Lost Yucca, Yucca BM, and Naked Pks

Lost Yucca, Yucca BM, Naked Pks and First Peaks

Pics by Harlan W S
Dec 23 and 26, 2022

Originally this was meant to be one 3-peak loop, but a navigation hiccup broke it! I'll describe the Lost Yucca- Yucca BM loop 1st, then describe the Naked Peak recon next. Without the delay, I would have made it all one trip. It looks like Lost Yucca can also be approached by the N-S trending canyon south of E on the first map..

For these trailheads, the Mormon Wells Road is easily handled by a 2WD vehicle with at least 6" of clearance; the difficulty is pulling off the road to park, where the gravel birm might require a tougher vehicle. In most places, the road is wide enough to let another car squeeze by if you park on the road. Some pullouts described in Purcell's "Rambles and Scrambles" seem not to exist anymore.

Map for the Lost Yucca- Yucca BM loop. The letters are mentioned in figure captions. Route was clockwise.	Zoom out for context.	First Peak to north of Mormon Wells Rd.
Near A, north of Naked, heading to saddle.	View south to Naked, from saddle.	View north from before B; we will stay on left side.
View north near B. Shallow caves in light gray limestone.		View north near C. Climb onto the higher ledge.
Mt Potosi to south	Drop left and come back up other side.	View NW from D, the "battleship" rock described by Purcell. I went over it, but you can actually just walk left around it
Viewof F from E, the ridge connecting Lost Yucca and Yucca. It is hard to stay on the exact ridge.	View south.	The "Battleship" viewed ESE from near E.
View SE to Gass Peak, from near E.	View SE to Gass Peak, from near E.	View south over First Peak (right)
Zoom in on previous photo to gendarme on South Ridge Route to First Peak.	Gass Pk from top of Lost Yucca
	Summit Lost Yucca, sports bra added for modesty.	View of Yucca BM to north.
Looking down at F, rough saddle. Yucca BM in back.	Staying on ridge, vs. dropping 100' east, entails sketchy climbing or circumnavigation.	View south, a very sketchy traverse.
Ahead is point 6778 on map; one can go over the top.	Top of Yucca BM, view SW over Lost Yucca.	The last person (probably didn't sign in, pencil was broken) just left the register out like this. When I was here 17 yrs ago, there was a MacLeod-Lilley register

View south, sports bra drawn in for modesty.	View SW from G, view of shiny aerial tow target we visited in 2005.	View SE from H. You can just go around this lump on right.
View west from I. I stayed on north side of this canyon; it looks inviting from above, but quickly becomes choked with brush and ends up...	...in this overhanging dryfall, at least 50' drop	OK, when I started the same trip 3 days prior, and hit a navigation ambiguity...
Here is Naked as seen from south, off Mormon Wells Rd.	I went up Naked by this ridge, probably harder than it had to be.	On summit Naked. View of Mummy to south.
View of Lost Yucca to NW.	Last visitor in 2020 left glass bottle register out in sun, so the paper is now pretty cooked.	View of First Peak from Naked.
I came down 200' from the summit of Naked, where the guidebook told me to head west under the cliffs of Naked, and head to saddle. Alas, it should be 300- 400' below summit. This saddle (shown) is a dead end.	Naked as viewed from peaklet in previous photo.