Sheephole Mountains Highpoint 4613′
Desert Peak Section
Total Time: 4:00
Distance: 4.9 miles
Elevation Gain: 2300′
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Amboy Road, no services
My last day in Joshua Tree would be a short one, needing to make the 6 hour drive home back to Fresno in time for dinner. My plan was to tag the Sheephole Mountains Highpoint, another CA P2K and DPS summit and a fairly short outing, only 5 miles roundtrip. But with over 2,000′ of elevation gain, I would still need an early start, checking out of my hotel in 29 Palms and turning off Amboy Road onto dirt roads at Sheep Hole Pass. Unlike the my prior outings on Spectre Peak and Eagle Mountain, this had basically no approach to start the ascent, dropping across a wash before immediately starting up the canyon immediately west of the high point.
There was a decent use trail as I worked up the wash, due in part to old mining activity, passing some abandoned equipment early on in the climb. Also unlike the prior climbs of the trip, the bottom of this canyon was mostly sandy with polished slab steps, and I was able to move quickly up the canyon, skirting a series of dry falls to the north into the wider upper canyon.
I followed the canyon all the way to a high saddle on the ridgeline, the higher terrain a bit more complex than the straightforward canyon below. From the saddle, I briefly followed the ridgeline above before making an ascending traverse to the northeast towards the summit massif, following a use trail intermittently but heading mostly cross country around boulder piles and pockets of brush. The summit boulders were now in view above, and I needed to traverse across a drainage, following a series of cairns to a jumble of boulders immediately west of the summit.
Although the trail continued a bit further south before heading up a weakness in the boulders to the summit, I decided to keep things interesting, scrambling up and around the boulders directly with some engaging third class and interesting route finding all the way to the high point. The ascent had taken a bit over 2 hours, a decent time given the 2,300′ of elevation gain.
I took a short break on the summit then started down, this time utilizing the ducked use trail towards the southwest, still requiring some scrambling but easier route finding. I more or less retraced my steps, taking a descending traverse back down the ridgeline to the high saddle and head of the western canyon. The sandy floor made for a fun and speedy descent, dropping from the summit to the car and past an old mine I had somehow missed on the ascent in under two hours.
Of the three DPS summits of the trip, it had been the most enjoyable by far with good scrambling and minimal brush. I hopped in the car and headed north, picking up I-40 and hooking west for the long drive home.