Hiking Trip Report / Route Description
Hike Name:
3 Peak Hike, Mummy, Charleston and Griffith Peaks
Location:
Spring Mountain National Recreation Area, Nevada.
Mount Charleston area.
Pictures from 3 peak hike, Mount Charleston, 7-13-08
Quick Facts
7-13-08, 3 people
Distance - 19.9 Miles
Time - 11.75 Hours
Points of interest along the way
Mummy Peak
Charleston Peak
The Meadows
Griffith peak
General comments
I had wanted to do the 3 peak hike for a while. Ron, Dan and I were doing this as a
training hike for Mount Rainier. The rain made for a cool day with
an added bonus of a change of pace from clear skies hiking. This
was a great trip and I was very pleased with my fitness level.
After the hike I still had plenty of energy left for whatever the day
threw at me. The only complaint I had was my knee hurting.
It felt just like it did when I did the Las Vegas Marathon.
We started from the Cathedral Rock trailhead and hiked the
road to the Trail Canyon trailhead. From there we hiked to all 3 peaks and
returned on the South Loop trail to the vehicles at the Cathedral Rock
trailhead. Mummy Peak (11,332 ft), Charleston (11,819 ft) and Griffith
Peak (11,053 ft).
Getting to the Trailhead
and Exit Vehicle Parking
To get to the Trailhead......
From Las Vegas travel north on US highway 95. A few miles
outside of Las Vegas is the turn off to Kyle Canyon (Hwy 157).
Turn left at Hwy 157 and travel 20.8 miles to the Cathedral Rock
trailhead.
To leave the Exit Vehicle......
No exit vehicle is needed. This is done as a loop hike.
Maps
Overview map of the entire 3 peak hike.
Click for the High Resolution version of the map.
Right click and select "Save Picture As" to save the high res version.
GPS Waypoint Information
Cathedral Rock Trail Head - - - - tCthdrlRck
N36 15.458 W115 38.966 (WGS 84) - 7,565 feet.
Cathedral Rock Trail Head
Parked the cars here then hiked the road to Trail Canyon
Trailhead.
Trail Canyon Trail Head - - - - tTrailCnyn
N36 16.068 W115 39.437 (WGS 84)
Trail Canyon Trail Head.
Junction of the North Loop and Trail Canyon trails - - - -
jNtLpTrlCn
N36 17.178 W115 38.826 (WGS 84)
Junction of the North Loop and Trail Canyon trails.
Cave Spring - - - - sCaveSpring
N36 17.469 W115 39.168 (WGS 84)
Cave Spring. A trough made from a log catches the water by the
trail.
"M" Tree - - - - jMtree
N36 17.672 W115 39.318 (WGS 84)
A tree with the letter "M" carved in it to signify the way up to
Mummy Peak.
Route point 1 for the Mummy Peak Route - - - - wMumRP1TpScree
N36 17.832 W115 39.297 (WGS 84)
Route point 1 for the Mummy Peak Route. Top of the scree covered
ridge.
Route point 2 for the Mummy Peak Route - - - - wMumRP2ClfClmb
N36 17.857 W115 39.044 (WGS 84)
Route point 2 for the Mummy Peak Route.
This is one of the
possible climbs up the cliff to Mummy Peak.
Mummy Peak - - - - pMummyPk
N36 17.958 W115 38.975 (WGS 84) - 11,524 feet
Mummy Peak.
Charleston Peak - - - - pChrlstnPk
N36 16.333 W115 41.698 (WGS 84) - 11,918 feet
Charleston Peak.
Junction to Griffith Peak / Harris Saddle Trail - - - - jGrifith/Haris
N36 14.189 W115 39.060 (WGS 84)
Junction to Griffith Peak / Harris Saddle Trail.
Junction from the Griffith Peak / Harris Saddle Trail to
Griffith Peak - - - - jGriffithPk
N36 14.042 W115 38.932 (WGS 84)
Junction from the Griffith Peak / Harris Saddle Trail to
Griffith Peak.
Griffith Peak - - - - pGrifithPk
N36 13.946 W115 38.767 (WGS 84) - 11,060
Griffith Peak.
South Loop Trail Head - - - - tSouthLoop
N36 15.284 W115 38.643 (WGS 84)
South Loop Trail Head
Details
Sunday 7-13-08
Pictures from 3 peak hike, Mount Charleston, 7-13-08
Ron, Dan and I arrived at the Cathedral Rock trailhead
and started the hike at 6:45am. We hiked the road to the
Trail Canyon trailhead, then started up that trail. We
stopped for a quick snack at the junction of Trail Canyon and
the North Loop trails. Shortly after leaving
Ron and I pulled ahead of Dan since he was not going to take the
excursion up to Mummy Peak.
Ron and I got to the tree marked with an "M", which is where you leave the North Loop Trail to start toward
Mummy Peak. We started up the scree covered hill
toward the top of the ridge. Travel was a little easier
since it had recently rained and the dirt under the scree was
not so loose.
