New York Mountains, CA (~7533’)

Harlan W. S.
January 17, 2007

Keystone Canyon access: Taken I-15 south from Vegas to the Nipton Road (“Searchlight exit”). Take the Nipton Road 3.4 miles east, then turn south on the Ivanpah Road. Take the very good Ivanpah Road 18.1 miles south to an unmarked turnoff on the west (right) side of the road. In a short distance, take the left fork, and drive as far WSW on the dirt road as you feel comfortable. Contact me for GPS waypoints and routes: !hwstock! at !Alum! dot !mit! dot !edu! (no exclamation points). Here is a summitpost entry on the route – basically this page, with a bit more navigational detail.

It was cold. I noted 35F on my sun-exposed thermometer; but I had rime ice on my beard, so true temperature was probably < 30F. However, this place would be miserably hot in summer, and there is no reliable water. There is no trail, and the elevation gain is ~2250’ from where I parked.

A flock of beautiful blue pinyon jays flew up as I descended.

I got to the “trailhead” in 95 minutes from my house in Summerlin.

100k map with GPS trace.	24K map with GPS trace. Points A and B are keyed to photos below.	View W on the dirt road into Keystone Canyon.
This small sharp peak is actually well below the true summit.		View back ENE over saddle above mine. One comes up from the valley at L.
The true summit across Carruthers Canyon.	Clark Mountain to N.	View S to true summit.
The sharp peak on horizon (center) is Hart.	The last chute to the top. This is the top of the “Class 3” chute described in summitpost, but the angle is very different from the SP photo. Here is a comparison with the SP photo.	Window by last chute.
	View back down (and to N) of last chute.	Not much room to back up for a good self-portrait.
View S.	DPS ammo box with a present from a ring-tailed cat.	Near point B on 24k map; view back S, after descending. This a separate, lower chute from that shown previously.
View S from point B in the 24K map. Note balancing rock.	View back S from point A. Note balancing rock. NOTE the blue line above does NOT end at the top of the peak; you still need to cross to and negotiate the last class 3+ chute.	Descending; upper mine adit in snow.
Remnants of mine cart tracks.		The mine workings have a lot of color in small amounts of malachite, azurite, and chrysocolla. However, it is probable that most of the copper is in duller minerals, such as the cuprite-limonite at upper left, and the tiny amounts of chalcopyrite in the sphalerite-fluorite-calcite mix at lower left.