[rubywrangler]

Recently returned from annual snowbird adventures in AZ/NV and wanted to share some trips that haven't been posted here before and some updated info for a couple others. Thanks much to John Morrow and Adam and other folks for posting so many southwest trips and Eric Hansen for suggestions and tips via PM! I'm a little surprised the CR-V got me to some of these, see details below. In reverse chronological order... Boyscout canyon, Lake Mead NRA 2.26.23 John posted this one previously and I agree with his assessment that it's a "must do" but wanted to note a couple things. The road to the trailhead is a wash and the gravel is deep. I drove in the morning after a night of torrential rain which helped, but getting out after it had a chance to dry was a little sketchy. Driving in the muddy mountains and Kofa desensitized me I think. 4wd required. Anyway, I was stopped by rocks sticking up in the wash about a mile from the TH. A cairned route leaves the wash at a wide bend, but it's hard to see if you go past the bend to the first 30' pouroff. Once on the ridge, there is a short bootpath that dead-ends at a spot with a cliffs on the left and a wash on the right. It took me a little while to figure out that I needed to downclimb the cliff side, and then another little while to figure out how to do it. After the first 20' or so a fixed rope is visible in the correct chute below. Below the chute, the route descends left following a faint path for a short distance, then contours around and over a small ridge, then passes a cairn and descends another chute on the right. If you descend *at* the cairn, you will end up cliffed out above a series of falls. Once out of this gully it is pretty much a straight shot down to the canyon floor near the hot spring, or you can continue up and over another ridge straight ahead, and drop into the canyon downstream closer to the river. This bypasses a narrow, slippery spot in the canyon with another fixed rope. The hot spring likely gets less traffic than AZ hot spring nearby, but it's also much smaller and seemed a little cooler. There is an overly detailed and somewhat confusing route description for this on hikinglasvegas.com.

snow on the muddies

looking down on ridge descent

fixed rope @ center

over little ridge in the middle

looking back from below second chute

final descent to boyscout; hikers visible below

hot spring

heading downstream

mouth of boyscout

good dog

Anniversary narrows, anniv. narrows peak, bowl of fire loop - lake mead nra 2.25.23 A fun loop with many of my favorite things: pretty narrows, ridge walk, summit, and slickrock to play on. Starting at the anniversary narrows TH off of northshore drive, the route follows anniversary mine rd and then turns right into lowell wash. Apparently there is still active mining activity in the area and the mine owner closes it to public access occasionally, but it's open now. After passing through the pink and white narrows, follow the main wash or a smaller and more winding parallel wash slightly east (my route). Ultimately they both lead to an obvious saddle north of anniversary narrows peak. A ridge walk with a couple scramble moves leads to the summit, which has great views to the Muddy mountains, Bowl of Fire, Lake Mead and the surrounding peaks. Continue over the summit down through a series of dryfalls into the southwest part of Bowl of Fire. It's possible to just skirt the edge of BoF but it is such a fun place to explore, I spent more than an hour scrambling around on the slickrock before following another small wash that dumps you out in Callville wash near the trailhead. Snuck this one in before the torrential rain hit.

mine in lowell wash

entering the narrows

anniversary narrows

anniversary narrows

anniversary narrows

anniversary narrows

main wash

winding side wash

views to muddies from saddle

northshore peak

BoF

BoF

BoF

Northshore peak - lake mead nra 2.24.23 Attempted sunset hike, but sunset did not cooperate.

