Hike Arch Mountain Lake Mead National Recreation Area, AZ

Feb 06, 2021 — Although geographically close to Las Vegas, Arch Mountain requires a significant drive. The roads leading out to the trailhead were fine overall, except for a couple of short sandy spots along Cohenour Loop Road, but mid-clearance would be fine. The naming of Arch Mountain is a little confusing, since Arch Mountain is an unranked peak at the north end of the range, and the high point is a bit farther south along the ridge. Arch Mountain seems to bring enough appeal for its remoteness to justify going for it. My friends Adam and Paula convinced me it would be worth the additional effort, even if it was only because I'd regret it later. It's also known to add some sketchy Class 3/4 to the day, but I decided to just work around that,  keeping the whole traverse at Class 2. 

I started east through a drainage, South Arch Mountain (which I labeled since it's only unnamed Peak 3323) my first peak. An optional Class 3 move up a dryfall followed by a slope led to the ridgeline and up to the summit, a Class 2 move. The views were hazy, but nice. I couldn't really see much of Lake Mead yet, but as my traverse of Arch Mountain progressed, the views improved. There were no serious obstacles all the way to Arch Mountain High Point, though the slope leading up the the summit was steep and rocky.

I continued along the undulating ridge past a benchmarked called Black Benchmark, which isn't really a high point of any sort and I was curious why the benchmark would be here. Just past Black Benchmark, I saw the Class 3/4 ridgeline that would lead to Arch Mountain, pretty much immediately deciding it wouldn't be worth the fear factor. The rock around here is loose, and surely scrambling on it would be less than smart, especially when there's a perfectly good drainage on the right that would bring me down to the base of Arch Mountain and then back up to its western saddle. Although this forced me to add an additional 900 feet (including the ascent and descent), I'm sure it would have taken me longer to do the traverse, which undulates. Others who decided to skip the ridge traverse seem to stay high and side-hill along the slopes below the crest, but I felt it was worth the extra effort to just descend all the way and keep to the drainage and have a pleasant hike. I followed the slope from the saddle west of Arch Mountain, keeping just left of the crest once I got higher up. I made it to the summit and took in the nice views of Lake Mead. Unfortunately the narrow section to the north was obscured by cliffs, but it was nice to be able to see the many peaks I've come to love across the river on the Nevada side.

I backtracked over Arch Mountain High Point and the few humps along the ridge in search of a reasonable slope to get down off the ridgeline. I located a less-steep looking spur ridge, but it ended up being a bit rocky and the gully just to its east would probably have been better. I avoided a dryfall and continued over a bunch of desert lumps as I made my way back to Cohenour Loop Road.