Petroleum Peak – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 12.14 miles

Elevation Gain: 4624’

From Tellurium Creek Road. There is no real trailhead for this hike. A good place to park is at the junction between 742 and 584, and to start out following 584 north. The rest of the road is 4WD, but is really better suited for an OHV. There also isn’t a good place to park further up. I did not park at this junction but should have. Instead I drove up the 584 road and after about a quarter mile decided I loved my truck too much to continue. There are some really big rocks. My truck could have made it further (I didn’t know it at the time, but I’d already driven the worst part) but I decided instead to find a place to park between some trees and hike the rest of the road.

From my parking spot I followed the 4WD road for a mile before turning right onto a closed road. In the dark I missed the turnoff, but in daylight it’s obvious, marked by large rocks closing the road to vehicle traffic.

This is an old mining road that switchbacks up the side of the mountain. They really don’t want you driving on this road: as if the rock barriers weren’t enough, they’ve mounded the road as well. It’s still easy to follow.

The road passes the Enterprise Mine

And switchbacks a few more times up the mountainside before heading to another mining claim. I took two more switchbacks after the Enterprise mine, and then left the road to head north up the mountainside.

Once I’d gained the ridge I turned left and followed the ridge northeast.

From here on out this is a simple ridge hike, but there are a lot of false summits

Here’s the actual summit of Anderson Peak

It’s a long but straightforward, class 2 ridge walk to the summit (with a lot of small ups and downs)

For some reason I saw an anchor set up on the ridge? I’m not sure what the reason is, considering this is all class 2 and it’s not near the summit.

Here’s the last bit to the summit. Notice how blue the skies are?

I summited Anderson Peak at 8:45am

Anderson Peak:

https://youtu.be/sX7Og2Fu62c

Here’s looking back at the ridge

I turned around and continued following the ridge that led to Petroleum Peak

Here’s an overview of the route

And step by step, all class 2. Notice the increasing clouds?

Getting up this section was a little steep, but still class 2

I stuck to the ridge the entire way

The summit was long and it was difficult to tell where the actual summit was. I walked all along the ridge and found the summit cairn/register further to the north.

I summited Petroleum Peak at 10:10am

Petroleum Peak: https://youtu.be/agIJEkY3uqQ

Here’s a look back at the route from Anderson Peak over to Petroleum Peak

It wasn’t lost on me the clouds were increasing at a rapid rate. It wasn’t even 10:30am yet, but the forecast predicted a 20% chance of thunderstorms after noon. It looked like they were going to happen, and I wanted off the mountain as soon as possible. I continued following the ridge north to avoid rock hopping, then turned and followed the mountainside as it curved south.

Now, I could have just aimed for the road and taken that back to my truck, but where’s the fun in that? Side note: If you’re not good with route finding off trail, aim for the road.

Oh, and those clouds I’d been worried about? Around 10:30am it started snowing! Wow! That had happened FAST! I put my camera away during the worst of it, but it wasn’t too bad, just unexpected. Mostly graupel and small flakes.

I continued curving around the side of the mountain until I came to a well defined game trail, then followed that to a basin.

Once in the basin the trail ended. I turned right and followed the drainage 2.5 miles. There is no trail here, but if you stick to the creek you will eventually make it to the road you hiked in on. The brush can be thick at times, there are some willows to contend with, but it’s easy to stay near the creek. Eventually you’ll want the creek on your left, but feel free to navigate back and forth as needed.