From the tree with an "M" carved in it, travel up the
scree covered hill at a bearing of 6° (almost due north) about
0.2 miles. This will take you to the top of the hill on the
crest of the ridge. This is Mummy Route Point 1
(wMumRP1TpScree).
Next travel up the crest of the ridge to the east toward a huge
cliff. The top of the cliff is the peak sometimes called
Mummies Tummy. There
are a lot of segments of easy to follow trail along the ridge to
the cliff. As you get
closer to the cliff the trail starts heading north and parallels
the cliff face. There are a couple options for getting up this
cliff to the peak. We left the trail before reaching it's
end since we wanted to go up a particular chute. Where we
left this part of the trail is Mummy Route Point 2
(wMumRP2ClfClmb). This is one possible climb up to the top
of the cliff. The chute has a large dead tree laying down in it.
If you would like an easier route up the cliff travel about 600
feet further north on the trail beyond wMumRP2ClfClmb.
Once at the top of the cliff travel about 600 feet on a bearing
of 19° to Mummy Peak where you will find the log book
and a survey marker. There is also a windbreak that
someone has made out of logs large enough for a tent if you
wanted to camp there.
As we got close to the peak the clouds started rolling in very
heavy. By the time we were on the peak we were surrounded
by clouds and our views of the area were gone. At 10:15am
having this much cloud cover seemed like we were in for a gloomy
day. We were on the peak only a few
minutes when it started to thunder a bit and we could see some
lightning in the distance. We did not want to be on the
peak if that lightning got any closer so we took a couple
pictures and got off the peak as fast as we could. We
retraced our route back to the "M Tree".
By the time we got back to the trail the weather seemed to get a
little better. We discussed turning back since we did not
know what the weather would do. We also were not sure what
Dan decided to do. Eventually we decided to continue down
the North Loop trail toward Charleston Peak. A little
while later it started to rain so we stopped to get our rain
gear on.
We took a short break by the trail where there was a good view
down in the canyon below and of Griffith Peak. When we
first got there we could see clouds above the ridge line and
Griffith Peak. Within 3 or 4 minutes we were covered in
clouds so thick we couldn't even see down to the canyon floor
let alone over to Griffith. We were in fog. If its
at a distance, its a cloud. If you're in it, its fog.
That's the difference ion my book any way.
Soon after we ran into Dan. He said he had been waiting
for about 45 minutes and had just started to hike back to meet us.
We all stayed together for the rest of the hike. As we got
closer to Charleston Peak we kept getting pockets of rain.
The clouds and rain added a nice touch to the day. Other
than possible lightning strikes the rainy weather was nice.
As we approached Mount Charleston Peak the clouds started
rolling in very thick again and we started hearing thunder
fairly close. We stopped on the peak only long enough to sign the log book. We wanted to
get off the peak while we were hearing thunder.
As we hiked down the South side of Charleston I was loving the
view. We were boxed in by clouds but had clear views of
what was near by. Since we were dropping back down into
the tree line we had lots of wide open space with a dusting of
Bristle Cone Pine Trees. The trees had a brilliant orange
tint to them since they were wet. The orange tinted trees
and the few colorful flowers contrasted heavily with the wide
open spaces covered in scree. I couldn't help but comment
on how surreal it looked.
By the time we made it to The Meadows it looked like the day was
clearing up. We all agreed we were happy we continued
rather than turn back. The flowers were in full bloom in
The Meadows. About half way through The Meadows we stopped
by a cliff overlooking Kyle Canyon to have lunch.
After lunch we continued through The Meadows to the Junction for
Griffith Peak / Harris Saddle Trail. Dan did not have
intentions of going to Griffith Peak and said he would wait for
us there. Ron was having a rare day where his energy level
was not up to par. I wanted to do all 3 peaks so I headed
off to Griffith alone. I was on Griffith Peak and back to the junction
where Ron and Dan were waiting in about 38 minutes.
As we started down the switch backs on the South Loop Trail I
noticed my knee starting to hurt like it did when I did the Las
Vegas Marathon. As time went on it got worse. Soon
it started to rain and rain hard. This was not the normal
mountain rain we had been getting off an on throughout the day.
The sky just opened up on us. It took only a minute or so
and our pants were completely soaked. We had rain jackets so our
tops were dry. I was soon sloshing in my shoes as well
since they were not water proof. We even got a little bit
of hail although it didn't last long.
I started falling behind as my knee started hurting worse.
I hiked the last couple miles alone limping along. I made
it to the South Loop Trailhead then
followed the road back to the Cathedral Rock Trailhead. As
I was getting there I saw Dan driving off on his motorcycle and
Ron started driving over to pick me up. He needed to turn
around so I walked to the trailhead to finish the loop hike at
6:33pm.
Pictures from 3 peak hike, Mount Charleston, 7-13-08
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