Castle Peak and Norman Benchmark

Tonopah Field Office BLM

(map link)

I had looked out at the colorful mountains and thought "I want to go there" and then gone off to some mountains that turned out to be a bit south of the ones I was looking at. The Silver Peak Range does have plenty of its own color, it is true, but I still wanted some wandering in the Monte Cristo Range. A little bit, anyway. As I poked at my resources, little Castle Peak and an Earthcache became my main targets. I ended up needing a second geocache to find the road I was aiming at for access. According to the page for it, it's the best road to Gilbert. Graders working the sides of the highway had very much ignored it while they scraped 60 feet clear and contoured it toward a nearby culvert. Once properly on the road, only a few places wanted to rub my car's tummy or were uncomfortably soft. It probably would have been fine on a rough wash entry, but I hit the brakes and backed up instead. I'd just seen a nice flat camping area and it was pretty much the closest approach to the Earthcache already. Good enough! Only the very noisiest of trucks could be heard from over 2 miles off on the highway.

The first light of the day touches White Mountain and then the rest of the Whites before getting to the more eastern and lower ranges.

Eventually the sun comes to light up the Monte Cristo Range.

I headed out on the road toward Castle Peak first, aiming to be at the Earthcache last, and in between... visit in between stuff. Walking the wash beside the road tended to be nicer. The rocks on the road were loosened up from each other while the ones nearby tended to stay where they were as I walked across them. It was a very gentle uphill on the way to a road I couldn't even see until I was at it.

A light peak just visible behind the hills is Castle Peak.

From where I stopped just before entering the wash, the road stays within the wash as far as I took it.

I followed the new road, thinking it was really just people pushing into a tributary wash, but soon enough it showed itself to be built. It's also a rocky mess with a little bit of parking near the junction for those who would rather not risk their vehicle. Once it accessed the Castle Peak Mine, but that is long gone.

Probably there were signs warning people away from Castle Peak Mine when it was active.

Castle Peak is named for being a striking bit of land rather than because it is a tall thing among the rest.

Castle Peak is in another pocket of white, with patches distinctly pink or blue or green, and clay-like geology that seems to attract mining in this area. I think it is the Esmeralda Formation and the beautiful structures it creates will get a bit of display in this and the next post.

Remains of the Castle Peak Mine.

The old mine road breaks off from the larger road. It is visible for the line of rocks at the edges from when it was scraped, but little else. It hasn't seen an ATV in a long time. It climbs up and joins a road with other routes that still get some use. Some peak baggers with sufficiently tough vehicles report driving it right up to the summit block and others have camped. It looked like a recent ATV driver had decided against that.

The road past the mine on its way east.

The road up to Castle Peak.

Walking the ridge spine up to Castle Peak, there are views down erosion chutes to the mining area below.

The rough road really does go right up to the summit block.

Castle Peak from the end of the road.

The drop off on the far side and a look at Cristo Peak.

I took to stepping up the hill where there weren't too many rollers of loose rock on top of the solid peak rock. It was a friction climb and didn't take long.

Quite a bit more of that valley to the north and east visible from the peak, along with Cristo Peak (left) and Lone Mountain (right).

Higher stuff right next door and stuff topped with the benchmark "Norman" far off.

Canyons of this white stuff (where the Earthcache happens to be) on the way to Boundary Peak.

The whole way around this striking terrain from the top of Castle Peak. (viewer?)

I decided that "in between stuff" would mean the Norman benchmark, which I already knew would have been a full day to hike from camp even without the spur off to Castle Peak. I was pretty much making it impossible to do the Earthcache at the end of the day, but I'd gotten away with climbing Red Mountain after Silver Peak. Maybe I could get away with this? I headed down shortcutting the looping road I had followed up. It took some very minor scrambling to get down the erosion chute I chose.

There's keyholes in the rocks.

Lovely pillars are hidden away in the cliffy edge of these rocks.

I crossed the valley to another decayed road, followed it down to the one I came in on, and walked back out to the wash. I would follow the "best road to Gilbert" a little further, then turned onto another road in another wash. It was indeterminant at first. I just had to take the map's word for it. It got to looking more like a road after a while, but it took longer this time. I walked along pieces that looked like they were scraped decades ago while the vehicle tracks followed the wash. Again, the footing was much better away from the tracks.

Hints of more white rocks off to the right as the road turns away.

Passing another display of white rocks.

