Emigrant Peak from Emigrant Pass

Tonopah Field Office BLM

(map link)

Now it's time to go after Emigrant Peak. The plan would be much the same as the previous day: head out on some low track getting in some canyons, head back on some high track getting in the views. The weather folks were promising a bit of sunshine, but the skies weren't obliging. For the start, I headed north on a different road than the one I drove in on. It would take me to a spring if I made the correct turns onto some older roads.

The red rocks to the north are not quite so red in the light overcast.

Two turns to get to an eroded road and the spring water sinking back into the graveled earth.

The Brewer's sparrows are numerous around the water and they've found some of the really dark rocks.

The water was once piped to a trough. Now it flows past feeding grasses still green only at their very bottom.

Hello, little sparrow.

Where the water actually comes from the ground.

I headed down the road in the canyon again and turned north once more. Except for a little at the end, maybe, the rest of the trip would be cross country as planned. I did find traces of people driving what may have been a road once as I passed decaying mining claim markers along the base of the hills.

Looking for another canyon to climb.

Canyon options along the way.

That first is a canyon the goes deep into the hills.

It's a very different rock collection than the high one yesterday.

The canyon I would go up.

Coming to the canyon I'd chosen on the map, I started up. This was an easy wash walk at first, but got steeper quickly. Eventually the narrow cut and little waterfalls left walking up the north side easier.

Going up the canyon.

Looking back to Lone Mountain and the Big Smoky Valley.

At the top of the canyon, I popped over a small saddle to find myself on the side of another canyon heading east. I hadn't chosen the biggest one to go up.

A new canyon for travel.

I tried staying high on the north wall as I continued up. It worked fine except for the occasional gullies coming down. They started at the hard rock cliffs and dropped in sharp Vs to the bottom.

A look behind and down the other canyon.

I powered to the top to get by the first gully, but had the sense to just let go of the elevation after that. It is easier to go up near the middle.

Little caves as the rocks change.

Mellower terrain ahead, but the peak isn't visible yet.

High enough that the band of red points above the spring are now visible. Camp, too.

A first peek at the snowy peaks of the White Mountains to the west.

Coming upon a new saddle, I had got to the top of the ridge. This time, the far side stretched down to the west instead of the east. Animal trails crossed over with me and gave a good suggestion for a nice walk. My landscape was also marred just a bit by the stark track from someone's illegal motorcycle ride. It provided a very poor suggestion of a good place to walk, so I avoided it almost entirely.

Over the top to a new canyon.

A lot more colors in the rocks now. Blue, green, yellow, and red.

A little more of the canyon.

And on down the hill where I won't be going.

There's a section of ridges to follow out to the peak itself. I picked one to get there and one to get back and kept to that.

Northeasterly canyons with mining claim markers viewed from the ridge.

I didn't take the animal suggests perfectly, so missed the spring whose water reflects the light in the bottom of the canyon.

Fish Lake in the western basin comes into view.

The way ahead, right up to a peak just short of the peak.

I went up the peak ahead only to find it a bit short of the actual peak with a long way down in between. Well, about 100 feet.

Past the peak to the north, the Columbus Salt Marsh.

Past the peak to the south, the first of some extraordinarily red hills.

So I just had to go down and up one more time to get to Emigrant Peak. I got there minutes before my turn around time, but that didn't get me to spend less time at the top.

The top of Emigrant Peak complete with leftover surveying gear.

The peak is narrow and long pointing north and south. I walked it looking for the surveyor's benchmark, which I hadn't immediately found where indicated. There's a stick and the remains of a cairn and some fireworks, but no mark. Going north, I found a reference pointing back at all that and some ever so slightly lower peak area. Searching around the south, I found another reference. Trying to triangulate over and over, I just got to the former cairn. Reading the reach, I found there's supposed to be a station, not just a cairn. There's not even a drill hole that I can see. Did someone leave the old cairn and then mark down after the fact that they totally did all the marks, for sure, man? Others after claimed they totally found it except one that omits any reference to a station mark while saying everything else is in good order.

