Wallace Canyon, Clinton Peak & Friends

H.W. Stockman
Saturday June 05, 2004

This hike is west of Charleston Peak, near Las Vegas, NV. The approach is via the NORTHERN Wallace Canyon Road. Drive W on rte 160 from Las Vegas, and just before Pahrump, take the Wheeler Pass Road north to the Wallace cutoff indicated below. There is ample room for confusion; there are two Wheeler Pass Roads -- you want the eastern one, which is indicated by an obvious green sign on the north side of rte 160. There are also two Wallace Canyon Roads; both were driveable at the time of our hike, but the northern one has been upgraded this year, so it is probably passable with a passenger car (we had a 4WD 4Runner).

Our main objectives were to climb "Clinton Peak" and the summit to its SE, and to scout the west face of Charleston for a loop hike. Our route up the north face was pretty messy, and made dicey by loose, crumbly limestone.

Click on any small image to see a larger picture. (Cliquez sur une petite image pour voir la grande image correspondante.) Order is essentially chronological. Even the large images are reduced in size to 20% the number of pixels in the originals. Contact me if you want the full-sized images. To save a large image under Windows, 1) click on the corresponding small image; 2) when the large image appears (fully), right-click on the image and choose "Save Picture As..." on the menu. Be sure to note where you saved the image!

The turnoff from Wheeler Pass Road to Wallace Canyon Road.	The hike.	A view of our route on Clinton Peak, from the north (the next day, from this ridge). The red indicates our peregrinations looking for a way off the buttress. It would be best to come in below the buttress!

After a dicey traverse across the buttress, I look back (to the north). The ridge across the valley is the viewpoint for the previous photo of our route.	Nick comes up the north face.	Near the top. View to the SW, as Nick and Pierre come up.

Register. We added three names; else only two people had visited since the register was placed in 2001.	Nick points out the waterfall location on Charleston (view ESE from Clinton summit).	Standard Cerebellum check. Right hamstring still injured :^( Again, the west face of Charleston Peak forms the backdrop.

View S from peak "???"; Pierre invokes the muses Caliope, Erato, Clio and Urania.	10220 +/- 11 feet. Actually, 11 feet is the x-y EPE; elevation is probably +/- 20 feet.	On peak "???"; view of Charleston west face.

Still on "???". Nick takes the scouting pretty seriously, and puts on scout socks.	Nick comes down avalanche track, filled with snow and "fresh" (this winter) fragments of trees smashed by the snow. You can see Pierre's glissade tracks.	Now we cut E toward the waterfall.

Looking back at huge snow bank below waterfall.	Waterfall.	Pierre and waterfall. He tells me that he is reminded of a famous European waterfall that was named after an inconvenienced cow…

Big Ponderosa Pines, with Pierre and Nick for scale.	View of Charleston from parked car. Nick later made a loop up the west face, with one route skirting the trees at left, and another up the ridge at right.	View of N face of Clinton, from parked car.

Want a GPS log, route or more info? Contact me at

hwstock at alum dot mit dot edu