Good News! Bridge Mtn via Fern Canyon - Better

The  Bridge Mtn via Fern Canyon route is one of the best routes to Bridge Mtn. Why?

• It's a fun route
• It's challenging
• It's scenic
• No driving the Rocky Gap Road.

How is the route better now?

About halfway up the wash there was either a very brushy workaround or a very difficult climb, even with the rope. Now there's a third option: The recent rains created a tunnel! The tunnel an easy climb through, though tight for larger hikers. They will have to take their packs off.

The red arrow points to the tunnel.

Stats for this hike:

Hike: Bridge Mtn via Fern Creek (North Fork of Pine Creek) — route

Trailhead: Pine Creek — marked

Distance: 6.5 miles — up and back

Elevation gain: 3,200 feet

Elevation of peak: 6,940 feet

Time: 5 to 6 hours – up and back

Difficulty: 5

Danger level: 4

Class: 3+

How easy to follow: 5

Children: no

Zion Trip and Grafitti Traverse in Red Rock

This weekend we did a lot of hiking and scrambling. We drove to Zion National Park in Utah, on Friday and hiked Angel's Landing. This easy and fun hike is also one of the most popular hikes in Zion. The hike starts off as a paved trail and climbs to the back of Angel's Landing. From there it's a classic ridge ascent that looks very scary. Chains have been installed to assist novice hikers. Stats: 5 miles - 1,500 elevation gain

We camped at Watchman Campground in Zion so we could get an early start on Saturday for the Bridge Mountain hike. The route is 7.5 miles, with 3,000 feet elevation gain and takes around eight hours to complete. Kelly, Mike, Kathy and I set off on the route around 7 am. It was just getting light at that time. We moved quickly and I found all the key landmarks on the approach to Bridge. It's a few miles to the start of the climb. There's lots of exposure on some crappy rock as the route makes its way to the peak.(See video below).
We were on the peak before 11 am with perfect weather. I was the last one on the peak according to the register and that was two years ago! This hike is uphill both ways! There's a lot of elevation gain on the hike back to the trailhead. We were back to the cars before 2 pm and back in Vegas around 5pm.

Sunday morning came and we were off to hike Graffiti Traverse route in Red Rock Canyon. This hike follow the route to Rocky Gap Boulder and then ascends Graffiti Ridge to the famous Graffiti Traverse. (See the video below.) It was a great hike and the newbies did well considering the amount of climbing and exposure on the route.

I will be staying in town for awhile now and hiking some more of the classic Red Rock hikes.

Notes: I will be publishing a panorama from Angel's Landing later this week.The Rocky Gap Boulder hike will be updated with waypoints later this week also.

Crabby Appleton Pk, Rainbow Pk and Wall and Bridge Mtn

On Saturday (10-11), 16 hikers followed the wild route to Crabby Appleton Peak, a little known summit in Red Rock Canyon. This is one of my favorite moderate hikes in Red Rock and it's a loop hike. The route travels through Pine Creek Canyon before starting the ascent to the summit. There's lots of class 3 scrambling to reach the top, but the views from the summit are worth it.

Now the interesting part comes: a very exposed downclimb to reach the descent gully. In fact I had to tie a swami belt for a few people and lower them down. Once past this obstacle, it's a fast descent to the trailhead. Everyone had a good time and I am sure a few hikers will never forget this hike!

On Sunday we hiked Rainbow Peak and Rainbow Wall via the Rainbow Peak Without the Ledges route, one of the best in Red Rock Canyon. The real route starts at the base of Rainbow Wall with a long pull up a rope. The route then descends 200 feet of exciting and exposed rock before starting back up over 1,000 feet to the summit. We were at the peak by high noon.

One peak was not enough, so we hiked over to Rainbow Wall. We climbed the famous "ledges" on our way to the 1,200 foot wall. Just past the ledge is Photographic Ledge, another cool spot in Red Rock Canyon. Another 15 minutes of hiking and we were looking down Rainbow Wall. We descended via Gunsight Notch and were back to the cars by 4 pm. Panorama from Rainbow Peak.

Since Monday was a holiday for some, Nancy, Kathy and I hiked Bridge Mountain via the North Peak Wash route. I rewrote the hike description and included more waypoints. This is a great route to Bridge and cuts the drive on the Rocky Gap Road in half. The Rocky Gap Road is in about the same shape as always. Panorama from Bridge Mtn.

During the descent I almost step on a baby rattlesnake. This is the time of the year the snakes are most active. Despite what many books say I have never seen snakes on ledges, only on the ground and mostly on trails.

Notes: Book on Crabby Appleton is in good shape. A new book was placed at Rainbow Peak. There's a small sign in book at Bridge Mountain.

Charleston Peak and Bridge Mountain

On Saturday Mark and I did Charleston Peak via the South Loop trail. It was a breeze. We had been hiking and climbing in the Sierra lately, so anything in Charleston seems pretty easy. During the descent we were getting bored with the trail, so we decided to descend the Cathedral Rock to South Loop Trail route. It's very steep, very loose, and very hard to follow. I do not recommend this as either an ascent or descent route.

On Tuesday, Dana and I did Bridge Mountain via North Peak Wash, a route Jerry Umbrella and I found nearly 14 years ago. It was the best hike I have ever done to Bridge Mountain and I have done Bridge over 50 times. A nice breeze kept us cool. Although Dana says she scared of heights, you would never know it. She handled the climbing without any problem. The route is well cairned and the Rocky Gap road still sucks, although her jeep easily handled the rough spots.

We are planning to do lots of weekend trips. This is good news and bad news. The good news I will be adding even more hikes from outside of Las Vegas to the Members Only club. The bad news is I will not be leading as many hikes on the weekends, since I will be out of town.