It's part of one of the small outcrops near a large outcrop of white rock.

A collection of bluish hoodoos by a pink hill.

Two roads were headed sort of my way toward the Norman benchmark. I chose the more northern one to follow since it got up higher before ending. No vehicles had followed it in quite some time, although someone might have made it to the upper section by a different route in the last couple years.

The wild horses have been here recently.

Out of the valley to the right on a fading road.

The roads are easier to see in the hills.

Lumber scraps in the canyon to the left show there was a building there once.

The road I was on actually loses elevation as it drops into the canyon high above the broken building just before ending. The horses continue on upward, but there's certainly no road in the wash after very long. I chose a different route than the horses to the top of the wash to set eyes on the surveyed peak.

Norman Benchmark is at the high point. I'll just swing to the right.

High up another wash.

I had a short bit of steep where some animal trails suggested routes, then a long slant to get to the top. A very simple walk, really.

Over the edge to see the valley to the north and, perhaps, Pilot Peak. Nothing caught my eye the way Pilot Peaks usually do, but there's supposed to be one out there.

Looking back to Castle Peak at the center, almost hidden by the hill to the right and in front of it.

There's a change to the west and the southwest. Things get smoother.

I arrived at the top and pulled on my puffies. It was cold and the wind was trying to push me over. That's what I get for peak bagging on a high wind day as storms pass somewhere just because it wasn't going to rain. It was almost too much to go finding benchmarks, but I had a bit more luck with arriving at one this time. In spite of the arrow, I didn't locate the station. I didn't even look for the second reference.

Reference 1 is definitely there and in good shape.

Everything viewable at the top, missing the south. (viewer?)

Ridges toward the south, all lower than the benchmark if only by 100 feet.

I took shelter below the peak to decide what to do next. It would be the same distance back to camp or to the Earthcache (over 5 miles) and it would be dark when I got there. That would make doing the Earchcache difficult. Once done, I would still have to go the 1.5 miles back to camp. I pushed that off for the next day. My plan for going was to walk the ridges to the south. I could still have done that, but decided some canyon travel might make more sense. Two presented themselves as obvious choices and I picked the northern one. I thought I'd be able to wander down its northern edge pretty easily.

The chosen canyon, already in shadow.

That north side of the canyon cliffed out, so I decided I should go down the middle of the canyon instead. Like my route off of Castle Peak, it included some minor downclimbs. There were three dry waterfalls with good steps down them.

Down the first waterfall and there's a rather unattractive ramp of loose rock south of it.

And then there's the canyon.

I found myself in an amazing canyon. It would have been more amazing with a little light on it, certainly, but it was still quite good in the shadow.

The rock erodes to a rounded but rough enough for grip surface.

Lots of little caves have formed.

The other canyon looked a lot more like the hills with a layer of dark rocks coming down one side into it. It looked easier to walk, but I was happy with the canyon I'd chosen. Below the confluence, the canyon opens up to a less interesting wash.

A look up the other canyon I might have traveled.

Easy wash travel from here.

I walked near some roads, at least according to my map, but there was never anything to connect them. The wash would seem to break out into the open, only to find more hills to be among.

Wandering down to where other gullies join, more open but still constrained.

Another extravaganza of geology.

Following the wash among hills in more open spaces.

I did eventually break out into the alluvium with a few hills. I supposedly got on a road that would lead back to the one I started on, but when I looked again, I was long past it without seeing anything.

Pretty sure those are some of the hills I could see from camp.

Layers of mountains, including Silver Peak, in the dusk.

Got to pick a crossing at the mild rise instead of the hill.

On the far side of the wash, there were cairns. They looked tall and placed to be seen, but they are probably mining claim corners, not navigational. They tempted me all the same.

There are still little caves, though the rocks have changed.

Since the other choice seemed to be to follow the wash right past camp until it hit the highway, I decided to cut across to the road I came in on by my own way. I headed across the north side of one of the scattered hills that would otherwise be an extra obstacle.

I found another keyhole in the dusk light, there at the right.

Castle Peak comes back into the picture, at the left and blurry in the low light.

Start going downhill and find another wash to follow.

I arrived back at the road I started on. There was still over a mile to finish. As long as I didn't go down the middle of it where there were some rocks to trip over, I didn't even need a light to stroll back to camp. I suppose camp wasn't at an opportune spot after all.

*photo album*




©2023,2024 Valerie Norton
Written 12 Feb 2024