Camp 84 / Horse Peak Half Loop - 6/14/25

View from Horse Peak (L-R Sisters Ridge, McFarland Pk, Macks Pk)

Camp 84

Horse Canyon Spring

Hiking up Horse Canyon Road

This particular hike on this particular day just did not come out right! But, you know when you have one of those crazy hikes but you had fun anyway? Well, this is one of those. I've been working on this area for a few years and the only trails on the ground are trails with which the hike was born. Attempting to get other Las Vegas hikers interested in the area to make trails just doesn't seem to be successful. Too much bushwhacking. At any rate, we tried yet another route getting up to Camp 84 and traversing the ridge over to Horse Peak. Never give up! There is still another route not yet taken. Regardless, our route today, although not smooth, got us to where we wanted to go. We drove one of our Subarus up Macks Canyon Road to find a nice place to park next to the Horse Canyon Road junction. After readying our packs, we crossed back over to Horse Canyon Road and started up. This rocky dirt road can be driven by HCVs 4WDs up to a certain point. There are a few campsites on the way.

Gathering at the Spring

Sue demonstrates the difficult climb up to the ridge.

Steep climb with great Views

Kay hanging on the side of the Ridge

At approximately 0.70 mile, we found the Horse Canyon Spring. It sits just to the left of the road and appears as a hole in the ground with water in it. Right now, there is grass all around the hole. Perhaps the wild horses have not been coming around. Here, there is a trail that switchbacks from the road going uphill. This is not a good trail but I followed it with curiosity anyway. Susan hiked back to a different trail that switchbacked uphill a little lower. It appeared to be a little better trail. (Always before, I and friends had hiked the hill to Camp 84 pretty much straight up from a junction about 0.30 mile up the road. Working on the theory that whoever resided at Camp 84 in the mining days probably had a trail to the spring water that they travelled often. Or, ... the wild horses used a trail on a traverse above the road. Either way, there are vague trails all around. But, ... the trails we tested out so far have not come to the same conclusion. We'll figure it out. It's just time.

   So, the four Lady Hikers gave it the college try as we worked the trail that led up from the spring. It would appear and disappear and reappear a few times. We realized early on that we weren't going to have a smooth time of it. In fact, when we finally reached the ridgeline, it was clear we missed the campsite.

Rest stop waiting for everyone to gather Again. -  But, what a view!

Finally on the ridge ... in the wrong Place

Camp 84

Starting the ugly Traverse

Yep! Camp 84 was further down the ridge. So, we hiked down to it wanting to check its present condition. We noted that someone had used it for their own camping excursion. Things were moved around and there were a few less old pots and pans. There was also, thankfully, evidence that they may have used gas stoves instead of fires for cooking. Good job! After taking a look-see, we started on an ugly traverse up the ridge. Losing the trail several times, I was trying to follow a GPS track. I might would have done better by just following my nose. My memory of the "trail" wasn't very good since I followed someone else on the other occasions. This time, I sure got us into some ugly bushwhacking!

Past the really tough Spot

Beautiful tree on Ridge

Mummy Mountain and Charleston Peak's north ridge from Overlook

Approach to Horse Peak

We finally emerged onto an empty saddle and sat for a minute. Not everyone in the group was keeping up. There was a lot of resting. But, no, not even the resting was helping to keep my head straight. We forged on as I became more and more confident in the route and terrain. The next section was more sensical as soon as I found the correct route located higher up toward the ridgeline. This trail brought us to the First Saddle, a place I recognized from several other hikes we did here. We took our break and, again, forged on. (BTW, everyone in the group were "having a ton of fun!" they said.) Even though I offered to bail on the hike two or three times, no one wanted to stop this craziness. The views up there were amazing and it really wasn't that hard of a hike to get to Horse Peak from there. (I was encouraged to call it Horse Hill because there was one hiker who avoided "peaks" whenever she could. I tried to tell her that Horse Hill was a very small peak especially when you had already done the hard part climbing to the ridge. Well, again, I missed the tried and true trail traversing over to the peak and had to constantly try to climb further up for the route nearest the ridge. That's what I get for trying to not climb up when I had a choice.

Yep ... Finally there!

Starting down into the Horse Canyon upper Wash

Horse Canyon upper Wash

Lots of pine Cones

We got to Horse Peak and took our group photo. Deciding to call it a day, we aborted the plan to follow the northwest ridge around and back to Macks Canyon Road. Straight down usually works so we found the main wash and did just that. The wash took us down, down, down back to Horse Canyon Road to, again, pass the spring. Another 0.7 mile and we were at our car. Wow! What a morning! There were no complaints. I agreed that 5.5 hours is long enough to be on the trail. I love this group! They are ready, willing and able ... most of the time ... with happy faces.

