[John Morrow]

Some adventurous and trailless travel in two compact, yet wild, wilderness areas: Spirit mountain Wilderness and Bridge Canyon Wilderness. No sooner than I dropped off my friend Deb at the airport, another coworker and friend, Laurie, arrived to share my next desert journey.

Spirit Mountain Backpack Overview

Day 1: We drove from Vegas through Searchlight to the trailhead off the Christmas Tree Pass Road. Then down Pipe Spring Canyon from Pipe Spring Trailhead:

Spirit Mountain Day 1

First Pipe Spring narrows

Dropping down Pipe Spring

dryfall scramble

flowering beavertail!

Pipe Spring Canyon

unusual flower

Searching for water and afternoon hike from a nice camp:

Watered narrows

Nice granite floor

tadpoles!

more narrows

evening comes early

scene across river

Spirit Mountain Wilderness, NV

more dature

Spirit Mountain Wilderness

Day 2: Dayhike loop. It started by first climbing Mount Newberry 3624' from Pipe Spring Canyon on the south slope, then getting lured into a blind exploration of an unnamed canyon on the NW side.

Spirit Mountain Day 2northhalf

Spirit Mountain Day 2southhalf

Mount Newberry above camp

Mount Newberry scramble

Newberry view

Across to Spirit and Devils Thumb

Newberry final scramble

fun class 2

Lake Mojave north

From Mount Newberry

What an amazing unnamed canyon! Scramble-able dryfall after dryfall of sculpted granite.

That start of a canyon was too tempting to not go explore.

Wow, great canyon descending

tons of slickrock falls

a look back

nother look back

funnin'

just fantastic descending

goes on

tough spot

and on

a bypass or two

neat looking mountain

It seemed to go a long long time until we finally met White Rock Wash. There we began our traverse of the shore of Lake Mojave soutward to the mouth of Pipe Spring Canyon. Miles of badland terrain were made thankfully easier by way of a 4WD powerline road. We never appreciated a road so much before as we'd have never made it back by nightfall without it.

???

at the lake!

back up Pipe Spring

Finally, back up Pipe Spring Canyon back to camp. A fine canyon throughout its length.

completing the loop

Pipe Spring Canyon

Spirit Mountain Wilderness, NV Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Day 3: Packing up camp, we climbed out and traversed over Pipe Spring highcountry into Sacatone Wash. Descending Sacatone to the junction with Lower Grapevine Canyon, we first dropped packs and explored the lower canyon narrows.

Spirit Mountain Day 3

morning color

Spirit Mountain Wilderness, NV

Leaving Mount Newberry

traversing to Sacatone

Over Pipe Spring Canyon

Neat Granite

Descendign Sacatone

Sacatone cacti

Wow, bloom!

Sacatone cholla

Sacatone garden, Spirit Mountain Wilderness, NV

Down Sacatone

Pencil cholla

Sacatone view

colorful datura

Grapevine Canyon walls in view

sidetrip down Lower Grapevine

Lower Grapevine Narrows

Long narrows

Spirit Mountain Wilderness, NV

curves

Class 4 chokestone

nice flowering grass

Finally, we headed up canyon, crossed the road, passed the petroglyphs, and landed for 2 more nights in Upper Grapevine by a nice dryfall tank watersource.

Middle Grapevine narrows

stiff Class 4 dryfall

another dryfall climb

a stopper 20 ft dryfall

solid scramble detour

top of detour

looking down the blockage

out of Lower Grapevine

Upper Grapevine Camp

Note: Heading upcanyon (downstream of Christmas Tree Pass Road) we found an impassable dryfall that required a scramble traverse on the north side wall of the canyon. Day 4: Explorations from camp heading south over into Bridge Canyon (future trip option.) Then denied a hope of looping back to the trailhead via a gap in the north slope of Grapevine Canyon due to many many impassable granite blobs and tight mesquite thicket draws.

Spirit Mountain Day 4

Grapevine Canyon, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV

Grapevine dryfall waterhole

Quest for water

Into Bridge Canyon wash

back out and down Grapevine

downward

seeding yucca

searching our exit

impenetrable brush and boulders

possible exit looks real clogged

give up, head back

this fellow blocked me

moon upper left

Day 5: Not finding a loop opp, we were relegated to a road walk to the car before getting Laurie to the airport. Such a great trip with a fine backpack partner.

the road alternate

East Face Spirit mountain

Some rock art:

Pipe1

Pipe2

Spirit Mountain Wilderness, NV

G1

G2

G3

G4

G11

G10

[Rainie Too!]

Looks peaceful John. Nice that you share these wonderings with what I am sure are appreciative fellow travelers and friends.

[puzzlr]

I archived this for future reference when I'm in the southwest again. Looking at the aerial google maps this region has far fewer "user" roads than I'm used to seeing in the west, and it's huge! Thanks for the report of a new area, at least to me.