Fish Lake below White Mountain.

A look back to Lone Mountain.

Terrain and basin south of Lone Mountain.

The whole of the westerly to north view.

So many reds in the hills below.

South along Silver Peak Range to Silver Peak itself, across the varying colors and textures of mountain.

Perhaps Silver Peak is one of those. It's probably still hidden.

Reference 1 will just have to do as the benchmark.

Eventually I did make my way back down the steep side of Emigrant Peak and around the side of the eastern peak and on along the other ridges back toward that high spring I'd missed on the way up.

Now on bright red lava cinders.

The return. This time along the ridge to the right instead of across the bowl.

The complicated terrain ahead, just visible in the image above.

The canyon with the spring.

I rejoined my track before to follow the animal trails. This time I stuck to them well, coming across the spring. It was quite frozen through.

Where the water comes up turned into pools of solid ice. I wouldn't be a happy animal if I climbed up here for this bit of water.

A root intrusion to a rock intrusion.

I rounded the saddle between east and west canyons and headed up into the rounded white ridge. Animal trails showed a good way once more.

Overview of the western canyon from up its southern side. Emigrant Peak is hiding on the right.

The way south, left around the rock outcrop on animal trail.

Over the top, things got complicated. There's a lot of sudden drop off. I followed near the edge toward the east until I found an erosion channel I was comfortable with. It might be possible to walk a ridge down, but there are some pretty steep spots and none of the rock is very solid.

The lower spring area and even camp are in view once more as the land drops away.

Well, maybe not quite overlooking camp.

My way down.

A lot of not my way down, looking west along the edge.

Eventually I was making my way through a rather colorful shale. The route down worked quite well.

Shale in red and blue and tan.

The rock wall from below.

Eroded shale turning into big wash.

While coming down, I picked out some washes to follow up the other side starting with a little downstream travel. The colorful shale turned to grey as I went. It probably would have worked out just as well or even better with a little upstream travel too. I was eventually standing on the saddle between the two minor drainages with a little more climbing to do.

Downhill past the grey shale.

And uphill past the grey shale.

As I climbed, the sun finally came out. I could finally see these rocks as they were meant to be!

The sun hits the northern peaks as I stand between minor drainages. This looks like just as fine a route as the one to the right that I came up.

The whole stretch of red and white rocks from further up.

Emigrant Peak is the almost hidden darker fin sticking up the highest.

The shale seemed to be getting harder like it had undergone a bit more heat or pressure, but remained rather dull. The blues were certainly gone.

Okay, there's red and grey in these harder rocks.

And I had a much easier terrain to traverse. I picked out a gentle, winding route along the gentle rounded peaks.

Late afternoon sun reflecting off the mostly frozen Fish Lake.

A gentle way to go back to Emigrant Pass.

The hills on the west side of the Silver Peak Range.

I sat for a snack beside a desert trumpet (wild buckwheat) with pristine blooms and even buds.

My plan had been to wander along the top until I connected with an old 4x4 road that would take me to the pass. From there, I'd walk the pretty good road back to camp, finally truly getting to Emigrant Pass. That would take me a mile out of my way while going back to camp and it was getting late. I decided to drop off the ridge into a wash that was going almost directly to camp instead. It actually turns just before and makes a rough patch on that first road I walked out on, but the rest of the cross country would be a stroll over a slight rise.

Emigrant Pass is just to the right of that white hill, below that red hill.

Seems like more shale, some of it at interesting angles, in the wash down.

Arriving at camp as the sun sets.

It would have been 2 miles more and after dark when I got back had I kept to the original plan, so I was glad I took the shortcut. Still, I'd not quite gotten to the actual Emigrant Pass yet.

*photo album*




©2023,2024 Valerie Norton
Written 4 Feb 2024