distance. I am glad to have followed my previous morning outings with an evening one.

Summit register #94

Peak 5965 – Bird Spring Range Collection

The descent is slow in the cone of the headlamp light, ball-bearing gravel rolling on limestone steps. A Joshua Tree, with a reaching arm, startles me as it pops into the peripheral light, anthropomorphic brush at my shoulder. I laugh out loud, only to shiver at the sudden creepiness. But as things flatten in the canyon bottom, I enjoy the last of the moonlight.

It has been a good week of walks in the hills of southern Nevada’s Mojave Desert. I will admit, however, that the peak-bagging spree has begun to lose its magic. I needed the escape from the urbanity of Vegas, but the series of small peaks – though high points of named ranges – has felt hurried. I look forward to slowing down and moving further east on my future visits this far south.

Keep going.

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands.

#naturefirst #keepgoing

Nevada High Points #90 – Madelin Mesa

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Mahogany distance. Wildfire has taken a toll on the Madelin Mesa but hardy curl-leaf Mountain Mahogany holds on to summit outcrops, Great Basin Desert, USA

Rowland Mountain (‘Rocky’)

6911 ft (2107 m) – 650 ft gain

2021.09.24

The mornings have the feel of autumn, but the midday still holds the heat of summer; it is that time of year. Here, at the close of September, I had a landform mapping project in support of archaeological survey and inventory near the northern end of the Madelin Mesa, a hardscrabble and fire-altered tableland that stretches along the Nevada-California border in northwestern Nevada. You could argue that this is not a mountain ‘range’ at all, but the basalt-capped rimrocks and plateaus are punctuated by a few hills and form a distinct region between Buffalo Creek and the Madeline Plains of northeastern California. I have driven by Rowland Mountain for many years, gouging around between the Hwy 395 corridor and the obsidian-rich calderas of the High Rock Country, and, though I had created my list of target high points quite some time ago, I had forgotten which outcrop was the high point. It is a simple cluster of basalt outcrops just south of Buckhorn Road.

Darren and I had tried to get to Rowland in March, but our plans were curtailed by poor road conditions. On that outing we had retreated from the mesa and made for the High Rock Wilderness, drier land to the east, and summited Mahogany Mountain.

This time I was alone, although I knew of an archaeological field crew camped a few miles to the north. I was on my way to visit them, but first, with no sign of snow or much of anything to block my way, I turned toward Roland. I parked near an older Wilderness Study Area (WSA) boundary sign, though the currently mapped boundary of the Buffalo Hills WSA, is along the summit of the nearby ridge – this is the goal of today’s summit walk.

HP #90 Collection

Rabbitbrush at seed. Disturbance plants such as rubber rabbitbrush colonize burn scars on Madelin Mesa, Great Basin Desert, USA

It seems we have had endless days of cloudless skies. This can make for a pleasurable outing, but it makes the creation of interesting landscape photographs challenging. And, while landscape photographers have been trending away from grand, saturated landscapes toward smaller and more personal compositions, I remain drawn to the big scenes and have found only rare satisfaction with intimate, unique imagery. Maybe the cloudless walks into unassuming hills like those of the Madelin Mesa provide a laboratory for practice.

Woven. Great Basin wild rye thrives along narrow, rocky floodplain where skeletons of western juniper trace earlier woodland, Madelin Mesa, Great Basin Desert, USA
Splash of autumn. Color spills from protective rock outcrops where seeds and water gather, Madelin Mesa, Great Basin Desert, USA

Wildfire scoured the area sometime in the past decade or so. Stands of western Juniper have become confined to the narrow canyons with patchy remnants only thickening to the north. Skeletal woodlands stand bare among the disturbance colonizers and locally proliferating – slowly, slowly – communities seeded to rehabilitate the barren slopes and washes. Curl-leaf mountain mahogany grips the higher outcrops where its fire hardiness has protected isolated stands. These hardwood trees are beginning their brief dance of autumn color and stand hopefully dressed among the rocks. Otherwise, the landscape is a trodden yellow-brown in all directions. Horses navigate repeatedly and hopefully between water reservoirs (many now dry) constructing a web of inter-weaving trails, pounding the fragilely submissive, droughty land to dust. Pronghorn look at the equine map with confusion but remain ready to run, they need no habitual track.

Little shade. Pronghorn antelope gather at a lone western juniper, attentive as always. Madelin Mesa, Great Basin Desert, USA
Your host on High Point #90, Rowland Mountain

I reach the wrong summit after a relatively short walk. It is only a slight mistake as the elevation of the bunched-up outcrops along the summit ridge is difficult to discern. I jump off one to gain another, then another. Soon, the brass benchmark ‘Rocky’ (the label on the 7.5’ quadrangle map) shines into view. The register was placed, once again, by my ‘peak neighbor’ Tom Rountree, a summit hiker I have run into many times but never met. There are only two other names in the little book – by the looks of it, these Spanish surnames suggest visits by Basque or Hispanic crofters who could not keep from getting to the highest point around; at heart, they are no different than I am.

This walk only takes a couple hours, but I take my time, watching Northern Flickers attack the barkless juniper snags while pronghorn stand guardedly in the shad of a long western juniper until I make a careless move, and they begin a slow but purposeful walk westward away from the strange figure on the hillside.

As is. A necessary evil on the track to Rowland Mountain, but mind the sign. If no sign, leave it as you find it. Madelin Mesa, Great Basin Desert, USA

HP #90 Collection

After so many outback days generally alone, I am surprised by a cluster of hunters on my walk out. I see them a ways off, but am surprised nonetheless. Their sight of me is equally surprising, especially given that I am non-motorized, just a guy walking down a wash. I am waiting at the gate, having kindly opened it so they can pass unperturbed by its presence. I offer that I have been waiting a very long time for their arrival, and we have a good laugh and short conversation about the convenience of a backcountry valet, especially on a Thursday afternoon in the middle of nowhere, as they say. Once again, to me, this is the middle of everywhere. The best place to be, even if it hardly draws attention on a map.

Keep going.

Please respect the natural and cultural resources of our public lands.

#naturefirst #keepgoing