Pahrump Point

Pahrump Point 5741′
Desert Peak Section
Total Time: 4:20
Distance: 8.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 3350′
Crux: Class 2
Trailhead: Highway 178, no services

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I had seriously neglected Death Valley and the Desert Peak section since moving back to California. After ticking all the Arizona DPS summits during my time in the state, I had only hiked to Pleasant Point in the Inyo Mountains nearly three years ago. Although this was largely because the closest DPS Peak was a 5 hours drive, I still wanted to make it a point to chip away at the list. Although I had been to Death Valley several times, the only DPS Peak I had climbed in the park was Telescope, and with over 20 in and around the large park to be climbed, I set out to try and get as many as I could over 2 and a half days. Unfortunately, a storm came through the week before, bring snow down to 4000′, making the higher summits more difficult. That, coupled with the backcountry road damages and closures from Hurricane Hillary in August of 2023 made my options a bit more limited. I decided to start out on a pair of summits a bit over 5,000′ southeast of the park near Tecopa Hot Springs and work my way back west. I broke up the drive by spending the night in Tehachapi, getting up well before dawn. I finished the drive mostly in darkness, stopping in Baker for a gas station breakfast and pulling off Highway 178 onto an unmarked dirt road around 7:30 AM that marked the start for my first summit of the trip, Pahrump Point. The road was in Wilderness Area and technically closed, although it seemed you could probably drive it all the way to the canyon entrance with enough patience. But I had gotten a flat tire on one Death Valley trip once before, and was not looking to start a three day trip the same way. So after organizing a few last minute things, I set off along the road towards Pahrump Point. Starting from the Highway, it was a solid 2 miles of road hiking, slowly gaining elevation up the broad Alluvial fans to the mouth of the canyon.

A use trail continued from the roads end, although I made little effort to stick with it too religiously, the cross country and boulder hopping fairly straight forward in the lower canyon. This canyon quickly narrowed, and after a few bends and turns I made a sharp left into the first major side canyon. Although this had a few dry falls initially, this quickly leveled out, and I spotted a pair of desert bighorn sheep scrambling up the slopes above.

A use trail climbed above the right side of the river bed, climbing through a notch and into the next sidecanyon to the right. The summit was at the head of this canyon, and although close, I knew this last section would be by far the steepest. I followed the side canyon a bit longer before cutting up on use trails to the ridgeline above coming southwest off the summit.

It looked like there would be some fun scrambling ahead, and I started up the ridgeline. It wasn’t long before the terrain began to look more difficult than class 3, and I realized I had missed a bypass to the west 100′ below. The short scramble back down brought me to a large cairn I had missed, and I traversed across west and north facing slopes below the ridgeline with patchy snow, the first of the day. I lost the use trail in the thin snow, but spied a cairn in a gully above, bringing me back up to the ridgeline, now above the more difficult section.

From there it was straightforward class 2 to the final 100 yards of summit ridgeline, encountering some deeper pockets snow on some of the north facing aspects. The views from the summit were outstanding with fresh snow blanketing Mount Charleston above Vegas immediately to the east. To northwest was Death Valley proper, with Telescope Peak having a good amount of snow as well.

Less than a mile north was Rumpah Point, just a few feet higher than where I was standing, but the connecting ridgeline looking rough. I’m sure it would be easier than it looked, but I held out a sliver of hope that I would have time for both Stewart Point and Eagle Mountains highpoint that day. So I descended the way I came, hiking down the snowy gully and along the ridgeline before dropping back into the canyon.

The ground was just frozen enough to prevent me from plunge stepping down the scree, being more tedious than efficient, and I quickly began to lose hope for two more summits that day. My progress improved once I was back in the canyon proper, and I picked up the pace, utilizing the use trails above the canyon bottom to try and make up for my slower pace on the ascent, not having had a long day of peak bagging since Mount Clark months prior. It was easy downhill the last two miles of road back to the car, getting back at around noon. With short winter days, the likelihood of bagging two more DPS Peaks that day seemed slim, but I hopped in the car to head to Stewart Point and start up summit number 2 of the trip…