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| Brian's Connector Gulley |
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| Cliff Bands near top of Brian's Gulley |
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| Gypsy Trail |
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| Climbing the Gulley |
Since the pandemic began, many of us have been taking advantage of being in smaller groups of similar abilities to explore new places and routes in the Las Vegas area. Brian D. has sent me several of his tracks, all of which have been quite steep. The Fearsome Foursome chose this shorter one today and it turned out to be fun, interesting and beautiful. It is a rocky wash that provides stair-stepping scrambles (class 2-3) and a new route up from Robbers Roost to the North Loop. Several different loops can be made from the climb. We called it Brian's Gulley! We parked our cars at the Robbers Roost Trailhead and crossed Deer Creek Road. Up the embankment, we turned to the right for a short distance and began an approach to the gulley on the left.
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| Still Climbing the Gulley |
The object here is to climb around the cliff bands emanating from Robbers Roost's rock walls. The gulley is tucked in between the top of these rock walls and the mountainside on the right at a diagonal incline.
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| Deer Creek Road from Gulley |
The approach is criss-crossed with old trails, possibly horse trails, or just other human trails from like-minded hikers.
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| Good Scrambling |
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| More good Scrambling |
Once we circled around the end of the cliff band, we saw the gulley and began our climb. The gulley was mostly free of debris but, once in a while, we chose to avoid something by climbing just out of the wash and back. There were a handful of fun climbs as seen in the photo to the right. When we were about halfway up the gulley, we turned around and saw views of Deer Creek Road up near the North Loop Trailhead. Our climb was slow-going but we were getting a healthy workout. Finally, nearing the top, we decided to climb out to the right through a small cliff band instead of continuing all the way up to the top of the gulley. Our plan was to turn to the right once we found the North Loop Trail. Above the small cliff band, we took our group photo.
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| Ralyn finds her way Up |
We turned to find a way up and over the lip just above, decided on a trajectory (with the help of GPS) and headed down to the North Loop Trail not far below. There, we turned to the right. (Actually, we weren't too far from the top of the gulley above.)
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| Gulley Exit |
Our descent on the North Loop Trail was fast and quiet. The best way to rest your "up legs" is to use your "down legs!"
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| Fearsome Foursome! (Brian's Gulley behind) |
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| Descending North Loop Trail |
About 0.6 mile down from where we joined the North Loop, we came to a blocked off junction. This is the small unofficial trail that can lead to a Deer Creek Road crossing. After joining the trail, we stayed to the right to go down to the road, crossed the road where there are boulders on the other side, and continued down an old dirt road until it junctioned with the Old Deer Creek Road. We turned to the right. I have been this way a couple of times before but that was before the Mahogany Fire of 2020. This route was over run by firefighters at that time and they felled a very large dead tree right in the pathway where the road took a switchback turn to go up the hill toward the Hilltop Campground. Surprised, we kind of wandered around looking for a road that we knew was there somewhere!
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| Mike on the Descent |
A second pass through might be helpful, however, on this effort, we found a vague trail that led in the correct direction and, eventually, spied the old road below.
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| Shortcut from North Loop to Deer Creek Road |
Maybe you will find a better way. ... Or, I will next time! Anywho, we continued up the nice old dirt road and arrived at the Hilltop where there were just a few campers around. We turned to the right onto the paved campground road, stole ten minutes at a picnic table for our break then continued out the pavement.
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| Second Crossing of Deer Creek Road |
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| Following Old Deer Creek Road to Campground |
We went straight when the road curved then turned to the left to go down a small drainage to the road below. The drainage continues on the other side of the Angel Peak Road and we dropped in. This small drainage is used every winter for snowplay. Fine. But, every year, these families see no problem leaving all their trash and whatever they used for sleds in the wash. And, every year, we do at least one hike through this wash and clean up. And, every year, all of us end up with full bags of trash. So, expecting this, we started down the wash and ... picked up trash. What can you say? 😐😑 At the bottom of the wash, we junctioned with the Upper Showgirl Trail and turned to the right carrying trash bags for another half mile.
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| Stopping for a Break at the Hilltop Campground |
Here, there is a spur trail that turns sharply up to the right that goes to Deer Creek Road. We left our trash bags here to pick up in our car after the hike. Across the road, we climbed the hill on the Gypsy Trail on tired ascent legs.
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| Upper Showgirl Trail |
The Gypsy Trail goes up the hill and turns to the left and right. We turned to the left and continued down the gentle slope passing several well-built bike jumps made of rock and dirt.
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| Trash gathered in Littered Wash and Carried to next Crossing of Deer Creek Road |
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| Climbing the Gypsy Trail above Road |
Following the trail past the Pixie Trail junction, we came to the bottom of the hill in a shaded gulley area. The trail curved to the left and, through the archway of Mountain Mahogany trees, we passed the place where we had gone up the hill on the Brian's Gulley approach. Down at the Robbers Roost Trailhead, we definitely felt like we had hiked! We got in the car and drove up to gather our bags of trash but we couldn't fit all of them in my little car. We left one big black bag and a large flat rubber something (i.e. sled) on the side of the road. If it is still there next time we're up there, we will pick it up. Great day on the mountain!
Stats: 4.3 miles; 1300' gain; 3.75 hours
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