Hike Central Coxcomb Mountains Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Nov 30, 2023 — Tyler and I met up for a few days of peakbagging in southern California to hit some remote peaks. We started with the Coxcomb Mountains in Joshua Tree National Park, mostly known for the high point, Spectre Peak. Today we'd be reaching a few remote and rarely visited summits in the central part of the range. None of these peaks have names, but one in particular has a lot of prominence, Peak 4035. Even though this summit was our main goal, we kept possible objectives open-ended, knowing we'd have time to snag at least a couple more and spent a fair amount of the day shifting our plans and peak goals. Due to the complex and tedious terrain, we were happy with our results. Of course, Bob Burd had reached Peak 4035 before us, which meant we had some information about the crux. The route we chose to take was based off his outing, but with a few adjustments. We brought some rope and cams, minimizing our gear since it was a pretty long hike to get out there. Tyler wore approach shoes in anticipation of the climb, but the many miles of hiking resulted in cute blisters. I took the opposite method and wore cushy running shoes since many miles were through open desert, but they became little more than foam nubs by the end of the day's endless granitic friction scrambling.

We set out a bit after sunrise from a pull-out off 29 Palms Highway and headed southwest, gaining significant elevation through many warmup miles, though it didn't feel like it since the grade was so gradual. We couldn't clearly make out any of our desired summits just yet since they were shielded by a small sub-range of granitic peaks. We needed to first get through this fortification. As is natural for the peaks in the area, massive granitic boulders choke all gullies, drainages, and slopes, so we wanted to choose our approach wisely. Satellite imagery revealed a major drainage that formed a right angle would be the least boulder-filled option.

We reached the top of this drainage to learn we needed to drop a bit over a hundred feet down a sandy slope to enter it, a nice reascent "screw you" at the end of the day later. Starting up this canyon, we were happy to find gorgeous walls and the boulder-hopping less severe than we thought it would be. There are definitely a lot of fun scrambling obstacles. We likely could find a way around most of the trickiest stuff, but on a massive boulder-hopping day like this we definitely pulled a few Class 4/5 moves on these huge obstacles just to expedite our progress. Plus, by the end of the day our brains were fried from all the micro-route-finding and it was nice to just huck ourselves up and down boulders if the moves allowed for it. A nice section of short narrows was punctuated by flowing water and small green plant blooms. This first major canyon reaches a significant bend, where the walking becomes more tame though a sandy wash.

Cutting conveniently through the sub-range, we reached the canyon's head and entered typical Joshua Tree desert terrain. Here we found a wide valley I'll refer to as the "hidden valley". This valley is certainly difficult to get to, so we felt very isolated back here. Some easy hiking brought us south through this hidden valley, where we could see Peak 4035 poking out, a stunning block of pointy granite. Finally, we reached the base of our peaks, already being many miles into the day.

Leaving the hidden valley, we took the most obvious wash leading deeper into the Coxcomb Mountains, avoiding ample catclaw the best we could. The drainage began to introduce more obstacles and soon we reached the point where Bob had decided to head left out of the wash and ascend via a lesser drainage. We chose to take his route later on our way back (eastern portion of the small loop on my attached map). Both options worked fine, our ascent (western) more direct with plenty of Class 3/4 boulder obstacles, Bob's being a bit longer and tedious, but included more nice features (a short slot, some fun rabbit holes, etc.).

Our ascent drainage gained significant elevation on large boulders and crested a minor saddle where we got a more cozy view of Peak 4035's twin summit blocks. Fortunately, the western pinnacle is taller, since the eastern would be a much more serious climbing undertaking. We dropped down into the major drainage running generally east to west on the north side of Peak 4035. Consulting our options, Tyler and I decided to head west toward Peak 3937 and bag that farther and unknown variable first. At this point we'd both sort of given up caring about our skin and clothes and trudged through various desert foliage. Our hands were already raw from scrambling on the coarse rock and we wished we'd brought gloves.

The route to Peak 3937 was trickier than we'd expected. We headed up a drainage on the peak's east side and then followed a gully that wrapped around its southeast. At the top of this gully, we learned we'd only reached a false summit. The high point ahead had two contenders, separated by another gully leading to a minor saddle. We took the gully and reached the ridge, taking it to the right. Some Class 3 on some steep slabs led us across the ridge to the base of a large Class 4 boulder. Although exposed, it's only one move and the down-climb on the way back was easier than we expected it would be. Past here was some more light scrambling to gain the high point, where we took in the vast views into the surrounding Coxcomb Mountains, as well as the impressive drop to the west into Pinto Basin.

We backtracked to the base of Peak 4035, where we started up its wildly convoluted northern slope, our aim being a saddle separating its high points. It's difficult to describe the route here since it's riddled with obstacles. A maze of large boulders were interspersed with crawl-through spaces and tricky squeezes. There are likely several ways through the mayhem, but there are definitely points that result in a cliff or impassable massive boulder. It was all good fun Class 3/4, if slow-moving. The final hundred feet or so to the saddle was a bit more loose and brushy, and Tyler dislodged a big rock holding up a larger one that he was able to jump off just in time before it toppled down the slope.

Now at the saddle, we peered toward the sheer face of the lower, eastern summit. Difficult, indeed. Bob humorously had reported that because it seemed impossible, he assumed it simply couldn't possibly be the high point. We started up toward the western pinnacle, scrambling on fun Class 3 slabs and ledges to the base of a chute that was deep enough some might call it a chimney climb. I enjoy stemming quite a bit, so this was a huge highlight of the day for me. Despite Tyler's typically superior scrambling headgame, he took his time going both up and down this chimney. It's certainly Class 4, but it's low angle enough to not feel too exposed. At the top of this chimney, a serendipitous diagonal crack wide enough to jam our fingers into stretched up the summit block, which is otherwise a pretty featureless face. Tyler felt good about scrambling up this crack without protection, making sure he could down-climb each move first before committing to the the summit. I started up after he dropped me some webbing. With my foamy shoes I couldn't quite trust my foot placements fully and relied on the webbing a bit as a precaution. The crack was low Class 5, and we agreed with Bob's 5.4 assesment. To the left was the chimney, now exposed since I was climbing above it. I certainly wouldn't be down-climbing this without assistance. Fortunately, Tyler was kind enough to use his body weight as  a meat anchor. I don't believe there were any options for creating an anchor to rappel off, but I admit I wasn't paying much attention. We enjoyed the views from this lovely spot high in the heart of the Coxcomb Mountains before backtracking to the drainage far below.

Our final summit of the day was Peak 3842 to the east. To reach it we followed the east-draining wash until the point it bent north and descended into the hidden valley, the same route Bob had used to get into the area. We'd be taking this drainage after getting the peak. Heading east through convoluted terrain, a mixture of various drainages and rocky slopes, we neared the difficult-looking west slopes of Peak 3842. We determined the peak's southeastern side would likely be a better option, so we used yet another bouldery drainage to gain the ridge on that side. Class 2/3 on slightly different terrain more composed of slabs and ledges than the typical boulders brought us up the ridge. A couple of Class 3 moves led to the high point, where the setting sunlight cast shadows that helped us outlined the entire day's route quite well from way up here.

We backtracked into the drainage I mentioned earlier, taking this down into the hidden valley. This descent had many much larger boulders and was pretty tedious. We had to backtrack a few times, though maybe it's just a result of mental fatigue from hours of planning every step all day. We enjoyed a small water-carved slot and some fun crawls, but otherwise it was much of the same. The last few miles back to the cars had us hiking in the dark as a totally random thunderstorm downpoured on us.