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Nov 09, 2022 — I've passed Castle Rock many times while driving south from Vegas. It's really just a cluster of boulders north of Kingman AZ, but actually ended up being a really fun Class 3 scramble using an excellent trail approach. You can see Castle Rock to the east of AZ-93, but it doesn't look like much from below. I parked at the Badger Trailhead within Cerbat Foothills Recreation Area and followed the twisting trail as it slowly gained elevation through the foothills. There's an official map for the well-laid trail system, complete with trail names. The trail is used by mountain bikers as well, so the switchbacks are long and well-graded. Unfortunately, you can see the highway for the first stretch of the hike, but once the trail wraps around and reaches the eastern slopes the views became a bit nicer, though fairly typical for the area.
The Badger Trail ascended to a minor ridgeline above, where it reached a junction with the officially-named Castle Rock Trail. This trail is a bit long and starts farther east, additional miles I decided to skip by instead choosing to take the Badger Trail. The Castle Rock Trail doesn't actually go to the summit of Castle Rock, instead traversing beneath the ridge crest to a small "End" sign a few hundred feet before Castle Rock itself. I continued west through some Class 2 boulders, where I got a viewpoint of Castle Rock just ahead. It appeared to be a scary-looking face from this angle. I was a bit dishearened, but figured it wouldn't hurt to look for a way up on the opposite side. I determined the best way to get there would be to wrap around the right side of the summit tower. Hugging the wall resulted in some harder climbing moves on big boulders, but dropping just to the right a few feet led through a small Class 2/3 boulder maze to the base of what seemed like a viable option. Large boulder slabs were layered on one another and I was able to pull a few Class 3 moves on very solid rock to gain the top of Castle Rock. It was quite fun.
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