These peaks are located about 40 miles N of Las Vegas, on the W side of the Route 93 valley. Technically, this is the N end of the Sheep Range, but this mountain group stands quite separate from Hayford and the rest of the range.

Access requires a 4WD vehicle. The easiest approach is to start at Corn Creek Station, then travel 25 miles N on the good Alamo Road, then take a R (E) on Dead Horse Road, and follow that 4WD road ~9 miles to the end near Sheep Basin. There are several archeological sites nearby; we came across two roasting pits. The basin at the top of the mountain harbors ponderosa pines, spruce, and possibly Douglas fir on the cool N slopes. The temperatures were 65-80F in mid-May, but this is a dry route, and will be deathly hot in summer. At best, a visit to both peaks requires a 10 mile trailless route over rough terrain (up to class 3 with tricky footing), with an accumulated elevation gain of 4000', so this is not a trip to treat lightly.

We left a register on South Ram Peak, but there was no indication anyone has visited the site since the last USGS survey. There was no evidence that anyone has ever been to North Ram Peak before.

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% or less of 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!

GPS trace. Took northern route up valley on W side of mountain; descent, via valley on S side, was very brushy.	Larkspurs.	Desert four o'clocks.
View E toward Ram Peak. The pink line shows ascent route, blue shows descent. Indian paintbrush in foreground.	View over larkspurs and mallows.	Roasting pit used by Native Americans.
Mysterious plant remnants from fire-blackened cave near roasting pit. Agave fruit pits? Pack rat residua?	Monkeyflowers; Bigelow (pink) and Parry (yellow).	View W as Nick comes up steep valley.
Rough ridge on N side of ascent velley	Looking N from south rim of mountain; N Ram is at center of photo.	At USGS benchmark site.
Heading N to N Ram Peak.	Looking E down canyon on E side -- no way to capture hugeness of view!	Natural arch (Archalopolis).
Archie More.	Archaeopteryx.
Windows X-P(inyon).	View SE from top of N Ram Peak; Arrow Range in distance.	View roughly W; Dry Lake is to right.
Looking roughly ENE; Mormon Peak and Moapa Peak in distance.	Bioturbation fossils ("worm tracks").	View S during descent from South Ram.
Snail fossils in cross-section.	Looking E down descent valley. There is a very obvious fault line, with spectacular slivers of fault breccia at top of valley, brown layers silty limestone on S, and gray masssive limestone on N.	Utah penstemon.
Prickly pear.	Purple penstemon.	Claret cups.
Mysterious safety valve -- part of plane or other aerospace garbage?	Fremont phacelia.	Palmer's penstemon.

If you would like the GPS track for this trip, or a simplified GPS route, you may contact me at:

hwstock at alum dot mit dot edu