River Mountain Ridge near Boulder City, NV

pics by Harlan W. S.
March 03, 2010

 

There is a narrative at the end of the page.  The hike was 10.7 miles, 3700’ accumulated gain as shown on the GPS trace below. This hike would be fatally hot in summer.

 

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The trailhead is actually a paved parking lot

over a fairly unobvious bridge. Actual maintained

 trail is just on the approach to Red, and to

Black Mt Overlook (which is 0.4 miles SSW of

the true Black Mt).

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The first part of the trail is not very wild!

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Once you get away from the houses, it’s

pretty hard to lose the maintained trail.

 

 

 

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The maintained trail is well-graded,

with switchbacks.

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Now I’m at the junction, after climbing

out of the canyon; Red Mt is just 0.3 miles

to the SSW.

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There are ziplines up there!

 

 

 

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Mandatory view of snowy Charleston Peak.

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View ~NNE to Lake Mead and the rest

of the River Mt Range.

 

 

 

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The trail to Black Mt overlook is

well-graded.

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There are two signs on Black Mt Overlook;

each has a geological cross-section.

 

 

 

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View N to where I am going next (trail ends here)

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View back S to Red Mt.

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Now off-trail, I look back at the overlook.

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An odd cache; I can only guess that these

were meant for adventure racing or

 some more primitive version. 

They still worked.

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Lake Mead to NE; country is getting a bit

rougher, but there are decent sheep trails.

 

 

 

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At far left is River Mt; to the right is

the neat, sharper intermediate lump (just S of 3642).

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Muddy Mts to NE.

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Mt Wilson (AZ) to E, with overpass

Visible.

 

 

 

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View W to Black Mt near Henderson

(a 5092’ peak)

 

 

 

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Now I’m atop an intermediate peak

(my guess is ~3650’), view N to

River Mt.

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The E side of this intermediate

peak is actually overhung (view SSE).

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Another view of Charleston.

 

 

 

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Now we can see Railroad Peak in the

 Black Hills (at L), and Black Mt Henderson

 (5092’) in back. People around here were

not too original with names.

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View back S over the ridge I traversed.

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N to Frenchman and Lave Butt.

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View S to ridge again; I’ll cut  R (SW) down

the gully for my return.

 

 

 

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That’s the Sentinel in the middle of pic

(red L side).

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Apparently this is a permitted 4x4

Road.

 

 

 

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View back at River Mt as I cross the desert.

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Now I find myself climbing up Red Mt again.

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The junk on top.

 

 

 

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View from the highest rock you can reach.

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View back N to where I was a short time ago.

 

 

 

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This the structure on top.  I’m guessing

that may be a faraday cage.

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Now I’m descending the unofficial trail to the

SE of Red Mt.

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Another zipline station. Fortification

Hill is the black flat mesa at L.

 

 

 

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The trail.

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Quail on the trail.

 

 

 

 

 

I've had a cold for about 2 weeks.  A week ago Tuesday, I thought I was well enough to go for a short hike, and had a pretty significant relapse the next day. So just sat on my butt for a while, until I woke up feeling good (well, everything is relative!) for two days.  I puttered around yesterday morn, then took off for Boulder City (BC) perhaps 8:30 or so -- late enough to miss the 215 traffic jams.  I started off from the car, to hike,  ~9:40.

 

I wanted a hike that was extensible, depending on how I felt.  The River Mts had never called out to me, so I had plotted some routes for my GPS, and left them for a rainy or sick day. This was the day.

 

It's not a wildly impressive area-- Red Mt looks like a Hillbilly spaceship has landed on top, and there are now zip lines from near the top; it's fun to watch the tourists zipping along, but screams overhead distract from the feeling of solitude.  OK, that was peak #1.  Next I went to the trail end on "Black Mountain Overlook," then continued off-trail to the true Black Mt (#2).  But the neat part was the ridge north of #2 and on the unnamed peaks to the north, actually higher than Black; these peaks (#3) are actually overhung on a precipitous east face.  OK, maybe #2 and #3 are not real peaks -- there is only about a 250' prominence above the ridge.  Then I crossed a powerline road with massive towers, and went up #4 -- River Mt.  One of the first signatures in the book is from Dr. Val; the 4th and 5th to last were from Eric Kassan and Annette Kinsman.

 

Then I headed W and S across the desert, and realized this area near BC is extremely popular with a) quail and b) mountain bikers.  I thought I might as well go up Red Mt (#1) again, just for kicks, and headed up cross country till I intersected the road; I kept finding pretty new beer cans in the wash, collected 3, and deposited them on the side of the road; I'm guessing people driving up the road just threw their cans out the window, and with the recent rain, the cans traveled far down the wash (an interesting thought; people drinking beer while 4x4 driving on a steep winding road).

 

Now at top of #1 again, I snuck as far as I could to the highpoint near the huge set of transmitters on top.  Then I headed down an unofficial trail that had mountain bike tread marks over much of it -- unless these guys are real experts or totally insane, I'd say the walked the bikes in a few places.

 

Back in time to miss traffic on 215. 10.7 miles, 3700' accumulated gain.  And the best part: no relapse (yet).