Mountain Springs Peak Loop v Horse Trail & Upper Cairn Routes - 6/10/23

View from Mountain Springs Peak

May & June Flowers

Hidden Peak from Snack Cliff

Desert Sage on old dirt Road

On an unusually cool day in June, three club members decided to go back to the escarpment mountains in Red Rock Canyon for a wonderful out-of-season hike. Two things that are so enjoyable about doing a hike out-of-season is that you see different things and you see things in different light. We started from the Mountain Springs Pass Trailhead. There were several cars there but we assumed that some of them were bikers since we never saw any other hikers the whole morning. Early morning hikers and bikers were out and about down below but things had pretty much cleared out by the time we drove back by the visitor center. To be prudent, we began our clockwise loop by crossing the foothills on the Mountain Springs Horse Trail where it would likely be warmer at the end of the 6 mile loop.

Yellow Primrose on Horse Trail

Yellow Primrose in Small Wash

Small Wash

Beautiful Morning

Taking the old dirt roads, we passed the agave roasting pits and connected with the foothills trail until we were about 2.25 miles into the hike. Here, we turned right to follow elk tracks up the ridge until we dropped into the small familiar wash. (Someday, I'm going to see that elk!) We climbed the small easy wash until we found the double cairn landmark on the left side. All the way up the wash, we were seeing blooming wildflowers. Quite a beautiful display in the early morning sun! At the double cairns, we turned left to climb up to a saddle on the ridge above. A right turn continued the climb up the ridge until we junctioned into the Escarpment Rim Trail where we turned right again. We passed the Snack Cliff and continued up to Mountain Springs Peak where we took our break from our continuous morning climb. BTW, someone has removed the ammo box with the log book in it. Not sure why or if it will reappear in the fall. 

Climbing ridge to Rim Trail

Junction with Rim Trail

Smoky view from climb to Peak

Resting on the Peak

We continued along the Rim Trail until we came to another double cairn on the right side at the top of a trailing ridge. I had not descended on the Upper Cairn Route without a leader so this was a learning experience! The top portion of the trail is lacking a lot of cairns and sometimes the trail is very vague. We came to an obvious fork and chose the right but I think we should have chosen the left. Anyway, we corrected ourselves later and hiked down to the junction with the Lower Cairn Trail; and on out to cross the dirt road and gulley. The road on the other side of the gulley returned us to the trailhead. It was a good morning. Perfect weather and a newish route! Learned stuff!

Stats: 6.5 miles; 1500' gain; 4 hours

Crucial Fork on Upper Cairn Route - Should go Left

Rocky Descent Section on Upper Cairn Route

Near junction with Lower Cairn Trail