Grand Wash Cliffs/ Duncan BM 6769′
Grand Canyon (sort of)
Total Time: ~4:30
Distance: 5.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 1750′
Crux: Class 2
Trailhead: Parked near Ray’s Place, 4WD, no services
Grand Wash Cliffs is the highest point of the Music Mountains, one of 5 “ranges” that make up the rim of the Grand Canyon (which is why it got lumped in with GC peaks). Despite my love for the canyon, of the northwestern AZ P2K off US 93, Grand Wash Cliffs/ Duncan BM was the one I was looking forward to the least for the weekend. For starters, it had the longest drive time from the US 93, about 45 minutes from the turn off towards Dolan Springs with another 10 miles of dirt driving after Grand Canyon Western Ranch. It was also notoriously brushy and completely trail-less, and would probably be the biggest bushwack of the trip. But as a P2K, it was on my to-do list, and after a fun morning climbing Mount Wilson, I headed south, then east, for my fight with brush to the top of Grand Wash Cliffs. I drove through an incredible Joshua Tree forest before reaching the ranch, and drove around the large property before finding the road into the wilderness area to the southeast of the compound. I signed in and took my free permit, the land owner graciously allowing access into this remote region of the state. Compared with Black Joe Mine Road earlier in the day, this road was a dream and at times I could cruise 45+ mph down the packed sand road. I certainly never needed 4WD at any point, and only high clearance in a few short spots. It was quite hot by the time I reached the unofficial starting point at Ray’s Place, which by other trip reports, was beyond the private property line.
The summit was directly above me and I started into the brush on some cow trails, almost immediately dead ending in some holly and manzanita. I fought through some vague game trails before reaching the drainage I had been hoping to hit sooner and started up. For those looking to follow in my foot steps, the correct drainage is the wash immediately before Rays Place, and you can follow this with minimal brush for probably a good mile.
There was a shallow ridge running off the cliff bands above to the southwest of the high point, and I aimed for this to try and gain the summit ridgeline. I would constantly find a solid game trail only to have it end in scrappy brush, and the going was tedious as I left the safety of the washes for the brush on the ridge above. About halfway up the ridge the pitch steepened considerably with a short section of talus and large boulders breaking up the brush for really the only section all day. The talus was actually pretty solid and settled, and I was sad to see it end as I dove headlong into more brush, ultimately reaching a long plateau on the ridgeline where the brush was finally replaced by pinyon and juniper providing both shade and more open terrain.
I wanted to try and traverse over to a saddle along the main ridgeline instead of climbing the false summit ahead of me first, but found this to be more work than it was worth, with the brush getting worse off the high point of the ridgeline and the soil much looser. I had thought the majority of the bushwacking would be behind me when I reached the main summit ridgeline, but found the high ridgeline was still overgrown with small areas of respite in some rocky slabs.
I passed a small natural window at the final notch before the summit, and worked my way through the pinyon and yucca the last 400′ to the top. The views to the south were nothing special with rolling high desert terrain and some larger peaks barely visible in the distance. But the views north were another story, with the north rim of the Grand Canyon directly across the Colorado River and some of the higher summits in Nevada just in view in the distance. I was pleased with my time despite the bushwacking taking only about 2.5 hours, even with some route-finding troubles in the beginning.
I was tempted to look for a different route on the descent, but with a risk of making things worse, I started back down the way I came, sticking to the wash a bit more religiously once I had dropped off the ridge (of note, the GPS track above and Google Earth only represents the ascent route, with the descent sticking to the shallow drainage to the east, left on Google Earth image).
This spit me out at the road immediately before my car parked at Rays Place, and I took another scalding hot sun shower before driving down the excellent dirt road back to Grand Canyon Western Ranch. I had dinner at the ranch since most of the restaurants in Dolan Springs would be closed by the time I made it there, and enjoyed a cowboy rib dinner to celebrate ticking off 4/6 of the peaks I had set out on the weekend, with Mount Perkins and Hualapai Peak planned for the final day.
Very interesting read! Thanks for posting. Ray’s Place is reached via a very long public trail that is managed by the Bureau Of Land Management. This trail goes through both private and public land, but there is a permanent easement allowing its use by the public.