Stats: 4.5 miles; 1500' gain; 5.5 hours

Very few Obstacles

One Obstacle

Arriving at the trail continuation of the Road

Champion Road / Lee Canyon Narrows (with exploratory) - 6/12/25

Small windows in the conglomerate walls of Lee Canyon

Lee Canyon Narrows from Above

Lee Canyon Wash

Starting down Champion Road

Still taking advantage of the cool mornings at Sawmill Trailhead, we decided to do the Champion Road / Lee Canyon Narrows figure 8 Loop. Little did we know that our simple 4.5 mile hike would turn into a 5 mile exploratory! The four of us enjoy finding out where that goes or where this goes. With GPS in hand we usually find fun and interesting stuff. Or, at least to us, it is fun and interesting! So, we parked at Sawmill Trailhead and crossed Lee Canyon Road to follow Champion Road (a primitive camping dirt road) down to the Lee Canyon Wash. Staying on the road, we continued forward and found that the road is in very good condition. Starting up the hill, around the sharp corner and through the dip, we began climbing.

Mummy Mountain beyond Champion Road

Champion Road in good Condition

Susan and Sue following exploratory Trails

Old road parallel to Champion Road

A little over a mile into the hike, a road with empty campsites appeared on the left ascending toward Champion Ridge somewhat steeply. We had been talking about there not being a way to climb up the vertical walled ridge from below but we got curious anyway! We turned left and climbed up to the top of the short road. Near the top, we noticed a vague (probably game) trail going to the right. Not being able to resist, we started following the trail. Sometimes it changed direction. Sometimes it led to big boulders that must have fallen from the steep ridge above. Sometimes the trail was cut off by brush. And, sometimes, it was clear that the trail came from nearby campsites. We roughly paralleled Champion Road until we were almost up to Deer Creek Road.

Game trail leading through the Woods

Trail to one of many scattered Boulders

Hiking down to Lee Canyon Wash from Deer Creek Road

Primrose in Lee Canyon Wash

We finished Champion Road and came out to a large turnout on the north end of Deer Creek Road. Making a direct beeline to Deer Creek Road on the lower end of the turnout, we walked alongside the traffic barrier until we found the old trail that takes hikers down to the wash below. Here, we started down the gravel wash. Lee Canyon Wash has one or two flows that are divided by rocks and foliage islands. I always just take the easiest or the right side flows. (I always get there!) We enjoyed the wide wash and its "decorations," crossed Champion Road where we had crossed the wash in the beginning of the hike, and started down the lower section. The first part of the lower section was very similar to what we had already been hiking.

Lee Canyon side Wash

Recently fallen large Pine

Approaching first Narrows

Group photo in first Narrows

At about 3 miles into the hike, we came to the first narrows of Lee Canyon Wash. Tall conglomerate walls closed in on us. Three (plus a fourth tiny one) little windows peered down from the top of one wall. We took our group photo here and continued down passing the old car that is forever buried in the wash gravel. Further down, the wash narrows down even more than the first time. This is the official Lee Canyon Narrows. You come to a non-negotiable ten foot drop where the bottom dives under a huge chock rock. Past the rock, the narrows close in almost completely creating a slot for canyon wrens and pack rats. This area can be visited by circling around this section on a trail to the left and coming up from the downside. Today, we just climbed to the high point of the trail and peered down. The trail is in good condition, recently maintained. We did an about face and started up next to the wash on the trail to pass another old car which is also slowly being buried with every flood event. The trail took us to an old road that climbs up to the right. Here, the trail is lined with an abundance of rabbitbrush and rusted cans. It's a good climb at this point in the hike. Topping out at the Lee Canyon Road, we noted the cairn on the other side and crossed. There are signs indicating Blue Trail Loop. When we met Cardamine Road, we crossed and started up the Sawmill Yellow Trail.

Mangled old car in Wash

Susan climbs rock for a better View

Leaving Narrows Approach

                                                                                 

As we hiked through the Sawmill Trailhead lower end, we took the trail that led toward the equestrian area. The horses were a little excited about our nearby presence and were whinnying loudly. We looked over and saw a beautiful white horse staring at us.

 

Peeking at Narrows from Above

We decided to stay among the trees and use the shade of the picnic area to finish our hike to the car. It was ... again ... a very fun day!

Stats: 5 miles; 800' gain; 3.5 hours

Another old car on trail next to Wash

Rita and Susan climbing out of Lee Canyon

Welcome lizard sunning on a Cairn