Hike Aqua Benchmark and Spectre Peak Loop Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Feb 18, 2020 — Spectre Peak, the high point of the Coxcomb Mountains, is a pretty remote and wonderful peak on the northeastern end of Joshua Tree National Park. There are three peaks that make up the summit area: Specre Peak, Dyadic Point, and Aqua Benchmark. Recent surveys read that Spectre is the tallest, but Dyadic is very close in elevation. Fortunately, since Dyadic Point is Class 5 and therefore Whiley and I didn't even attempt it, we were able to get to this small range's high point succussfully. Aqua is significantly lower than both, but worth the extra effort.

Just off CA-62, a gate blocks vehicle access onto a road that has eroded to the point of being basically just a sandy wash. We passed this gate and started south through the desert, occassionally finding hints of the road remains. The route curved slightly southwest, then back southeast, taking miles of pretty boring hiking to get to the base of the peaks. Eventually we were able to locate the road more easily once it wasn't so heavily integrated with the many washes of the lower portions of the route. The road disappeared as we entered a major wash draining from the Coxcomb Mountains. This wash bisects the range, and seems to be the standard route for summitting Spectre Peak. Whiley and I decided to take a more direct route to gain the summit since it would pass closely to Aqua Benchmark and we could bag that peak before going for Spectre. We planned to descend using the standard route via the wash. We found that the direct route (Class 3) was incredibly more efficient than the standard route (Class 2+). We assumed the standard route would be less riddled with boulders, but it wasn't. While the direct route was more steep and required a bit more scrambling and route-finding, we agreed it would have worked well as an out-and-back. I was happy to make the route into a loop, regardless.

Anyway, we started up the direct route by heading south up a particularly bouldery-looking slope, typical for Joshua Tree area scramble routes. Aside from a Class 3 move a few hundred feet up, the route was Class 2+. The scrambling was a bit relentless, but fun overall. We reached a saddle that gave us great views south toward the rest of our route, which required descending slightly as we picked our way through a few drainages. The boulder-hopping to reach the west slope of Aqua Benchmark got a bit tedious, but there were plenty of open sections to stroll through and enjoy the scenery. The slope leading to Aqua Benchmark's west was a little bit difficult to reach, Whiley and I choosing slightly separate routes to navigate the steepening bouldery slope. Once there, it was straightforward route-finding to Aqua's summit (Class 3 from the west). We headed down the south side (Class 2) and down into the drainage that separated Aqua from Spectre. This drainage would later serve as our descent route (the standard route most use to access to the summits). We located a minor drainage that worked up the east side of Specre Peak.

The route-finding got a little tricky on the way up to Spectre Peak. I recommend turning right at the second dead tree to leave minor drainage to scramble up Class 2+ to Spectre. From the summit, we toyed with the idea of going for Dyadic Point, but instead dropped back down into the standard route wash. We were surprised at how much work the standard route was, almost expecting the route to be less boulder-filled. There were some pretty slickrock sections and talus caves.  The route dropped an additional 300 feet via this drainage, which we'd have to re-ascend. At the bottom of this drainage/wash, we took a hairpin turn and started heading northwest, which ascends to a low, sandy saddle. From this low saddle, we headed down through the major drainage I mentioned earlier that bisects the Coxcomb Mountains and back the way we came.