Tag: pearl pass road

RT Length: 11.44 miles

Elevation Gain: 3923’

I drove past the town of Ashcroft, and right onto the 4WD dirt road that leads to Pearl Pass.  I stopped at about 9800’ at dispersed campsite #3.  There are 9 total, with signs asking you to only camp in the designated areas.  All first come.  Sites 1 and 2 were taken, so I parked in site 3. 

Here are a few of the other sites.

I was up and on the trail at 5am the next morning.  I followed the 4WD dirt road southwest, towards the Pearl Pass/Montezuma Mine junction.   About a mile into my hike I saw a bear on the trail (it ran away before I could get a picture) so those bear warning signs aren’t a joke. 

At 10200’ I crossed Castle Creek on a log bridge, and continued on

After hiking for 2.5 miles I came to the Pearl Pass/Montezuma Mine junction and went left towards Pearl Pass Road.  There are places to park here as well, and if you have a stock 4WD you should be able to make it to this point.   After this junction it’s modified, lifted (etc.) 4WD only.

I continued on this road as it headed south.  Water from streams above ran down the road.

After hiking for 3.6 miles, and at 11800’ of elevation, I left the road to ascend west, up a game trail through a ravine

This gave me my first good view of Oyster Peak

This is a choose your own adventure route to the ridge.  This is the route I took, keeping it all class 2 (although it was steep at times)

The route was rocky, and most of the rocks were not stable.  Here are some step-by-step pictures to the ridge.

Once on the ridge I turned right, and headed north towards the summit.  This was all class 2.

I summited Oyster Peak at 8am

Oyster Peak:

It was very windy on the summit, and a cold wind for August.  I turned around and looked southeast, at Pearl Mountain

It’s also good to note the descent route from this angle

I continued southeast, towards the Oyster/Pearl Saddle.

Here is my overall route up to Pearl Mountain.  I was able to keep this mostly class 2, with just a few easy class 3 moves, mostly sticking to the ridge.  There were a few spots with exposure, made interesting by the 40mph winds. 

I went left at the end of the ridge to make it to the saddle

Here’s the route up the ridge.  It’s easier than it looks.

The rest of the hike is class 2, on what is loose, rolling rocks.  There are a few game trails through the rocky sections

I summited Pearl Mountain at 9am

Pearl Mountain:

I continued following the ridge east, to an obvious orange gully.  This part of the ridge was sketchier than the first part.  In retrospect, I made some things class 4 when they could have been class 2, but the class 3 stuff was class 3, no way around it.  I stayed straight on top of the ridge

Here’s looking BACK at Pearl, the way I descended was class 4 (solid line) but when I looked back I noticed I could have descended on the dotted line, making it class 2

For the last bit of the ridge before the gully I dipped to the right, to keep it class 2

The gully is obvious, as it’s orange.  I had a small patch of snow to get through first.  I had the brilliant idea to glissade the 10 feet of snow.  This worked perfectly, except when I hit the bottom I ran into a good 8 inches of sticky mud I hadn’t expected.  I was stuck in the mud for a minute until I could pull my boots out.

Ok, now to head down the gully.  I was so glad I was going down this instead of up.  It was seriously steep.  It starts out as scree and ends with microwave sized rocks.  You can see Pearl Pass Road in the distance.  That’s what I was aiming for once I got out of the gully.

Here’s looking back up the gully

My route down the gully

And now back to the road

Back on Pearl Pass Road, I followed it north, back to the trailhead

I made it back to my truck at 11:45am, making this a 11.44 mile hike with 3923’ of elevation gain in 6 hours, 45 minutes

When I made it back, I was surprised to find another vehicle in my dispersed camping spot.  It was especially curious because the next three campsites were vacant.  I’ve been sitting here for the past 3 hours putting together this trip report, and they still aren’t back yet.  Edited to add:  About half an hour later I went to put my computer away, and their car was gone.  I never heard them leave. I’m not sure they knew I was here either.

On to the next trailhead!