Far Peak & Spirit Peak - 11/5/13

Spirit Peak

Indecision Peak from Far Peak Approach

 It was a cold and windy day when fifteen hikers showed up for the crazy Tuesday hike.  Unfortunately, there were no women to ensure that the boys would behave.  We hopped in our high clearance vehicles and headed over the Mountain Springs Pass to Lovell Canyon Road.  Less than a mile up Lovell Canyon Rd, we took the dirt road to Rainbow Springs.  We parked just short of the springs where there was space for our vehicles.  There was water and ice on the road from the springs as we headed in that direction.  When we reached the springs, we noticed that someone had planted many small trees around the springs and had plastic protectors on them so deer and other critters wouldn't eat the young bark.  We continued up a surprisingly nice trail until we reached the ridgeline just above the escarpment.

Far Peak

Group Photo on Far Peak

From there we had to scramble through some loose scree and limestone boulders until we reached the small sandstone hill called "Far Peak".  We signed the register there and then continued south along the ridge just above the escarpment to scramble east along some limestone pinnacles. We reached another log book and geocache for "Spirit Peak".  We had our snack break here with great views of Spring Mountain Ranch State Park and the canyon just west of the park.  We then dropped down into the wash below us and found ourselves on the same trail that accesses Monument Peak.  We took this very nice trail back to the vehicles.  It was a cold and windy day but the sun was shining and down in the washes it was very pleasant. ~ Jerry Thomas

Negotiating the Limestone Pinnacles of Spirit Peak