West white dome + the orphan, valley of fire state park 2.21.23 West white dome takes 20 min max from the parking lot, has a fun exposed summit ridge, great views, and tons of annoying graffiti scratched into the rock. John posted the orphan awhile back so just adding a couple notes on the route. Once you leave the wash and start climbing, it makes a big Z. The top of the z is a long gully with a little boulder obstacle at the top. Once I got past that, I couldn't tell where the summit was. It is the highpoint further south. There is a little crack on the south side and then a short friction slope to reach the top.

w. white dome summit view

the orphan

the orphan ahead on left

ramp on right or under the boulder works

one of the zigs on the route (came up center, continued up weakness on left)

looking up from bottom of gully

took crack on left to summit

white domes from summit

Valley of fire summit via fire canyon wash, vof state park 2.20.23 This is a VERY fun route. Dryfalls, big boulders, routefinding, interesting bypasses, a slot canyon, and a lot of class 2-3 slickrock. And bighorns! It's long by by VoF standards - just over 5 miles. The route follows the wash for ~1.5 miles, then you can choose to stay in the wash or climb to a notch and drop into a narrow slot to cut off some of the distance. I climbed up to the wrong notch initially, but found a nice lunch spot. Shortly after the slot, I climbed a slickrock ridge and then continued weaving my way upward. There are cairns in a few key spots and choose your own adventure in between. My route had a few class 3 spots, and one harder move that I think could be bypassed on the left (but I didn't notice that option until I passed it on the way down). Once you crest the ridge, it's just a short walk to the summit. I followed this route description. More photos

entering fire canyon wash

first obstacle within 1/4 mi, bypassed on left

looking up canyon from the top of the third obstacle. bypassed on the left

down a convenient crack to the rock in the center

climbing up a gully

fire canyon wash

buddy watching me

boulder jam

little squeezy

doble arch

little pool

vof peak, the crack right of center is wrong way

off route but nice slabs

the correct gap

skinny slot

follow the ridge and ignore wandering footprints...

lower crack = probable bypass of the harder cl3 section along the upper crack

easy class 3 section

so close

home stretch, summit upper left

vof peak summit views

white domes

silica dome maybe?

no helicopter deliveries today

descending

looking back - correct notch upper right, wrong notch center

high bypass of boulder jam on the right

up the boulder pile to the convenient crack

Muddy peak via hidden valley, Muddy mountains wilderness 2.18-2.19.23 This one has been posted a couple times already, just wanted to give an update on the Colorock quarry approach. Aside from being generally bad/rocky, the road has suffered several washouts since John Morrow's report in 2015. Where the road crosses the wash just before it narrows, the road has a deep ditch partially filled with rocks. I drove over it but probably shouldn't have. It is worse/steeper than it looks in the photo. A mile further on I got stopped by another big washout anyway. Cool spot and fun scramble though!

Palm canyon, kofa nwr 2.12.23 Route to the main palm grove is class 2 on the right side of the side canyon. The palms look kind of sad. Palm canyon trail seems to peter out once it climbs out of the canyon. Nice view from up there though.

Castle dome, kofa nwr 2.11.23 Several good reports already on this site, but the access has changed. The owner of castle dome mine gated the previous access road in sept 2019. BLM constructed a new "4X4 high clearance" road, and it is rough but CRV passable (barely). I had to get out and move big rocks out of my way a bunch of times, and the road goes in and out of several steep washes. Apparently it's also possible to drive in from the north, but the road is even worse. Really fun summit though! Saw a small group of bighorns with a few babies on the hike out.

Signal peak, kofa nwr 2.10.23 No updates, just a few photos.

Saddle mtn, saddle mountain wilderness blm 2.9.23 I randomly stopped here to camp because it was highly rated on my boondocking app and about halfway between Phx and Quartzsite. Didn't realize I would be parked at the base of this really cool looking peak! There's a trail to the saddle and then free-for-all scrambling above (cairns everywhere). I hoped to make a loop but didn't find an easy way through the cliffs. Then I got cholla-d in the leg and gave up.

[GaliWalker]

Amazing scenery!

[Eric Hansen]

+1! Amazing scenery and great trip reporting and photos.

[geyer]

If I've learned anything over the years it's that there are no limits to where a (preferrably pre-2007) Honda CR-V can take you!! ...unless there's a boulder more than 8" tall, that'll get ya CRV GaNG

[NightOwl]

Very nice pictures. I'm amazed that bighorn sheep can survive in that environment. Brutal heat, little water and food -- seems like they would have migrated out of there ages ago.

[neek]

stunning! looks like we covered some of the same ground only a couple weeks apart.