Quartzite Mountain & Fossil Bench

pics by Harlan W. S. & M.A.H.
March 28, 2009

I read about this hike years ago on Jim Boone’s site, and never felt a great appeal for the long wash walk. But I looked again with new eyes, and decided I could make a loop with a ridge walk, visiting the next peak N as a side excursion. The full hike with the side trip is ~14.4 miles, ~3400’ accumulated gain, because there are many small ups-and-downs on the ridge.

Plus, something had happened to this area since JB’s write-up. As I was doing the Mummy Traverse on July 2, 2006, I looked NE and saw a tremendous mushroom-shaped smoke cloud over the area of Quartzite Mountain. Atmospheric conditions, lightning strikes, and the thick cheat grass from the wet 2005 season, and all conspired to make a huge fire in that area. 2.5 years later, the ridge is now easy walking, and some non-native plants like cheat grass and heron’s-bill are taking hold.

100k map. We went clockwise on the loop portion, up the ridge and down the wash.	24k map with GPS trace.	We leave the wash and top the first ridge.
This appears to be part of a fuel tank jettisoned from a military plane.	White, snowy mountain at R is Willow Peak; it appears whiter because the tree cover was burned off in fire, so the snow is more obvious (no tree cover). In reality, the mountains just L have more snow in the trees.	Note drain plug.
	A vetch (legume).	Frenchman Mt and dusty N Las Vegas.
We hit the burned part of the ridge.	Last view across Vegas valley.	SW to snow-covered Spring Mts.
	At 7000’ on burned-over ridge, view of Quartzite.	View S to dusty N Las Vegas
View N to the peak; photo by MAH.	View back S, Frenchman Mt in dusty distance.
View N – the top of the peak is surprisingly rugged, with big quartzite blocks.	Old bottle – possibly from benchmark survey crew. View N.
View N to my next goal.	View back S over Quartzite, showing the juniper-pinyon mostly untouched on the NW side of the peak.	Above 7000’ again, view back S to Quartzite.
On the northern peak.	A MacLeod-Lilley register!	USDA helicopter visit, probably checking out how well the area recovered after the 2006 fire.
More USDA helicopter visitors.	The USGS crew probably prestamped the benchmark with their starting location near Fossil Ridge, the nearest mapped feature, hence the odd name.	Sheep Range, Hayford the highpoint.
View NE over Arrow Range to Moapa.	The Sheep Range is to the W.	View off N side of “Fossil Benchmark”.
SW from “Fossil Benchmark”		Approaching Quartzite Mt. from the N.
The “quartzite” is probably the Ordovician Eureka Q, actually a well-indurated sedimentary rock.	The route down the wash is rather long, gentle, and a bit boring. In our case there were frequent views of the snow-filled avalanche chutes on Griffith Peak.	Gass Peak from the NE.